26. Ecole Impériale des Beaux Arts.
In the immediate vicinity of the Institut de France, on the
W. side, is situated the Ecole des Beaux Arts, entrance Rue
Bonaparte 14, accessible daily from 10 to 4 o'clock (fee 1 fr.); in
September on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays only. The fine
arts taught here are divided into two sections, one for painting
and sculpture, the other for architecture. The edifice itself, completed
in 1838, is admirably adapted to the purpose for which
it was erected. It occupies the site of the former convent des
Petits Augustins, in which at the period of the first revolution
a large number of valuable monuments and relics of the middle
ages were collected by the indefatigable and praiseworthy exertions
of the painter M. Alex. Lenoir.
This Musée des Monuments Français, as it was termed, was
abolished by Louis XVIII. in 1816, and most of the monuments
restored to the churches and cemeteries from which they had
been removed.
A railing separates the first court of the Ecole des Beaux
Arts from the Rue Bonaparte. Here, as well as in the other
courts, all the fine architectural fragments which survived the
dissolution of the Musée des Monuments Français have been built
into the walls. Thus a kind of *museum has been formed, in
which a number of highly interesting relics of mediæval architecture
are preserved.
In the first open court to the r. the celebrated portal of the
Château d'Anet, which Henry II. caused to be erected in 1548, by
Jean Goujon and Philibert Delorme, for Diana of Poitiers, forms
the entrance to the Chapelle Sixtine. In the interior of the chapel
is a fine copy by Sigalon of Michel Angelo's Last Judgment,
occupying the whole of the wall at the end. The chapel derives
its name from this and copies of the other twelve great frescoes
by Michael Angelo in the Sixtine Chapel at Rome. It contains
a collection of casts of celebrated antiques, several works of
Michael Angelo etc. In a separate chamber there is a small
model of the colossal elephant with which Napoleon I. proposed
to adorn the Place de la Bastille.
In the court, adjacent to the portal, some fragments built
into the wall once belonged to the Hôtel de la Trémouille, which
formerly stood in the Rue des Bourdonnais, interesting relics of
a fine edifice of the 14th cent.
The first court is divided into two portions by the Arc de
Gaillon, or façade of a partly Gothic, partly Renaissance palace
of that name erected in 1500 by Cardinal d'Amboise, minister
of Louis XII. It was carefully transported hither and re-erected
by M. Lenoir.
The principal building, which bounds this court on the W. side,
upwards of 80 yds. in length, contains a number of statues, copies
from the antique, the work of young French students of art at
Rome, whither the most meritorious of the pupils of the Ecole
des Beaux Arts are sent at the expense of government to complete
their studies. Three rooms in the upper story contain
works of all the pupils who have since 1721 been selected to
be sent to Rome; in others are portraits of professors, and
models of ancient structures in plaster of Paris or cork: the
amphitheatres of Arles and Orange, the Colosseum, the Baths
of Augustus, the leaning tower of Pisa etc.
The amphitheatrical examination-hall, the most interesting
part of the establishment, contains a celebrated *picture by Paul
Delaroche (d. 1856), painted on the hemicycle of the wall. The
greater number of the 75 figures represent celebrated artists of
all ages and nations, slightly in excess of life-size. On a lofty
throne in the centre, as representatives of the three arts, the
three great Greek masters, Phidias the sculptor, Iktinos, the
architect of the Parthenon, and Apelles the painter. Four
female figures in front of these represent Greek and Gothic (l.).
Roman and Renaissance (r.) art. The Muse of Gothic art with
long fair hair is a portrait of the artist's wife, a daughter of
Horace Vernet. — A large and admirably executed engraving
from this picture may be obtained at the magazine of Goupil
et Comp., Boulevard Montmartre 19, the
épreuves d'artiste at 600 fr.,
épreuves avec la lettre 150 fr.
