Old and New Paris Part 23

The most important edifice in the Rue Vivienne--or, rather, in the open s.p.a.ce which a portion of the Rue Vivienne faces--is the Bourse, or Exchange, of which the architecture so closely resembles that of the Madeleine. Yet there is nothing in the Bourse to suggest a house of prayer. At the entrance of the St. Petersburg Bourse stands a chapel, in which the operator for the rise or for the fall may invoke the protection of Heaven for the success of his own particular speculation.

The noise of the dealers crying out prices and shouting offers and acceptances is far less suggestive of the "House of G.o.d" than of a "den of thieves," to which, it must be feared, it presents in many respects a considerable likeness.

The origin of the word "Bourse," which has been adopted by almost every country in Europe, with the striking exception of England, seems evident enough, though it would be a mistake to suppose that it is derived from _bourse_, a purse. According to the best etymologist, the name of Bourse comes from the Exchange established in the sixteenth century at Bruges in the house of one Van der Bourse, who, in the well-known punning spirit of heraldry, had adopted for his arms three bourses or purses.

The most ancient Bourse in France is said to be that of Lyons; and the next ancient that of Toulouse, which dates from 1549. The Bourse of Rouen was established a few years later, while that of Paris was not legally const.i.tuted until 1724.

Paris, nevertheless, has possessed since the sixteenth century several places of exchange: now on the Pont au Change, now in the courtyard of the Palais de Justice, and then for a considerable time at the Hotel de Soissons, in the Rue Quincampoix, which was the scene of the wild speculations in connection with Law's Mississipi scheme. In 1720 the Hotel de Soissons was closed by the Government, and the formation of an inst.i.tution to be called the Bourse was at the same time decreed.

The Bourse was at first installed in the Hotel de Nevers, in the Rue Richelieu, where the National Library is now established. After the Revolution, the Bourse was for a time closed by the Convention. But it was soon re-opened, and under the Directory was located in the Church of the Pet.i.ts Peres. Under the Consulate and the Empire the Bourse was held in the Palais Royal. The Restoration moved it to the Rue Feydau, and it there remained until in 1826 it was definitively fixed in the palatial abode which it now occupies.

The cost of building the Bourse as it now exists was defrayed by a subscription among the merchants of Paris, a.s.sisted by a grant from the State and from the city. Until Napoleon's time, or, at least, from the period of the Revolution to that of the Empire, the occupation of stockbroker or _agent de change_ was free to all who chose to take out a licence. Napoleon, however, limited the number of _agents de change_, or, as it turned out, the number of their firms, for it soon became the practice for several persons to club together in order to buy the necessary licence and to deposit the caution money.

The Bourse, in marked opposition to the rigid rule observed at our own Stock Exchange, was open to everyone until 1856, when the price of admission was fixed at one franc to the financial, and half a franc to the commercial department. An annual ticket of admission could be obtained for 150 francs to the financial side, and seventy-eight francs to the commercial. This species of tax was imposed with the view of restraining the pa.s.sion for speculation which had sprung up among the lower cla.s.ses, but it was abolished by M. Achille Fould, Napoleon III.'s able Finance Minister, in 1862.

The hours of the Bourse, as fixed by law, not being sufficiently long for the tastes or necessities of speculators, supplementary bourses under the name of _Pet.i.te Bourse_, have from time to time been held in the Pa.s.sage de l'Opera and on the Boulevard des Italiens. These informal a.s.semblies are sometimes tolerated, sometimes repressed, by the Government.

Ponsard, in one of his versified comedies, describes the Paris Bourse as (to translate the poet freely)--

"A market where all merchandise is keenly bought and sold; A genuine field of battle where instead of blood flows gold."

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE APOLLO GALLERY, THE LOUVRE.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE LOUVRE, FROM THE PLACE CARROUSEL.]

CHAPTER XIX.

THE LOUVRE AND THE TUILERIES.

The Louvre--Origin of the Name--The Castle--Francis I.--Catherine de Medicis--The Queen's Apartments--Louis XIV. and the Louvre--The "Museum of the Louvre"--The Picture Galleries--The Tuileries--The National a.s.sembly--Marie Antoinette--The Palace of Napoleon III.--_Pet.i.te Provence_.

The origin of the Louvre is remote and the etymology of the word obscure. In the absence of any more probable derivation, philologists have fixed upon that of _lupus_, or rather in the Latin of the lower empire, _lupara_. According to this view, the ancient palace of the French kings was originally looked upon as a wolf's den, or it may be as a hunting-box from which to chase the wolf. The word "louvre" is said at one time to have been used as the equivalent of a royal palace or castle, and in support of this view the following lines are quoted from La Fontaine's fable of "The Lion, the King of Beasts," in which the monarch of the forest is represented as inviting the other animals to his "louvre."

This, however, only proves that the name of a French palace which had existed since the beginning of the thirteenth century could be used in La Fontaine's time as a name for the palace of any king. "According to some," says M. Vitet, "the Louvre was founded by Childebert; according to others, by Louis Le Gros. It was either a place from which to hunt the wolf, a 'louveterie' (_lupara_), or, according to another view, a fortress commanding the river in front of the city. It seems probable that before the time of Philip Augustus there was a fortified castle where now stands the Louvre, and that this king simply altered it, and indeed reconstructed it, but was not its founder. The historians of the time speak frequently of the great tower built in 1204 by this prince, to which the name of New Tower was given; an evident sign of the existence of some other more ancient tower. It was not in any case until 1204 that, for the first time, the name of Louvre was officially p.r.o.nounced. Until then the field is open to conjectures."

It appears certain that the ground on which the palace stands was called Louvre before anything was built upon it. A chart of the year 1215, referred to by Sanval, shows that Henri, Archbishop of Rheims, built a chapel at Paris in a place called the Louvre. Whence the name? it may once more be asked. One facetious historian declares that the castle of the Louvre was one of the finest edifices that France possessed, and that Philip Augustus "called it, in the language of the time, Louvre, that is to say, _l'oeuvre_ in the sense of _chef-d'oeuvre_."

According to another far-fetched derivation the word "Louvre" comes from _rouvre_, which is traced to _robur_, an oak, because the Louvre stood in the midst of a forest, which may have been a forest of oaks!

Whatever meaning was attached to the word, it is certain that when in 1204 Philip Augustus built or reconstructed the Louvre he gave it the form, the defences, and the armament of a fortress. It was the strong point in the line of fortifications with which this monarch surrounded Paris.

The first existing doc.u.ment in which the Louvre is mentioned by name is an account of the year 1205 for provisions and wine consumed by citizens who in the Louvre had done military duty.

The castle was at that time in the form of a large square, in the midst of which was a big tower, with its own independent system of defence.

The tower was 144 feet in circ.u.mference, and 96 feet in height. Its walls were 13 feet thick near the bas.e.m.e.nt, and 12 feet in the upper part. A gallery at the top put it in communication with the buildings of the first enclosure, and it served at once as treasury and as prison.

Here Ferrand, Count of Flanders, was confined by Philip Augustus in 1214, after the victory of Bouvines. John IV., Duke of Brittany, Charles II., King of Navarre, and John II., Duke of Alencon, were among many other ill.u.s.trious prisoners shut up in the Big Tower or _donjon_ of the ancient Louvre.

Louis IX. arranged in the west wing of the Louvre a large hall, which was long known as the Chamber of St. Louis. Charles V. enlarged and embellished the Louvre. He added to it another storey, and did all in his power to change what had hitherto been a purely military building into a convenient and agreeable place of abode. The architecture of the building, originally constructed for use, not show, was in many respects improved, and the gates were surmounted with ornaments and pieces of sculpture. The reception rooms were away from the river, and looked out upon a street long since disappeared, called La Rue Froidmanteaux. The apartments of the king and queen looked out upon the river.

Each of the towers was designated by a particular name, according to its history, or the purpose it was intended to serve. The Big Tower was also called the Ferrand Tower, from the Count of Flanders having been confined in it; and there were also the Library Tower, where Charles V. had brought together 959 volumes, which formed the nucleus of the National Library; the Clock Tower, the Horseshoe Tower, the Artillery Tower, the Sluice Tower, the Falcon Tower, the Hatchet Tower, the tower of the Great Chapel, the tower of the Little Chapel, the Tournament Tower (where the king took up his position to see tournaments and jousts), besides others. Charles V. added to the Louvre a number of buildings for tradespeople and domestics, whose services had to be dispensed with when the Louvre was purely a military building. Such names as pantry, pastry, saucery, butlery, were given to the different buildings and departments by the bakers, the pastry-cooks, the makers of sauces, and the keepers of the wine.

The gardens of the Louvre, though not very extensive, were greatly admired. Here were to be seen aviaries, a menagerie of wild beasts, and lists for different kinds of sports and combats. Charles VI., who lived by preference at the Hotel St. Pol, increased the fortifications of the Louvre, and sacrificed to that end the gardens of the king and queen on the side of the river. The succeeding kings until the time of Francis I. occupied themselves very little with the Louvre, and scarcely ever resided there.

During this first period of its history, from Philip Augustus until Francis I., the Louvre was the scene of numerous historical events. In 1358, during the captivity of King John in England, the citizens of Paris, in support of the deputies of the communes in the States-General, besieged and took the Louvre, driving away the governor, and carrying off to the Hotel de Ville all the arms and ammunition they could find in the a.r.s.enal of the fortress. Soon afterwards the governor, Pierre Gaillard, was decapitated by order of the Dauphin Regent for making so poor a defence. It was at the Louvre, moreover, in 1377, that the Emperor of Germany, Charles IV., allied himself with Charles V. of France, to make war upon England.

Under the reign of Charles VI., in 1382, while the king was engaged in suppressing an insurrection in Flanders, the Parisians, in their turn, revolted, and proposed to destroy alike the fortress of the Louvre, and that other fortress, destined five centuries later to fall beneath the first blows of the Revolution. They were counselled, however, by one of their leaders to spare both prison and palace; and the advice was sound, for after quieting the turbulent Flemings, the king returned to Paris more powerful than ever.

In 1399, Andronicus, and in 1400, Manuel Palaeologus, both Emperors of Constantinople, were entertained at the Louvre, as were also, in 1415, Sigismund, Emperor of Germany, and, in 1422, the King and Queen of England.

When Francis I. ascended the throne, the Louvre regained all its importance as a royal residence. The king began by pulling down the Big Tower, constructed by Philip Augustus, which cast its shadow over the whole of the palace, and gave it the look of a prison. Twelve years later (1539), when the Emperor Charles V. visited Paris, Francis I.

determined to receive him, not in the Hotel des Tournelles, where he was living at the time, but in the old palace of the French kings.

He undertook various repairs, and covered the crumbling walls with paintings and tapestry. Everything, too, was regilt, "even," says a chronicler, "to the weather-c.o.c.ks." Finally the s.p.a.ce comprised between the river and the moat of the castle was laid out in lists for tournaments.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE OLD LOUVRE (PIERRE LESCOT'S FAcADE).]

After spending large sums of money in repairing the Louvre, Francis I.

decided to reconstruct it on a new plan, so as to get rid altogether of the irregularity of the old buildings, with their Gothic architecture.

The work of reconstructing the Louvre was entrusted to the Italian architect Serlio. But his plan was laid aside in favour of one presented by Pierre Lescot, who, in spite of his French name, was, like Serlio, of Italian origin. He belonged to the Alessi family; and Serlio was so pleased with his designs that he at once pressed the king to accept them. Lescot a.s.sociated with himself the graceful, ingenious sculptor Jean Goujon, who, like every French artist of the time, had formed his style in Italy; and the Italian sculptor Trebatti, a pupil of Michel Angelo, who possessed more force than belonged to Jean Goujon. To these ill.u.s.trious men is due the admirable facade of the west in the courtyard of the Louvre.

Great progress was made with the reconstruction of the Louvre under the reign of Henri II., who, while the works were going on at the ancient palace, lived at the Hotel des Tournelles. It was to this residence that he was carried home to die after being mortally wounded by Montgomery, of the Scottish guard, in the fatal tournament of the Place Royale.

Henri's successor, Francis II., would not live in a place a.s.sociated with such a tragic incident, and took up his residence at the Louvre.

The power of Catherine de Medicis was now beginning to a.s.sert itself, and she had the bad taste to interrupt the plans of Pierre Lescot, and to order new constructions of her own designing to be carried out by her own Italian architects. The Louvre was carried forward to the bank of the river; and the Italian painter Romanelli was employed to decorate a new suite of rooms, which became known as the apartments of the queen. The new work, while possessing a beauty of its own, was quite out of harmony with the severer style followed by Pierre Lescot in connection with the old Louvre. At the southern extremity of the wing built by Catherine de Medicis looks out upon the Seine a window of n.o.ble construction, from which, according to popular tradition, Charles IX. amused himself during the ma.s.sacre of St. Bartholomew by firing on the unhappy Huguenots who were swimming to the other side of the river. Modern historians have, of course, discovered that the window in question did not exist at the time; also that Charles IX. on the day of the ma.s.sacre was not at the Louvre, but at the Hotel de Bourbon close by. It was possibly from one of the windows of the Hotel de Bourbon that he fired. Henri IV. inhabited the Louvre; and it was there that he expired, mortally wounded by the dagger of Ravaillac. This sovereign had added a new gallery to the wing built by Catherine de Medicis, and had filled it with paintings by the most celebrated artists of the time. It perished, however, in a fire; and it was to replace it that Louis XIV.

constructed what is now known as the Apollo Gallery. Henri IV. was the first moreover to connect the Tuileries with the Louvre, or, at least, to prolong the Tuileries along the Seine in the direction of the Louvre without completing the junction. The son of Henri IV., Louis XIII., continued the work left unfinished by Pierre Lescot; though, as happens with so many architectural continuations, he departed greatly from the original plan.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE COLONNADE OF THE LOUVRE.]

The "queen's apartments," constructed by Catherine de Medicis, were successively occupied by Marie de Medicis and Anne of Austria; and under each reign new decorations and new pictures were added. Particularly admirable was a series of portraits of Queens of France ending with Marie de Medicis, whose likeness by Porbus was said to be a masterpiece.

Nothing, according to an historian of the time, was spared to make the work perfect; and "although blue was then exceedingly dear, the painter nevertheless spread it over his canvas with so much prodigality that the cost of the colour came to six twenty-crown pieces." In front of the "apartments of the queen," which were furnished with every luxury, was a tastefully laid-out garden which, completely transformed, exists to this day. The "Garden of the Infanta" it is called, in memory of the poor little Infanta of Spain brought to France at the age of four to become the wife of Louis XV. Restricted for some years to the garden in question and the apartments adjoining it, she was afterwards sent back to Spain with a doll worth 20,000 francs, given to her by her late _fiance_. The apartments of the queen consisted, according to Sanval, of a guard-room, a large ante-chamber, a sitting-room communicating with two galleries, a reception-room, and a boudoir.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PORTION OF THE FAcADE OF HENRI IV.'S GALLERY, LOUVRE.]

While occupying himself chiefly with Versailles, his own personal creation, Louis XIV. did not forget Paris and the Louvre. It has been said that he reconstructed the gallery built by Henri IV., which, after the death of that monarch, was destroyed in a fire. The work of reconstruction was entrusted to Louis XIV.'s favourite painter, Lebrun; and the Apollo Gallery, which owes its name to the princ.i.p.al subject of the painter's art, is perhaps the most complete, most perfect monument of the style which prevailed under the "Grand Monarque"; a style which may be wanting in purity of taste, but which, in a decorative point of view, is magnificent.

Colbert, appointed superintendent of royal buildings, was now ordered to complete the Louvre. The first thing to do was to add a facade on the east; by an idea which has since become commonplace, but which was strikingly original at the time, the Minister opened a compet.i.tion for the best design. The one most admired was the work not of an architect, but of a doctor, Claude Perrault by name. Colbert was delighted with it, but before coming to a decision about a matter of so much importance, he sent to Nicolas Poussin, then at Rome, the designs of all the compet.i.tors except Perrault. Poussin sent back all the drawings with severe criticisms, and submitted a plan of his own, which satisfied neither Colbert nor the king. Things had reached this point, and Colbert was about to take upon himself the responsibility of adopting Perrault's design, when he was urged by the Abbe Benedetti and Cardinal Chigi, afterwards Pope Alexander VII., to have recourse to the services of the celebrated Bernini, whose reputation was at that time universal.

Thus pressed, Colbert addressed himself to the Duke de Crequy, French amba.s.sador at the Pontifical Court, and begged him to see Bernini on the subject. Louis XIV., moreover, wrote himself to Bernini a letter, which made him resolve to visit France.

On his arrival at Paris, Bernini submitted to the king a project which is said to have been "full of grandeur," but which was not put into execution. He was now in delicate health, and the annoyance caused to him by the jealousy of the French artists, vexed at seeing the plans of a foreigner preferred to their own, made him solicit the king's permission to go back to Rome. Louis XIV. gave his consent, and at the same time granted Bernini a pension. Bernini having left Paris, Colbert hesitated no longer. He summoned Claude Perrault and ordered him to begin work at once. The first stone was laid by Louis XIV. with great ceremony, October 17, 1665; and, thanks to the activity of Colbert, the new facade was finished by 1670. This facade, known as the Colonnade of the Louvre, is upwards of 170 metres long, and more than 27 metres high. It may at once be objected to the new facade that, with all its magnificence, it is quite out of harmony with the style adopted in the four facades which form the admirable quadrangle of the Louvre. But whatever may be said against it, Perrault's colonnade is one of the most remarkable conceptions of modern architecture. When first erected, it was looked upon as an unapproachable masterpiece; and it exercised on architecture abroad, as well as at home, a considerable influence which still lasts.

After finishing his colonnade, Perrault tried to bring it into harmony with the earlier portions of the building. But from the year 1680 Louis XIV. occupied himself no more with the Louvre. He thought of nothing but Versailles, which absorbed all, and more than all, the money he had to spare for building purposes. In 1688 Perrault died, and the Louvre was now not only neglected, but forgotten. Then it was remembered only to be turned to base uses. Stables were established in the ancient palace; though, by way of compensation, it must be added that a number of artists and men of learning had lodgings a.s.signed to them in apartments formerly regarded as royal.

Among Louis XIV.'s favourite lodgers may be mentioned the sculptors Girardon, Couston, Stoltz, and Legros; Cornu and Renaudin, famous for their marble vases; the medallist, Du Vivier; the painters Rigaud, Desportes, Coypel, and Claudine Stella; the two Baileys, father and son, keepers of the king's pictures; Bain, celebrated painter in enamel; the engraver Sylvestre, the decorators Lemoine and Meissonnier, who made nearly all the drawings for the festivals and ceremonies of the court; Berin, celebrated for his theatrical costumes and scenes; the geographer Sanson, the engineer d'Hermand, goldsmiths Balin, Germain, Benier, and Mellin; the clockmakers Turet and Martinot, the gunmakers Renier and Piraube, the metal-worker Revoir, and finally (without mentioning many other men of science, art, and art work) Boule, the world-famed maker of the inlaid furniture invented by him.

This furniture, known in France as _meubles de Boule_, has, by the way, in some inexplicable manner, got to be known in England as "buhl," and even "buhl" furniture, though Boule was born at Paris in 1642, and died there in 1732, without apparently having ever lived in Germany.