Identifier: frencharchitects00dilk (find matches)
Title: French architects and sculptors of the XVIIIth century
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors: Dilke, Emilia Francis Strong, Lady, 1840-1904
Subjects: Architects Sculpture, French Sculptors
Publisher: London, G. Bell and sons
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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we are told by Blondel that he was the first of his dayin all concerning that art. Servandoni did not, however, securean undisputed triumph. This great front, massive as it is, wroteGrimm, ne fera pas un monument bien solide pour sa gloire, 3and, whilst admitting Servandonis talent for decoration,4 is farfrom sharing the enthusiasm of Diderot, who, alluding to somedrawings exhibited by the Italian at the Salon of 1753, declaresthat tout ce qui vient de ce main est precieux. 5 Taken as a whole, with the general decoration of the finesquare in which it stands, and which has been appropriately com- 1 DArg., Voyage. Paris, pp. 377, 378, et seq. See also de Champeaux, LesMonuments de Paris, p. 152, et seq. 2 Memoires de Mathieu Marais, 5 July, 1725. For the sources of the funds,etc., see Taillandier, A. de lA. fr., t. vi., p. 100, et seq.; for other details, In. gen.Ed. rel., t. ii. ; Mon. rel., t. i. 3 C. L., t. i., p. 91.* Ibid., t. i., p. 138, and t. v., p. 29.5 Ibid., t. i., p. 61. 18
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Place Saint-Sulpice (Paris). t pleted by the fountain designed by Visconti in 1847,1 must De Theadmitted that this great front produces, as it was intended to do, Housean immense scenic effect. Bold lines and vast proportions, in- and thedifference to delicacy and variety of detail, proclaim the successful ffjf^ .decorator, whose direction of theatrical displays and public showshad won the applause of Europe. The eye is impressed by theenormous scale of the monument; by the extent of the spacefilled in with the Doric and Ionic orders; by the absence of anyprojections which might break the range of line, and which hasforced the architect to give relief to his surface by varying thedepth of his openings. Whilst seeming, indeed, to scorn theprevailing system of obtaining light and shade, Servandoni simplyreverses it, and relies, for the accents of his wide front, on recessesinstead of projections. This may be bold and magnificent, but itis not original, as anyone acquainted with the cust

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