Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/363

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OF PARIS.
345

at the north-west angle of the nave, and various buildings connected with the edifice join on at the eastern end. A small tower of the thirteenth century is among the buildings. A splendid stone screen, or Jubé, of most elaborate workmanship and design, separates the choir from the nave; there is some good but late glass in the windows, and the edifice is peculiarly rich in pictorial decorations. In a chapel on the southern side of the choir stands the tomb of St. Geneviève, transferred hither from the ancient church, under her invocation, which used to touch the south side of this building. It is a plain monument of the twelfth century.

The Church of St. Laurent is another building of the fifteenth century. It is a pseudo-cruciform church, with a tower on the northern side of the choir. Parts of the building, especially on the northern side, are Flamboyant in their character, but the rest is of the Rénaissance. Among the more remarkable details of this edifice are deep pendants, proceeding from the bosses of the vaulting; and these, at the junction of the nave and choir, are sculptured most elaborately into groups of figures anything but ecclesiastical in their design. Their effect is rich and striking, and the character of the whole edifice is one of considerable lightness and elegance. The workmanship throughout is good, and all the sculptured portions are delicately finished. Its date is A. D. 1548—1595.

The Church of St. Nicolas du Chardonnet has a curious tower of this period, but the rest of the edifice is of the end of the seventeenth century. This tower is probably the latest erection of any in the capital containing pointed details.

The Church of St. Eustache, (A. D. 1532—1642,) the last ecclesiastical edifice in Paris to which the appellation of medieval can be applied,—if indeed the use of that term be allowable in speaking of it,—is the grandest instance extant of a church built on a medieval plan, and with medieval ideas, but entirely with Italianized details. There is not a trace of a medieval decoration in the building ; every ornament, every capital, every detail, is of semi-classical design; there is not a single part of it which, taken in itself, may not be called barbarous, and yet the effect as a whole is splendid in the extreme,—very harmonious, full of indescribable grandeur, bold in construction, good in workmanship, admirable in suitableness to its purpose, and, from its vast proportions, fit to be placed before the cathedral of Nôtre Dame. Of its size,