irst of these,[14] the celebrated _Lescot_, abbe
de Clagny, was the designer of the general form; and the more celebrated
Jean Goujon the sculptor of the figures in bas-relief. It was re-touched
and perfected in 1551, and originally stood in the angle of the two
streets, of _aux Fers_ and _St. Denis_, presenting only two facades to the
beholder. It was restored and beautified in 1708; and in 1788 it changed
both its form and its position by being transported to the present spot--
the _Marche des Innocens_--the market for vegetables. Two other similar
sides were then added, making it a square: but the original performances of
Goujon, which are considered almost as his master-piece, attract infinitely
more admiration than the more recent ones of Pajou. Goujon's figures are
doubtless very delicately and successfully executed. The water bubbles up
in the centre of the square, beneath the arch, in small sheets, or masses;
and its first and second subsequent falls, also in sheets, have a very
beautiful effect. They are like pieces of thin, transparent ice, tumbling
upon each other; but the _lead_, of which the lower half of the fountain is
composed--as the reservoir of the water--might have been advantageously
exchanged for _marble_. The lion at each corner of the pedestal, squirting
water into a sarcophagus-shaped reservoir, has a very absurd appearance.
Upon the whole, this fountain is well deserving of particular attention.
The inscription upon it is FONTIVM NYMPHIS; but perhaps, critically
speaking, it is now in too exposed a situation for the character of it's
ornaments. A retired, rural, umbrageous recess, beneath larch and pine--
whose boughs
Wave high and murmur in the hollow wind--
seems to be the kind of position fitted for the reception of a fountain of
this character.
The FONTAINE DE GRENELLE is almost entirely architectural; and gives an
idea of a public office, rather than of a conduit. You look above--to the
right and the left--but no water appears. At last, almost by accident, you
look down, quite at its base, and observe two insignificant streams
trickling from the head of an animal. The central figure in front is a
representation of the city of Paris: the recumbent figures, on each side,
represent, the one the Seine, the other the Marne. Above, there are four
figures which represent the four Seasons. This fountain, the work of
Bouchardon, was erected in 1739 upon the site of what formed a part of an
o
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