vered in 1850 embedded in the
wall of a house in the Rue St. Hyacinthe.]

[Illustration: ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON. _Michel Colombe._]

(_c_) MODERN SCULPTURE.

We cross the quadrangle to the N.W. and find the entrance to the Musee
des Sculptures Modernes, where we may trace the rapid decline and
utter degradation of French sculpture during the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, and some signs of its recovery during the
revolutionary period. Many causes contributed to the decay; the
essentially bourgeois and commonplace taste of Colbert and the
influence of his artistic henchman, Lebrun; the slavish worship of
Graeco-Roman and Roman models, fostered by the creation of the Ecole de
Rome; and the teachings of critics like Lessing and Winkelmann, who
drew their inspiration not from pure Greek models, but from the
decadent and sterile art of the Empire, stored in the Vatican. Among
the artists whose individuality stands forth from the mass of
sculptures in these rooms is Charles Antoine Coysevox (1640-1720), who
gives his name to Room I. to the L. of the vestibule. His chief works
are in the "royal pandemonium," at Versailles, but in the vestibule
will be found excellent examples of his art, 555, Nymph with a shell,
and 560, Shepherd playing a flute. In Room I., 561, Marie Adelaide of
Savoy as Diana; 557, a fine bronze bust of the great Conde and a bust
of Ant. Coypel acquired in 1910, are worth attention, as is also 552,
the grand monument to Mazarin in Room II. Pierre Puget (1622-1694),
who gives his name to this hall, began his career as a carver of
figure-heads at the arsenals of Toulouse and Marseilles. He was the
chief exponent of the bombastic and exuberant art of the century, and
the inventor of the peculiar gusty draperies in statuary known as the
_coup de vent dans la statuaire_. 794, Milo (the famous athlete of
Crotona), attacked by a Lion, his most popular work, and 796, a
relief, Diogenes and Alexander, esteemed by Gonse one of the most
_eclatante_ creations of modern sculpture, will be found in this room.
Some bronzes, 702-704, Louis XIII., Anne of Austria, and the child
Louis XIV., from an old monument on the Pont au Change by Simon
Guillain (1581-1658) are of interest. The Coustous, Nicholas
(1658-1733) and Guillaume (1677-1746), nephews and pupils of Coysevox
are represented in Room III. 547, Apollo presenting the Image of Louis
XIV. to France (embrasure of window); 548, Adonis (centre of room);
54