BY LOUISE M. RICHTER (MRS. J. P. RICHTER) WITH PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1913 All Rights Reserved TO MY DEAR FRIEND MRS.   LUDWIG   MOND THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED  ...

My first visit to Chantilly was in April 1904, when the Exhibition of the French Primitives at the Pavillon Marsan, following close on that at Bruges, raised interest and comment far outside the boundaries of France. I visited the Musée Condé with the intention of studying some more examples of the French fifteenth-and sixteenth-century art which had so much attracted me in Paris. The high expectations I had conceived were not disappointed, and the result was that my studies in that marvellous c

Duc d’Aumale : Histoire des Princes de Condé pendant le XVI et le XVII siècle. 7 vols. Paris: Calman Levy, éditeur; Recueil Anglais Philobiblon Miscellanies . Berenson, Bernhard : A Sienese Painter of the Franciscan Legend, Stefano di Giovanni, called Sassetta, Burlington Magazine , 1903. Amico di Sandro, Gazette des Beaux Arts , 1899. The Study and Criticism of Italian Art. London: George Bell & Sons, 1901-1902. Bouchot, Henri : Les Primitifs Français, Librairie de l’Art Ancien et Moder

T HE Château of Chantilly, now known as the Musée Condé, the magnificent gift so generously bequeathed to the French nation by the late Duc d’Aumale, has experienced great changes and passed through many vicissitudes. At a very early date a Gallo-Roman, by name Cantillius, fixed his abode upon an isolated rock, in the midst of wild forest and marshland; hence the name of Chantilly. In the ninth century we find established here the Seigneurs of Senlis, who bore the name of Bouteillers , from thei

T HE family of Condé derived their origin from the French town Henegau, in Flanders, where a certain Godefroy de Condé owned part of the barony of Condé as early as 1200. In 1335 his great-granddaughter married Jacob de Bourbon, who in due course became the ancestor of the Royal branch of the Bourbons. His second son received for his inheritance the barony of Condé, and it was one of his descendants, Louis de Bourbon, who eventually took the title of “Prince de Condé.” This Louis was one of the

W ITH Charlotte, wife of Prince Henri II de Condé, Chantilly passed into the possession of the Princes of Bourbon Condé, and its history from that date becomes part of the history of France. The son of Charlotte, Louis II de Bourbon, when barely twenty-two years of age, was already called the “Hero,” in consequence of his victory at Rocroy (1643) over the German and Spanish armies. This famous descendant of Huguenot Princes was, at the age of four years, baptized a Roman Catholic, with great pom

M AZARIN with difficulty restrained his impatience at numerous Royal favours bestowed on Condé. Indeed, whilst the latter was engaged in keeping the Army loyal, he agitated against him and did his utmost to undermine the confidence placed in him by the Queen-Regent. In this way the warrior and the priest soon became open adversaries. If it was hard for Condé to submit to the tyranny of Richelieu, still less could he put up with the haughty insolence of the Italian, who stood between him and his

C ONDÉ’S alliance with Spain against Mazarin was the immediate cause of another civil war in France. The Prince left his wife and son in Bordeaux, where, as we have said, they had already acquired much personal popularity. The history of this town and of its Parlement is of considerable interest. In 1653 the people of Bordeaux sent envoys to England to inquire into the details of the Revolution under Cromwell; whereby we may note what strong Liberal tendencies had already manifested themselves i

S INCE there was no prospect for Condé to take any prominent lead in the affairs of his own country his name was proposed as a possible successor to the throne of Poland. He declined, however, to accept a crown which had been the cause of so much misery to King Wladislav IV and to his brother Jean Casimir. There being no heir-apparent to that throne the eyes of Marie de Gonzague, Queen of Poland, turned upon the Duc d’Enghien, Condé’s only surviving son, and it was in connection with this idea t

S HORTLY after this memorable visit of the Court to Chantilly the Prince de Condé was summoned by the King to Paris to give his opinion upon a possible conquest of Holland. The truth was that the youthful monarch, thirsting for military glory, had but recently uttered the celebrated statement that the only way to conquer the Spanish Netherlands was to subdue and annihilate the Dutch. Upon the death of Philip IV of Spain the French King had immediately asserted the Flemish rights of his wife Mari

W HEN Henri Jules de Bourbon succeeded to the Condé inheritance, he continued with filial piety to carry out all the improvements and additions to Chantilly which his father had planned. François Mansart, the most fashionable architect of the period, had by that time nearly completed those unfortunate alterations which transformed the ancient feudal fortress into a species of Versailles. This Prince also built the parish church on a site presented by the Grand Condé to the inhabitants of the ham

N O sooner had Chantilly been deserted by its owners than a detachment of the National Guard of Paris was sent down to the Château. The twenty-seven cannons were first seized: then all the arms found were taken away; and finally the whole property was confiscated. Next a band of six hundred soldiers arrived, devastated the place, and removed what they pleased. Fortunately, the art-treasures did not attract them, as is proved by the Inventory made in 1793 of the pictures and furniture then at Cha

A FTER the death of the last Condé, Chantilly was once more left desolate and abandoned, since Prince Henri d’Orléans, the heir, was still a child. In 1820 his eldest brother, the Duc d’Orléans, inaugurated at Chantilly the races which now rank as the French Derby, and which have continued every year up to the present day. In connection with these races the Duc d’Orléans, with the help of General Peel—a brother of Sir Robert Peel—successfully undertook to breed English racehorses in France; and

N O sooner had the Duc d’Aumale resolved to bestow Chantilly with all its treasures as a gift to the French nation than he joined, with even more enthusiasm than he had previously done, the ranks of the great European collectors, and he frequently attended in person important sales in London, Paris, and elsewhere. During the long years of exile, passed chiefly in England, he usually resided either at Orleans House near Twickenham or at Woodnorton in Worcestershire (till recently the residence of

Plate XXVII. Photo. Giraudon. JANUARY Pol de Limbourg. From The “Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry.” To face page 154. T HE leading part taken by French Art in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was not continued in the same degree during the fourteenth and fifteenth. Nevertheless records have survived which afford sufficient information whence we may conclude that France was at that period not as entirely unproductive as has been hitherto supposed. It is true that, owing to the fact that the

T HE Duc de Berry was one of those enlightened and enthusiastic patrons of Art who, by giving numerous commissions to the artists of his time created important centres of Art in Paris and Dijon. It was for him that Jaquemart de Hesdin and his school executed the famous Très Belles Heures (now dispersed), fragments of which are to be found in the Louvre: in the collections of Baron Adolph de Rothschild in Paris; and of Prince Trivulzio at Milan: whilst the largest and most interesting portion, kn

I T is reasonable to inquire with some misgiving whether the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry [54] , so far surpassing all other artistic creations of its period, are the only record of the labours of Pol de Limbourg and his brothers which has come down to us. This would seem to be almost the case, if we except the Belles Heures de Jean de Berry (now in the possession of Baron Edmond de Rothschild,) which was the livre de chevet of the Duke and is far smaller in dimensions than the Très Riches

I T is hardly conceivable that a master like Fouquet, so famous as a painter of miniatures and portraits, should really have left no followers. Indeed, it has been said that he ought to have been succeeded by a French Raphael. Unfortunately the adverse circumstances which surrounded French Art at that period prevented Fouquet’s followers from arriving at the eminence achieved by their master. We hear of frescoes in the house of Joan of Arc, executed by some unknown artist in 1481 (the year of Fo

T HE veil of oblivion which so undeservedly fell upon Perréal is gradually lifted as we approach the period of Jean Clouet. Even if we except some drawings which we are bound to assign to an earlier period there still remain a great number which, judging by the age and style of costume of the characters represented, must necessarily be reckoned as falling within his period and may be reasonably attributed to him. Mention is made of no less than four persons bearing the surname of Clouet: Jean th

F RANCIS I, King of France, survived Jean Clouet but a few years, so that the artistic career of his celebrated son, François, chiefly developed during the reigns of Henri II, Francis II and Charles IX. It is difficult to determine what effect Jean Clouet’s death had upon his son, but we are led to suppose that at first he continued closely to adhere to parental teaching. Indeed from 1540 to 1545 it is scarcely possible to discern any of those differences of style so conspicuous a decade later.

F RENCH seventeenth-century Art does not offer any such difficult problems as those presented to us by the portrait-painters who lived and laboured during the period of the Clouets, for the artists of this latter period in most cases were accustomed to sign their names to at least a certain number of their works, whereby they can be easily identified. On the very threshold of this new Art-development we find the Brothers le Nain, who, choosing a totally different type of work, kept aloof from ki