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106 National Music of the World. |
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his ' Medusa Raft,' and Delaroche with his ' Murder of the Duke de Guise,' and Ary Scheffer (who, by the way, was not French) appeared, there was a curious repetition of the same set face to be seen in their pictures; the same composed, mannered mouth, in the grand conventual compositions of Philippe de Champagne, and in the Court portraits of Mig-nard, Rigaud, down even to Boucher.
In the architecture of the French the same humour is to be traced. There is a peak (or tourelle) on nine out of ten flat-bodied chateaux. Even in such specimens as the Palace of the Tuileries, the old portion of Fontainebleau, the chateau of Vallery, near Sens, where the Great Conde lies buried (designed by Philibert de L'Orme), the monotony of the line is relieved by piquancies in roof and chimney, one setting off the other. I am persuaded that this fancy, as pervading French art, will bear any amount of illustration. But, to come to my own subject, the peculiarity takes in music the form of a dry, limited melody as applied to the setting of words, accompanied by a determination on the part of the executants in time, tone, and accent, to hold fast attention with both, or if not, then to snatch the ear by disappointment and suspense. This defini- |
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