DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45257#0242
156 FRENCH ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS
were so little known and appreciated in France, and
why the valuable collection bequeathed by Robert
Gaigni&res to Louis XIV was but little valued by
that monarch. Trusting to the advice of the ignor-
ant critics of the time His Majesty reckoned them
as of no importance and did not consider the
collection worthy of a place in the Louvre; so
that eventually, in 1717, it was scattered by public
auction under the directions of the painter de Troy.
Thus it happened that, whilst France was ac-
quiring valuable antiques and important examples
of the art of the Italian Renaissance, she was unable
to estimate or retain the art which had sprung up on
her own soil. To cite one example only : Fouquet’s
diptych from Melun has been lost to France forever,
one portion of it being at Antwerp, another at
Berlin, whilst the beautiful enamelled frame has
disappeared altogether.
Fortunately, however, connoisseurs like Reiset
and Mariette arose, who bequeathed French fifteenth
and sixteenth century pictures to the Louvre ; and
later still this remarkable legacy from the Due
d’Aumale restored to France some of her own
most valuable treasures. By means of these acquisi-
tions this patriotic Prince has constructed a monu-
ment to French Art which is as interesting as it is
unique.
The Cabinet des Livres at Chantilly, still just as it
was when occupied by the Due d’Aumale, with his
chair, his writing-table, his reading-lamp and half-
burnt candle, contains no less than fourteen thousand
were so little known and appreciated in France, and
why the valuable collection bequeathed by Robert
Gaigni&res to Louis XIV was but little valued by
that monarch. Trusting to the advice of the ignor-
ant critics of the time His Majesty reckoned them
as of no importance and did not consider the
collection worthy of a place in the Louvre; so
that eventually, in 1717, it was scattered by public
auction under the directions of the painter de Troy.
Thus it happened that, whilst France was ac-
quiring valuable antiques and important examples
of the art of the Italian Renaissance, she was unable
to estimate or retain the art which had sprung up on
her own soil. To cite one example only : Fouquet’s
diptych from Melun has been lost to France forever,
one portion of it being at Antwerp, another at
Berlin, whilst the beautiful enamelled frame has
disappeared altogether.
Fortunately, however, connoisseurs like Reiset
and Mariette arose, who bequeathed French fifteenth
and sixteenth century pictures to the Louvre ; and
later still this remarkable legacy from the Due
d’Aumale restored to France some of her own
most valuable treasures. By means of these acquisi-
tions this patriotic Prince has constructed a monu-
ment to French Art which is as interesting as it is
unique.
The Cabinet des Livres at Chantilly, still just as it
was when occupied by the Due d’Aumale, with his
chair, his writing-table, his reading-lamp and half-
burnt candle, contains no less than fourteen thousand