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Clio

Chapter 20: THE END
By Anatole France
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About This Book

A series of historical and imaginative sketches blends poetic retellings of ancient episodes, character portraits, and reflective essays that probe the interplay of memory, art, and power. Narratives reimagine classical and medieval figures, juxtaposing mythic detail with ironic observation; scenes range from wandering bards and exiled chiefs to court intrigues and monuments of vanity. The prose alternates lyrical description with satirical irony, meditating on ambition, cultural decline, and the uses of history while examining how art reshapes collective memory. Occasional essays and translations of descriptive pieces about architecture further diversify the collection’s focus on human vanity and the transience of glory.

[1] Bonnaffé, op. cit., p. 27.

[2] Guillet de Saint-Georges, in Les Archives de l'Art français, 1853, Vol. III.

[3] Cf. Jal., Diet.

[4] Occupied successively by the President of the Chambre des Comptes, Lambert Torigny; the Marquise du Chastelle; M. de La Haye; the Comte de Montalivet; the Administrator of Lits Militaires; and Prince Adam Czartoryski, the present owner (1888).

[5] Ad. Lance, Dictionnaire des Architectes français, Paris, 1872, 2 vols. Article on Levau (Louis).

[6] Archives de l'Art français, Vol. I, 1852.

[7] Letter cited by M. Pierre Clement, Histoire de Colbert, p. 30.

[8] I cite almost literally a phrase by M. Eugène Grésy. M. Grésy's valuable work on the Château de Vaux is contained in Les Archives de l'Art français. Vol. I, p. I et seq.

[9] Cimber et Danjou, Archives curieuses de l'Histoire de France, Second Series, Vol. VIII, p. 415 (Portraits de la Cour).

[10] M. Eugène Grésy, loc. cit., p. 7.

[11] It is well known that the Maincy factory, taken to Paris by order of the King after Foucquet's disgrace, became the Gobelins. (Lacordaire, article on the Gobelins, second ed., 1855, p. 65.) Cf. also L'Histoire de la Tapisserie, by J. Guiffrey.

[12] 9th June, 1660.

[13] Cf. Loret, letter of the 24th July, 1660.

[14] Ibid., letter of the 17th July, 1661.

[15] Letter to Maucroix, 9th ed., cited Vol. Ill, p. 301.

[16] Choisy, in his Mémoires. Ed. cited p. 587.

[17] Cf. La Fontaine, letter previously cited.

[18] Cf. Chéruel, loc. cit., who cites (Vol. II, p. 223) the portfolios of Valiant, Vol. III, in the Biblio. Nat. MSS.

[19] La Fontaine, letter from Maucroix, Vol. Ill, p. 304.

[20] See the excursion made by the subscribers to l'Ami des Monuments to the Château de Vaux-le-Praslin, or le Vicomte, near Melun, in l' Ami des Monuments, a magazine founded and edited by M. Charles Normand, 1887, p. 301, No. 4.

[21] In the Château de Vaux one of the rooms on the first story, and certainly the most beautiful, bears the name of the "Room of M. de Barante." It has a ceiling which represents one of those nymphs of Vaux which La Fontaine celebrated so charmingly. This ceiling has been recently restored. M. Destailleurs has displayed great art in its preservation.

THE END