Building an eco friendly table coaster

In France the Classic Revival, as we have seen, had made its appearance during the reign of Louis XV. in a number of important monuments which expressed the protest of their authors against the caprice of the Rococo style then in vogue. The colonnades of the Garde-Meuble, the façade of St. Sulpice, and the coldly beautiful Panthéon testified to the conviction in the most cultured minds of the time that Roman grandeur was to be attained only by copying the forms of Roman architecture with the closest possible approach to correctness. In the Panthéon, the greatest ecclesiastical monument of its time in France (otherwise known as the church of Ste. Genéviève), the spirit of correct classicism dominates the interior as well as the exterior. It is a Greek cross, measuring 362 × 267 feet, with a dome 265 feet high, and internally 69 feet in diameter. The four arms have domical vaulting and narrow aisles separated by Corinthian columns. The whole interior is a cold but extremely elegant composition. The most notable features of the exterior are its imposing portico of colossal Corinthian columns and the fine peristyle which surrounds the drum of the dome, giving it great dignity and richness of effect.

The dome, which is of stone throughout, has three shells, the intermediate shell serving to support the heavy stone lantern. The architect was Soufflot (1713–81). The Grand Théâtre, at Bordeaux (1773, by Victor Louis), one of the largest and finest theatres in Europe, was another product of this movement, its stately colonnade forming one of the chief ornaments of the city. Under Louis XVI. there was a temporary reaction from this somewhat pompous affectation of antique grandeur; but there were few important buildings erected during that unhappy reign, and the reaction showed itself mainly in a more delicate and graceful style of interior decoration. It was reserved for the Empire to set the seal of official approval on the Roman Revival. 

The Arch of Triumph of the Carrousel, behind the Tuileries, by Percier and Fontaine, the magnificent Arc de l’Étoile, at the summit of the Avenue of the Champs Elysées, by Chalgrin; the wing begun by Napoleon to connect the Tuileries with the Louvre on the land side, and the church of the Madeleine, by Vignon, erected as a temple to the heroes of the Grande Armée, were all designed, in accordance with the expressed will of the Emperor himself, in a style as Roman as the requirements 363of each case would permit. All these monuments, begun between 1806 and 1809, were completed after the Restoration. The Archof the Carrousel is a close copy of Roman models; that of the Étoile was a much more original design, of colossal dimensions. Its admirable proportions, simple composition and striking sculptures give it a place among the noblest creations of its class.

The Madeleine, externally a Roman Corinthian temple of the largest size, presents internally an almost Byzantine conception with the three pendentive domes that vault its vast nave, but all the details are Roman. However suitable for a pantheon or mausoleum, it seems strangely inappropriate as a design for a Christian church. To these monuments should be added the Bourse or Exchange, by Brongniart, heavy in spite of its Corinthian peristyle, and the river front of the Corps Législatif or Palais Bourbon, by Poyet, the only extant example of a dodecastyle portico with a pediment.

All of these designs are characterized by great elegance of detail and excellence of execution, and however inappropriate in style to modern uses, they add immensely to the splendour of the French capital. Unquestionably no feature can take the place of a Greek or Roman 364colonnade as an embellishment for broad avenues and open squares, or as the termination of an architectural vista.