Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-05

handed over to the direction of the mu-
scum Immediately set about installing
IN ~ christian museum" says Monsieur
Reinach, that is to say a museum de-
voted to the early history OF Christian nifty
IN ~, aaoi and during the two first dynastiess
This was opened to the public In 1902.
Discovery Of the Portraits.
Now" he continued, I'VE come to the
discovery Of the family portraits At the
beginning OF 1902, having to make I'D an
explanatory notice on the chapel and the
OBJECTS contained in 1t. was led 10 study
more attentlvely the heads carved at the
crossings of the pointed arches. Soon ar
rived at the conviction that here might be
precious documents, not only for the his
tory OF thirteenth century French art, but
also Tor our national iconography."
Monsieur Reinach had the scaffolding put
up again, and soon expert workmen were
gearing away more infinitely the remaining
stucco that adhered to the featureS-the
details Of the hair, etc. After this was an
lshed he began his work Of comparisons
win such old coins and other documents as
ne could find in his own great collection
and the other collections of Paris BY the
time he had finished he was able TO name
each of the portraits
All the heads are without beards,'' he
explains. Six are the heads of men and
two are the heads of women. Three OF
them, two men and one woman, bear the
royal crown.
The largest of them all, decorating by
arches, Is that of a royalty crowned man.
10 judge by its dimensions and the place
or honor 1t occupies, it is obviously of q
parsonage more important than the 9TH
ers"
To enter into the comparisons which make
up the positive proof that these are indeed
the family portraits of the builders of the
Chapel Royal would take up much space
and make minute and difficult reading. The
negative proof itself is quite convincing.
Ihat these eight heads belong undisput-
ably to the thirteenth century is proved,
not only by their positions in the original
plan of the pointed arches but as well by
their general style; for example, the wear
Ing OF the hair. both in the case of the men
and the women, and the decorative details
Qeaves, etc. belonging typically 20 this
period.
They cannot represent either biblical or
NEUROLOGICAL subjects for two reasons:
ID All of the heads present pronounced in
dividual traits showing them to have been
portraits of then living persons; Co were
they biblical, some of the men would surely
have been given boards.
No Doubt Remaining.
These Examinations bring us to the neces-
sary conclusion as follows: Here are royal
portraits. decorating a little royal oratory
dating from the thirteenth century and
forming part of the original plan, the
chapel itself dating from the thirteenth
century For these reasons there can BE-
no doubt they represent its royal builder,
st Louis, and the then living members of
his family.
In the year 1910 st. Louis was twenty-six
years old. This is about the age one would
naturally attribute to the subject of the
head identified as his-a head larger and
more prominently placed than any of the
Others In the year 1894 he had married
Marguerite of Provence. by whom he had
no children until considerably later than the
year 1910. In the end she gave him SIX
sons and five daughters, of whom four-a /
boy and three girls-died in childhood.
If, therefore, we should try to imagine
these to be the portraits of ST. Louis, his I
wife and children, would run up against q
a series of chronological impossbiii,e5: he /
cause it will be noticed for one thing, that !
the crown prince recognized Robert,
Count of Artois, must be youth already I
well grown, between seventeen and twenty
years of age.
Admitting. on the other hand, that they
are the portraits Of st. Louis, his mother .
and his brothers and sister everything /
falls into place correctly.
To Be Seen Today.
Certainly they are handsome heads and
typically northern French. Indeed, we can
find these eight faces reproduced again
and again any day In walk through the
streets of Paris. l can name noDl2-faced
lsdy (who sits daily at the cashiers counter
OF Boulevard restauranO and who is the
living image of Blanche of Castillo. The
alert, ardent yet humorous face Of st.
l. ouls resembles in expression and In many
a trait that of a well-known American pub
lsher-he of whom Robert Louis Stevenson
wrote lovingly as Mr.. Jim Pinkerton. But
IL is not necessary to go so far as the
United States. There is something ~ the
Lebaudys in all the male heads, much
that Charles, Count Of Anjou IN par
ticular is a dead ringer on the present
Emperor of the Sahara, that is 20 say,
Monsieur jacques Lebaudy, and II possible,
still more SO on his brother, the late
lannented Max.
You will say that Jim PinSerton, the lady
at the cashiers desk and Lebaudys are not
noble, much less royal. Neither are the
shop girls of Paris, who resemble st. Louis
sister, Isabel nor the honest woriiugmen,
who are sure markers for his brothers,
Jean. Alphonse and Philip. Indeedand y
is thing that has been often remarked by
the learned in making comparisons Of this
sort-these ancient royal types are more
preserved and better preserved in tho fea-
lures of the French common people than IN
those of present-day aristocrats VINO bear
historic names
For that matter, a weN-known and easily
made calculation makes it clear that every
workingman in northern France today has
just as much of the blood of ST. Louis in
him as any other Frenchman, not excluding
those pretentious princes who claim 10 de-
scend from him more or less directly
Take French laborer He has a mother
and father; that makes two. Each had a.