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                               CHANTILLY

[Illustration: _Mary Stuart at the age of nine years from the drawing in
the Musée Condé at Chantilly._]




                               CHANTILLY

                           IN HISTORY AND ART

                          BY LOUISE M. RICHTER

                          (MRS. J. P. RICHTER)

                    WITH PORTRAITS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

                                 LONDON

                   JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.

                                  1913


                          ALL RIGHTS RESERVED


                           TO MY DEAR FRIEND
                            MRS. LUDWIG MOND
                         THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED




PREFACE


My first visit to Chantilly was in April 1904, when the Exhibition of
the French Primitives at the Pavillon Marsan, following close on that at
Bruges, raised interest and comment far outside the boundaries of
France. I visited the Musée Condé with the intention of studying some
more examples of the French fifteenth-and sixteenth-century art which
had so much attracted me in Paris.

The high expectations I had conceived were not disappointed, and the
result was that my studies in that marvellous collection were prolonged.
Weeks grew into months. The Limbourgs, Jean Fouquet, and the Clouets
held me in their spell; the Château of Chantilly, with the history of
its famous owners, aroused my interest more and more.

Through the great courtesy of the late M. Anatol Gruyer and of M.
Gustave Macon, Directors of the Musée Condé, I was given access to all
the art-treasures within its walls and I was allowed to while away my
time with the famous miniatures and drawings and with the pictures in
which I was so much interested. Tranquil and undisturbed, often quite
alone, meeting now and then only the furtive glance of one or other of
the Museum attendants, who were always ready at hand to be of service,
I was enabled to pursue my studies without interruption, owing to the
great kindness of my friend M. Macon. The excellent Library, too, was at
my disposal, as well as the manuscripts in the Cabinet des Livres.

Nor was that all. When at the end of the day the Museum doors were
closed I could walk in the vast park of the Château along its shady
avenues and watch the swans gliding on the silent waters, whilst the
autumn leaves were the sport of the varying breezes. In that unbroken
solitude Time, now long past, brought before me once more kings and
queens, courtiers and warriors, ladies of beauty and fame: and amid my
reveries I seemed to recognise the well-known faces whose
representations I had just left in the galleries within. For was it not
here, in these woods and on these lakes, that they had lived and feasted
in the manner recorded in the chronicles of their time?

Thus, irresistibly attracted by degrees, I conceived the idea of writing
about the history and the art at Chantilly: and I undertook a task which
grew gradually in my hands to dimensions that at first I had not
anticipated.

My chief study, as mentioned above, was intended to be on the French
fifteenth-and sixteenth-century artists which the Duc d'Aumale so
successfully collected. To the Italian and the Northern Schools and the
later French periods at the Musée Condé I have purposely given but a
passing mention, since they are equally well or better represented in
other galleries.

The Bibliography which I have appended shows that much has been written
on early French Art in France, especially during the last fifteen years;
and I feel greatly indebted to authors such as Comte Leopold Delisle,
Comte Paul Durrieu, MM. George Lafenestre, Anatol Gruyer, Louis Dimier,
Gustave Macon, Moreau Nelaton, Sir Claude Phillips, Mr. Roger Fry and
others, by whose works I have greatly profited, as also by my husband's
expert knowledge. But no book exactly covering this ground has as yet
been written in the English language.

More than special acknowledgment and thanks are due to Mr. Robert H.
Hobart Cust for his help and valuable suggestions. In the arduous task
of revising the proofs of this book he was assisted by my son Mr. F. J.
P. Richter. I have also great pleasure in expressing my