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The Field of Art 127The French, through the activities of the The doors of the cathedral of BeauvaisCommission des Monuments Historiques, were removed to St.-Benigne of Dijon;succeeded in saving much. The invasion of the contents of the museum of Chantilly,1914 burst upon them so suddenly that including the Sassetta, were taken to thegreat damage was done before there was dormitory of the Benedictines in the sametime to take protective measures. It was city; that of Epinal went to Bourg and thethus, for example, that the sculptures of the furniture of Meaux to Fontaine Franchise.portal at Reims were destroyed. As soon, Many treasures of the Louvre were transportedto Toulouse. Thus a great deal ofhowever, as the prime necessities for nationaldefense had been provided for, the much value was rescued. Unfortunately,colossal work of evacuating and protecting the removal of art treasures often tended tothreatened works of art was undertaken. excite panic among the population of townsSculptures which could not be moved were from which they were taken, and for thisNoyon Cathedral.Noyon is injured, but still stands.covered with sand-bags. For movable objectsdepots were established at Abbeville,Chantilly, Dijon, Bourg, Thenissey, FontaineFrangaise, and elsewhere. Here werecollected and cared for objects belonging notonly to churches and museums, but also toindividuals. Stained-glass windows weredismounted, packed in boxes and transferredto safety. Thus were saved aboutone-half of the windows of the cathedral ofReims, which are at present safe in thecellar of the Pantheon at Paris. The ancientwindows of St. Denis were removedand so preserved, for the modern glass leftin the church was severely shattered by theexplosion of a powder-magazine near by.All the stained-glass windows in Paris, includingthose of the cathedral and Sainte-Chapelle, were taken down, and even thewindows of Chartres were dismounted as aprecaution. These are now being replaced.reason the process of evacuation could notalways be carried so far as desired.Even objects left in situ have not infrequentlysurvived pillage and bombardment.At Montbre, for example, the lovelytabernacle is entirely intact although thechurch is much damaged: and at Sacy thesculptures are similarly in perfect condition.When the ruins are cleared up many fragmentsand even intact works of art can certainlybe salvaged. Yet when all is told anddone the loss will still be appalling.The architecture itself—and this was themost precious, the most irreplaceable partof the artistic heritage of France—hassuffered even more. Obviously a Romanesquechurch could not be removed forsafety from the Soissonnais to Toulouse. Itis far easier to ascertain the extent of thedamage among churches than among themovable objects, but the magnitude of the