Apartment house with ground-floor shop project. Exterior perspective

Until recently, the administration overseeing the street lines of Paris allowed builders—as long as they respected the laws of building height—the liberty of placing balconies, cornices and entablatures as they saw fit. . . .

It may have seemed arch to bring Courbet’s comment about angels into a discussion of architecture dealing in large part with Pugin, given the latter’s devotion to recreating an environment where angels might be thought to exist. Be that as it may, Courbet’s more extended comments on what he meant by...