Doors and Doorways 



The influence of Gabriel tended to simplify the rather excessive outbursts of 

 the later Louis XV. period; carving was very frequently omitted from the panelled 

 door, and the more or less elaborate painting on a gold ground was introduced. 



In the style of 

 Louis XVI. a return 

 of classic influence 

 helped to temper 

 the perhaps too free 

 treatment of the pre- 

 vious reign. Beauti- 

 ful details, some- 

 times flat and 

 sometimes in relief, 

 were controlled by 

 an architectural 

 basis of construc- 

 tion, which influ- 

 enced and directed 

 the main scheme 

 of adornment. 



With the Ger- 

 mans, those mas- 

 ters of wood carving, 

 t h e earlier doors 

 were very simple in 

 character, and the 

 doorways judi- 

 ciously ornamented 

 in the style of the 

 Gothic. Carved 

 panels of beautiful 

 design and work- 

 manship have come 

 from their hands. 

 Gothic carving 

 reached its highest 

 perfection in Ger- 

 many during the fif- 

 teenth century. Oak 

 was mostly used, 

 and the earlier ex- 

 amples were very 

 low in relief. Later, 

 examples, however, 

 show such an in- 



i -,i i Door to Hammond House, Annapolis, Md. A fine example, both as regards proportion, scale 



Crease 111 Skill that and detail. The comoosition is good and the masses and colour well adjusted 



