INTRODUCTION. xxi 



Travel for pleasure and information is, as a general practice, a 

 comparatively modern habit, but from the time of the Italian wars 

 onwards it became increasingly common for French gentlemen, 

 scholars, and men of letters to visit Italy, to mention only such well- 

 known names as Rabelais and Montaigne. 



If the invasions were all on one side, Italy made a peaceful conquest 

 of France by giving her rulers, who, with their suites, influenced 

 French art by their Italian predilections, and by keeping up artistic 

 intercourse with their native land. Within a century two princesses of 

 the Florentine House of Medici ascended the French throne and 

 became regents. Both showed Italian proclivities in their art 

 patronage, while another regent, Anne of Austria, by putting power in 

 the hands of an Italian Churchman, continued the same tradition. 



But the most important factor of all is what French artists learnt 

 in Italy and Italian artists taught in France. During the greater part 

 of the fifteenth century the two countries probably looked askance 

 at each other's art, and few artists crossed the frontier in either 

 direction. Among the exceptions were the miniaturist, Jehan 

 Foucquet, and the stained glass worker, Guillaume de Marcillac, who 

 both found employment at Rome. But from the early sixteenth 

 century onwards it became the custom of French artists and architects 

 to spend some time in Italy. Jean Perreal under Louis XII. travelled 

 in that country, du Cerceau, de 1'Orme, and Bullant followed his 

 example under Francis I. The training of young architects in Italy, 

 and especially at Rome at that period the first school of architecture 

 in Europe consisted not only in visiting, measuring, and sketching 

 ancient and modern buildings, but also in studying and copying the 

 designs of the great masters, and in making compositions in which the 

 results of their studies were embodied. The practice of Italian travel 

 became a general one for young artists and has persisted to the present 

 day. Under Louis XIV. it was erected into a system under State 

 patronage by the foundation of the French Academy in Rome. Archi- 

 tects and others were also sent on missions by several of the kings, 

 especially Francis I. and Louis XIII., to collect works of art, sketch and 

 measure buildings, and take casts. 



Italians in France were rare in the fifteenth century ; but from its 

 closing years onwards a continuous stream of architects and engineers, 

 decorators and all manner of artificers poured across the Alps, 

 beginning with Charles VIII. 's colonies at Amboise and Tours, and 

 continued by that of Francis I. at Paris and Fontainebleau. In 

 the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Italians continued to be 

 summoned to assist in architectural work. These were mostly 

 decorators, but included such architects as Guarini and Bernini. 



The last, but by no means the least important, of the agencies for 



