14 RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE. 



of Gothic detail by Italian, and secondly in the increasing skill of 

 Frenchmen in rendering of the latter. 



DETAIL. In character the detail remained stationary. The old was 

 identical with that of Flamboyant Gothic, the new not less advanced 

 than that of Francis I. At Chateaudun, for instance, the two may be 

 seen side by side, and each perfect of its kind. Elsewhere, as in the 

 rood-screen of the Madeleine Church at Troyes, clumsy renderings of 

 Italian motives by French workmen often occur. "The same hand 

 which wrought out with such skill the ribs and undulations of the 

 cabbage leaf, unconsciously invested the Roman acanthus with the same 

 character." Their skill and vivacity, however, once directed into new 

 channels, soon rivalled that of their teachers. 



MATERIALS. Timber was used for the great majority of smaller 

 houses (cf. house at Joigny, Fig. 1 1, and others at Gallardon, Lisieux, 

 Cravant), the spaces being faced with bricks, plaster, boards, or even 

 with glazed tiles, as in a house at Beauvais, and the timbers sometimes 

 protected by slating. For the more important ones, brick, after being 

 generally abandoned in the Middle Ages in favour of stone, except in 

 some districts of the south, came into vogue again in the fifteenth cen- 

 tury, and .was then combined with stone dressings (Fig. 13), a practice 

 almost unknown before. Patterns in brickwork, or in brick contrasted 

 decoratively with other materials, were largely used at the time of the 

 Renaissance to give gaiety to the wall surfaces. Terra-cotta was also 

 considerably employed, and majolica (i.e., terra-cotta enamelled in 

 colours with a zinc glaze) was introduced from Italy (e.g., at Gaillon 

 and the Hotel d'Alluye at Blois, Fig. 22). The roofs were covered, 

 according to the district, with slates, tiles, or shingles, with the addition 

 of lead for turrets and lanterns, while the crestings, ridges, finials, gutters, 

 and spouts, often of great elaboration, were also of lead or else of 

 wrought iron. To all this metal work, and to such parts of the eleva- 

 tions as loggias, doorways, niches and their sculpture, whatever their 

 material, brilliant decoration in colour and gilding was commonly 

 applied, both before and after the beginning of the Italian influence. 



PLANNING. Since the planning was only very gradually modified by 

 slight changes introduced from time to time, and in some cases the 

 practice at the close of the Middle Ages persisted substantially unaltered 

 for centuries, it will be well before describing particular buildings to 

 sketch the usual arrangements of each class of building at that time. 

 In doing so it will sometimes be more convenient to quote in illustra- 

 tion examples from other periods. 



CASTLE PLANS. The country mansions of the aristocracy were in 

 most cases fortified and of irregular outline, often a rough oval, as at 

 Fontainebleau and St Germain (Figs. 61 and 68). Castles symmetrically 



