16 RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE. 



The court of honour was usually preceded, as at Gaillon, by a fore- 

 court containing the com/nuns, i.e., servants' quarters, stables, &c. If 

 such was the case, it was known as the basecourt (basse-cour\ but the 

 basecourts were sometimes at one side of, or behind, the main court, as 

 at the Louvre and Anet, and the forecourt sometimes contained some 

 of the better apartments, as at Fontainebleau. 



RENAISSANCE INFLUENCE ON PLANS. Of all aspects of a building 

 in France planning was least affected by the Renaissance, especially in 

 its initial stages, while throughout the sixteenth century the modifica- 

 tions introduced were less in the actual arrangements than in the spirit 

 in which plans were conceived. Thus there were sporadic efforts after 

 symmetrical setting out, regular spacing, and rectangular plans. In the 

 castles more extensive accommodation and greater cheerfulness were 

 aimed at. Apartments were multiplied, terraces, balconies, and arched 

 galleries (Fig. 15), giving facilities for taking the air and enjoying the 

 prospect, were provided, and an increase took place in the number and 

 area of the windows which now looked forth boldly from the outer walls. 



SECULAR ARCHITECTURE. 



COLONY OF AMBOISE. No chateau built in its entirety, but several 

 remodelled at this period, survive in being or in illustration. The most 

 important of these, if not for its existing remains, at any rate as the 

 starting point of the movement, is Amboise, for it was here that the 

 Italian colony was set to work. This colony comprised two " designers 

 of buildings" (deviseurs de bailments), but only one of these is known to 

 have practised as an architect in France. 



FRA GIOCONDO. Fra Giovanni Giocondo (born 1453, or earlier, 

 probably near Verona; died 1515, at Rome) is best known as the 

 architect of the Loggia at Verona and as the editor and expositor of 

 Vitruvius. Charles VIII. found him in the royal service at Naples, 

 and retained him at a salary of 562 1. a year. He remained for ten 

 years in France, till, in 1505, he was summoned by Pope Julius II. to 

 compete with Bramante for the design of the new St Peter's. After a 

 period spent in the employ of the Signory of Venice, he was associated 

 with Raphael and Giuliano da San Gallo in the conduct of St Peter's till 

 his death. His only works in France of which there is documentary 

 evidence are an aqueduct to supply the royal gardens at Blois, and the 

 Pont Notre Dame at Paris, rebuilt in stone from his designs after the 

 collapse of the old wooden bridge in 1499. But the researches of 

 Baron H. von Geymiiller, who elucidated his masterly, but previously 

 obscure, design for St Peter's and brought to light over a hundred of his 

 drawings, taken in conjunction with the high salary he received, lend a 



