3O RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE. 



26. PALAIS DE JUSTICE, ROUEN : CEILING OF " GRAND CHAMBRE." 



The splendid oak ceiling in the " Grand' Chambre," or " Chambre 

 Doree," in the Palais de Justice in Paris was designed by Fra Giocondo 

 with pendents and interlacing hanging arches. It was covered by a 

 plaster ceiling at the Revolution, and destroyed by fire in 1871. The 

 still extant ceiling of the Grand' Chambre in the Palais de Justice at 

 Rouen is richly panelled in hexagons with volute pendents of Renaissance 

 detail but. with a Gothic cornice (Fig. 26). 



Pavings were of stone slabs, bricks, and encaustic tiles. Majolica 

 tiles and parquet floors were introduced by the Italians. 



WALL COVERINGS. Though occasionally panelled in whole or in 

 part, walls usually showed the stone or plaster, which were in rare cases 

 painted, but more often clothed in movable hangings of painted cloth 

 or tapestry. Complete schemes of permanent decoration were excep- 

 tional, but became more common under the influence of the Italian 

 craftsmen. Among the many arts they practised was the new one of 

 intarsia work or inlaying in wood. The life of the upper classes was 

 largely an open air one, and little attention was devoted to indoor 

 comforts. It was still, and remained for over a century, the practice to 

 carry about not only the hangings, but also the furniture and household 

 utensils at each flitting from chateau to chateau. 



WINDOWS. Only in the best rooms were windows filled with leaded 

 glazing du Cerceau's drawings show that throughout the sixteenth 

 century they were often glazed with roundels elsewhere they were 

 filled with the oiled linen or paper, which continued in use as late as 

 the seventeenth century. They were fitted with shutters in small leaves, 

 the lowest lights having an extra external set of perforated shutters 

 instead of glass, as in the Hotel d'Alluye. 



CHIMNEY-PIECES. Chimney-pieces, often of a rich and monumental 

 character, usually left the fire open on three sides and consisted of a 

 hood (hotte}, generally diminishing upwards with a vertical mantel 

 (manteau) at its base, carried on half-piers or corbels (Figs. 31 and 32). 



