THE STYLE OF LOUIS XII. 43 



French churches, representing the entombment of Our Lord and 

 similar subjects, are often architecturally treated. One of the most 

 splendid examples is the Holy Sepulchre in the south transept of the 

 abbey church of Solesmes, which, contrary to the more usual practice, 

 exhibits a Renaissance design carried out, except for two arabesque 

 panels, in Gothic detail (Fig. 38). 



The style of Louis XIT. may be summed up in a word as one whose 

 monuments exhibit the same general aspect as those of the fifteenth 

 century, but, on a closer observation, reveal a certain proportion of 

 Italian ideas, detail, and ornament. It charms by its picturesqueness, 

 by its piquant combination of very dissimilar ideals, and by much 

 beauty in individual parts. It is interesting as illustrating the first 

 effects upon architecture of a great moral crisis, but is too loosely 

 compounded of discordant elements to be of permanent value from 

 an artistic point of view. 



38. PRIORY CHURCH, SOLESMES : EASTER SEPULCHRE. 



