7 6 



RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE. 



73. CAEN : TOWN-HOUSE OF CHARLES DE VALOIS 

 D'ECOVILLE (1535-38) : VIEW IN COURT. 



vinces, a debatable land conquered 

 and reconquered alternately by the 

 rulers of France and the Low 

 Countries, the Renaissance came 

 less by the direct agency of Italians 

 than of Flemings who had visited 

 Italy, and it received a tincture 

 from the somewhat heavy Gothic 

 and naturalistic sculpture of Bel- 

 gium. The Flemish gable with its 

 crow-steps also prevailed in the 

 northern cities. A certain degree 

 of Flemish influence penetrated as 

 far south as Normandy. It may 

 be seen in a wing of the Hotel 

 Bourgtheroulde at Rouen richly 

 decorated with sculptured panels 



the towns. The eastern 

 provinces, some of which 

 were not united to the 

 French kingdom till the 

 sixteenth and seven- 

 teenth centuries, show 

 the influence of the 

 Netherlands and Ger 

 many. A fondness, for 

 instance, for oriels and 

 overhanging turrets is 

 illustrated by the hotels 

 of Troyes (Fig. 41) and 

 Dijon; and the Palais 

 Granvelle at Besancon 

 (1532-40), shows Flem- 

 ish influence in its 

 stepped gables and 

 heavy arcades, while the 

 street front gives an in- 

 stance of an early and 

 unskilled use of three 

 orders superposed. 



HOTELS: NOR- 

 THERN PROVINCES. 

 In the northern pro- 



74. CAEN 



HOTEL D'ECOVILLE 

 FLAN. 



