THE STYLE OF FRANCIS I. 79 



remarkable features are a graceful two-arched loggia in two storeys 

 leading to the principal staircase, the lantern surmounting it, the 

 symmetrically set-out fagade on the right with alternating niches, and 

 windows and elaborate dormers (Figs. 73 and 75). 



At Angers is the Hotel Pince, a very fine stone house, of which the 

 loftier wing dates from the early years of the reign, and the lower was 

 added by Jean 1'Espine (1532). At Orleans, which is peculiarly rich 

 in the architecture of the sixteenth century, are the brick and stone 

 mansion now used as Hotel de Ville (1530) and the so called Maison 

 de Frangois I. (1536-50), whose best preserved portion is a charming 

 wing facing the court (Fig. 76), with loggias running between turrets. 



HOTELS: SOUTHERN PROVINCES. -At Perigueux are several Francis I. 

 hotels, especially in the Rue Limogeanne and on the quay (Fig. 4). 

 Toulouse, at all periods a centre of Renaissance work, has the beautiful 

 Hotel Bernuy, attributed, like all contemporary architecture of the 

 district, to Nicolas Bachelier, and offering a charming example of 

 arcaded court architecture. The older portions of the Hotels d'Aus- 

 sargues and de Lasbordes and other houses at Toulouse also show good 

 Francis I. work. In addition to the peculiarity of the local bricks, or 

 rather tiles, which are about 2 inches thick and measure about 2 feet 

 by i, the local artists show the same predilection for candelabra and 

 high relief as those at Rouen, but without the northern heaviness, and 

 were fond of the diamond-point ornament, of caryatids, of using two 

 diminutive orders of engaged shafts, one above the other, in the height 

 of a door or window, and small shafts or figures on the mullion to carry 

 the transom. 



SMALLER HOUSES. Many houses of the bourgeois class are to be 

 seen at Orleans, often with a wide arched opening for the shop front. 

 Two excellent examples, probably by the same architect, and not incon- 

 ceivably early works of Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, are the house of 

 Jean d'Alibert and the Maison de la Coquille (Fig. 77). In these and 

 similar designs the necessarily unsymmetrical arrangement of unequal 

 openings is treated with great skill to obtain a well-balanced grouping. 



TIMBER BUILDING. The general scheme of medieval timber design 

 remained unaltered, but was translated into the nearest Renaissance 

 forms. Thus, uprights were treated as pilasters, beams as cornices 

 and friezes, and the spaces as panels enriched with medallions and 

 arabesques. Corbels became volutes or caryatids. The so-called 

 house of Diane de Poitiers at Rouen (Fig. 78) is a good example. 



PUBLIC BUILDINGS. Many towns rebuilt their town halls at this 

 time. At Lorris the H6tel de Ville is a modest house in patterned 

 brick with stone dressings ; at Niort a little stone, turreted chateau, 

 built by Mathurin Berthome (1535). At Loches a more important 

 structure, with an elaborate stair-tower adjoining the city gate, built by 



