I 12 



RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE. 



and refinement of proportion were but little attended to. Their 

 place was taken by picturesque grouping, and somewhat immoderate 

 use of ornament, and where, as at St Germain, greater severity 

 was aimed at, the qualities, which charm elsewhere, largely evaporated. 

 Buildings were too often an ill-digested aggregation of features, each 

 beautiful in itself. So much may be admitted, but it would be grossly 

 unfair as a complete verdict. The defects were to a large extent cor- 

 rected in the last decade of Francis' reign ; and, apart from this, extreme 

 delicacy of detail, profuse and exquisite ornament, great beauty and 

 variety of design in individual parts must be placed in the opposite 

 scale. When natural surroundings and the traditions of the mediaeval 

 fortress lent their aid, even grandeur was attained ; great skill, too, was 

 shown in the management of necessarily unsymmetrical facades, such as 

 those of town houses where well-balanced and satisfying compositions 

 were produced, which yet frankly expressed internal arrangement. He 

 would be a hostile critic, indeed, who could study the best examples of 

 the style without falling under the spell of its wayward fascination and 

 overflowing fancy, its lightness, gaiety, and picturesqueness. 



s 



117. INITIAL OF FRANCIS I. 



