THE STYLE OF HENRY II. 



119 



121. FONTAINEBLEAU : GALLERY OF FRANCIS I., KY IL ROSSO. 



doubtedly was decorated by him and his staff of painters and stucco- 

 workers. The wing had windows on both sides, and was broken only 

 by a small central pavilion. The treatment of the elevations consisted 

 in a long range of tall windows on the piano nobite, each flanked by 

 shallow Doric pilasters, alternating with shallow panels, and surmounted 

 by a simple unbroken entablature and tall stone dormers with quietly 

 designed, but slightly bizarre, pediments. In repose, clarity of setting 

 out and purity of detail, this wing was in marked contrast to anything 

 previously built at Fontainebleau. 



Of the internal decorations executed by Rosso, only those in the 

 gallery of Francis I. remain (Fig. 121), and they have been much muti- 

 lated. The gallery is about 165 feet long and 20 feet wide and high. 

 Above a carved and inlaid walnut dado, and below a. coffered walnut 

 ceiling, the wall surfaces are divided into panels of various sizes and 

 shapes in rhythmical alternation with enriched frames containing figure 

 subjects in fresco. These are surrounded with an elaborate stucco 

 decoration in high relief (Fig. 120), consisting of cartouche work boldly 

 outlined and nervously drawn, interspersed with figures, masks, urns, 

 shells, and swags of fruit, divided at intervals into bays by engaged 

 columns and upright panels, painted with pendent garlands ; parts of 

 the stucco work being left white, others coloured and gilded. This 

 type of decoration, in which colour and relief are mingled, seems to 

 have been Rosso's invention. The gallery was not quite completed 



