134 



RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE. 



during the last two reigns, became fixed. Its buildings, disposed round 

 a rectangular court, may be classified as main blocks, gallery wings, 

 and pavilions. Usually all had a basement storey : main blocks, seldom 

 occurring on more than three sides, had two principal storeys above 

 this and one in the roof; gallery wings had one principal storey, often 

 with a flat roof used as a terrace ; pavilions, at the angles and some- 

 times in the centre of a block, square in plan and projecting beyond 



the general line, were higher by a full 

 storey or an attic than the adjoining 

 buildings. The principal apartments were 

 in the main blocks and pavilions. The 

 entrances to them were in connection 

 with the staircases, and the principal one 

 was generally opposite the entrance to 

 the court placed in an open gallery. 

 The closed gallery occupied various posi- 

 tions in the plan. The subsidiary courts 

 which, like the cour (Thonneur, were 

 rectangular, were grouped round it, a 

 forecourt usually preceding it, with its 

 own gate pavilion generally, but not 

 always, opposite the inner one. Other 

 courts were often added with lower, or 

 at any rate less splendid, buildings than 

 the central one. 



THE ORDERS. The study of classical 

 models produced its most obvious effect 

 in the increased use of the orders. The 

 three or five classical orders with their 

 recognised proportions and parts, and 

 the systematised arrangement both of 

 individual members and of the orders 

 themselves now became general. The 

 change thus wrought in the complexion 

 of design will be appreciated by compar- 

 ing the Hotel de Brons at Sarlat (Fig. 130) 

 with the Maison de la Coquille at Orleans 



(Fig. 77), or the well-house at Coutras (Fig. 131) with that at St Jean 

 d'Angely (Fig. 72). In the use of the orders architects in France were 

 confronted with a difficulty to the solution of which every device which 

 ingenuity could suggest was applied. In Italy, where the prolonged 

 heat and drought of summer is the preponderating climatic factor, 

 and the inclemencies of winter practically ignored, the aim is to provide 

 lofty apartments capable of holding a large provision of air, with rela- 



130. SARLAT: HOTEL 

 DE BRONS. 



