THE STYLE OF HENRY II. 



139 



134. BEAUVAIS : " MAISON DU 

 PONT D'AMOUR." 



ITS USE OF MATERIALS. In con- 

 sequence of this reliance on pure 

 forms, the external use of colour grew 

 less frequent. Bronze ornaments, as 

 in the gatehouse at Anet, and incrusta- 

 tions of marble generally black as 

 in the Petite Galerie of the Louvre 

 (Fig. 161), and of a small house at 

 Joigny (Fig. 128), were indeed used, 

 but palace walls no longer glowed with 

 majolica. Brick, too, would seem to 

 have gone out of fashion at least 

 during the middle part of the century. 

 The house at Beauvais known as the 

 "Pont d'Amour" (Fig. 134) shows 

 brick and stone patterning, rare at this 

 period. 



FREER TYPE OF DESIGN, These 

 tranquil tendencies were not, however, 

 quite universal even in the earlier half 

 of the period. De 1'Orme, for instance, 

 shows a more restless spirit, a love for 



jagged outlines and contorted forms, and Bachelier for complicated 

 ressauts and shoulders in window surrounds, as at the Hotel de 

 Lasbordes (Fig. 127), but actual perversions are rare. 



DETAIL, ORNAMENT. In detail, as well as in a more general sense, 

 the style of Henry II. is distinguished by completer elimination of 

 Gothic ideas, and more method and specialisation in the use of the 

 various members. Closer attention to rule restricted the variety of 

 combinations of members and of forms used. Capitals conformed more 

 closely to the traditional types, and variations were confined to the 

 introduction of sprays of foliage, monograms, and similar devices. Shafts 

 were fluted, or occasionally wreathed, instead of being panelled or 

 decorated with arabesques. The. types of decorative foliage were 

 generally limited to the bay, myrtle, olive, oak, acanthus, and palm, but 

 these were treated with vigour and freedom. Another characteristic is 

 the growth in scale, the use of larger and less complex patterns, fuller 

 and bolder forms. Sculpture also became more massy with free use of 

 figures in the round, and while losing something of its abandon and 

 playfulness it gained in correction and architectural appropriateness. 

 All this was accompanied by an extreme sharpness and delicacy in the 

 profiling of mouldings and the cutting of enrichments, and great variety 

 in the patterns of coffering and panelling, of interlacing ornaments, frets 

 and running borders (Figs. 128, 156, and 188). 



