THE STYLE OF HENRY II. 14! 



The west wing and one bay of the south wing were built under 

 Henry II., his sons carried the latter as far as the inner side of the 

 proposed south east pavilion. The rest was never built owing to the 

 later adoption of an enlarged scheme. The main elevation to the 

 court (Fig. 136), which was to be repeated three times, is divided 

 vertically in a manner due to French and not Italian tradition by 

 emphasising the first, fifth, and last of its nine bays, with coupled 

 full columns and by treating the intervening portions with single 

 pilasters. The lower storey has a Corinthian, and the second a 

 Composite order ; while the attic has a panelled pseudo-order carrying 

 curved pediments on the projections and, between them, a delicate 

 cresting (Fig. 118) composed of scrolls, vases and the crescents, the 

 emblem of Henry II. and Diana, which detaches itself against the 

 steep roof, itself crowned with a rich metal cresting. The profuse 

 sculpture with which the elevation is enriched was designed, and, 

 except in the case of the attic, largely carried out by Jean Goujon, 

 who collaborated with Lescot for many years in this work. The per- 

 fection of proportion, the rhythmic variety within a formally sober 

 scheme, the delicacy and distinction of the detail, and last, but by 

 no means least, the excellence of the sculptural decoration, conspire 

 together to render this court of the Louvre one of the great archi- 

 tectural achievements of the world.* 



The great hall of the palace occupied the upper storey of the west 

 wing. The hall below it, which served as guard- and court-room, has 

 a minstrel gallery supported on four majestic caryatids by Goujon, who 

 also decorated the vault of the staircase (Fig. 153). 



LESCOT AND GOUJON. That Goujon exercised an important 

 influence on French architecture is certain, whatever degree of his 

 subordination to the architects with whom he worked. He " has 

 remained unequalled in the art of disposing a figure between architectural 

 members, whether at the sides of a circular window, in the tympanum 

 of an arch, or in the intervals between pilasters." It is probable that in 

 a collaboration extending over some eighteen years, Lescot's design was 

 affected by his colleague's ideas. There is, however, a great difference 



* In an article in the Gazette des Beaux Arts (April 1910), M. L. Batiffol makes 

 out a very strong case, though not entirely devoid of difficulties, for an altogether new 

 view of the history of the Renaissance Louvre, based on Royal acts and other con- 

 temporary documents, taken in conjunction with two plans in the Cabinet des 

 Estampes, which he attributes to Lescot, and a medal struck in 1624 at the 

 resumption of building under Louis XIII. According to this view P'rancis I. in 

 1546 did not intend more than the rebuilding of the west side of the old court, 

 but in 1549 Henry II. decided to rebuild the entire palace on a greatly enlarged 

 scheme covering substantially the same ground as the present palace and the 

 Tuileries, a scheme which was followed with relatively slight variations by successive 

 kings. 



