5 6 



RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE. 



and his school, the 

 Hotel des Viguiers 

 at Albi, and the gate- 

 way in the Court of 

 the Capitole at Tou- 

 louse may be men- 

 tioned. 



INTERIOR s. 

 The only systems of 

 vaulting used in secu- 

 lar work were simple 

 and intersecting 

 barrels, or domes, 

 more or less enriched 

 with bands or coffer- 

 ing. The staircase 

 for the Louvre has 

 a splendid example 

 of a richly decorated 

 barrel vault (Fig. 

 153). The beams in 

 wood ceilings were 

 more frequently 

 clothed with panel- 

 ling, as in the King's 

 Room at the Louvre, 

 and the Salle de 

 Diane at Anet ; and 

 movable hangings 



were more often replaced by permanent decorations. In the treat- 

 ment of door, shutters, panelling, and indeed all features, larger and 

 bolder patterns were preferred, with a tendency to make of each a 

 single centralised design with one dominant feature (Fig. 154), while 

 the characteristic of the best rooms is the manner in which all their 

 features were combined into a consistent whole. 



COLOUR DECORATION. -The brilliancy of the colour schemes have 

 seldom been surpassed. The panelling of walls and ceilings, often in 

 walnut, was enriched not only with carving and gilding, but with 

 marquetry of coloured woods, and inlays of ivory, ebony, precious metals, 

 and even of marble. The floors were in parquet work, or paved with 

 marbles, or with the faience tiles, now made at home in imitation 

 of the imported Italian ones. A French peculiarity in their use was 

 the subdivision into panels by bands of tiles, self-coloured generally 

 blue or painted in running patterns, as in the Salle des Fetes at 



152. 



TOULOUSE : HOTEL D'ASSEZAT. 

 VIEW IN COURT. 



