THE STYLE OF HENRY II. 



157 



Ecouen. The wall 

 surfaces were cover- 

 ed with fresco, 

 tapestry, or dyed 

 leather, and these 

 decorations were 

 set in frames of 

 stucco, modelled in 

 high relief with 

 scroll work and 

 figures in the round. 

 Another form of 

 decoration was 

 carried out in 

 leather, modelled 

 soft after long boil- 

 ing and then colour- 

 ed and gilded. 



CHIMNEY- 

 PIECES. The 

 chimney-piece was 

 still the most im- 

 portant feature in 

 a room, and was 

 often in coloured 

 marbles. In the 

 Salle des Fetes at 

 Ecouen it covers 

 almost the whole of 

 one wall. The general design was much what it had been hitherto, 

 though treated in more classical forms, but the fire was usually 

 enclosed on three sides, and the opening often framed in by an archi- 

 trave. Examples may be seen in the museums of the Louvre (from 

 Villeroy), of Cluny (Fig. 156), of Nancy (Fig. 155), and of Caen. 



'S3- 



THE LOUVRE : VAULT OF GREAT STAIRCASE, 

 BY JEAN GOUJON. 



THIRD SUB-PERIODHISTORY AND ARCHITECTURAL 



CHARACTER. 



REIGNS OF FRANCIS II., CHARLES IX., AND HENRY III. ; WARS 

 OF RELIGION. Henry II. 's sudden death by accident in a tournament 

 left France in a dangerous condition. His eldest son, Francis II., was 

 a sickly boy of sixteen, and his widow devoid of political influence. 

 Power thus fell into the hands of the Guises, uncles of the young queen, 



