THE STYLE OF HENRY II. 165 



a man of whose competence she was not assured. One of the principal 

 objects of his appointment was, as in de FOrme's case, that he should 

 design the late king's sepulture. But no mere tomb would satisfy 

 Catharine's views, she dreamed of nothing less than eclipsing the 

 mausoleum of her own family at San Lorenzo in Florence. It will be 

 seen later under the head of church architecture (see pp. 200-202) in 

 what a stately manner Primaticcio gave effect to her wish to honour 

 in death the husband, who in life had slighted and neglected her. 



That Primaticcio was the designer of this so-called Tower or Chapel 

 of the Valois was long accepted with practical unanimity, and his posi- 

 tion as titular architect controlling the administration of the works is 

 not questioned by any one. The similarity with the Louvre is too slight 

 and general to be used as a ground for fathering the design on Lescot, 

 and a conclusive proof that he was not the architect is supplied by 

 the fact that on Primaticcio's death the charge of the works was offered 

 to him and declined on the plea of pressure of work. 



PRIMATICCIO AT FONTAINEBLEAU. To Primaticcio, then, as architect 

 in charge, everything carried out at Fontainebleau between 1559 an d 

 1570, the date of his death, must be attributed. The defensive char- 

 acter of the castle had been diminished under Francis I. to a degree 

 very unsafe in times of civil war. Charles IX. increased it again by 

 cutting a moat, which passed across the White Horse Court, and a 

 rusticated gateway was built for the drawbridge which spanned it 

 (1562). This gateway may now be seen incorporated in the so-called 

 Porte Dauphine (Q on plan, Fig. 61 and Fig. 226). Shortly after the prin- 

 cipal west front of the palace was completed (1565), and the defences 

 supplemented by a wing running south to the lake from the old donjon 

 (K on plan, Fig. 61). Towards the Fountain Court, which it thus 

 enclosed, the new wing presents a stately yet simple fagade, in which 

 two great open stairs with heavily rusticated walls lead up from the 

 centre in opposite directions to the upper storey. This contained a 

 great festival hall from whose splendid chimney-piece erected under 

 Henry IV. the whole wing was known as " Aile de la Belle Cheminee." 



DE L'ORME'S LATER WORKS. Primaticcio, under Catharine, seems 

 to have exercised a sort of dictatorship of the arts, wider even than 

 de FOrme's during his period of ascendancy. No industry capable of 

 artistic treatment was outside his province. Side by side with archi- 

 tecture and decoration proper he gave designs for tapestry, embroidery, 

 enamels and so forth. He must thus have been fully occupied with his 

 multifarious duties, and it is no wonder that Catharine should have 

 turned to a less busy man for the fresh enterprises she now had in 

 contemplation. The immediate purposes of de FOrme's dismissal had 

 been fulfilled. The inquiry into his conduct had perhaps been satis- 

 factory. Perhaps, too, she may have been influenced by a memoir, 



