THE STYLE OF HENRY II. 183 



CHURCH ARCHITECTURE SHOWING GOTHIC 

 INFLUENCE. 



INTRODUCTORY. Church architecture during the whole period of 

 the advanced Renaissance passes through the same phases as secular 

 work, though, as a rule, they are rather delayed. But two currents 

 run through it side by side. The first, which hardly diminishes in 

 force even at the end, is essentially a current of Gothic design which 

 absorbs the various types of detail and features as they come into 

 vogue. The second, which is traceable from the first, places the total 

 design on advanced Renaissance lines, though not necessarily expressed 

 in equally advanced detail. In the sixteenth century buildings designed 

 as a whole on Renaissance principles remain extremely rare. The 

 moment when the country had reached a stage of development at which 

 such designs would be accepted was precisely that at which the out- 

 break of the civil wars made their building impracticable, and the 

 few which did come into being were almost all built for royal or other 

 powerful persons. In the country at large, churches were more often 

 damaged or destroyed, than built or enlarged during the anarchy, and 

 such church-building as was done consisted principally in the comple- 

 tion of schemes already initiated. 



TRANSITION : FRANCIS I. TO HENRY II. The earliest examples 

 of the former type consisting in the clothing of a Gothic design 

 and construction in contemporary detail in which the influence of 

 the advanced Renaissance is visible, belong to that charming second 

 transition in which the style of Francis I. was passing into that of 

 Henry II., already noticed in secular work. Amongst them may be 

 mentioned parts of the churches of Cergy, Belloy, Ennery (Fig. 87), and 

 St Maclou at Pontoise, in the neighbourhood of Paris ; the chapel of 

 St Saturnin at Fontainebleau (remodelled 1540-5); and the western 

 doorways of St Gervais at Gisors and Evreux Cathedral (Figs. 1 1 1 

 and 1 80); the lantern over the intersection of St Pierre at Coutances 

 (1545-52); parts of St Pierre at Tonnerre, especially the elevations of 

 the south aisle (Fig. no) ; the transepts at St Florentin ; the choir and 

 chevet of the Madeleine at Montargis. Some of these examples have 

 been mentioned to illustrate various points in the previous chapter, 

 and as a whole they cannot be sharply defined from pure Francis I. 

 work, from which they differ chiefly in greater sobriety of ornament and 

 simplicity of scheme. 



INTERIORS, PIERS. In the period when fully developed classical 

 forms were adopted and combined with designs of a Gothic type, 

 the incompatibility being greater, happy results were less easily 

 attained. No general rules of composition, either internal or external, 



