THE STYLE OF HENRY II. 185 



arcade which springs from short square pilasters, and the second rising 

 to the springing of the clearstorey windows and vaulting At Le Mesnil- 

 Aubry (c. 1550-60) elongated engaged Doric columns with a block of 

 entablature take the vaulting ribs, and other shafts attached to their 

 lower portion take the aisle vaults and nave arcade, both vaults and 

 arches being pointed. At Berville is a closer approximation to the 

 ancient Roman system of rectangular arcade piers with pilasters, which 

 became the rule in the seventeenth century. Other instances occur in 

 which single classical columns are used. The columns between the 

 aisles at St Nicolas-des-Champs, Paris (remodelled 1576-81), are 

 elliptical in plan. 



VAULTS. Most of the types of vault of the early Renaissance con- 

 tinued in use, the ribs taking mature classical sections. The tendency 

 was to give both ribs and arches broad flat soffits and these are some- 

 times panelled, as in the aisles of St Aignan at Chartres (1543). There 

 was a general preference for vaults approximating to the barrel type, 

 exemplified in the charming coffered vaults of the baptisteries at Langres 

 and Gisors. 



ARCHES, WINDOWS. Like vaults, arches and openings were in- 

 differently pointed or semicircular. At Le Grand Andely is an isolated 

 case of an arch which is half an upright ellipse. They are usually 

 surrounded by architraves with projecting mouldings. In windows 

 there is a tendency to abandon tracery, e.g., in the south-west tower at 

 Gisors (Fig. 177), but in most cases, where it is retained, its section is 

 square rather than moulded, and its patterns consist of combinations of 

 pure geometrical forms and scrolls, or are of the " skeleton edifice " type. 

 At Le Grand Andely, however, is a rose window, one of the most 

 successful traceried windows of the whole French Renaissance, in which 

 the bars are moulded and the pattern flowing geometrical. 



USE OF ORDERS. The most characteristic feature of the elevations 

 is the treatment of each storey with an order. This is sometimes done 

 in apse and aisle elevations by merely substituting pilasters for buttresses, 

 as in the rather severe choir of Notre Dame at La Ferte Milon, and 

 with greater playfulness in the ranges of chapels at St Maclou, Pontoise, 

 enriched with panelling, balustrades of interlacing work, and so forth. 



CHURCH FRONTS. In towerless nave and transept fronts there are 

 usually two orders below the gable, as at Le Grand Andely (Fig. 178), 

 where the whole arrangement of a Gothic front is very skilfully repro- 

 duced in refined classical forms. The lofty west fronts of St Pierre, 

 Auxerre (begun 1566), though it has three full orders below the gable, 

 and is treated with great elaboration in the florid style of the later Valois, 

 yet with its traceried windows, its prominent flying buttresses and 

 abutting piers, and its general vertical emphasis, is still a predominantly 

 Gothic composition (Fig. 179). 



