THE STYLES OF HENRY iv. a,ND LOUIS XIII. 213 



French architectural evolution, and was especially strong on the 

 threshold of the Age of Reason : the conception of architecture as a 



^^&w^-\ f~y A*L& '"* ^'^^ J //C^> t^X ^T* ^^_ 



rationalistic expression of The uses and construction of a building 

 without any such ideal element as that supplied by the orders. 



Economy, sobriety, and reason are admirable as steadying forces, 

 but they are insufficient as an inspiration, and it was still to Rome 

 that artists of all religions and parties turned for models. 



CLASSICAL INFLUENCE. Both Protestants and Catholics were 

 equally disposed to accept the teaching of antiquity. The former, 

 as modelling themselves on the primitive Church, and the latter, 

 because Rome was the headquarters of the classical revival, could 

 find elements in Roman or neo Roman art appropriate to their 

 purposes. The tendency to a severe classicism was strengthened by 

 the intercourse of Protestants with their Dutch allies, and of Catholics 

 with the Holy See and Italian princes. The Reformation, the child 

 of Humanism, and the counter-Reformation, it remoter offspring, 

 were thus at one in following the Roman chool in its stricter 

 tendency. 



BAROCCO INFLUENCE. But while the pure classic traditions of 

 the great days of Henry II. were not dead, and were strengthened 

 by renewed studies in Italy, a contrary tendency had also to be 

 reckoned with, and for a time almost swamped them. To many, 

 the traditions of the decorators of. Fontainebleau and the licence in 

 the use of classical forms, which had been associated with their 

 influence, were more congenial. They found their natural affinity in 

 the barocco school, which, inaugurated by Michael Angelo in Italy, 

 had spread thence to Belgium, and there, modified to some extent 

 by Spanish influence, was reaching a strong and characteristic develop- 

 ment. The visits of Rubens to Paris (1622-6), to decorate the Luxem- 

 bourg Palace, gave a great impetus to the development in France 

 of the emphatic manner of which his art was the highest expression. 



RESULTING STYLE. -The resultant of these various forces was 

 a widely spread style, recognisable for its practical, sober, masculine, 

 and sturdy character. It is most often unadorned, and depends for 

 effect on the simplest means. In general, without delicate nuances 

 or refinement of detail, it seldom approaches the distinction of 

 Henry II. work, but sometimes attains an antique Roman grandeur 

 of conception. On the other hand, when a society, whose refinement 

 was less than its desire for sumptuousness, sought means of display, 

 and when the Puritan influence declined, a type of decoration gained 

 ground, vigorous and luxuriant, but coarse in taste. 



A peculiarity of the style is that it used almost exclusively a 

 combination of characteristics which were not individually novelties. 

 Many of these can be paralleled from the time of Henry II., and 



