242 RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE. 



236. 



BLOIS : ORLEANS WING. CARVED STONE DECORATION OF 

 STAIRCASE HALL. 



emphasised by a semicircular pediment enclosing a cartouche and 

 buttressed by trophies, a motive borrowed from Verneuil. Internally 

 little is left of Gaston's splendour but the vigorous decoration of the 

 staircase hall (Fig. 236). 



FONTS, CHAUVIGNY, TANLAY. Louis XIII. chateau architecture 

 reached high-water mark in the Orleans Wing at Blois, which for a 

 combination of breadth, majesty, and forceful simplicity is unsurpassed. 

 While in its plan, its proportions, and its arrangement of masses it is 

 typical of its age, in its abandonment of rustication as a leading element 

 of decoration it indicates that a change was impending. Meanwhile Le 

 Muet, who was far behind Mansart in his methods of composing eleva- 

 tions, was contributing to advance in another direction by the greater 

 care he bestowed on questions of planning, as may be judged from 

 his "Augmentations de Nouveaux Bastiments ... en France" (Paris, 

 1647) containing the chateaux of Fonts and Chauvigny built by him, 

 and that of Tanlay which he remodelled. The two former consist of 

 three wings with angle pavilions and a screen. The principal entrance 

 in the main block leads into a vestibule or gallery and through it into 

 the garden ; large staircases being placed at the inner ends of the return 

 wings and small ones at their outer ends, and internal passages being 

 arranged at various points, a degree of privacy and a facility of inter- 

 communication hitherto unknown were obtained. In external treatment 



