THE STYLES OF HENRY IV. AND LOUIS XIII. 263 



continuous. In spite of many awkwardnesses the interior is monu- 

 mental and spacious in ef.~2ct. The fagade was not built until the 

 eighteenth century, and the rest of the exterior not being intended 

 to be seen, is gaunt and devoid of charm. Le Mercier's parish church 

 at Richelieu (1629-33) i s one f tne most successful of the type, 

 especially internally. It has an unobtrusive example of the basilica 

 front and the unusual feature of a pair of eastern towers with leaded 

 spires on each side of the apse. The detailing throughout is good and 

 severe, and the decoration consists of good Louis XIII. cartouche 

 work interspersed with cherubs' heads and swags. 



BAROCCO INFLUENCE. The influence of Belgian barocco which was 

 specially felt on the northern and eastern borders also spread to the 

 neighbouring provinces. It is observable, for instance, in the Carmelite 

 church at Dijon (1630). Again the facade of Ste Marie at Nevers 

 (c. 1640) is of so pronounced a Belgian barocco type that it looks as 

 if it had been transported bodily from Mechlin or Louvain, and 

 seems to postulate a Belgian architect (Fig. 257) such as the con- 

 temporary seminary chapel at Cambrai undoubtedly had. Cambrai, 

 however, was not at that time incorporated in the French dominions 

 any more than St Amand, near Valenciennes, where the abbey church 

 (1630-3) shows an equally exuberant but less developed variety of the 

 style, manifested not only in the decorative treatment, but in such an 

 arrangement as the arcade springing direct from the capitals of columns, 

 which is frequent in Spain. Its single western tower is also contrary to 

 contemporary French practice. 



TYPES OF FACADE. Although the Vignolan fagade in some. form 

 or other was almost universal, the alternative of the twin : tower front 

 survived, especially in the provinces, and regained popularity later in the 

 century. It was adopted, with five and three orders respectively, at 

 Rennes in the Cathedral (1613-1700), and in the Toussaint (1624-57). 

 The chapel of the H6tel-Dieu at Lyons (1637-45), by Guillaume 

 Ducillet, has another interesting variant on this type. 



DOMES : STE MARIE, PARIS. Domical design had not been greatly 

 developed in the sixteenth century. It had, indeed, been almost con- 

 fined to relatively small chapels. It continued to be used for this 

 purpose in the seventeenth. At Nancy, for instance, the mausoleum 

 of the Dukes of Lorraine (1607-32) consists of an octagonal chapel 

 decorated internally with black marble columns and sarcophagi, and 

 surmounted by a coffered octagonal dome. Again, though domes 

 often occurred over the intersection in churches of the Gesii type, 

 they were a mere adjunct. The church of the Sorbonne, which is 

 essentially a development of this type, was not finished till 1656 though 

 begun in 1635, and may be reckoned as belonging to the next period. 

 The earliest church in which the dome is the determining factor in 



