266 RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE. 



But in most cases, as in the tombs of Richelieu and Mazarin in the 

 churches of the Sorbonne and College des Quatre Nations respectively, 

 the statuary was everything and the architecture reduced to a mere 

 sarcophagus. The same may be said of the tombs of Stanislas 

 Leczinski by Vasse, and his wife Catharine Opalinska by Adam, at 

 Nancy, in the style of Louis XV., and of Marshal Saxe at Strasburg in 

 that of Louis XVI., the masterpiece of Pigalle, though they differ in 

 the fact that, instead of standing free, as in the case of the cardinals' 

 tombs, they are placed against a wall with a pyramidal slab of dark 

 marble as a background. 



If the average buildings of the age of Henry IV. and Louis XIII. 

 rarely possess the finer qualities of distinction and grace, they derive a 

 certain charm from that air of repose, solidity, and substantial comfort 

 which they share with the domestic architecture of England and 

 Holland of a little later date, while in the hands of the greater masters 

 the style is capable of considerable grandeur. Its system of decoration 

 is undeniably grotesque and lacking in refinement, but equally un- 

 deniably it has genuine decorative qualities of a vigorous and original 

 character. 



