THE STYLE OE LOUIS XIV. 



351 



stairs. The addi- 

 tional accommoda- 

 tion thus provided 



enabled him, with 



splendid gain for the 



internal effect, to 



throw the upper and 



lower chapels into 



one by simply omit- 

 ting the floor of the 



upper nave, and 



consequently con- 

 verting the upper 



aisles and vestibule 



into galleries, which 



being level with the 



piano nobile of the 



palace were reserved 



for the King and 



Court (Fig. 338). 



Thus, as compared 



with an ordinary 



church, the interest 



is shifted from the 



lower to the upper 



storey : the lower 



windows are insignificant, and the main lighting of the building is done 



by the tall round-headed windows in the 

 galleries and clearstorey, while the nave 

 arcade with its low arches and massive square 

 piers is reduced to little more than a stylo- 

 bate to the main order which carries the vault 

 (Fig. 337). This order consists, not of pil- 

 asters, but of detached Corinthian columns 

 which not only are of a purity and nobility of 

 design seldom exceeded, but afford probably 

 the first instance in France of such a use for 

 a colonnade. Without giving any suggestion 

 of weakness, this arrangement imparts an im- 

 pression of lightness fully carried out by the 

 brick vault, which is of the usual barrel sec- 

 tion, but intersected almost to the crown by 

 the round-headed windows of the clearstorey, 

 and thereby acquiring something of the 



337. VERSAILLES : PALACE CHAPEL. INTERIOR. 



338. VERSAILLES : PALACE 

 CHAPEL. CROSS SEC- 

 TION. FROM BLONDEL. 



