352 



KKXAISSAXCE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE. 



airy effect of Gothic 

 vaulting. These 

 graceful and well- 

 proportioned forms 

 are clothed in an 

 appropriate decora- 

 tion of quite surpris- 

 ing sobriety, and the 

 interior as a whole is 

 a delightful harmony 

 of tender and sunny 

 whites blending with 

 gold of many shades. 

 Below the springing 

 of the vault all the 

 structural parts are 

 in cream - coloured 

 limestone : the walls 

 and arcade are cut 

 with finely designed 

 sculpture of very low 

 relief; the woodwork 

 is painted white, and 

 relieved by delicately 

 wrought carving 

 picked out in gold ; 

 the gilt bronze balus- 

 trade of the gallery 

 carries a purple 

 breccia rail; the 



marble floors are patterned in soft colours on a white ground ; the gilt 

 iron window-frames are glazed with white glass in a border of yellow 

 and blue ; in the roof only, painted by Antoine Coypel and others, is 

 a full colour scheme employed. Its effect may be somewhat theatrical, 

 but the figures being small in scale, and the colour pleasing, the roof is 

 neither overweighted nor out of tone with its surroundings. 



Elevations. The chapel, communicating directly with the palace 

 on the west, has no facade on that side, the north side also is enclosed 

 in buildings and invisible, but the elevations of the south flank and 

 chapels are in every way worthy of the interior (Fig. 339). The quiet 

 solid substructure, the principal storey with its slender pilasters, its 

 beautiful cornice and balustrade, its tall lights with angels grouped 

 round their arched heads, the retreating clearstorey with its vases and 

 gracefully outlined flying buttresses are admirably designed individually, 



339. VERSAILLES : PALACE CHAPEL. VIEW FROM 

 FORE COURT. 



