42O RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE. 



PALATIAL AND DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE, 

 GARDEN DESIGN AND DECORATION. 



COMPIEGNE. The most important piece of palace architecture of 

 Louis XV. 's reign resulted from the rebuilding of the old castle of 

 Compiegne (c. 1752-72). The space available forming roughly a right- 

 angled triangle necessitated a rather peculiar plan (Fig. 400), which, 

 however, was so skilfully handled by Gabriel that its awkwardness is 

 hardly perceptible. The almost square court of honour (Fig. 399) 

 (about 140 feet wide) is entered through a pedimented gateway in the 

 centre of a very tasteful colonnaded screen (Fig. 398). 



The elevations consist on this side of an attic and two storeys. 

 On the garden front, which is over 630 feet long, the lower storey 

 is omitted and its place taken by a raised terrace. The combined 

 restfulness and delicacy of the architecture throughout is its most 

 striking feature. Cornices and strings make uninterrupted lines from 

 end to end; the roof balustrade is broken only by the larger pediments 

 marking the central features, which consist in tetrastyle porticoes of 

 giant Ionic pilasters or engaged columns. In these the square attic 

 windows are, as a rule, replaced by bewreathed oval or circular features ; 

 otherwise the subdivision of the great building is indicated only 

 by a sober type of rustication. The treatment of the openings 

 is of the quietest : only in the piano nobile are the windows sur- 



398. PALACE OF COMPIEGNE, REBUILT BY J. A. GABRIEL (1752-72): 

 ENTRANCE SCREEN. 



