III. RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE It has become customary to include under the classification of Renaissance architecture all the architecture produced in a coun try after the Graeco-Roman revival in Italy from the 15th century to the end of the i8th. In the course of three centuries, as must be clear, the types of buildings, their planning and their construc tion—i.e., all that is vital and fundamental in the character of architecture—must vary widely, to meet the demands of changing social systems; and thus the only characteristic common to such dissimilar types of architecture as, for instance, that of the time of Francis I. and that of the period of 175o, is the employment of the classic orders as elements of the decorative design. Bear ing this in mind, then, the following divisions for the periods of French Renaissance architecture are essential: Renaissance Proper (1475-1610).—Covering the period from the introduction of the Italian-revival classicism through the reigns of Charles VIII., Louis XII., Francis I., Henry II. and his suc cessors, up to 1589, and including, as a transitional period, the period of reconstruction, after the religious wars, of Henry IV. (1589-161o).
Seventeenth Century Renaissance.—Covering the period of the development of French classic art, from its formation in the first half of the century (reign of Louis XIII., 1610-43) through 166o, when the personal influence of Louis XIV. (1643-1715) was dominant, and up to about 1700.
Eighteenth Century Renaissance.—Covering the last phase of the Louis XIV. period, the Regency, and the return, in the second half of the century, to the more academic style which terminated at the Revolution.
In the last quarter of the 15th century the importations of Italian works of art increased steadily; the French nobles ordered funeral monuments and cabi net work in Italy, and brought over skilled Italian workmen; the military expeditions into Italy had familiarized many Frenchmen with the Italian Renaissance and created the desire to produce at home the masterpieces admired abroad. But the Gothic art (see GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE), though dying, was by no means dead, and Gothic edifices continued to be built as late as the 17th cen tury. The Italian influence, therefore, did not find a clear course, but asserted itself simply in the replacement of certain Gothic forms of decoration by Renaissance details. A compromise was thus effected between the old and new traditions, and the work of building went on as before under the guidance of the French master-builders (heads of the various gilds). The plan of a build
ing, and its vaults, high roofs, dormer windows and decorative chimneys followed the Gothic tradition; while on every space suitable for carving appeared the arabesques of the Italian pilas ter, the medallions with profiles of the Caesars, and the capitals, mouldings and ornaments inspired by Roman precedent. This dualism of structure and ornament is the essential characteristic of French Renaissance architecture.
The authorship of the principal buildings of this first period has been the subject of long and vio lent controversies; but the argument of those who attribute it almost exclusively to Italian architects is not overwhelmingly con vincing. This argument runs to the effect that "the ignorant mas ter-builders whose names appear on the records were incapable of producing the work of the early Renaissance." But these same "ignorant" master-builders had been, and were still, building mas terpieces of Gothic architecture. The work of French designers is clearly marked by its fluency in the prevailing Gothic construc tion, and its uncertainty in the Italian vocabulary of ornamenta tion. To ascribe it, therefore, to Italian builders, compels the strange assumption that the Italian, in crossing the Alps, had for gotten the very rudiments of forms of which his knowledge was regarded as authoritative, while acquiring with the same miraculous suddenness a complete knowledge of French Gothic forms! Buildings.—From the end of the 15th century to the reign of Francis I., the buildings—late Gothic in everything but the intro duction of Italian ornamental detail—are the work of a transi tional period. Then, in the reign of Francis I., the Gothic elements of the facade were supplanted by new features. As yet there was no clear understanding of the essence of classic architecture, i.e., unity and purity of form, and a definite relationship of all the elements of a composition to a common standard of measure, but there was an effort to attain harmonious distribution of these ele ments. The king was building, or remodelling, Villers-Cotteret, Fontainebleau, Chambord, Madrid, St. Germain, La Muette and Blois, and, at his example, Renaissance forms were adopted for Ecouen, Ancy-le-Franc, St. Pierre at Caen, St. Eustache and St.