The classic renaissance was completed in the beginning of the present century by the literal copyism of ancient. b•Idings. Hitherto, architects had attempted to apply classic architecture to the require nts of modern times; now they tried to make modern wants conform to ancient architec ire. In the Madeleine, for instance, a pure peripteral tern-. pie is taken as the object to be reproduced, and the architect has then to see how he can arrange a Christian church inside it! Many buildings erected during the time of the empire are no doubt very impressive, with noble porticoes and broad blank walls; but they are in many respects mere shams; attempts to make the religious buildings of the Greeks and Romans serve for the conveniences and requirements of the 19th century.
This has been found an impossibility—people have rebelled against houses where the window light had to be sacrificed to the reproduction of an ancient portico, and in which the height of the stories, the arrangement of the doors, windows, and. in fact, all the features were cramped, and many destroyed. The result has been that this cold and servile copyism is now entirely abandoned, and the French are working out a free kind of renaissance of their own, which promises well for the future; and is at the.present moment, as the streets of Paris testify, the liveliest and most appropriate style in use for modern street-architecture.
In Spain the renaissance style look early root, and from the richness of that country at the time, many fine buildings were erected; but it soon yielded to the cold and heavy " Greco-Romano" style, and that was followed by extravagances of style and ornament more absurd than any of the reign of Louis XIV. The later renaissance of Spain was much influenced by the remnants of Saracenic art which everywhere abound in that country.
In England as in the other countries of Europe, classic art accompanied the classic literature of the period; but, being at a distance from the fountain-head, it was long before the native Gothic style gave place to the classic renaissance. It was more than a century after the foundation of St. Peter's that Henry VIII. brought over two foreign artists—John of Padua and Havenius of Cleves—to introduce the new style. Of their works we have many early examples at Cambridge and Oxford, in the latter half of the 16th century. • Longleat, flolmby, Wallaton, and many other county mansions, built toward the end of the 16th c., are fine examples of bow the new style was gradually introduced.
The course of the renaissance in England was similar to its progress in France; it was even slower. Little classical feeling prevailed till about 1620. The general expres• sion of all.the buildings before that date is almost entirely Gothic, although an attempt is made to introduce classical details. The pointed gables, mullioned windows, oriels and dormers, and the picturesque outlines of the old style, are all retained long after the introduction of quasi-classic profiles to the moldings. This style, which prevailed dur ing the latter half of the 16th c., is called Elizabethan, and corresponds to the somewhat earlier style in France of the time of Francis I. This was followed in the reign of James I. by a similar but more extravagant style called Jacobean, of which Heriot's hospital is a good example; the fantastic ornaments, broken entablatures, etc., over the windows being characteristic of this style, as they were of that of Henry IV. in France.
The first architect who introduced real Italian feeling into the renaissance of Eng land was Inigo Jones. After studying abroad he was appointed superintendent of royal buildings under James I., for whom be designed a magnificent palace at White hall. Of this only one small portion was executed (1619-21), and still exists under the name of the banqueting house, and is a good example of the Italian style. Jones also erected several elegant mansions in this style, which then became more generally adopted.
In the latter half of the 17th c. a splendid opportunity occurred for the adoption of the renaissance style 'after the great fire of London. Sir Christopher Wren rebuilt an immense number of churches in that style, of which St. Paul's (q.v.)was the most impor tant. The spire of Bow church and the interior of St. Stephen's, Wallbrook, are also much admired.
During the 18th c. classic feeling predominated, and gradually extended to all classes of buildings. In the early part of the century Vanbrugh built the grand but ponderons, palaces oeBlenheim and castle Howard, which have a character and originality of their own. To these succeeded a vast number of noblemen's mansions, designed by Camp bell. Kent, the Adamses, and others.