IV. With the consolidation of the royal authority under Philip Augustus in the late 12th and Louis IX (Saint Louis) in the 13th century, and with the growth of the power of the bishops as opposed to the pretensions of the abbots, there began an activity in the build ing of cathedrals, — that is, of bishops' churches, — which endowed France with its most splendid monuments in that marvelous style called the Gothic. (See GOTHIC AaciirrEcruaE). In this style, which was a logical outgrowth from the preceding Romanesque, a rigid structural logic blended with a vivid artistic imagination, cloth ing the structural elements of clustered piers, molded arches, ribbed vaults, flying buttresses, pinnacles and traceried windows, in forms of great decorative beauty, enhanced by figure sculpture, carved foliage, stained glass and a limited amount of painting, and dignified by imposing dimensions and especially by great loftiness. The vault of Notre Dame, Paris, reaches a height of 108 feet; that of Amiens, 136 feet; that of Beauvais, 142 feet. Towers with or without spires,— in some cases it was planned to have seven — added to the majesty of the noble exteriors. The earliest completely Gothic cathedral was Notre Dame at Paris (1163-1235); but the abbey of Saint Denis as first erected (begun 1140), and the cathedrals of Senlis, Noyon, Auxerre and Laon show early and incomplete realizations of the style whose culmination is seen in the cathedrals of Chartres, Rheims and of Amiens, next to which may be named, among others, those of Bourges, Rouen and Tours. These were all practically completed in the 13th century and are all in the northern half of France. During the 14th century building was mostly confined to parish churches, chapels and partial rebuildings of earlier churches, the cathedral of Albi being the only large cathedral of this century. The style became more ornate, less majestic, passing in the 15th century into the highly ornate phase called the from its flame-like traceries, as in the exquisite churches of Saint Malou at Rouen and of Saint Pierre at Lou viers and the facade of Rouen Cathedral. Dur ing this century civil and domestic architecture developed rapidly (Palais de Justice, Rouen; houses of Jacques Cceur at Bourges, of Cluny at Paris) ; and finally expired in a corruscation of brilliant, overwrought beauty in minor works, as the Renaissance came in.
V. Renaissance.— The Renaissance (q.v.) movement had been potent in Italian art for a hundred years before it strongly affected French architecture. Minor works by Italian artists during the closing decades of the 15th century had been executed in France, but it was not until the military expeditions of three succes sive kings into Italy—Charles VIII, in 1489, Louis XII in 1499, Francis I between 1515 and 1527 - that the new style began to make its way in France. Italy was at that time far in advance of France in the refinements of civil ized life and art and Italian arists were im ported as well as Italian works of art by all these three monarchs to domesticate the for eign style on French soil. Here began a long contest between the national French taste and the Italian, and fo- 400 years it has con tinued with oscillations between the Latin and the Gallic tendencies in design. Surviving fragments of the chateau de Gaillon (1499, demolished in 1793) and the east wing of the chateau of Blois built by Louis XII show a mixture of Gothic with Italian details; and while in the tremendous building activity of Francis I and his court in palaces, rural castles along the Loire Valley and churches a large number of Italian artists collaborated with French master-masons, composition and construction long followed Gothic traditions, though the decorative detail approximated Italian models. Thus the church of Saint Eustache (1532) at Paris is purely Gothic in conception but with not a Gothic detail ; shafts, capitals, entablatures, arches all following Italian precedent. Even Fontainebleau, of which part (Cour Ovale) was built under Italian direction (Serlio, Primaticcio), and in more striking degree the chateaux of Chambord, Azay-le-Rideau and Chenonceaux, retain the high roofs, dormers, pinnacles and chimneys of the French feudal chateau, while the superb open staircase-tower of the north wing of Blois is a purely Gothic structure with exquisite Renaissance arabesques. The Renaissance
forms are a superficial dress, and while under the Bourbon Henrys (II, III and IV) the Ital ian influence increased and architectural forms followed classic precedent more closely (chateaux of Ancy-le-Franc, Anet, Pailly, the Tuileries), and Gothic forms disappeared, the French were slow to abandon their preference for the older French ways. The earliest part of the Louvre (1546-59) by Lescot, did, more than any other monument to fix the type of French Renaissance architecture for a long period.
Under Louis XIII and especially XIV, the Latin or classic ideals increasingly prevailed (1610-1710), and externally the great domed churches (Sorbonne, Val-de-Grace, Invalides) and palaces and chateaux like the completed Louvre with its magnificent east colonnade, the enlarged Tuileries and above all the colossal palace of Versailles, displayed a style of great stateliness and classical dignity, being admirably composed, but often frigid in their formal regularity. The picturesquely irregular mass ing of the times of the Henrys and of the earlier part of Louis XIII's reign disappeared entirely. Internally palaces were decorated in a style which, though increasingly capricious, was absolutely French and often displayed great refinement and originality. (See INTERIOR DECORATION). But this freedom degenerated into extravagance and a reaction set in during the second half of the 18th century, culminating under Louis XVI (1784-89), toward greater simplicity and purity within and without. The most notable monuments of this reaction are the colonnaded facades on the Place de la Concorde, the imposing facade of the church of Saint Sulpice and the coldly classical but impressive Pantheon, with its fine dome and very Roman exterior. To this period also belong the Grand Theatre at Bordeaux, the Palace of the Legion of Honor (Paris) and the Petit Trianon at Versailles. Under Napoleon this formal classicism developed into the Em pire style and produced such monuments as the Madeleine, the Corps Legislatif (Chamber of Deputies) and the Arch of the Carrousel, all in imitation of Roman types, and the superb Arc de l'Etoile, surpassing in grandeur all Roman arches of triumph but copying none, VI. 19th century began amid both political and industrial revolutions and architecture sank to a low estate in Europe for a long period. In France, however, it maintained still some artistic life, thanks in part to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, in part to the vitality of the French taste. From 1830 to 1850 it was marked by a sincere effort after Greek refinement without copying of models; the Library of Saint Genevieve, the Column of the Bastille and new wings of the Palais de Justice and E.cole des Beaux-Arts exhibit this tendency, called by some the Neo Grec. It was less a distinct style than a tend ency which affected architecture beneficially long after its particular forms had been given up. When, under Louis Napoleon (the Second Empire) the completion of the union of the Louvre and Tuileries and the building of a new opera house were undertaken, French architecture rapidly advanced to a high degree of artistic excellence, drawing inspiration largely from the Louvre and the style of Henry II. Especially notable was the revival of French decorative sculpture applied to build ings, while the great international exhibitions of 1867, 1878, 1889 and 1900 and the building of new railway terminals greatly stimulated the development of the artistic use of iron and steel construction for roofing over very wide spans and introduced wholly novel types of architectural design. The eccentricities and the forced affectation of originality of the so called "Art Nouveaup or secessionist move ment, though it originated in France, never led to the extravagant monstrosities to which it gave birth in Germany, Austria and Belgium.