One deviation from Italian practice was the frequent employment of coupled columns or pilasters, which was in some cases (as at Wollaton Hall, see ELIZABETHAN ARCHITECTURE) caused by the neces sity for wider piers between the windows, at the same time that the intercolumns were completely occupied by the windows, which Last, it should be observed, retained their Tudor or English character, being very spacious and divided by mullions and transoms.
In much of the Italian Renaissance, especially in that for which purity and correctness were affected, the character of the detail is somewhat dry and meagre, and there is very little of ornamentation, even the entablatnres to Corinthian columns consisting of only plain mouldings. Florid Renaissance, as it may for distinction's sake be called—seems, on the contrary, to have been most in favour both in France and in our country, probably in consequence of the taste for luxuriant enrichment which had been indulged during that period of Gothic architecture which the new style was beginning to replace. Besides which, it was out of Italy adopted as an exotic fashion, owing to which and to its being at first employed for palatial and sumptuous structures, it was displayed in all its luxuriance. This florid species of the style and period is marked by a profusion of enrichment and carvings in mould ings, panels, and friezes, by arabesque foliage and medallions, with which surfaces of considerable extent are oftentimes covered. The carvings consist of grotesque animals, foliage, &o., extended into scroll work, interlaced in an entirely capricious manner, of the kind known as ARABESQUE. In Italian Renaissance the same kind of sculpture occurs, but purer in design, more graceful in style, and more refined in execu tion. Figures of Amorini, with medallions, on which are portraits, armorial bearings, &c., are common, especially in interiors. Even the shafts of columns are frequently d.unasked or broidered, if not for their entire height, for a considerable portion of it, and generally the lower ones, with foliage and other chasing ; besides which they are further enriched by one or more bands embossed in similar manlier. The faces both of pilasters and pedestals are also highly decorated by being panelled, and filled up with arabesque work or other sculptures. Niches, too, are frequent features in composition, and within, their heads are generally carved to resemble a shell ; as are also devices, mottos, and other inscriptions. This profusion of minute ornament is eminently characteristic of the Renaissance taste in building, furniture, and decoration generally ; and though it was then carried to excess, and the combinations themselves were often very uncouth, grotesque, and what is understood by the term quaint (oddly picturesque, but not beautiful), much of the ornament is, taken separately, marked by elegance as well as fancy. Some examples from Italian interiors, of characteristic design and admirably carved, may be seen in the South Kensington Museum.
French Renaissance dates from the reign of Louis XII., who em ployed Italian artists, and among others the architect Giocondo [GIO CONDO, in Thou. Div.], who erected for Cardinal d'Arnboise, the minister of that monarch, the celebrated Chateau Gaillon. Though
that edifice—at least what remained of it, was taken down some years ago, it is known from the representations of it, and also from such fragments of it as have been preserved by being reconstructed at the Ecule des Beaux-Arts, Pails, to have been an exceedingly sumptuous pile. The buildings towards the court were almost entirely incrusted over with panelled pilasters, arabesques, medallions, and other sculp ture. The Chateau de Blois, the birth-place of Louis XII., and restored and decorated by him, was another distinguished work of that period, and probably one of those on which Giocondo was employed. In the reign of Francis I., the palaces erected by that sumptuous prince and his nobles attested the magnificence if not the refinement of that age. As a retreat for himself in the immediate vicinity of his capital, Francis built (about 1530) the Chateau de Madrid in the Bois de Boulogne, whose facades were decorated with coloured enamelled tiles, constituting a species of polychromic decoration. Of that building nothing now remains, it having been taken down at the end of the last century ; but another architectural specimen of the same period, the house or casino of Francis I., erected at Moret, near Fontainebleau, has been preserved by being removed to Paris, where it was re-erected in its primitive state, in the Bois de Boulogne, by the architect Biet, in 1823. Of this interesting monument of the Renais sance, which has also some polychromic Robbia-ware decoration, plans, elevations, and sections, are given in Normand's Paris Moderne, but being only in outline, a great deal of the is lost in them. The palace of Fontainebleau itself, in its interior at least, records the magnificence of Francis, his taste for splendour, and his liberal encouragement of arts. The Tuilieries, as built for Catherine di Medicis, by Philibert Delorme and is another great example of French Renaissance when at its best, which has undergone such alterations as to be no longer recognisable. By French writers generally, the style is con sidered to have risen to its highest point of excellence in the hands of Philibert Delorme [DELORME, in BIOG. Div.] in the reigns of Henry II. and Francis IL : but it perhaps appears to more advantage in tho edifices built in the reign of Francis I.
In Germany, the castle or rather palace of Heidelberg would, if completed, have been a most gorgeous pile in the Renaissance style, as it showed itself in that country ; and though now a ruin, the principal portion of the exterior is in sufficiently good preservation to admit of faithful restoration, in a series of architectural engravings. German Renaissance wa.s even more exuberant, not to say extravagant, alike in constructive character and decorative details, than even the French.
The Renaissance edifices of Spain are many of them interesting and striking specimens of the kind. Among them may be men tioned, as deserving of particular notice for the elegant taste' it displays, the upper gallery of the cloister of the Convent of Huerta; also the Town Halls of Zaragossa and of Seville; and the Alcaza at Toledo.