Tomb of Louis XII.—Soon after the death of Louis XII. his succes sor, Francis I., had a magnificent tomb erected for the former. Jean juste was the sculptor of this work, which was set up at St. Denis in 1518 (fig. 8). The figures of the apostles below are additions of a later time. In the architecture the master has evidently held closely to Italian art, and the Renaissance is here brought into play without admixture with mediaeval elements.
The Hotel d'Anjou at Angers exhibits an elegant Early Renaissance of about the date 152o. The châteaux at Azay-le-Rideau, on the Indre, Benaart, Lude, St. Arnaud, and Perche are distinguished by the rich architecture of the roof-gables and dormers. The last has Gothic gables with pinnacles and grotesques, but it is also provided with Corinthian pilasters. The châteaux Chateaubriant and Nantouillet (Pl. 44, fig. 5) show the mixture of both series of forms. The choir of St. Peter's at Caen (tv. 45, fig. r), begun in x521, has an entirely Gothic system of con struction, but in its decoration it is as completely Renaissance. Among the charming works into which Gothic decoration—or, at least, a remi niscence of it—enters more or less among the Gothic constructional forms, we may mention the Château of Sandifer, with its four round angle towers, its pilaster-adorned windows, each with a mullion and transom, and its richly-decorated roof-balcony as a finish to the walls; the Château Rocher de Mesanger, with flat arches in the arcade of the court and fan cifully-terminated balcony; and, lastly, the ducal palace at Angers.
Chateau Chambord.—In 1523, Francis I. began the erection of the Château Chambord, the main building of which is shown on Plate 44 (fig. 2). Pierre Nepveu, called Trinqueau, superintended its construction. The entire design both of this principal building, which was enclosed by a rectangular court, and of the wings enclosing this court and flanked on their angles with round towers, recalls the medieval arrangement. The low storeys and the lofty roofs with their gables and chimneys belong to the older period, but the form-system of the decoration is entirely new and shows how exquisitely this new system can be adapted to the roman tic older ground-plan. The lantern over the staircase, which occupies the centre of the main building (fig. to), is especially charming, as are also the chimneys, which are decorated with tabernacle-shaped niches and every conceivable ornament. The roof—or, properly, the roofs—rise
independently in the interior above a terrace which extends around the entire building—a survival from the strong castle of mediaeval ages.
Among the churches of this period is St. Pantaloon at Troyes (1524), whose columns are Corinthian, while the vaulting is Gothic. St. Michael's at Dijon exhibits a complete facade of this epoch, with three round-arched portals and a lofty gable between two towers. St. Nicolas's at Troyes (1526) has Gothic radiating vaulting, which is in part adorned with free tracery pendent below it; here Gothic construction predominates. In other cases, as in the Palais de Justice at Orleans (pi. 45, fig. 7) and that of Beaugencv 44, fig. 3), Gothic motives intrude even into the deco ration of secular structures. The mediceval window-arrangement with narrow lights, stone mullions, and transoms endured longest, as in the so-called " House of Francis I.') at Fontainebleau, which, with some alterations, has lately been removed to Paris (fig. 9).
Chateau motives occur also at the Château Madrid, which Francis I. had erected in 1526 in the Bois de Boulogne near Paris, and which, though unfortunately destroyed during the Revolution, is known, from drawings still preserved, to have been devoid of mediaeval character except in that high roof of the North which France even later would not give up I). The arcades—two storeys of which sur round the edifice—show clearly the Italian influence, as does also the .height of the storeys, which is about 7 metres (23 feet). The architects, Pierre Gadier and Gratien Francois, the latter of whom carried on the 'building after Gadier's death, in 1531, were, however, both Frenchmen.
The Chateau of Fontainebleau, also a work of Francis I., exhibits more completely the forms of the Renaissance, though, indeed, that naïveté is absent which seems so pleasing to us in the works of the mixed styles. The small Château of Sansac, near Loches, belongs to the year 1529. On a corner of the Rue du Palais de Justice at Troyes there is a house built in 1531 which has a charming oriel and an elegant courtyard. Orleans and Blois show many examples of similar houses.