Style of Louis XIV.: T.H. Lyons, 1646; P. Louvre, E. colonnade and court completed, 1660–70; Tuileries altered by Le Vau, 1664; observatory at Paris, 1667–72; arch of St. Denis, Paris, 1672, by Blondel; Arch of St. Martin, 1674, by Bullet; Banque de France, H. de Luyne, H. Soubise, all in Paris; Ch. Chantilly; Ch. de Tanlay; P. St. Cloud; Place des Victoires, 1685; Chu. St. Sulpice, Paris, by Le Vau (façade, 1755); Chu. St. Roch, Paris, 1653, by Lemercier and de Cotte; Notre Dame des Victoires, Paris, 1656, by Le Muet and Bruant.
The Decline: P. Bourbon, 1722; T.H. Rouen; Halle aux Blés (recently demolished), 1748; École Militaire, 1752–58, by Gabriel; P. Louvre, court completed, 1754, by the same; Madeleine begun, 1764; H. des Monnaies (Mint), by Antoine; École de Médecine, 1774, by Gondouin; P. Royal, Great Court, 1784, by Louis; Théâtre Français, 1784 (all the above at Paris); Grand Théâtre, Bordeaux, 1785–1800, by Louis; Préfecture at Bordeaux, by the same; Ch. de Compiegne, 1770, by Gabriel; P. Versailles, theatre by the same; H. Montmorency, Soubise, de Varennes, and the Petit Luxembourg, all at Paris, by de Cotte; public squares at Nancy, Bordeaux, Valenciennes, Rennes, Reims.
[CHAPTER XXIII.]
RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE NETHERLANDS.
Books Recommended: As before, Fergusson, Palustre. Also, Belcher and Macartney, Later Renaissance Architecture in England. Billings, Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland. Blomfield, A Short History of Renaissance Architecture in England. Britton, Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain. Ewerbeck, Die Renaissance in Belgien und Holland. Galland, Geschichte der Hollandischen Baukunst im Zeitalter der Renaissance. Gotch and Brown, Architecture of the Renaissance in England. Loftie, Inigo Jones and Wren. Nash, Mansions of England. Papworth, Renaissance and Italian Styles of Architecture in Great Britain. Richardson, Architectural Remains of the Reigns of Elizabeth and James I. Schayes, Histoire de l’architecture en Belgique.
THE TRANSITION. The architectural activity of the sixteenth century in England was chiefly devoted to the erection of vast country mansions for the nobility and wealthy bourgeoisie. In these seignorial residences a degenerate form of the Gothic, known as the Tudor style, was employed during the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII., and they still retained much of the feudal aspect of the Middle Ages. This style, with its broad, square windows and ample halls, was well suited to domestic architecture, as well as to collegiate buildings, of which a considerable number were erected at this time. Among the more important palaces and manor-houses of this period are the earlier parts of Hampton Court, Haddon and Hengreave Halls, and the now ruined castles of Raglan and Wolterton.
FIG. 184.—BURGHLEY HOUSE.
ELIZABETHAN STYLE. Under Elizabeth (1558–1603) the progress of classic culture and the employment of Dutch and Italian artists led to a gradual introduction of Renaissance forms, which, as in France, were at first mingled with others of Gothic origin. Among the foreign artists in England were the versatile Holbein, Trevigi and Torregiano from Italy, and Theodore Have, Bernard Jansen, and Gerard Chrismas from Holland. The pointed arch disappeared, and the orders began to be used as subordinate features in the decoration of doors, windows, chimneys, and mantels. Open-work balustrades replaced externally the heavy Tudor battlements, and a peculiar style of carving in flat relief-patterns, resembling appliqué designs cut out with the jigsaw and attached by nails or rivets, was applied with little judgment to all possible features. Ceilings were commonly finished in plaster, with elaborate interlacing patterns in low relief; and this, with the increasing use of interior woodwork, gave to the mansions of this time a more homelike but less monumental aspect internally. English architects, like Smithson and Thorpe, now began to win the patronage at first monopolized by foreigners. In Wollaton Hall (1580), by Smithson, the orders were used for the main composition with mullioned windows, much after the fashion of Longleat House, completed a year earlier by his master, John of Padua. During the following period, however (1590–1610), there was a reaction toward the Tudor practice, and the orders were again relegated to subordinate uses. Of their more monumental employment, the Gate of Honor of Caius College, Cambridge, is one of the earliest examples. Hardwicke and Charlton Halls, and Burghley, Hatfield, and Holland Houses (Fig. 184), are noteworthy monuments of the style.