Meanwhile, the crowning distinction of the Early Renaissance palaces was the high-pitched roofs, surmounted in the case of the turrets with lanterns or louvers, and everywhere enlivened with tall decorated chimneys and recurring dormer windows, in frames of richly carved tracery. It was, in fact, in the treatment of the roofs that the French architects chiefly preserved the Gothic tendency to verticality; and, correspondingly, it was in the gradual lowering of the roofs and the emphasis of the horizontal features of the façades that they exhibited their gradual conversion to Italian influences.
To-day, these châteaux of Touraine, embosomed in the beauty of their natural surroundings, quietly mirrored in the river’s surface, still testify to the vigour and freshness of the Gallic genius in the dayspring of its acceptance of Italian refinements. A little effort of imagination, assisted, maybe, by pictures such as those of Eugène Isabey, can reconstruct in fancy the splendour and vivacity of the scene, when the terraces vied with the parterres in their blossoming of colours, as courtly men and women in the bravery of imported Italian velvets and brocades, lounged in elegant ease or gathered in a group to listen to a poet’s latest chanson, while the activity of the courtyard, with its constant coming and going of russet and green-clad serving men, was stirred to a gayer aspect by the arrival or departure of a brilliant cavalcade of hunters with hawk and hound.
Château de Gaillon.—One of the earliest of the castles that marked the transition from Gothic to Renaissance was the Château de Gaillon, which was built for a Tourainer, the Cardinal George of Amboise, not, however, in Touraine, but in the neighbourhood of Rouen. Only fragments of it remain which are now preserved in the École des Beaux Arts in Paris; but in its day it was a masterpiece of the Rouen School, which preceded that of Tours as a flourishing centre of art and letters. It much more nearly resembled in its lay-out the character of a fortified castle, having among other defensive details, a moat and drawbridge.
Château de Blois.—Meanwhile, a surviving example of the transition and Early Renaissance, is the Château de Blois, the first of the Royal Palaces, begun by Charles XII and completed by Francis I. The earlier façade is still unmistakably Gothic; the arches of the colonnade are flat segments, characteristic of the latest period; the shafts of the columns are attached to piers that reinforce the upper walls and run into the cornice; the windows still have stone mullions and transoms, and the design and decorative detail of the dormer windows are purely Gothic.
On the other hand, in the façade of Francis I, the ornament of the dormer windows, as well as the decorative details elsewhere, are of Italian design. The cornice has been given a more pronounced decorative treatment; it has a bolder projection and, while the old machicolations are represented they are converted into a purely decorative motive. Further, although the square mullion windows still appear, they are framed with pilasters and cornice and the intervening spaces of solid wall are treated as panels and enriched with arabesques.
The finest feature of this wing is the staircase tower, which occupies the centre of the façade on the side facing the court. Polygonal in plan, it is constructed with four great piers, extending from the ground to the cornice, to which are fitted the rising balustrades. The whole is magnificently Gothic in its structural design as well as in the character of the canopied niches; but the actual ornament is Renaissance and was probably executed by Italian artists. In the pierced carving of the balustrades the decorative motive is the King’s monogram, “F,” intertwined with his emblem, the Salamander.
Château de Chambord.—Another famous staircase appears in the Château de Chambord, a palace which in other respects also presents most interesting features. It was erected by Francis I (1526), probably as a hunting box, and the architect, Pierre C. Nepveu, has adhered more closely than had been usual to the plan of a feudal fortress. For in place of the gateway in the centre of the screen wall, a square structure with corner towers, which are round outside but square in the interior, projects into the courtyard, in the manner of a donjon-keep. Yet its purpose was not for defence but for ceremonial entertainment, since the interior contains four halls carried up to a great height and covered with coffered barrel vaults, while the centre of the plan is occupied by the staircase.
The latter, constructed in a stone cage, consists of a double spiral stairway, respectively for ascent and descent. It communicates with small rooms in the angles of the square and in the turrets, and finally with the lantern, which commands a superb view of the surrounding country. This lantern, octagonal in plan, the crowning feature of the exterior design, rises above the surrounding roofs, dormer-windows, and chimneys in two tiers of arcades, noticeably Italian in their system of pilasters and entablatures. They are surmounted by a domed roof, which supports an elaborate cupola. While the sky line thus presents a richly picturesque confusion, the façades are comparatively severe and in the ordered repetition of their details reflect the Italian influence. This is especially perceptible in the orders of Corinthian pilasters, in the general emphasis of the horizontal features, and in the use of round arches in the arcades. Meanwhile, the uniformity of the façades are relieved by the projecting angle-turrets, and by the admirably disposed masses of solid masonry, which besides their decorative value serve the practical use of backings to the interior fireplaces.
Other famous châteaux of Touraine are those of Bury, Chenonceaux, Azay-le-Rideau, and Amboise. Then came the day when Francis moved his court to Paris, thus shifting the scene of architectural activity. A rural palace sprang into form at Fontainebleau, a royal château at St. Germain-en-Laye, and a start was made with the city palace of the Louvre.
Palace of Fontainebleau.—The Palace of Fontainebleau was begun in 1528 by the architect Gilles le Breton. It followed the plan of a convent which it replaced, so that a remarkable irregularity distinguishes its arrangement. The design of the façades was probably influenced by Vignola and Serlio, who were among the artists invited from Italy by Francis I. They included also the painters Niccolo dell’ Abbati, Il Rosso, and Primaticcio, and the sculptor, Benvenuto Cellini, who were employed upon the decoration of the interior. Indeed, it is for the magnificence of the interior decoration, especially in the Galerie de François I, and in the Salle des Fêtes, added by Henri II, and the Galerie de Diane and Galerie des Cerfs of Henri IV, rather than for architectural distinction, that Fontainebleau is celebrated.