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FRENCH ART.
chapel of Ch&teau Gaillon; in 1516 Leonardo da Vinci came to France,
in 1518 Andrea del Sarto, in 1530 Rosso, in 1631 Primaticcio.
The result, the French Renaissance, did not wholly come up
to expectation — least of all in the domain of painting. The plant,
which in Italy itself had passed its best, could put forth only a few
feeble blossoms when transplanted to a foreign soil. The freely
restored paintings by Rosso, Primaticcio, and Niccolo dell' Abbate at
Fontainebleau (School of Fontainebleau) reveal, it may be, a strong
sense of decorative effect, but in the details they are steeped in af¬
fectation. The Frenchman Jean Cousin, whose Last Judgment in
the Louvre has been extolled beyond its merits, was really little
more than a skilful master of foreshortening. The only really at¬
tractive painters of this century are Jean Clouet (d. ca. 1640) and
his son Francois Clouet (d. 1572), surnamed Janet, and both are
remarkable for having remained almost entirely free from Italian
influence, manifesting a certain early-French dryness in their por¬
traits (Bibliotheque Nationale, Louvre, Chantilly).
The fate of Architecture was more fortunate. The native art,
instead of simply abdicating in favour of the foreign mode, was strong
enough to combine with it to form a new and distinctive style. The
architectural styles under Francis I. and Henri II. have a character
of their own. If an error was formerly made in ascribing all the
sumptuous buildings of Francis I. to Italian architects, such as Fra
Giocondo and Boccadoro, modern criticism seems to have overshot
the mark in denying these foreigners almost any share in them Some
buildings indeed, such as Fontainebleau, seem now to have been
definitively restored to native architects, but in the case of others,
e.g. the Hotel de Ville at Paris, it is still uncertain whether the
'maitre macon' mentioned in the original documents was not merely
the builder or the successor of the Italian 'architecte'. Among the
most illustrious names of the French Renaissance are those of Pierre
Lescot (Louvre, Musee Carnavalet), Philibert de I'Orme (Chateau
d'Anet, the portal of which is now in the court of the Ecole des
Beaux-Arts; Tuileries), PierreChambiges(Fontainebleauand St.Ger-
main-en-Laye), Jean Bullant (Chateau d'Ecouen; Chantilly), and
the Ducerceau family, headed by the famous theorist and draughts¬
man of that name. Building was most actively carried on in Tou-
raine, where there arose in rapid succession the chateaux of Cham-
lord, Chenonceaux, and Blois, with its transcendently beautiful
staircase. The chateau of Gaillon near Rouen, now utterly demol¬
ished, must have been one of the finest castles of its time.
Ecclesiastical architecture claims few important works at this
period, with the exception of St. Eustache at Paris, the church of
Gisors, and the noble choir of St. Pieire at Caen, the masterpiece
of Hector Sohier. The Hotel Bourgtheroulde at Rouen (partly Gothic)
and the Maison Francois Premier in Paris are conspicuous examples
of domestic architecture. Under Francis I. traces of the old native
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