xlii
FRENCH ART.
art of enamelling entered upon a new stage with the invention of
enamel painting and became secularized; i.e. instead of enamelled
altar-pieces, paxes, and reliquaries we find plates, vases, and cups.
The new Limoges School was founded by Monvaerni and Nardon Peni-
caud and reached its zenith under Leonard Limousin, Pierre Rey-
mond, and Jean Penicaud the Younger. The now growing inclination
towards portraits in enamel and the reproduction of entire pictures
cannot but seem a mistake, and even the above-mentioned masters
were most successful when they restricted themselves to purely de¬
corative work. While Italian influence soon made itself evident
amongst the enamels, ceramic art remained purely French. The
products of Gubbio, Deruta, or Urbino have little in common with
the elegant ivory-like fayence of Saint Porchaire, or with the
dishes decorated with monsters, fish, and the like by Bernard Palissy
(d. 1590), unique both as a man and as an artist, or with the pot¬
tery of Rouen, Nevers, or Moustiers. We now also meet with ad¬
mirable works in the domains of cabinet-making, goldsmith's work,
and tin work (Fr. Briot; d. after 1600), as well as among bronzes
and medals, while the arts of glass-painting (Pinaigrier and Jean
Cousin; in St. Geruais, St. Etienne-du-Mont, etc.) and tapestry-
weaving show no falling off. The Renaissance nobly continued the
traditions of the Gothic period in investing even the humblest ob¬
jects with an artistic charm, and that in a higher degree than ever
before.
The Reigns of Henri IV. and Louis XHI. were not very rich in
great works of art. The ecclesiastical Architecture of the period
is characterized by the facade of St. Gervais, in which the colonnades
of different orders placed one above the other suggest a grammatical
exercise. Salomon de Brosse, its builder, was also the architect
of the Palais du Luxembourg, which is imposing in spite of its
heaviness. De Brosse was older than the two more celebrated ar¬
chitects, Jacques Lemercier, builder of the Palais Cardinal (now the
Palais Royal), the church of St. Roch, and the Sorbonne, and Man-
sart, who designed the older portion of the Bibliotheqe Nationale
and the dome of the Val-de-Grace, though his reputation is chiefly
as a builder of palaces (Maisons near St. Germain, etc.). Mansart
was the inventor of 'mansard' roofs. The oldest parts of Paris now
existing owe their characteristic appearance to this period, from
which also date a considerable number of the older private man¬
sions, with facades uniformly rising from enclosed courts entered
by lofty gateways. A characteristic survival of the period is the
Place des Vosges, which presents an exceedingly monotonous effect
in spite of the alternation of brick and stone.
The most influential Sculptors were now Jean Bologne or Gio¬
vanni da Bologna (b. at Douai; d. 1608) and his pupils (Franche-
ville, De Vries, Duquesnoy, Van Opstal), all of whom were com¬
pletely Italianized. A more individual and a more French style
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