CHAPTER XI

ARCHITECTURE OF THE EARLY RENAISSANCE IN FRANCE

The Renaissance had not the same meaning north of the Alps that it had in Italy--A fundamental change in French architecture effected by the Renaissance influence--Survival of the Gothic style--Conditions which favoured the change from Mediæval to Renaissance forms--The transformation of the feudal castle into the Renaissance château--Factitious character of the French Renaissance château--Peculiar mixture of pseudo-Gothic and neo-classic details in early French Renaissance architecture--The château of Azay le Rideau--Survival in this building of the larger mediæval forms--Its ornamental portal based on that of Châteaudun--Analysis of this portal--A different manifestation of Flamboyant ideas in the portal of Chenonceaux--The château of La Rochefoucauld--The eastern wing of Blois--The staircase tower of the court--The garden side of the eastern wing--The château of Chambord--Its florid upper part--Fontainebleau--Écouen--Bullant’s portico--Exceptional character of the château of St. Germain en Laye--Further transformation of French architecture in the later sixteenth century 179