XVI century art French architecture of the XVI century

1. Basics of French architecture

Architecture dominates the French art of the XVI century so fully that the history of the "French Renaissance" we mean primarily the history of architecture of this period. Among the French researchers in this field, besides Müntz, Palustra and Lemonier, should also be called Bertie, Choisy and de Croix. In Germany, the French Renaissance was superbly crafted and comprehensively by Lübke, Gurlitt and von Heimmüller.

Separate ornamental forms of the Italian Renaissance entered France earlier than the entire buildings in the plans and drawings. Transitional time began, as already indicated in the second volume, after the return of Charles VIII from Italy (1495). The French early renaissance, essentially expressing the style of Francis I, grows, however, from the style of Louis XII (1498-1515) and under Francis I (1515-1547) makes the transition to the French high renaissance, which begins around 1535, captures everything the reign of Henry II (1547–1559) and part of the time of Charles IX, and then around 1564, with the beginning of the construction of the Tulleri Palace, gives way to the late Renaissance, which lasts until the end of the century. Gamemüller brings the French Early Renaissance, clothing the Gothic basic forms of the plan and the building corps with the Upper Italian Early Renaissance forms, until 1540, the French High Renaissance, imitating the classic Italian patterns, both in the plan and the building, and in details - until 1570, and the French Late Renaissance, in which whimsical forms appear, leading primarily to Rome to the Baroque style, until 1594. Within these limits, the decade of 1535–1545, as a transition from the early to the high Renaissance, he calls the Margarita Val style a "or" moment of flowering of the most charming. "

Many ways penetrated through the Alps to France, as well as to Germany, and to the Netherlands, forms of the Italian Renaissance, but their distribution by Italian artists called into the country had more decisive significance in France than in the indicated countries. Of the 22 Italians brought by Charles VIII to France, the main role of the architects is played by Fra Giocondo from Verona and Domenico Bernabei from Cortona, nicknamed Boccadoro. French critics, since Deville’s archaeological research, began to deny the participation of these Italians in early Renaissance buildings in France, confirmed by literary sources, and tried to announce French masters who were paid by sources, architects and creators of plans, but Gamemüller recently reiterated that that these Italians really had that artistic influence, which was attributed to them earlier. We will see later that even the master master of the “Fontainebleau school”, the Bolonian Francesco Primaticcio (1504–1570), called up by Francis I in 1531 as a painter and sculptor of stucco decorations, had a strong influence on the development of French architecture.

Along with all these Italians, the French Renaissance was undoubtedly served by numerous French architects, whose names came up from building accounts. French studies, however, did not succeed in distinguishing the most significant of them as notable artistic personalities. Martin Shambizh, who in 1506 led as the “mastre mason” and the present architect, built the famous choir of the cathedral in Beauvais, where it is mentioned after 1532, also belongs to the transition time. When constructing a castle in Galleon for Minister Louis XII, Cardinal Georges d'Amboise, the names Pierre Fein, Guillaume Fenault and Pierre Delorme are found, but none of them can be considered the real author of the building with a greater right than the already mentioned Italian Fra-Giocondo. The famous builder and sculptor of this time Palyustr also calls Mansuy-Govin, who worked in the years 1501-1512. over the ducal castle in Nancy, the main decoration of which is its magnificent gate, built in a rich, charming mixed style. Of the French builders of the time of Francis I, Pierre Chambique (died in 1544) was recently incorrectly named the author of the beautiful Hotel de Ville in Paris, resumed after the fire of 1871, the project of which belongs in any case to the aforementioned Domenico from Cortona (Boccadoro). Hector Soye is considered to be the builder of the beautiful choir of St. Peter in Cannes, the main church building of the French early Renaissance, which encloses the Gothic frame pilasters and ornamental forms, imitating ancient. Nikola Bachelier (from 1485 to 1572), the son of an Italian, apparently prepared the way for the Renaissance, especially in Toulouse and its surroundings. He is credited with the Montal castle built around 15 Saint-Sere, whose gables, with all the splendor of the renaissance-style facades, are still seated with Gothic crabs.

A completely different picture is given by the history of architects of the French high renaissance. Shortly after Primatichio arrived in Fontainebleau, five great French masters of high renaissance returned to France, who, as Geimüller showed, were all in Italy. Instead of the Italians who were called to France, the French who studied in Italy now became the leaders. These five great masters were Jean Goujon (about 1510 to 1566 and later), Pierre Lescot (about 1510 to 1578), Jean Buellan (about 1525–1578), Philibert Delorme (de lOrme, about 1512–1570, and Jacques I Andrue Ducerso (about 1512 to 1584 and later).

These artists not only practically, but also theoretically took an active part in the introduction of Vitruvius architecture in France. Goujon was an employee in the translation of Vitruvius, undertaken by Jean Martin, which appeared in 1547, Delorme and Buellan each wrote two large works on architecture, Duserceau, who was famous for his engraver on copper and etching, for his large atlas “Les plus excellents bastiments de France” (1576) rendered the history of art a great service than the very few of the buildings published by it escaped the destructive rage of time and people.

Fig . 88. "Les plus excellents bastiments de France" (1576)

2. Church architecture

It follows from what has been said that our review of the French early Renaissance should begin with the buildings, and the review of the French high Renaissance with the architects. And France in the XVI century was also poor in large new church buildings; but it was in France that churches arose for a long time in the 16th century, in their architectural and ornamental forms loyal to the gothic “flaming” style. In fact, in Paris in the 16th century, Saint-Germain d'Auxeroy and Saint-Severin continued to be built in the late Gothic style, and Saint Gervais was re-decorated in the late Gothic style at the beginning of this century, and only in 1508–1522. It was built in the style of the richest late Gothic tower of the old church of St.. Jacob, who was alone and remained under the name "Towers of Sts. Jacob ”now also belongs to the buildings by which Paris is recognized. This also includes the unusually rich facade of the Cathedral of Troyes, performed after 1506, the huge extension of the choir in Beauvais, to which it was already mentioned, and the magnificent church in Brou, which appeared between 1506 and 1536. the last luxury building is still quite old-fashioned. Bulle himself, a master of high renaissance, in the chapel of his castle in Ecuane, returned to the national Gothic style.

The French style of the early Renaissance serves the church primarily in parts of more ancient buildings, on the towers, the facade, in the choir. The north tower of the cathedral in Tours (1507) belongs to the earliest, richest and most fabulous creatures of transition time. The facade with one pediment of the church in Saint-Calais still carries out a vertical dismemberment with the presence of numerous Gothic details, but at its entrance with a semicircular arch proudly rise powerful pillars in the Renaissance style. Facades of the church of sv. Clotilde in Andele (circa 1540) and Saint-Michel in Dijon unleash the richest luxuries of the early Renaissance. The last façade of the Guyug Samben ended, apparently, as early as 1537. Margarita Valois’s style already mentioned represents the three-storey façade of Vetela church, the upper parts of which are imbued with the spirit of a high Renaissance.

In the construction of the choirs in front of everyone is Saint Pierre in Caen (1521) with his very cheerful and graceful early renaissance, especially outside. Buttresses, phials and balustrades are expressed here with great taste in the Renaissance language, which is one of a kind. Similarly, the chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Marais in La Ferte-Bernard (1535) was treated in the same way, while the three-part choir of the two-tier chapel of Saint Saturninus in Fontainebleau (1528–1545) is decorated with the lower floor of its exterior buttresses pilasters, and the top protruding columns already forward.

Inside the churches, the decoration with the forms of the Renaissance is mostly original and diverse, mostly of a completely Gothic architectural skeleton. Occasionally, the pillars in the Renaissance style of "all clans" were brought down to the arches. Usually, two floors with rather short pilasters protrude from the complex pillars one above the other; In Gothic profiled ribs of the coarse reticular arch are usually enlivened with old-style locking stones, which hang in the form of huge bumps. In a choral tour of the church of Saint Germain in Argentan, Ionic columns stand above the Tuscan ones; in the church at Ennery, the lower Ionic columns support the upper Corinthian; in the church at Hussenville, the slender Corinthian pilasters rise above the low Roman Doric half columns set up on the four sides of the pillars; only in the middle nave of the church of Saint Maclou in Pontoise from round pillars stands "a real series of large Corinthian pilasters".

Finally, the main churches that fully express the French early renaissance are Saint-Etienne-du-Mont and Saint-Eustache in Paris. Choir Saint-Étienne-du-Mont (1517–1537), however, is completely Gothic. Smooth roundabout columns pass without ribs or capitals into pointed arches. On the contrary, for the longitudinal hull (1537–1541), the side aisles of which, in unfavorable proportions, rise to an unusual height, semicircular arches of the early Renaissance were taken, but separate motifs of Renaissance jewelry, applied, for example, to ugly capitals, only tentatively replace the old Gothic ornamental forms. The facade was added only in the XVII century.

Saint Eustache is generally the most beautiful and most instructive of the French churches, bearing the character of a compromise. “You ask yourself,” says Antim Saint-Paul, “is it gothic here that challenges the renaissance or vice versa.” It was built after 1532 and painted in the air with rare integrity, clarity and grandeur. The nature of the construction is entirely Gothic, although everywhere, except for the choir, semicircular arches are used. Separate forms, however, are entirely borrowed from the Renaissance. The dismemberment of pilasters is therefore original and clear, but more to speak to our mind than to feeling. Despite the mixed style, the whole building is unusually finished. As for structures erected in that noble, mature and yet independent Renaissance style, which marks the transition to a high renaissance, some small church buildings should be pointed out, and the finest among them are Saint-Jean Chapel in Reims, Saint-Romain in Rouen and both are peculiar chapels at the cathedral in Tula, giving the impression of freedom and severity. They should be recognized as valuable French creatures proper.

3. Castles of France

Leading importance on the way from Gothic to French Renaissance had, however, not the church architecture, but the construction of castles. Ancient picturesque castles with round corner towers dominating the district, with residential outbuildings around the front courtyard (cour dhonneur), with outbuildings around the outside courtyard (basse cour), also gradually began to settle down more freely and at the same time according to more stringent plans, and Gothic profiles change to the forms, imitating antique. Above the gray waters of the Loire there are still quite medieval views of the castles of Charles d'Amboise Chaumont and King Charles VIII in Amboise. It was only inside the castle in Amboise that the Italians brought by the king scattered the charm of their new style. To the castle in Blois, over the same river, Louis XII attached a new outhouse, in the main lines erected all of brick, but retaining the essential features of Gothic forms. Only with one dormer window do thin renaissance pilasters appear, topped by dolphins; Frames of narrow arched corridors in the courtyard are decorated with ornaments in the antique style. To the northern wing, erected by Francis I, we will return. In all its splendor, the early Renaissance appears in Galone, a castle that was almost completely destroyed on the Seine, built by Cardinal Georges d'Amboise; Ducerso retained his overall look. With his tall pipes, his impergas with phials over dormer windows and sharp gables on the protruding parts, in general he also gives the impression of gothic, while the separate parts of his facades unfold a pure renaissance. The facade with a portal from Gallona, ​​installed in the “School of Fine Arts” in Paris, with its pilasters in the style of the early Renaissance, medallions of emperors and its arabesque ornaments resembles the Loggia del Concilio in Verona built by Fra-Giocondo, so it can hardly seem too bold to return together with Gamemüller to the view that the castle of Verona was the author of this castle.

Under Francis I, on the flowering lands near the Loire and its tributaries, many elegant castles grew, in which the mixed style brought everything to new, often peculiarly attractive formations, with elements of the Renaissance becoming more and more established. We will only call here locks in Az-le-Rideau (1520), in Bury (after 1515), in Chenonceaux (1515–1523). The castle in Chateaudian (1502–1535) is famous for its spiral staircase, which gives a number of the most important forms of this style. in the flat box-like triceral arches of spans limiting it, in the lush hanging spikes of their ceilings and in arabesques of the Renaissance style between the late Gothic columns of an average abutment. On the contrary, the already mentioned northern wing of Francis I in the castle in Blois (1515–1519) gives the impression of a building built entirely in the Renaissance style. Its outer facade opens with three floors of galleries, like lodges with arcades and Corinthian pilasters, separated from each other alternately in wide or narrow gaps (the “rhythmic travye” of Geymuller). From the magnificent facade facade with pilasters stands the famous, somewhat ponderous, but charming staircase erected on an octagon, the canopies of which are conceived even in Gothic style, while its pilasters and balustrades abound in Renaissance forms. But the best castle of the style of Francis I is considered to be the fabulous hunting castle of Chambord (1519–1535), which is widely spread at the base, but thanks to its high towers and pipes it stretches upwards vertically. In the middle of one of the long sides of a large courtyard, furnished with four corner towers, is the castle itself, also protected by four round towers. His plan is divided by an equal-numbered cross into four parts. Above the crosshairs there is a tower with a staircase, which rises above the roof on three more floors and ends with a lantern with a small dome. Here is also a system of buttresses kept. All parts are held in relatively pure forms of the Renaissance.

The castle of Madrid or Boulogne, owned by Francis I, in the Bois de Boulogne near Paris, unfortunately destroyed, was a decade younger than Chambord's castle and erected according to a new plan, in the purest forms of the Renaissance. Saint-Germain-en-Laye's castle, founded by Francis in 1514 before his accession to the throne, was darker and stricter, and Fontainebleau's castle, begun by construction in 1528, was more extensive, more majestic and simpler. He is more important for his paintings and stucco work "school of Fontainebleau" than architectural forms, just imitating Italian.

To the castles of the king and the nobility in rich France are also adjoined some of the city palaces, the most typical of the French early renaissance. The 15th-century Flemish-style Town Halls named already in the second volume are adjoined primarily by the Hotel de Ville in Dreux, famous for its stairs, completed in 1537. The Orleans Town Hall (circa 1525) reveals a brilliant and skillful mixture of Gothic and imitative ancient elements. The town hall in Bozhansi (circa 1526) has more pure and, moreover, more independent and very picturesque forms of the Renaissance. The main building of the purely Italian style was the old, burnt down in 1871 by the Communards, and then rebuilt in the same style, the strictly symmetrical city hall in Paris, founded in 1533. Now, apparently, almost all have returned to the true legend, for some time suspected that its author was the already mentioned Domenico from Cortona, nicknamed Bokkadoro.As a disciple of Giuliano da Sangallo, Boccadoro belongs to the Italian high renaissance itself. However, this noble building with its high roofs and chimneys, its slender middle tower above the two-story middle facade, dissected below by semi-columns, and at the top with fronted niches with statues, and its corner pavilions erected on one floor above and equipped with passages below, is so strongly considered the old French character, which, in our opinion, it stands only on the transition to the French high renaissance, Bokkadoro died, however, only in 1549 in the service of Henry II.

4. Masters of the Renaissance

In France, of course, there was no shortage in the urban dwellings of the flourishing style of the early Renaissance. Orleans, the city of Loire, led the way in a number of brilliant examples. Stone buildings, such as the so-called Agnes Sorel house and the houses of Francis I with its two-storey courtyards, are here only the most magnificent among them. They are adjoined with brick buildings with platbands of sawn stone according to the Dutch model, but in a simpler style. In Orleans, as well as in Caen and in Rouen, there is no shortage of excellent cloisonne structures, the upper floors of which rest on protruding beams, with decorative heads on the tops, despite the prohibition of this kind of buildings issued in 1520. Caen and Rouen competed with Orleans in the construction of houses in the style of the early Renaissance.The Burgterourld Hotel in Rouen belongs to the most magnificent and beautifully constructed structures of a compromise style, giving the impression of a Gothic style. The Ekoville Hotel in Caen (circa 1535), rich and elegant at the same time, is among the finest works of the mature French early Renaissance. Among them, first of all, belongs to the so-called house of Francis I in Paris, remarkable for its particularly meaningful dismemberment and extremely rich in individual forms, such as candelabra columns between the wide arches of the lower floor and the Corinthian pilasters between the fields of the walls of the upper floor with luxurious decorations. In general, the northern early renaissance in France reveals better proportions and greater taste in particular than in Germany; and it is some of the small buildings named here that belong to that short one,but the noble flourishing of the French Renaissance, which Gamemüller calls the "style of Marguerite Valois".

Of the above-mentioned creators of the French high renaissance, the great architect and even greater sculptor Jean Goujon and the famous architect Pierre Lesko are inextricably interconnected by masterpieces created together. The earliest work of Goujon (we will return to his sculptures), apparently, is correctly considered the tombstone of Louis de Breze (1535) in the Ruan cathedral. This is a wall tomb, the lower niche of which is covered by double Corinthian columns, and the upper arch niche with the equestrian statue standing in it is accompanied by pairs of caryatids, in live movements. In 1541, Jean Goujon and Pierre Lescaux worked together on the illustrious, unfortunately lost Lettner Saint-Germain d'Oxperrois in Paris, the remains of which in the Louvre belong to the purest forms of French art. In the following years, Goujon was engaged in the execution in the castle in Ecuana of that magnificent altar, now exhibited in the castle of Chantilly, in the main Doric order of which, as in all its framing, classical rigor is combined with creative freedom. Beginning in 1544, Lesko built, with the help of Goujon, as a sculptor, the Linieri Hotel, now the Carnival Museum, in Paris, a strict, Italian-style building in all respects, whose middle pavilion, facing the garden, has a Doric lower floor, an Ionic middle with a projection supported by caryatids and the upper Corinthian with a flat high gable roof. Then in 1546 Lesko received a new commission, the construction of the Louvre, the old royal palace on the Seine. Sculpture works here also belong to Goujon. The architect - the creator of the Louvre, on the transformation of which, first into a colossal palace, and then into a colossal museum, worked for several centuries, should be recognized Lesko. In the 16th century, in addition to the southwestern square palace of the Louvre, which was subsequently expanded to an adjacent corner building with a ledge facing the Seine, there was only a long gallery connecting this building along the river with the new Tulleri building. Lesko and Goujonu belong only to the first of these parts of the building. Designed for corner pavilions, Lesko’s perfectly dissected courtyards, later copied in the middle pavilion and further behind in the north wing, unfold the charm of a young high renaissance. Corinthian fluted pilasters dismember the lower floor from window to window. A pair of Corinthian columns with niches between them cover the portals. In the same order and in a similar order, the dismemberment is repeated in the high second floor and in the attic low third floor under a relatively low roof. In the facade of the Heidelberg building of Otto Heinrich there is more fantasy and warmth, but the outside facade of the Louvre Lesko is clearer, cleaner in form and more balanced; enriched and exalted by the sculptures of Goujon, he undoubtedly belongs to the purest creations of the most mature art of the Renaissance. When they talk about the style of the Louvre, they think first of all about the wing of the Louvre court Lesko, in the lower floor of which ancient collections are now placed. From 1547 to 1549, Goujon and Lesko worked together on the same classic miracle of interaction between architecture and plastic in the Renaissance style. At first, the fountain with its three arches adjoined the DesInnosan church. With the destruction of the church, a fourth side was added. From then on, the roads Lesko and Goujona diverged. The latter, pursued as a heretic, died in a foreign land, and Lesko was completely absorbed in the construction of the Louvre and various honorary positions until his death (1578).

Philibert Delorme, who returned in 1536 from Italy and first worked for some time in Lyon, and from 1537 already engaged in erecting the castle of Saint-Mor-le-Fossay, which he himself declared the first castle of pure style on French soil, in a certain sense the most prolific French master of high renaissance. Unfortunately, this castle is preserved only in the pictures of Ducerso. Bright corner pavilions here are replaced by the place of the former belligerent round corner towers, the straight flights of stairs inside are the place of the former spiral staircases hidden in the towers. Rustica, along with the Corinthian Order of the Columns, began to determine the impression of the building. The invention of Delorme is commonly referred to as the so-called “French order of columns”, consisting in the fact that columns at known distances are surrounded by belts, and their lighter appearance softens the severity of the rustic. After the death of Francis I (in 1547) Delorme performed his huge, similar to the triumphal arch, a gravestone monument in Saint-Denis, decorated with strict Ionic semi-columns, and compared to the monument of Louis XII representing the high Renaissance from his earliest decorations in the form of arabesques. From 1548 to 1559 Delorm supervised all the buildings of the castles of Henry II. His work is a magnificent long ballroom with deep niches for windows in the castle of Fontainebleau. Ane Castle, built between 1552–1554. for Diane Poitier, belonged to the most independent and solid of his works, but with all the clarity of location and dismemberment, he concludes, however, some "baroque" details, for example, rounded pediments and tops of chimneys in the shape of sarcophagi. The best preserved three-tier classic portal, set at the School of Fine Arts in Paris. The compressed Doric lower floor, the slender Ionic middle and Corinthian upper floor resembling a triumphal arch, with all the purity of their details, are set, however, not in very good proportions to one another. In the true sense, Delorme's best work was his Tuleri Palace in Paris, the project of which he wrote in 1564 for Catherine de Medici. Unfortunately, it burned down in 1871. A wide-spread building with rushing middle and corner pavilions in the lower floor was arranged between windows with semicircular arches alternately Ionic pilasters and columns of the already mentioned “French order”, and in an attic-shaped one that actually goes into the roof, the upper floor was furnished alternately with windows, gables and lower, protruding shields of gables. It was distinguished by the rich rhythmic magnificence of its dismemberment and the lively alternation of its individual parts, but it already combined some Baroque motifs of two or three frames embraced by one another, or rounded cartouches (shields), with a general cheerful look based on successful proportions.

Younger than Delorme was, apparently, Jean Buellan, the works performed by him are considered, for example, the “small palace” (Chatelet) in Chantilly and the castle in Ecuana, however, the latest criticism ascribes to him only some parts of the famous castle in Ecuana. he is believed to have transferred a “large warrant” to France, covering two or more floors with pilasters or pillars cutting through the building. In any case, allusions to this order are in his Chatelier Chantilly, but in full development this system appears in one of the outbuilding facades in Ekuan. After the death of Delorme Bullan, he became the architect of Queen Catherine and, in that rank, continued to work on the Tyuler palace in the Saint More. His style is distinguished by particular clarity and strength, with sharply marked separate architectural profiles that tend to appear one in front of the other. He is more free from decorative whims than Delorm.

As for, finally, Jacques the Elder Andruhe Ducerso, it was already noted that the main side of his activities for posterity is concentrated in copper engravings, in which, along with the buildings of other masters, he published many of his own projects. But as an architect, he met a well-deserved recognition and found employment. Dyuserso is considered primarily the author of the magnificent, erected on a remarkably clear plan of the castle of Charleval, founded by Charles IX near Andele. Here, as the figures show, the “large order” already mentioned was used on a large scale. The master of the luxurious castle published by Ducerceau in Verneuil on the Oise independently uses the ancient language of forms, and in the person of this master we can again see Ducerso himself. The performance went to his son-in-law Jean Bross.

5. Italians in France

About these great masters of the French high renaissance, the Italians of the Fontainebleau school now appeared with their own creative aspirations. Gamemüller especially defended and argued that the brilliantly mannered decorator Francesco Primatichio was also the creator of some of the buildings of the French high Renaissance. That the author of the magnificent castle at Montgau-en-Brie (1549) was none other than Primaticcio can be proved according to Gamemüller on the basis of written reports, although this is denied by Dimier. The outer facades of the castle for the first time in France were carried out in a “big warrant”. This sequential order was Ionic. Corner pavilions with high roofs of the French castle style reached full development. The whole building belonged to the most solid, originated in France. It has been documented that Primatichio is the first builder, unfortunately not preserved, of the famous Valois tomb in Saint-Denis, which brought to France the classical type of Italian domed buildings in the Renaissance style. He probably took a significant part in building the castle of the classic Ansile-Fran style, although this castle with high roofs of a square courtyard and four prominent corner pavilions, as it is now, is characteristic of the French high renaissance. In any case, nothing more clear and simple than this castle was created on French soil, and Primaticcio nevertheless from 1559 until his death (1570) was the main adviser on the construction part of the French courtyard.

The transition to more whimsical forms, usually taken as a decline, Primaticcio contrasted in his buildings calm, strict force. The great French themselves, like Delorm and Ducerso, were the creators of the free, often charming forms of the French Renaissance, many who speak to us precisely because of their personal life and on the soil of Italy, commonly called "baroque." Delorme died in 1570. After his death, we notice that this trend, over the course of a quarter of a century, is developing independently. That Paris did not control this development is shown by South-French buildings, reputed to be late works by Nicolas Bachelier, for example, the Labord Hotel with its fantastic windows decorated with herms in the shape of cupids. The hotel is located on Fermat Street in Toulouse with a door decorated with a completely baroque architectural decoration, Burgundian buildings, such as the Hugo Samben courthouse in Besançon (1582-1585) and the castle in Sully, featuring noble and stylish proportions, despite its baroque window trim; Flemish-French buildings, such as the side facades of the town hall in Arras, with their fantastic second floor and overly decorated dormer windows. In Paris, at this time, they completed the long gallery of the Louvre along the Seine to Tulleres. Baptist Androuet Ducerceau (approximately 1545–1590), the eldest son of Jacques the Elder, was appointed, after Lescot's death, in 1578 to be the builder of the Louvre. The builders of the eastern half of this large gallery, on the orders of Catherine de Medici (died in 1589), were apparently Thibault Metezo (from 1533 to 1596) and his son Louis Metezo (1557–1615), and the western part, begun on the orders of Henry IV as early as the XVI century, was jointly performed by Louis Metezo and the younger Dyuerso. This western part, now rebuilt, with its soberly developed “big warrant”, constituted a transition to the classical style of the 17th century, while at the same time in the first brick houses with inserts of sawn stone on the Plase des Vosges a national rebuff of the north appeared. However, not the north-national, but the southern-national side of the dual being of France, for at least a century, emerged victorious from the struggle of directions.