France

The classicizing style of 15th-century Italy entered France through the south; the first ecclesiastical example was the Chapel of Saint-Lazare constructed 1475-81 in the cathedral of Marseille. The chapel, commissioned by Rene of Anjou, king of Naples, features on its facade Renaissance shell niches along the top and antique-style carved reliefs, the composite capitals surmounted by an entablature. The architect was Francesco Laurana (c. 1430-c. 1502), who had worked at several humanistic courts, especially that of Alphonse V of Aragon in Naples. In France, the antique style came to be called la mode italienne (Italian style) as French nobility returned

Handbook to Life in Renaissance Europe

Home from the Italian Wars and imported Italian architects and workers to construct and renovate their chateaux.

For monumental architecture such as churches, the Gothic style prevailed in France until the mid-16th century. Nevertheless, with the dissemination of Serlio’s practical handbook of architecture in the 1530s, antique elements of Roman Renaissance architecture (the High Renaissance) began to influence French patrons and architects, engendering an affinity for classical style. The exterior of the choir built for the Church of Saint-Pierre in Caen (northern France) in 1528-35 demonstrates an early stage in France of the massive volume of Roman style. Ornate, crusted surfaces and pierced openwork in the stone have been replaced by clean, flat surfaces and relatively simple, classicizing contours.

Philibert Delorme’s Chapel of Anet built in 1549-52 for the chateau of the same name (discussed later) was the first circular church in France. As we have seen, Delorme had studied ancient architecture in Rome. For the chapel he put his theoretical knowledge to practical use and created a structure with coffered dome (the first hemispherical dome in France), fluted Corinthian pilasters (rectangular flattened columns barely projecting from the wall), and canted corners with the cornice tilted outward. All these elements of antique style were united by Delorme to produce a fine example of French classicism.