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 108 Renaissance Architecture. At first many of the old Gothic forms were retained, combined with Italian features. This is the case in the palaces of Chambord and Chenonceaux (Fig. 51) on the Loire, in the palace of Fontainebleau, and many other fine buildings. The two first-named palaces, part of the Chateau of Blois, and many other chateaux in the valley of the Loire, belong to the period of Francis I. — a time when the architecture of France, in its passage from Gothic to Renaissance, displayed a grace, a piquancy, and a refine- ment rarely equalled, coupled with the most exuberant use of delicate surface ornament. It was in the seventeenth century that the Italian style was universally adopted ; but it was unfortunately the debased and exaggerated style of the late Renaissance, not that of the golden age. Italian architects were largely employed, and their directions were considered binding in every country. The west front of the Louvre, erected by Pierre Lescot, 1541, is one of the finest buildings of early Renaissance in France. The old portion of the Tuileries, built by Phili- bert de Lorme, 1564, shows more of the defects of the style. In the next century, when the classic element again began to prevail in Italy, the effect was felt in France, and the result was the erection of the handsome buildings of the Invalides and the Pantheon, etc. To the last form assumed by this period of the Re- naissance style the term Rococco is often applied. Ex- travagant and meaningless ornaments profusely applied characterise it. In Spain we may instance the monastery of the Escurial (1563 — 1584) as the chief work of this style. In the Netherlands the church of St. James at Antwerp, built by