Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/594

 562 FRENCH ARCHITECTURE. Part IH specimens of their class in either country, but at Brou, both externally and internally, all majesty of form and constructive propriety are lost sight of; and though we wonder that stone could be cut into such a mai'vellous variety of lace-like forms, and are dazzled by the splendor of the whole, it is with infinite jjleasure that we tui-n from these elaborate S2:)eCimens of declining taste to an earlier and pui-er style* Fascinating as some of these late buildings undoubtedly are from the richness of decorative fancy that reigns in every detail, still they can only be regarded as the production of the stone-mason and carver, and not of the arts of the architect or sculptor ])roperly so called. In the city of Rouen we also find the beautiful church of St. Maclou (1432-1500), a gorgeous specimen of the later French style, presenting internally all the attenuation and defects of its age; but in the five arcades of its beautiful western front it displays one of the richest and most elegant specimens of flamboyant work in France. It also shows what the fa9ade of St. Ouen would have been if completed as designed. This church once possessed a noble central tower and spire, destroyed in 1794. When all this was complete, few churches of its age could have competed with it. St. Jacques at Dieppe is another chui'ch of the same age, and pos- sessing the same lace-like beauty of detail and elaborate finish, which charms in spite of soberer reason, that tells us it is not in stone that such vagaries should be attempted. Abbeville, St. Riquier, and all the principal towns throughout that part of France, are rich in speci- mens of the late Gothic, of which we are now speaking. These siDCcimens are in many respects beautiful, but in all that constitutes true and good art they are inferior to those of the glorious epoch which preceded them.