Louis XII. had died in the H?tel des Tournelles, and
Francis, though full of plans for _plaisances_ elsewhere, lived mostly
in Paris. Fontainebleau is the dream of the near future. Il Rosso, the
Italian architect, painter, poet, and musician, was busy there amid a
crowd of other artists from Florence and Rome--the refuse of a once
brilliant sodality. It was the frivolous, pretty, graceful side of
Italian art that came northward in that great migration--the graver and
more dignified elements were left behind. To see what Italian art became
in France, we have only to enter the Grand Gallery at Fontainebleau, and
we see it at its best in architecture, sculpture, and painting. And we
cannot help admiring it, for it is amazingly beautiful. Yet it is not
Italian--the Italian of the Medici and Farnese palaces. Il Rosso was
neither a Michelangelo nor a Carracci; but he set a fashion. He changed
the face of art for France. Nor was it in painting and sculpture only.
The Italian passion for devises, anagrams, emblems, and mottoes became
the rage in Paris. It first came in with the return of Charles VIII.
from his Neapolitan campaign. Louis XII. adopted the hedgehog or
porcupine, with the motto "Cominus et eminus." His Queen Claude's motto
was "Candida candidis.
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