IN a technical history such as that we are now writing the term "fifteenth century" must be taken to refer, not to a definitely restricted period, but to the school of art which in it carried on the Gothic traditions of that which preceded it. As a matter of fact the influence of the celebrated Italian Renaissance of the sixteenth century made itself felt in the midst of the prolific Gothic age long before the year 1500. To make our work clear, therefore, it seems to us desirable, in spite of rigid dates, to consider in this chapter what may be called the bastard furniture which came into use immediately after the war with Italy began.

Not without reason did we quote the example of Charles VI. and Isabella of Bavaria as a striking instance of the state of mind to which a frenzied love of wealth had brought a people who were still in other respects mediaeval barbarians. Their reign indeed was divided between the two centuries, and serves as a permanent symbol of a period of art development that has been arbitrarily cut in half by historical classifications.

It is in the wood-carvings of the churches, in which the imagination and skill of the artists were alike unfettered, that can best be studied the easy transition from the grand and simple Gothic of the thirteenth century to the aspiring, attenuated, and complicated ornamentation culminating in the confusion of decoration that won for the final development, in the very moment of its decline, the name of flamboyant. Truth to tell, the passage from one to the other was so imperceptible that the most expert critics are sometimes at a loss to determine the age of a series of choir-stalls within ten years or so. As a general rule the main features of architecture betray their date far more readily than do details of decoration. The latter lose something of their first grace as time goes on; the noble-looking columns, rising up in their pure, unadulterated beauty, gradually become overburdened with ornamentation, often of fine execution no doubt, but wearisome to the eye by reason of its redundancy. Profane subjects are of frequent occurrence on the misereres and elbow-rests of the choir-stalls, whilst the simple wooden canopy above the seat, originally a mere rounded extension of the back, is replaced by an elaborate baldachino at right angles so as to provide the insatiable wood-carver with yet another string-course on which to exercise his skill.

The two magnificent, painted and gilded, reredoses from the Carthusian monastery of Dijon, now in the Museum of that town, which were saved from destruction during the Revolution, are admirable examples of the transition period. The monastery to which they belonged was founded in 1380 by Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, whose Court exceeded in luxury even that of Charles the Mad. The reredoses were designed by Jacques de Baerze, a Flemish subject of the Duke, and the beautiful ogives are prophetic of the attenuation of architectural motives in which later huchiers were all too ready to indulge.

To gain a really true idea of the transformation that was effected in Gothic architecture by the influence of Northern mannerism, it is also essential to study the marvellous carvings of Amiens. Every line of the architecture is encumbered with quantities of figures, campaniles, and foliage. The church of Brou is even more belated, for it relegates the close of the Gothic period to 1522, whilst that of Amiens would make the date 1508. It is, if possible, even more overladen with figures of saints, apostles, and patriarchs, executed by the two celebrated huchiers Terrasson and Ame le Picard, after the designs of Jean Perrdal. On the other hand, it is only fair to add that the famous wood-carvings dating from 1512 in the church of St. Pol de Leon, situated in an intensely conservative province, hostile to innovation, retain the dignified character of earlier work. This late example of Gothic art confirms what we have just said on the necessity of caution in assigning without definite evidence a date to the many works belonging to the transition period, such as those preserved in the Church of the Madeleine at Chateaudun, the collegiate church of Tro6 (Loir et Cher), the Abbey of Blanche de Mortain, the church of Andelys, that of Gassjcourt, near Mantes, the Cathedral of Rodez, that of St. Claude, the Church of the Holy Trinity at Vendome, that of Charlieu (Loire), of Notre Dame, and of the Carthusian Monastery of Villefranche, with many others which it is unnecessary to name.

Examples of the domestic furniture of this period are pretty numerous, with the exception of beds, which seem all to have disappeared. The design and ornament of all these articles resemble that of the wood-work in ecclesiastical buildings, and they are faithful reflections of the architecture of the period at which they were made; whilst they in their turn supplied motives to the workers in ivory who adorned the lids of coffers, etc, as well as to the painters of the illuminations of missals and manuscripts. It could, indeed, scarcely be otherwise, for at that time artists of every kind were in the habit of congregating about the great centres of luxury and patronage, the habitual residences of the great nobles, and above all at the Courts of the King at Paris and of the Duke of Burgundy at Dijon.

Plate I. CHEST. XV Century. Cluny Museum.

We have already alluded to the latter provincial dukedom as an inexhaustible storehouse of wealth for nearly one hundred and fifty years. In the Museum of Dijon, side by side with the reredoses of Jacques de Baerze, are to be seen some relics of furniture which bear witness to the splendour of the Court, including the central panel of what was once the back of the chair of John the Fearless, than which it would be impossible to imagine anything more rich and delicate. The upper portion encloses within an ogive festooned with foliage the coat of arms of the Duke, upheld by two angels; the lower portion, of rectangular shape, contains the coats of arms of eight feudatory provinces, set in a kind of trellis of delicate workmanship, enriched with foliage and supplemented by four angels playing various instruments of music. In this same Museum are to be seen three ivory caskets, which, according to tradition, belonged to the toilette service of the Duchesses of Burgundy; two of them are adorned with arabesques and painted birds, picked out with gold; the third is encircled by a series of scenes from the New Testament, embossed in polychrome. Entries in the archives supplement these costly relics, which are a perfect revelation to the spectator.