Château d’Azy-le-Rideau, Indre-et-Loire

H. W. Brewer

c. 1880

Signed lower left

Source: Stevenson’s House Architecture, I, 245

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“The narrow windows or loop-holes in . . . towers, lighting each story, were usually in a tier, one above the other. Though the openings were small on the outside, they widened out inside into large deep bays in the thickness of the walls. It was therefore easy to cut a wide gash from top to bottom in the tower in which larger windows were inserted. These were built in the new style, flanked by pilasters which covered the junction of the new and old masonry. As the opening had been made from bottom to top, these pilasters were carried continuously through the whole height of the tower one above the other; there was no mass of plain wall dividing the rows of windows in the different stones as in Italian architecture.” [continued below]

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Commentary by J. J. Stevenson

These tiers of windows dividing the wall perpendicularly through all the stories became a feature of the French Renaissance. By enforcing perpendicular lines, they expressed the tendency to Grothic principles of design, which influenced the builders more than the principle of dwelling on the horizontal lines characteristic of Classic architecture. This arrangement was adopted in new buildings.

The Chateau d'Azy-le-Rideau, in the department of Indre- et-Loire, is one among innumerable examples of this mode of treatment, though the amount of window obtained is less than usual.

The spread of the new architecture in France was very rapid. There was a rage for building in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Architecture and the decorative arts were matters of interest to king and people, as we see from the wealth and favour given to Italian artists. [I, 244-45].

Bibliography

Stevenson, J. J. House Architecture. 2 vols. London: Macmillan, 1880.

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Last modified 22 July 2017