THE RENAISSANCE PERIOD IN FRANCE

The Italian campaigns of the French Kings during the Italian Wars encouraged the introduction of a new architectural style.

That style was influenced by antiquity through architectural books and later with imported Italian craftsmen.  Therefore Early Renaissance detail was merely grafted on to traditional building types such as Châteaux and Churches with Gothic vaults, in what might be described as a veneer Renaissance.

CHAMBORD CASTLE – Architect Domenico da Cortona