DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63221#0030
4
THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE
the portfolios of Court portraits, subtle interpretations of
character and the main contribution of France to contem-
porary painting. Its national faculties are rather critical
than creative, and so is its Renaissance.
But when we speak of the Renaissance we speak of an
oceanic movement—of movement within movement. To
handle it as a whole is a work too vast for limited space
and powers; to describe one little corner of it is a task
sufficiently difficult. Such is our restricted aim. The reign
of Francis I covers the best period of the earlier Renais-
sance ; and it is this reign and the years that immediately
preceded it which fix our choice. Between 1490 and 1550
the modern world was born. Never was art, never was
social life more significant than then.
Art and social life are, in a great measure, dependent
upon women, who in a time like this are bound to play a
prominent part. There was one woman of the day whose
name has become identified with the French Renaissance-
whose life is like a symbol of it. This was Margaret of
Angouleme, sister of Francis I, his counsellor and closest
friend. Her figure makes the natural centre of a record such
as ours. Events and persons group themselves round her;
she harmonizes while she dominates them.
To picture her generation it is needful to try and enter
into its atmosphere and to watch the shifting scenes of the
times. The Chateaux of the Loire, more than aught else,
conjure before us the France of the day—the France that
stood at the parting of the ways—between the old and
the new. Sometimes exuberant fancy breaks in flower and
hobgoblin over the sternness of the feudal towers; some-
THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE
the portfolios of Court portraits, subtle interpretations of
character and the main contribution of France to contem-
porary painting. Its national faculties are rather critical
than creative, and so is its Renaissance.
But when we speak of the Renaissance we speak of an
oceanic movement—of movement within movement. To
handle it as a whole is a work too vast for limited space
and powers; to describe one little corner of it is a task
sufficiently difficult. Such is our restricted aim. The reign
of Francis I covers the best period of the earlier Renais-
sance ; and it is this reign and the years that immediately
preceded it which fix our choice. Between 1490 and 1550
the modern world was born. Never was art, never was
social life more significant than then.
Art and social life are, in a great measure, dependent
upon women, who in a time like this are bound to play a
prominent part. There was one woman of the day whose
name has become identified with the French Renaissance-
whose life is like a symbol of it. This was Margaret of
Angouleme, sister of Francis I, his counsellor and closest
friend. Her figure makes the natural centre of a record such
as ours. Events and persons group themselves round her;
she harmonizes while she dominates them.
To picture her generation it is needful to try and enter
into its atmosphere and to watch the shifting scenes of the
times. The Chateaux of the Loire, more than aught else,
conjure before us the France of the day—the France that
stood at the parting of the ways—between the old and
the new. Sometimes exuberant fancy breaks in flower and
hobgoblin over the sternness of the feudal towers; some-