y de la Marche, _Le Roi Rene_; Mantz, _Francois
Boucher_; Michiels, _Etudes sur l'Art Flamand dans l'est et
le midi de la France_; Muntz, _La Renaissance en Italie et
en France_; Palustre, _La Renaissance en France_; Pattison,
_Renaissance of Art in France_; Pattison, _Claude Lorrain_;
Poillon, _Nicolas Poussin_; Stranahan, _History of French
Painting_.

EARLY FRENCH ART: Painting in France did not, as in Italy, spring
directly from Christianity, though it dealt with the religious
subject. From the beginning a decorative motive--the strong feature of
French art--appears as the chief motive of painting. This showed
itself largely in church ornament, garments, tapestries, miniatures,
and illuminations. Mural paintings were produced during the fifth
century, probably in imitation of Italian or Roman example. Under
Charlemagne, in the eighth century, Byzantine influences were at work.
In the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries much stained-glass
work appeared, and also many missal paintings and furniture
decorations.

[Illustration: Fig. 56.--POUSSIN. ET IN ARCADIA EGO. LOUVRE.]

In the fifteenth century Rene of Anjou (1408-1480), king and painter,
gave an impetus to art which he perhaps originally received from
Italy. His work showed some Italian influence mingled with a great
deal of Flemish precision, and corresponded for France to the early
Renaissance work of Italy, though by no means so advanced.
Contemporary with Rene was Jean Fouquet (1415?-1480?) an illuminator
and portrait-painter, one of the earliest in French history. He was an
artist of some original characteristics and produced an art detailed
and exact in its realism. Jean Pereal (?-1528?) and Jean Bourdichon
(1457?-1521?) with Fouquet's pupils and sons, formed a school at Tours
which afterward came to show some Italian influence. The native
workmen at Paris--they sprang up from illuminators to painters in all
probability--showed more of the Flemish influence. Neither of the
schools of the fifteenth century reflected much life or thought, but
what there was of it was native to the soil, though their methods were
influenced from without.

SIXTEENTH-CENTURY PAINTING: During this century Francis I., at
Fontainebleau, seems to have encouraged two schools of painting, one
the native French and the other an imported Italian, which afterward
took to itself the name of the "School of Fontainebleau." Of the
native artists