436 THE RENAISSANCE MOVEMENT

ENGLAND

Since Renaissance art came to England through Flanders, Spain,
France, and the Netherlands, its Classicism arrived there as modi-
fied by those countries. The English Gothic also affected the new
movement, so that in England a distinct transitional stage preceded
the Renaissance. See pages 441 and 442.

The Tudor Period

Renaissance ideas affected King Henry VIII so that he with-
drew the Church of England from the Papal Authority and intro-
duced the Renaissance thought and architectural style to England.
He hired architects and craftsmen from Italy, France, Flanders,
and Germany to build and decorate in the new style. The Italian
influence became very prominent at this time, showing particularly
in the high, paneled, carved walls, the cornices, the ceilings, and
the chimney pieces. Queen Elizabeth enjoyed peace and pros-
perity and further development of the Renaissance. She imported
many German craftsmen, who were responsible for the ungainly
bulbous adornments on the table legs and bedposts. See page 85.

The rooms of the Tudor period were large and bare. The fur-
niture was also large, and architectural in line, but it lacked the
good proportion, excellent design, and finish of Italian furniture.
The native craftsmen had neither the fine taste of the southerners
nor their technical ability, and moreover they used the less flexible
oak instead of walnut. There were, however, freshness, vigor, and
naivete in the English work.

Carving, of a rather coarse character, was the principal mode
of decoration. Gothic motifs such as the linen fold, pointed arch,
wheel, grapevine, and Tudor rose continued in use; but the most
popular motifs were the acanthus, masks, grotesques, dolphins,
human figures, guilloches, strapwork, scrolls, cartouches, geo-
metric figures, columns, and pilasters.

The pieces of furniture were few and of limited variety, as
chests served many purposes. The most highly decorated objects
were the enormous bedsteads built to accommodate many persons.
The elaborate head boards and two great posts at the foot of the
beds supported the testers and roofs from which curtains extended
to the floor. Mattresses were supported by ropes.