Byzantine and Romanesque architecture . Fig. no. Fig. III. there seems to have been some warranty even for theexcessive modern painting at Issoire and elsewhere^ Itwas however in architecture that the Auvergnats excelled,and they developed within their province a distinct styleof their own, so original and so satisfactory that oneregrets the wave of Gothic architecture that came tosweep it away. In such able hands one might haveimagined it would have led to some further developmentof surpassing interest. 1 At various times down to the 15th century the Capitular hall of Le Puywas painted with a
Byzantine and Romanesque architecture . Fig. no. Fig. III. there seems to have been some warranty even for theexcessive modern painting at Issoire and elsewhere^ Itwas however in architecture that the Auvergnats excelled,and they developed within their province a distinct styleof their own, so original and so satisfactory that oneregrets the wave of Gothic architecture that came tosweep it away. In such able hands one might haveimagined it would have led to some further developmentof surpassing interest. 1 At various times down to the 15th century the Capitular hall of Le Puywas painted with admirable frescoes, still in a great measure preserved. Plate CXXV. S. MICHEL DE LAIGUILLE—LE PUY CH. xxiii] FRANCE—AUVERGNE 145 And yet the style is so complete in all its parts that Perfectionone does not see an opening for anything to proceed vergniitfrom it; and in this respect it may resemble the art of ^*^^^^Provence, which after splendid achievement in its earlydays sank into stagnation and decay. At all events theAuvergnat churches are so nearly all of a date, and sovery closely designed on one model, without any ofthose variations which appear in the successive schoolsof Gothic to prepare the way for a new departure in art,that it is doubtful whether the style had not played itspart, and done all there was in it to do. Gothic architecture however never established itself Gothicgenerally in this part of France, and the great Gothic AuveTgnecathedral at Clermont, comes upon one as a surprise, andseems out of place. Nor does it gain by contrast withthe Romanesque of the province. After spending someweeks among the robust round-arched churche
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