THE Renascence substituted the simple force of uncoloured relief for the artificial brilliancy of gold and colour - a taste which we may-regard as more refined and chaste if we forget that the Greeks coloured their reliefs as highly as ever did mediaeval artists; and the new admiration of bare wood and stone may have been partly owing to the fact that classic wood and stone were found without colour because it had worn off during its long burial.

However that may have been, oak began to give way to woods more delicate in fibre and colour, which were softer to carve, or took a higher polish, or could be contrasted one with another with new elegance of effect. These woods, carved, engraved, inlaid, etc, were the passion, of the Renascence, as they had been in imperial Rome, until popular taste tired of the absence of colour in furniture, or more probably felt it as an artistic flaw in the brilliant ensemble of gilded walls, ceilings, and begemmed garments.

The varying character of the furniture emanating from Italy, France, Germany, etc, is a subject too large to attempt an exhaustive treatment of here. France, the adjoining country to Italy, was the first to introduce north of the Alps the revival of classic types, and to France may be said generally to belong light and refined composition; to Germany a more redundant and sturdy style; while insular England, always a little tardy in accepting new views, brought the warmest appreciation and earnestness to excuse her delay and her ruder imitations.

Spain, where the Renascence took early root, made good use of her great wealth at first; but, like ever)' other country whither the exotic, classicism, has been forcibly transplanted, the decadence soon set in, in the shape of extravagances of style and ornament even more fantastic than we find in Henri IV. architecture or Elizabethan costume. When Saracenic art began to influence the art of Spain, in the later Renascence, many curious hybrids were produced. We get many pieces of extreme beauty in which the barbaric element has its charm, such as the chestnut-wood coffers and secretaires bound with metal work and inlaid with ivory, this again stained or painted to resemble gems - extremely picturesque and gorgeous, with playful Renascence hints and a more refined excellence of design than the ponderous oak reliefs of England before Mary Tudor's time, painted red and blue.