Meanwhile the style that is recognised as Rococo is characteristically exhibited in the interior decorations. These reflect the change of spirit that came over court life with the death of Louis XIV and the succession of the Duke of Orleans as regent during the minority of Louis XV. The old King under the control of Madame de Maintenon and his confessor had become gloomily religious; the court spirit, punctilious as ever, was ponderously dull. With the Regency it rebounded into lightsomeness. Versailles was abandoned for the Luxembourg; the peruke and stiff fashions gave way to powdered hair and elegance of costume; rigid etiquette was replaced with gay wit and gallantry; all that was lightest in the Gallic temperament bubbled sparkling to the surface. To the call of this new spirit the decorators responded. The papier-maché ornament was discarded for stucco; profusion still abounded, but it was no longer heavy and oppressive; it wandered in light luxuriance over walls, doors, and ceilings; exhibiting a fertility of decorative invention in its combinations of curly-cues, scrolls, shells, foliage, flowers, and rockwork. The last named motive (_rocca_ in Italian) is the doubtful origin attributed to the term Rococo. It was a style that characteristically avoided straight lines and, in general, the formality of arrangement which distinguishes classic ornament. Accordingly it fell under the ban of the Classical Revival and is always condemned by those whose preferences are classical. And, undoubtedly, its freedom often degenerated into license and its profusion became excess, especially in the hands of German or Spanish imitators. Yet, at its best, when considered as a setting to the costumes and manners of the period and as an expression of the social spirit, it represented something so vitally appropriate to the time and place of its creation that it commands the consideration of the student. Under an impulse infinitely inferior to that which inspired the decorators of the Gothic and Early Renaissance, it yet represents the same fecundity of Gallic creativeness. [Illustration: CASTLE OF HEIDELBERG ON RIGHT RUINS OF THE HEINRICHSBAU WING, ADJOINING REMAINS OF OLD GOTHIC PORTION: ON EXTREME LEFT THE FRIEDRICHSBAU WING (1601). P. 394] [Illustration: ANOTHER VIEW OF THE HEINRICHSBAU P. 394] [Illustration: BREMEN CITY HALL NOTE GOTHIC WINDOWS, WITH RENAISSANCE PEDIMENTS, AND INTERVENING “GAINES.” P. 395] [Illustration: PELLERSHAUS, NÜREMBERG RUSTICATED MASONRY. P. 395] [Illustration: ANTWERP CITY HALL P. 406] [Illustration: LIEGE, COURT OF THE PALAIS DE JUSTICE GOTHIC VAULTING AND OTHER DETAILS COMBINED WITH RENAISSANCE. NOTE BALUSTER-SHAPED COLUMNS; CAPITALS COVERED WITH GROTESQUE MASKS, FIGURES AND FOLIAGE. P. 406] [Illustration: COLLEGE OF SANTA CRUZ, VALLADOLID CHOICE EXAMPLE OF EARLY RENAISSANCE, BY ENRIQUE DE EGAS. P. 399] [Illustration: COURT OF THE CASA DE ZAPORTA NOTE ARCADE IN THE SECOND STORY. P. 400]