In the course of Francis’s prolonged contest with Charles V--a struggle in which he was even imprisoned at Madrid--he had many opportunities to see in Italy and Spain the art of a former time and the work of contemporary painters and sculptors as well. Not only did he send home many examples which were given him or which he captured or bought, but he invited to France Leonardo da Vinci, then an old man, Andrea del Sarto and Benvenuto Cellini. To the latter he gave a lodging in the Hôtel de Nesle, that left bank palace of which the Tour de Nesle was a part, on condition that he secured possession of it himself, as the king had previously made a present of it to the provost. Cellini armed his helpers and servants and defended his gift with such ferocity that the provost left him alone. The king’s influence weighed heavily on the side of the humanist reaction against the austerities of art and life which had developed under the influence of an all-dominant church. The pendulum swung back and painters and sculptors chose less ascetic themes for brush and chisel. From Francis’s time on there was also a keen interest in portraiture. A man of this king’s nature was not content to stay long in one place. When war was not making its demands upon him he was visiting all parts of his kingdom and spending no little time in the districts where hunting was good and where he built splendid _châteaux_ so that he and his retinue might be comfortably housed. Fontainebleau and St. Germain-en-Laye are the two best known, while the _château de Madrid_ in the Bois de Boulogne, adjoining the town was a charming retreat from the noise of the city. Except for a small bit included in a restaurant this building is no longer in existence, but in the Cours la Reine on the right bank facing the Seine is the small “House of Francis I” which the king built at Moret in 1572, and which an admirer bought and removed to Paris in 1826. It is an exquisite example of Renaissance architecture. During the peaceful moments of the reign, there was a craze for building and Italian architects were offered handsome inducements to exercise their talents on French soil. It was a French architect, however, Pierre Lescot, who pulled down the Great Tower, the oldest part of the Louvre, and designed that portion which Francis and his son, Henry II, built, the southwestern corner of the eastern quadrangle. Henry’s initial, combined with the “D” and crescent of Diane de Poitiers, are visible in many places. Francis’s signature was the salamander, whose lizard-like length fitted comfortably into many decorative schemes.