As illustration of this process of change, here are three country houses, all from France. The first is from the mid-sixteenth century, and was the family home of the nobleman-poet Pierre Ronsard. It's a beautiful house, elegantly designed, but solid and sensible rather than fancy-- a glorified farm-house rather than a wannabe palace. (The tower in the middle is strictly practical; it houses the staircase.)
The second example comes from the early seventeenth century, and it counts as a real chateau (the French word literally means castle, but can refer to any fancy country home); it's much bigger than Ronsard's house, with towers at each corner. But the look remains very practical, with limited exterior decoration; note how plain the window frames are. This house could be defended in case of armed conflict, one reason that the windows are so small; glass was also expensive, another reason to limit the number and size of the windows.
Finally, a chateau from the mid-seventeenth century, meant to be a real architectural statement. The owner, so the building would have told seventeenth-century visitors, had both the money and the taste for an elegant design. There are lots of windows, absolute symetry, and allusions to Rome in the arches along the ground floor; this is neither a farmhouse nor a military outpost, rather a site for elegant living. The building also conveys messages about order and control; its elements correspond perfectly to one another—for instance, windows on the ground floor line up exactly with those on the second and third floors.
