30/10/07 - Architectural History - France in the Seventeenth Century

With the seventeenth century came the emergence of a distinctly French classicism. The new style mingled classicism with the proud French tradition. Architecture came to be symbolic of French power.

France finally emerged from the Civil War . Henri IV was intent on redeveloping the economy of France and so building projects commenced with force. The Place des Vosgues (attributed to Louis Metezeau) was built for public spectacle and promenade, and was ringed by bourgeois homes. It was used as a place of industry, for the silk works were built to the side. The Pavilion of the King and Pavilion of the Queen surround the public space. The houses are simple and modest, each with its own roofline. The houses were made of brick with a decorative 'chain' design.

Florent Fournier built the Chateau de Grosbois, c. 1600. It is an example of rural house architecture. It contrasts with the square in grandness, because it was built for a member of the nobility.

Jean du Cerceau's Hotel de Sully (1624-29) has a main block of old-fashioned decor and classical elements. The front is enclosed, but the back is opened out and looks more public.

Salomon de Brosse was born in 1571. His father was an architect, and his mother was the daughter of Jacques Androuet du Cerceau the Elder. In 1610 he established himself as an architect in Paris. He died in 1626. One of his major designs was Luxembourg Palace. In design it is an extension of Cerceau's hotel, which also has a traditional chateau design. The wings are lower than is typical. The garden is more clearly enclosed; 'in the round'. There is rustication on the horizontal axis of the building. It has a true attic. It emphasises clean lines. This became a typical French style.

In de Brosse's Chateau de Blerancourt, c. 1619, he emphasises some of the aspects he used in his earlier designs. The wings are gone, leaving freestanding blocks of building. There are standard accurate classical elements on the facade. Once again, simplicity is key to his work. He develops a unique decorative style.

Brosse's Palais de Parlement, 1618, uses restrained classical features and heavy rustication. It has a tall unbroken French roof.

Jacques Lemercier was born in 1580. His father was a master mason. Aged fourteen, he travelled to Rome. In 1618 he was appointed royal architect. His work combined French traditions with Roman classical and baroque developments. He died in 1654.

He planned the Church of the Sorbonne (1635-42) which has a basilica plan that was unusual in France at the time. It expresses Lemercier's mixture of French and Roman tendencies. The side aisles are akin to Roman, but the transepts are French because they do not project much out of the building. The dome acts as a centralising force, with naves of equal length each side to make the building symmetrical.

Francois Mansart was born in 1598. His father was a master carpenter and he died when Francois was young. Francois trained with his brother-in-law Garmain Gaultier, who was assistant to de Brosse at Rennes. Francois died in 1666.

Mansart uses a specifically French style of classicism. He was a precautious architect and a difficult person, leading to the loss of many major commissions. The Chateau de Balleroy, of the late 1620s, has courtyard pavilions that are unconnected to the main building. It emphasis separateness with the use of defined separate roofs. But despite the roofline, the building has a unified composition, because it has a hierarchical structure like a pyramid.

Mansart designed the Gaston d'Orleans wing at Blois which was to house a member of the royal family. Mansart is a good example of the reason why French architects were renowned for being able to build well in restricted and pre-existing sites which tend to be difficult to negotiate. The back of the building was not equal in length to the front and the level of the garden was slightly lower than the level of the courtyard. Mansart dealt with this using a staircase and garden, solving both problems of centring and ground level at once. It also gave the building a new unity. Loose classical features such as pilasters and a single roof were used, but these are still distinctly French. The pilasters were used on the corners where the tradition was not to, and the roof is typically high-pitched.

Mansart's Chateau de Maisons Lafitte (1642-46) is a freestanding building, yet still complex in design. It is not decorative by French standards, simply appropriate to the level of the family's importance. It consists of a dome with a hidden light source, which became common in French architecture.

Ste Marie de la Visitation, built by Mansart between 1632-34, is monumental yet restrained. its plan is centralised with a dome, with side chapels which the Italian architects were experimenting with at the same time. The building deliberately draws on existing French traditions such as the chapel at Anet.

From the middle of the century, Louis le Vau became one of the principal French architects. He was born in 1612. His father was a mason, and Louis trained in the same trade. He was a brilliant architect of aristocratic hotels until 1655 when he became the architect of Louvre. Many other royal or courtly projects were given to him, including Vaux-le-Vicomte, College de Quatre Nations in Paris, Church of St Sulpice in Paris and Chateau de Versailles. He died in 1670.

Vax-le-Vicomte was designed for a finance minister (1657-61). It began the establishment of the chateau as a freestanding object. A single order unites both floors, and it has a central domed space. Its gardens and design later became the basis for Versailles.

Bernini was invited to design the Louvre in 1664. The finished proposal was rejected by the French because it was too grand, too Italian for them. He had surprisingly little lasting impact of French architecture. Louis le Vau was given the job of designing the east front of the Louvre. He made a real post-and-lintel construction, i.e. load-bearing columns. Despite having commissions in Paris, Louis did not move to Paris but to Versailles.

An original building on the site of Cour de Marbre had been built years ago for royal hunting parties. But the Cour de Marbre was a completely new building with twenty-five bays. It was le Vau's last building. The architecture was simple and restrained. He used a balustrade on the roofline and brought forward porticoes. But King Louis wanted it to be bigger. Le Vau died at the beginning of the new project and was replaced by Jules Hardouin Mansart. The building expanded the original facade to six hundred metres. It was meant to overlook a vast landscape. Its architectural quality was never questioned, but its monumentality was.

Place Vendome, Paris, built 1698, was designed by Jules Hardouin Mansart. The space was not meant to be economical or important, only the statue, for it was built to celebrate royal power (right before the deposition of the monarchy).