French Baroque architecture
French Baroque architecture, usually called French classicism, was a style of architecture during the reigns of
Early French Classicism
The French Classicism was, from the beginning, an expression of the power and majesty of the Kings of France. It proceeded deliberately in a different direction from Italy and the rest of Europe, combining classical elements, especially colossal orders of columns, and avoiding the exuberant decoration that appeared on facades and interiors in Spain, Germany and Central Europe. It was used less frequently on churches and more often in the design of royal palaces and country residences. Another distinctive element of the French Classicism was the integration of the architecture of the house with the formal gardens around it, in what became known as the French formal garden.[2]
One of the most accomplished formulators of the new style was François Mansart, a tireless perfectionist. He was not the first to use the sloping mansard roof, but he used it so effectively that it took his name. In his design for the Château de Maisons in Maisons-Laffitte, (1630–51), Mansart showed the continuity between the French Renaissance style and the new style. The structure is strictly symmetrical, with an order applied to each story, mostly in pilaster form. The frontispiece, crowned with a separate aggrandized roof, is infused with remarkable plasticity and the whole ensemble reads like a three-dimensional whole. Mansart's structures are stripped of overblown decorative effects, so typical of contemporary Rome. Italian Baroque influence is muted and relegated to the field of decorative ornamentation.
The same three artists scaled this concept to monumental proportions in the royal hunting lodge and later main Palace of Versailles (1661–1690). On a far grander scale, the palace is a hypertrophied and somewhat repetitive version of Vaux-le-Vicomte. It was both the most grandiose and the most imitated residential building of the 17th century. Mannheim, Nordkirchen and Drottningholm were among many foreign residences for which Versailles provided a model.
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Château de Maisons-Laffitte by François Mansart, (1630–51)
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Palais du Luxembourg by Salomon de Brosse(1615–1620)
The Louvre facade
In 1665, the chief minister of Louis XIV,
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Proposed Baroque east facade of Louvre by Gian Lorenzo Bernini
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East facade of the Louvre
The Palace of Versailles
The most important showcase of the French Classicism was the
The new palace surrounded the old brick chateau, with new wings the north, south and to the rear. The facade, like the new Louvre wing, featured colossal order columns, while the roof was flat with a terrance, decorated with balustrades, pilasters, balconies, statues, and trophies. Beginning in 1674–75, Le Brun created the interior with a small army of painters, sculptors, and decorators. They used marble, polychrome stone, bronze mirrors, and gilded stucco, while Le Brun himself painted the ceiling. The Hall of Mirrors, constructed in 1678–1680 by Jules Hardouin-Mansart, the nephew of Francois Mansart, overlooked the new garden. It was also decorated by Le Brun, who completed it in 1684,[11] after which it became the symbol of the entire French Baroque style. The new Palace was open to almost any visitor, and became an immense theatre, where the King carried out his ceremonies, with meticulous protocol, in public view.[12]
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Garden facade of the first Chateau by Philibert Le Roy (1634)
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Marble Court of the enlarged Chateau, as modified by Jules Hardouin-Mansart (c. 1680)[13]
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The garden facade by Louis Le Vau (1668–1674) as modified by Jules Hardouin-Mansart (1678–1680)[11]
Louis continued to add to the Palace through the end of his reign. In 1687, Jules Hardouin-Mansart and then Robert de Cotte erected the Grand Trianon, on the model of an Italian building, the Marble Trianon. It had a single floor, decorated with plaster and marble, with a flat roof and balustrade. The plan was very simple, with a peristyle flanked by two wings and two avant-corps, or sections in advance of the wings. It had a simplicity and purity of form that inspired similar palace buildings across Europe, from Prussia to Russia. Mansart also completed the Versailles Orangerie (1684–1686) in a similar style, surrounding a formal garden and pool. The gardens created by Andre Le Notre were designed to complement the architecture of the palace and to express, by it geometric alleys, pools, rows of the trees, flower beds and fountains, the mastery of the King over nature.[10]
The final piece of the Palace was the Chapel, begun in 1689 to the designs of Hardouin-Mansart and completed by Robert de Cotte in 1708–1710. The room was given more space and light by the use of classical columns instead of massive pillars, and by placing the supporting columns on an upper level.
Louis XV continued to add to the Palace, mostly with changes to the interior rooms. His major contribution was the Petit Trianon by Ange-Jacques Gabriel. Its austere architecture was a sign of the transition to Neoclassicism.
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Chapel of the Palace of Versailles by Jules Hardouin-Mansart and Robert de Cotte (1689–1710)
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The Grand Trianon by Jules Hardouin-Mansart and Robert de Cotte (1687–88)
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Versailles Orangerie by Jules Hardouin-Mansart
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The Petit Trianon by Ange-Jacques Gabriel (1762–1768)
Religious architecture
The architecture of churches during the early French Classicism period evolved more slowly; the late Mannerist Gothic style, exemplified by the Church of
The first French church facade in the new style was for the church of
The interiors of new parish churches, such as
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The church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont by Claude Guérin, in the late Mannerist Gothic style (1606–21)
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The Church ofSt-Gervais-et-St-Protais, the first Paris church with a façade in the new Baroque style (1616–20)
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The Church ofEtienne Martellange and François Derand
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Interior of Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis (1627–41)
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Church of Saint-Roch (1653–90) by Jacques Lemercier
The debut of the dome
The major innovation of French Baroque religious architecture was the introduction of the cupola or dome over the central nave, a style imported from the Italian Baroque. The dome of the
Another innovative dome was built by Jacques Lemercier for the College of Sorbonne, beginning in 1635. This design featured a hemispherical dome on a tall octagonal drum, the first of its type in France, with four small cupolas in the angles of the Greek cross above the Corinthian order columns on the façade.
A much larger and higher dome on the Italian Baroque model was begun by
The second part of the 17th century saw the beginning of two more important domes. The Chapel of the Collège des Quatre-Nations, (now the Institut de France by Louis Le Vau and François d'Orbay (1662–1668) was built with a bequest from Cardinal Mazarin across the Seine from Louvre, and contains his tomb. The most grand of the domes was that of Les Invalides, the chapel for the hospital of military veterans, built by Jules Hardouin-Mansart (1677–1706), both as a symbol of charity and of military glory. The dome is placed on a church in the form of a trek cross. The cube of the building is surmounted by a cylindrical column of two drums, giving the dome exceptional height. The dome itself is richly decorated with sculpture on the entablements as well as ornaments of gilded bronze between the vertical ribs of the dome.[18]
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Church of the Convent of the Visitation by François Mansart (1632–34)
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Eglise Saint-Roch, Paris by Jacques Lemercier(1653–90)
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Chapel of the College of Sorbonne by Jacques Lemercier (1635– )
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Collége des Quatres-Nations by Louis Le Vau and François d'Orbay (1662–1668)
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Les Invalides by Jules Hardouin-Mansart (1677–1706)
Residential architecture – the hôtel particulier
The residential building style known as the
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Hôtel de Sully (1624–1639)
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Hôtel de Beauvais (1655–1660)
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Hôtel Carnavalet
The residential square
The residential square, a group of houses with of identical size and identical architecture around a square, usually with a fountain in the middle, first based on the Italian model, appeared in Paris in the Place Royal (now
The next major urban square constructed in Paris was the
Between 1699 and 1702, another square was constructed also by Hardouin-Mansart. the Place Vendôme, In another innovation, this project was partially financed by the sale of lots around the square. All of these projects featured monumental facades in the Louis XIV style, giving a particular harmony to the squares.[22]
Louis XV followed the example of Louis XIV. In the later years of his reign, Louis constructed a major new square in the center of the city, Place Louis XV (now Place de la Concorde, with a harmonious row of new buildings designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel. Following the example of the earlier squares, it featured an equestrian statue of Louis XV, which was pulled down during the French Revolution. Louis XV built other monumental squares following the same architectural model in the centers of Rennes and Bordeaux. Another notable square, Place Stanislas, was built in the city of Nancy, in Lorraine, shortly before that Duchy was formally attached to France.
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Place des Victoires (1684–1697) by Jules Hardouin-Mansart
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Place Vendôme (1699–1702) by Jules Hardouin-Mansart
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Design for the Place Louis XV by Ange-Jacques Gabriel (1758)
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Place de la Bourse in Bordeaux by Ange-Jacques Gabriel(1730–1775)
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Nancy, Place Stanislas, E.Héré, 1752–1760.jpg
See also
- Style Louis XIV
- Style Louis XV
- Architecture of Paris
- French Baroque and Classicism
Notes and citations
- ^ Hopkins, Owen, Les Styles en Architecture (2014), pp. 84-87
- ^ Prina & Demartini 2006, p. 190.
- ^ a b Prina & Demartini 2006, p. 191.
- ^ Hopkins 2014, p. 84.
- ^ Berger 1993, pp. 20–27.
- ^ Summerson 1963, figure 47.
- ^ Berger 1993, pp. 51–52.
- ^ Renault and Lazé (2006), p. 55; Berger 1993, pp. .
- ^ Berger 1985.
- ^ a b Cabanne 1988, p. 30.
- ^ a b c Ayers 2004, pp. 336–337.
- ^ Cabanne 1988, pp. 30–31.
- ^ Ayers 2004, pp. 337–338.
- ^ Texier (2012) page 52
- ^ Texier (2012) pages 30-35
- ^ a b Texier 2012, pp. 30–31.
- ^ Texier 2012, pp. 34–35.
- ^ a b Ducher 1988, p. 124.
- ^ a b Texier 2012, pp. 32–33.
- ^ Texier 2012, pp. 28–29.
- ^ Texier, Simon (2012), pp. 38-39
- ^ Texier, Simon (2012), pp. 38-39
Bibliography
- Ayers, Andrew (2004). The Architecture of Paris. Stuttgart, London: Edition Axel Menges. ISBN 9783930698967.
- Berger, Robert W. (1985). Versailles: The Château of Louis XIV. University Park: The College Arts Association.
- Berger, Robert W. (1993). The Palace of the Sun: The Louvre of Louis XIV. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 9780271008479.
- Cabanne, Perre (1988), L'Art Classique et le Baroque, Paris: Larousse, ISBN 978-2-03-583324-2
- Ducher, Robert (1988). Caractéristique des styles. Paris: Flammarion. ISBN 2-08-011539-1.
- Hopkins, Owen (2014). Les styles en architecture. Dunod. ISBN 978-2-10-070689-1.
- Lemerle, Frédérique & Yves Pauwels (2008). "Baroque Architecture", Flammarion, 2008.
- Millon, Henry A., ed. (1999), The Triumph of the Baroque: Architecture in Europe, 1600–1750.
- Prina, Francesca; Demartini, Elena (2006). Petite encylopédie de l'architecture. Paris: Solar. ISBN 2-263-04096-X.
- ISBN 9780262690126.
- Texier, Simon (2012). Paris- Panorama de l'architecture. Parigramme. ISBN 978-2-84096-667-8.