Petit Luxembourg

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Petit Luxembourg
French Senate
Construction startedc. 1550
Renovated1710–1713
Design and construction
Architect(s)

The Petit Luxembourg (pronounced

French Senate. It is located at 17–17 bis, rue de Vaugirard, just west of the Luxembourg Palace, which serves as the seat of the Senate, in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. Originally built around 1550 to the designs of an unknown architect, it is especially noted for the surviving Rococo interiors designed in 1710–1713 by the French architect Germain Boffrand.[1] Further west, at 19 rue de Vaugirard, is the Musée du Luxembourg.[2]

Early history

The original sixteenth-century building is of obscure origin,

Marie de Médicis purchased the hôtel in 1612 when she began acquiring property for the construction of the adjacent Luxembourg Palace. The old hôtel soon became known as the Petit Luxembourg to distinguish it from the larger building.[3]

Presumed design of the Hôtel de François de Luxembourg
  • Perspective view
    Perspective view
  • Floor plan with some later modifications made by Marie de Médicis
    Floor plan with some later modifications made by Marie de Médicis

In 1627 Marie de Médicis gave the Petit Luxembourg to

Anne of Bavaria, Princess Palatine, engaged the architect Germain Boffrand to enlarge and redecorate it between 1710 and 1713.[1][3]

Boffrand's alterations

The Petit Luxembourg on the 1739 Turgot map of Paris

Boffrand demolished the service buildings to the west of the courtyard, replacing them with a new wing for the

Mannerist interior of the Queen's Chapel. Between the street and the courtyard Boffrand added an entrance screen which connected the old to the new.[1] Its portal is flanked by Tuscan columns on the concave courtyard side and Ionic
on the convex street side. The upper floor contains a corridor connecting the east and west wings.

Although Boffrand preserved the façades of the older wing, he completely redesigned the interior. A modest

cornices, and frieze. The following room, the Grand Salon also retains these elements.[1]

In large rooms, such as the stair hall and the Grand Salon, Boffrand's unit of design was not the wall (as seen with

J. H. Mansart at the Grand Trianon, kept the main part of the wall surface free for hangings, such as tapestries and paintings. The band of ornate spandrels running around the room achieves a unity, which is further emphasized by the slightly vaulted ceiling. Boffrand's decorative motifs, "the linked C-scrolls entwined with palmettes and festoons," are more similar to those of Jean Bérain than Lepautre.[4]

Boffrand also added another hôtel for the household, with kitchens and stables, on the other side of rue de Vaugirard; an underground passage linked the two residences.

Boffrand's designs for the Petit Luxembourg
  • Boffrand's staircase
    Boffrand's staircase
  • Grand Salon
    Grand Salon
  • Project of 1709, first-floor plans for the main buildings (south at the top)
    Project of 1709, first-floor plans for the main buildings (south at the top)
  • Project of 1709, ground-floor plans for the main buildings and the service wing north of the rue de Vaugirard[5]
    Project of 1709, ground-floor plans for the main buildings and the service wing north of the rue de Vaugirard[5]
  • Coach entrance on the rue de Vaugirard from Boffrand's Livre d'architecture, 1745[6]
    Coach entrance on the rue de Vaugirard from Boffrand's Livre d'architecture, 1745[6]

Later history

During the French Revolution, from

Louis XVIII of France
) and his wife.

Under Napoleon, the

French Senate
.

Images of the Petit Luxembourg

  • Courtyard side of the entrance
    Courtyard side of the entrance
  • Winter garden
    Winter garden
  • Chapel (1622–1631)
    Chapel (1622–1631)
  • Grand staircase, reflected in a mirror
    Grand staircase, reflected in a mirror
  • Stair hall ceiling with 1894 painting by Hippolyte Berteaux
    Stair hall ceiling with 1894 painting by Hippolyte Berteaux
  • Installation of the Conseil d'Etat at the Petit Luxembourg, 25 December 1799, by Couder, 1856[7]
    Installation of the
    Couder, 1856[7]
  • Napoleonic marble plaque inserted in 18th-century boiserie
    Napoleonic marble plaque inserted in 18th-century
    boiserie
  • Office of the Senate President
    Office of the Senate President
  • Garden fountain, 1905
    Garden fountain, 1905
  • Garden
    Garden

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e Ayers 2004, p. 132.
  2. ^ Ochterbeck 2009, p. 202.
  3. ^ a b c Le « Petit Luxembourg » at the French Senate website.
  4. ^ a b Kalnein 1995, p. 61.
  5. ^ The north service wing (with kitchens and stables) was demolished after 1909, since it is shown on a 1910 map (Hustin 1910, p. XXIV).
  6. ^ Boffrand 1745, plate XLV.
  7. ^ "Bicentenaire du Sénat : Conseil d'État" at the French Senate website.

Bibliography

  • Ayers, Andrew (2004). The Architecture of Paris. Stuttgart; London: Edition Axel Menges.
    ISBN 9783930698967
    .
  • Boffrand, Germain (1745). Livre d'architecture. Paris. Copy at
    INHA
  • Hustin, Arthur (1910). Le Luxembourg, son histoire domaniale, architecturale, décorative et anecdotique. Des premiers siècles à l'année 1611. Paris: Imprimérie du Sénat.
    OCLC 888816591, 563876634. Copy at HathiTrust
    .
  • Kalnein, Wend von (1995). Architecture in France in the Eighteenth Century. New Haven: Yale University Press.
    ISBN 9780300060133
    .
  • Ochterbeck, Cynthia Clayton, editor (2009). The Green Guide Paris. Greenville, South Carolina: Michelin Maps and Guides.
    ISBN 9781906261375
    .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Petit Luxembourg.
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