Iii Renaissance Architecture in France

Louis XIV. Period.—The grand monarque placed the artists of his time under a strict administrative discipline. The Academie de France was founded in 1666—five years after the king as sumed full authority—and the Academy of Architecture in 1671. There followed a reaction from the empiricism of the preceding period, strengthened by the reverence of the academies for their classic doctrines, and by the king's disdain of foreign influences. The academies were as suspicious of artistic independence as the king of political heterodoxy. The striking feature of this period is a curious contrast between the classic composition of exteriors, free from the earlier experimental fantasies, and the elaborate ornamentation of interiors. There was a simplification both of the masses of a building, and of outward ornament, even to the silhouette of the roofs. The combining of few elements with unerring taste resulted in a stately dignity of proportion that lends even to the most unambitious work in provincial towns the noblesse of the greater constructions. On the other hand, the in teriors were often overloaded with decoration. Le Brun, the court painter from 1664 to 1683, was in full authority at Ver sailles; a great decorator, he had the weaknesses of this aspect of his talent. Thus, refinement and intensity of expression were often sacrificed in the attempt to combine architecture, painting and sculpture into a single homogeneous effect.

Among the principal architects of the time, are Claude Per rault (1613-83), who, besides the Porte St. Antoine, and the Observatoire, designed the three facades of the Louvre which have been praised and attacked beyond all measure, and the ex cellence of which is readily seen by a comparison with Bernini's project for the same work; Francois Blondel (1618-86), who designed the beautiful Porte St. Denis; Jules Hardouin Mansart (1646-1708), architect of Marly, the Grand Trianon, Place Vendome, Place des Victoires and the "Dome des Invalides," and who designed all the work at Versailles after 1676; and Liberal Bruant (1637-97), whose simple, powerful architecture may be seen in the Hotel des Invalides and La Salpetriere. A resume of I7th century architecture would hardly be complete without a mention of Le Mitre (1613-170o), who brought to its highest development the composition of the formal garden.

Eighteenth Century.

The change that began to make itself perceptible in the last period of the reign of Louis XIV. and up through the first half of the succeeding century, is the further simplification of exteriors, coupled with a still more striking change of interiors. The classic doctrine, with the orders, is still asserted in the designs of the facades ; but there appeared a bolder use of blank surfaces, relieved by chains of rustication, and more restraint in the use of mouldings. Thousands of houses of this period are still to be seen, with quiet elevations whose harmonious proportions are their only bid to attract attention, and with skil ful interior planning which still serves as a model. The treat ment of these 18th century interiors forms a striking contrast with the oppressive splendours of the heyday of Louis XIV. A reaction had set in against the conservatism, and the theatrical pomp of the i 7th century, in which people moved like actors on a stage; the new tendency was toward greater freedom in the adaptation of the classic formulas, and lightness and elegance of effect, and intimacy. Even at Versailles, stately apartments were

broken up into groups of smaller rooms, and houses were planned with corridors and an arrangement of rooms convenient to their uses. The wood panelling, which replaced the marble inlay of palaces or the bare walls of simpler dwellings, was treated as woodwork, with a scale of moulding and decoration suitable to the material and without imitation of stone architecture motives. Fabric and paper were introduced as wall coverings; the ceilings were no longer designed to imitate vaulting—the open beams and joists disappeared and plasterwork was treated frankly as such. The stairways were decorated only by their railings of admirably wrought ironwork. In these interiors there is a complete emanci pation from the Greco-Roman decorations of pilasters, cornices, etc.

The examples of the architecture of this period are so numerous that only a few can be mentioned here : e.g., the stables of Chan tilly, and the hotel Biron by Albert, la Malgrange (Nancy) and the hotel d'Amelot by Boffrand, the Palais Bourbon, by Giardini and l'Assurance. The work of public buildings and city planning counts in its first ranks the admirable ensemble at Nancy (places Stanislas, de la Carriere and du Gouvernement) by Boffrand and Here de Corny, the bridges at Nantes and Blois by J. J. Gabriel, the place Royale at Bordeaux (Gabriel), and the place Belle cour at Lyons (De Cotte). The religious architecture is exempli fied by some imposing monasteries, which acquire with the ex cellent qualities of the domestic designing a certain touch of worldliness. Examples are St. Etienne at Caen, St. Ouen at Rouen, and the bishops' palaces of Toul, Verdun and Strasbourg.

Second Period.—Madame de Pompadour and her artistic ad visers, such as Cochin and M. de Caylus, the archaeologists, and the architects Gabriel and Blondel had never looked with favour upon the infringements of the antique formulas that were com mitted in the Louis XV. period, and the new discovery of an tiquities at Herculaneum and"Pompeii infused the supporters of the classic doctrine with fresh conviction. Toward 1750, then, the fashion reverted to the close imitation of a Graeco-Roman style, newly baptized "a la Grecque." De Caylus's "Recueil d'Antiquites," published in 1762, Leroy's "Ruines des plus beaux Monuments de la Grece" (1754), Soufflot's work on Paestum, and Piranesi's engravings, encouraged and facilitated the return to antique example by giving more precise documentation. Among the representative works of the architecture of the time are the Petit Trianon, the Ecole Militaire, the wings of the en trance court and the opera at Versailles, and the place de la Concorde, by J. A. Gabriel, the Hotel-Dieu at Lyon, the church of Ste. Genevieve at Paris, the Pantheon, etc., by Soufflot, and the works of Antoine, Mique, Ledoux, Victor Louis, Rousseau, (theatre of Bordeaux, mint and Palais de Justice at Paris).