 EARLY PERIOD (1494-1589) or 16th century.

The special character of this transitional period lies in the combination of Gothic
and Renaissance features to form a picturesque ensemble, while in Italy, a ,return to
classic forms took place, In France there was a period of transition, during which
Renaissance details were grafted on to such Gothic features as flying buttresses and
pinnacles.
 CLASSICAL PERIOD (1589-1715) or 17th century.
The period is notable for the dignity, sobriety and masculine quality of its
foremost buildings, resulting from the subordination of plan, composition and
detail of the unity of the whole, and the charity and simplicity with which the
elements were used. Ornament, though somewhat coarse, is vigorous and
reasonably restrained.
 LATE PERIOD 18th century. (Rococo Style)
Architecturally, three stylistic phases may be distinguished.
1. sovereign Louis XV ROCOCO - a type of Renaissance ornament in which
2. sovereign Louis XVI rock-like forms, fantastic scrolls, and crimped shells
3. Empire - 1790-1830 are worked up together in a profusion and confusion of
detail often without organic coherence, but presenting
a lavish display of decoration.
 The Renaissance in France
French Renaissance architecture is the style of architecture which
was imported to France from Italy during the early 16th century and
developed in the light of local architectural traditions.
During the early years of the 16th century the French were involved in
wars in northern Italy, bringing back to France not just the Renaissance art
treasures as their war booty, but also stylistic ideas. In the Loire Valley a
wave of building was carried and many Renaissance chateaux appeared at
this time, the earliest example being the Château d'Amboise.
 Renaissance
FRANCE

COUNTRY HOUSES
• Country houses took the place of fortified castles

Some examples:
Chateau de Justice, Rouen
Chateau d'O, Mortree
Chateau de Josselin Chateau de Maisons
Chateau de Blois • One of the most harmonious of all chateaux
Chateau d'Azay-Rideau • Designed by Francois Mansart on a symmetrical E-plan
Chateau de Chenonceaux

PRE-HISTORIC
Palaise du Louvre, Paris
NEAR EAST • Built from Francis I to Napoleon III
EGYPTIAN • Together with Tuilleries, 45 acres constituting one of the
GREEK most imposing palaces in Europe
ROMAN
EARLY CHRISTIAN
BYZANTINE
ROMANESQUE
GOTHIC
RENAISSANCE
18TH-19TH C REVIVAL
20TH C MODERN

ISLAMIC
INDIAN
CHINESE & JAPANESE
FILIPINO Chateau de Chambord
• Designed by an Italian, Domenico da Cortona
• Semi-fortified palace, most famous in Loire district
 Renaissance
Petit Trianon, Versailles CHURCHES
• Designed by JA Gabriel for Louis XV
• One of most superb pieces of domestic architecture of
the century

Church of the Val de Grace, Paris

• Projecting portal by Francois Mansart, dome by
Lemercier

PRE-HISTORIC
NEAR EAST
EGYPTIAN
GREEK
ROMAN St. Gervais, Paris
EARLY CHRISTIAN • earliest wholly-classical church facade
BYZANTINE • by Salomon de Brosse
ROMANESQUE
GOTHIC
RENAISSANCE
18TH-19TH C REVIVAL
20TH C MODERN

ISLAMIC
INDIAN
CHINESE & JAPANESE
FILIPINO

St. Etienne du Mont, Paris

FRENCH RENAISSANCE
CHATEAU DE BLOIS
by Louis XII, completed by Francois Mansart
 The Renaissance in France – the Chateaux

The cultural center of France in the early 16th c was not Paris, but the valley of the Loire, where the king
and his nobles maintained elaborate chateaux or castles for leisure, entertaining and attending to the
pleasures of the hunt. Blois in particular illustrates the transition from the Middle Ages to the
Renaissance style. Blois in particular illustrates the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance
through the successive stages of its construction.
 The Chateaux de Chambord
By Domenico de Cortona.

In contrast to this town-based chateau, the Chateaux de Chambord (1519-47) was built in the
countryside in the style of a fortified castle within a bailey or outer wall, thus neatly overlaying
Renaissance symmetry and detailing on a fundamentally medieval building type.
The Louvre Palace was altered frequently
throughout the Middle Ages. In the
14th century, Charles V converted the
building into a residence and in 1546,
Francis I renovated the site in the French
Renaissance style.

The Louvre, Paris (begun 1546)

By Pierre Lescot
The Place des Vosges, Paris, 1605
Originally known as the Place Royale,
the Place des Vosges was built by
Henri IV from 1605 to 1612. A
true square (140 m x 140 m), it
embodied the first European
program of royal city planning
and is the oldest planned square
in Paris.

What was new about the Place Royale

in 1612 was that the housefronts
were all built to the same design,
probably by Baptiste du Cerceau,
of red brick with strips of stone
quoins over vaulted arcades that
stand on square pillars. The
steeply-pitched blue slate roofs
are pierced with discreet small-
paned dormers above the
pedimented dormers that stand
upon the cornices.
FRENCH RENAISSANCE
PALAIS DE FOUNTAINEBLEAU
Gilles Le Breton
 CHURCH OF THE VAL DE GRACE,
Paris
François Mansart
(13 January 1598 - 23 September 1666)
French architect

CHATEAU DE MAISONS
The Royal Palace at Versailles

Architecture and Art in the Service of

Absolute Power
FRENCH RENAISSANCE
PALAIS DE VERSAILLES
 Description
• Versailles, France
• Northern France
• 10 miles from Paris
• 2,014 acres
• Served as French
royalty’s estate
• Served as national
government center
• Currently a museum
 ARCHITECTS OF THE VERSAILLES

Louis Le Vau (1612 – 11 André Le Nôtre Ange-Jacques Gabriel

October 1670) (12 March 1613 – 15 (23 October 1698 – 4
French architect September 1700) January 1782)
French landscape French architect.
architect He designed the Petit
Trianon and L'Opéra Royal
de Versailles (Royal Opera
of Versailles)
First stage of the enlargement of the
hunting lodge of Louis XIII (built in 1624)
into the Palace at Versailles under Louis
XIV (1668-9) by Louis LeVau; the black
portions of the plan represent this stage.
 History
• Represents absolutism
and affluent royal
• Built as hunting lodge
(1631-1634) for Louis
XIII
• Louis XIV (right)
renovated (1661-1710) it
into the lavish estate
that it is today
• UNESCO World heritage
site
Some facts and information about Versailles
Louis XIV proclaimed Versailles to be the seat of the government on
May 6, 1682. In effect, the entire bureaucracy moved from Paris to the
suburban villa of the king.
The court consisted of 20,000 persons that included 9,000 soldiers,
5,000 servants, 1,000 great lords and members of the nobility, 1,000
lesser aristocrats (who visited the court on a daily basis) and 4-5,000
bureaucrats to manage the official business.
The court was further supported by 2,500 horses, 200 coaches, and
5,000 hunting dogs.
The great lords and members of the nobility were required to live at
Versailles--in the palace--so that the king could keep track of them.
They were required to wear entirely new clothing (down to their
linens) for the king’s fetes and other important social occasions. They
could beg permission to return to their lands periodically in order to
regroup financially!
 Hall of Mirrors
• La Galerie des Glaces
• Most famous room
• Created after the Dutch War in 1678
• Louis XIV
• Location of the signing of the Treaty of
Versailles, which ended WWI
Hall of Mirrors Structure
• 17 arcaded mirrors
• Large windows
• 73 meters long, 10.5
meters wide
• Decorated with
chandeliers,
thousands of candles,
paintings, sculptures
and bronze
La Salon de Guerre (Salon of War) was
the prelude to the Hall of Mirrors. The
relief portrait by Coysevox is based on…
The Hall of Mirrors: the axis between war and peace crosses
the axis of absolute power.
The queen’s apartments
The bedroom of Louis XIV,
site of the rituals called “Le
Grand Lever” and “Le Grand
Coucher.”
 Gardens
• 230 acres
• Begun by Louis
XIV in 1661
• 40 years
construction
• Includes Grand
Canal
• 50 fountains,
200,000 trees,
210,000 flowers
annually
Court of Honor

Garden Façade in
the scheme of 1669
by Louis LeVau
In 1678, Jules-Hardouin
Mansart filled in the center
section of west side to create
the Hall of Mirrors (Galerie
des Glaces) as part of a major
expansion of the palace.
 The Mansart expansion
of Versailles brought
the total length of the
garden façade to about
one-third of a mile.

Main pavilion
with south
wing, viewed
from the south