Quite early in the
sixteenth century the
influence of the new
style of the Italian
Renaissance
began to appear.
Coupled with the
persistence of Gothic
traditions and the
necessity of steep
roofs and tall
chimneys in the French
climate, it appears
immediately "Frenchified"
rather than in its
pure imported form.
The châteaux of kings
and courtiers in the
area round Paris and
in the Loire valley,
such as
Blois,
Chambord, Chenonceau
and Fontainebleau
, exemplify this
style, with their
wholly un-Italian
concentration of
interest on the
skyline and an
elaboration of detail
in the facades at the
expense of the clear
modelling of form.
With the passing of
time, however, the
style became more
purely classical. The
Louvre in Paris and
the Château de Blois
are notable examples
of the developing
classicism
. The wing of the
Château
de Blois
containing the famous
staircase designed for
François I in 1515
shows the beginning of
an emphasis on
horizontal lines and
an overlay of Italian
motifs on a basically
Gothic form. The
elevations, designed
by
Mansart in
1635, though
distinctively French,
are just as typically
classical.
The Louvre
even more embodies the
whole history of the
classical style in
France, having been
worked over by all the
grand names of French
architecture from
Lescot in the early
sixteenth century, via
François Mansart and
Claude Perrault in the
seventeenth, to the
later years of the
nineteenth century.
It is unfortunate
that the Renaissance
style in France is
chiefly seen in such
structures as the
Louvre and Versailles,
which because of their
scale can scarcely be
experienced as
buildings. That this
is the case is largely
due to the developing
despotism and
concentration of power
under Louis XIII and
Louis XIV. But there
was a lighter side to
this. François
Mansart, at Blois and Maisons
Lafitte (1640),
shows a certain
suavity and elegance,
which appears again in
the eighteenth century
in the town houses of
the Rococo period, the
generally reticent
exteriors of which
belie the vivacity and
charm of the private
life within.
On the other hand, Claude
Perrault
(1613-88), who
designed the great
colonnaded east front
of the Louvre, gives
an austere face to the
official architecture
of despotism,
magnificent but far
too imperial to be
much enjoyed by common
mortals. The
high-pitched roofs,
which had been almost
universal until then,
are replaced here by
the classical
balustrade and
pediment, the style
grand but cold and
supremely secular. Art
and architecture were
at the time organized
by boards and
academies, and in the
latter style and
employment were
strictly controlled by
royal direction.
Between 1643 and 1774
France was governed by
two monarchs who both
ruled by the same
maxim - absolute
power. With such a
limitation of ideas at
the source of
patronage, it is
hardly surprising that
there was a certain
dullness to the era,
at least in the
acknowledged monuments
of French
architecture.
