Renaissance Architecture in France PDF

(France) RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE ORIGIN AND CHARACTER ▪ The vitality and richness of the Gothic style in France, even in its decline in the fifteenth century, long stood in the way of any general introduction of classic forms. ▪ introduced from Italy by the king and the...

(France) RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN EUROPE ORIGIN AND CHARACTER ▪ The vitality and richness of the Gothic style in France, even in its decline in the fifteenth century, long stood in the way of any general introduction of classic forms. ▪ introduced from Italy by the king and the nobility ▪ It underwent a protracted transitional phase, during the campaigns of Charles VIII. (1489), Louis XII. (1499), and Francis I. (1515), in vindication of their claims to the thrones of Naples and Milan. ▪ Early Renaissance architecture of France is consequently wholly unlike the Italian, from which it derived only minor details and a certain largeness and breadth of spirit. ▪ The French Renaissance and its sequent developments may be broadly divided into three periods (THE VALOIS PERIOD 1483–1589, THE BOURBON OR CLASSIC PERIOD 1589–1715, and THE DECLINE OR ROCOCO PERIOD 1715–74). THE VALOIS PERIOD 1483–1589 Also called the Renaissance proper, 1483–1589, subdivided into:  a. THE TRANSITION, comprising the reigns of Charles VIII. and Louis XII. (1483–1515), and the early years of that of Francis I.; characterized by a picturesque mixture of classic details with Gothic conceptions.  b. THE STYLE OF FRANCIS I., or Early Renaissance, from about 1520 to that king’s death in 1547; distinguished by a remarkable variety and grace of composition and beauty of detail.  c. THE ADVANCED RENAISSANCE, comprising the reigns of Henry II. (1547), Francis II. (1559), Charles IX. (1560), and Henry III. (1574–89); marked by the gradual adoption of the classic orders and a decline in the delicacy and richness of the ornament. THE TRANSITION As early as 1475 the new style made its appearance in altars, tombs, and rood- screens wrought by French carvers with the collaboration of Italian artificers. in châteaux, palaces, and dwellings that the new style achieved its most notable triumphs. The castle of Charles VIII., at Amboise on the Loire, shows little trace of Italian influence. It was under Louis XII. that the transformation of French architecture really began. The Château de Gaillon (of which unfortunately only fragments remain in the École des Beaux-Arts at Paris), built for the Cardinal George of Amboise, between 1497 and 1509, by Pierre Fain, was the masterwork of the Rouen school. THE TRANSITION The Château de Gaillon (of which unfortunately only fragments remain in the École des Beaux-Arts at Paris), built for the Cardinal George of Amboise, between 1497 and 1509, by Pierre Fain, was the masterwork of the Rouen school. It presented a curious mixture of styles, with its irregular plan, its moat, drawbridge, and round corner-towers, its high roofs, turrets, and dormers, which gave it, in spite of many Renaissance details, a mediæval picturesqueness. Located in Gaillon,Haute- Normandie region of France THE TRANSITION ▪ The Château de Blois (the east and south wings of the present group), begun for Louis XII. about 1500, was the first of a remarkable series 311of royal palaces which are the glory of French architecture. It shows the new influences in its horizontal lines and flat, unbroken façades of brick and stone, rather than in its architectural details. ▪ Loire Valley, in France. ▪ François Mansart architect credited with introducing classicism into Baroque architecture of France. STYLE OF FRANCIS I ▪ partly under the lead of Italian artists, like il Rosso, Serlio, and Primaticcio, classic elements began to dominate the general composition and Gothic details rapidly disappeared. ▪ A simple and effective system of exterior design was adopted in the castles and palaces of this period. ▪ Finely moulded belt-courses at the sills and heads of the windows marked the different stories, and were crossed by a system of almost equally important vertical lines, formed by superposed pilasters flanking the windows continuously from basement to roof. The façade was crowned by a slight cornice and open balustrade, above which rose a steep and lofty roof, diversified by elaborate dormer windows which were 312adorned with gables and pinnacles ▪ Slender pilasters, treated like long panels ornamented with arabesques of great beauty, or with a species of baluster shaft like a candelabrum, were preferred to columns, and were provided with graceful capitals of the Corinthianesque type. ▪ The mouldings were minute and richly carved; pediments were replaced by steep gables, and mullioned windows with stone crossbars were used in preference to the simpler Italian openings. ▪ In the earlier monuments Gothic details were still used occasionally; and round corner- towers, high dormers, and numerous turrets and pinnacles appear even in the châteaux of later date. CHURCHES St. Etienne du Mont, at Paris (1517–38), in which classic and Gothic features appear in nearly equal proportions. CHURCES the great parish church of St. Eustache, at Paris (1532, by Lemercier), in which the plan and construction are purely Gothic, while the details throughout belong to the new style, though with little appreciation of the spirit and proportions of classic art. PALACE  added a northern and a western wing, completing the court. The north wing is one of the masterpieces of the style, presenting toward the court a simple and effective composition, with a rich but slightly projecting cornice and a high roof with elaborate dormers. This 313façade is divided into two unequal sections by the open Staircase Tower  The outer façade of this wing is a less ornate but more vigorous STAIRCASE TOWER, BLOIS design, crowned by a continuous open loggia under the roof. PALACE  Fontainebleau, the favorite residence of the king and of many of his successors.  Following in parts the irregular plan of the convent it replaced, its other portions were more symmetrically disposed, while the whole was treated externally in a somewhat severe, semi-classic style, singularly lacking in ornament.  Internally, however, this palace, begun in 1528 by Gilles Le Breton, was at that time the most splendid in France, the gallery of Francis I. being especially noted. PALACE The Château of St. Germain, near Paris (1539, by Pierre Chambiges), is of a very different character. Built largely of brick, with flat balustraded roof and deep buttresses carrying three ranges of arches, it is neither Gothic nor classic, neither fortress nor palace in aspect, but a wholly unique conception. PALACE ▪ Château of Chambord This extraordinary edifice, resembling in plan a feudal castle with curtain-walls, bastions, moat, and donjon, is in its architectural treatment a palace with arcades, open- stair towers, a noble double spiral staircase terminating in a graceful lantern, and a roof of the most bewildering complexity of towers, chimneys, and dormers (1526, by Pierre le Nepveu). ▪ The hunting-lodges of La Muette and Chalvau, and the so-called Château de Madrid—all three demolished during or since the Revolution—deserve mention, especially 315the last. This consisted of two rectangular pavilions, connected by a lofty banquet-hall, and adorned externally with arcades in Florentine style, and with medallions and reliefs of della Robbia ware (1527, by Gadyer). THE ADVANCED RENAISSANCE ▪ The orders, used with increasing frequency, were more and more conformed to antique precedents. ▪ Façades were flatter and simpler, cornices more pronounced, arches more Roman in treatment, and a heavier style of carving took the place of the delicate arabesques of the preceding age. ▪ The reigns of Henry II. (1547–59) and Charles IX. (1560–74) were especially distinguished by the labors of three celebrated architects: Pierre Lescot (1515–78), who continued the work on the southwest angle of the Louvre; Jean Bullant (1515–78), to whom are due the right wing of Ecouen and the porch of colossal Corinthian columns in the left wing of the same, built under Francis I.; and, finally, Philibert de l’Orme (1515–70). Jean Goujon (1510–72) also 317executed during this period most of the remarkable architectural sculptures which have made his name one of the most illustrious in the annals of French art. THE ADVANCED RENAISSANCE ▪ palace of the Tuileries , built under Charles IX by Philibert de l’Orme. for Cathérine de Médicis, not far from the Louvre, with which it was ultimately connected by a long gallery. ▪ Of the vast plan conceived for this palace, and comprising a succession of courts and wings, only a part of one side was erected (1564–72). ▪ This consisted of a domical pavilion, flanked by low wings only a story and a half high, to which were added two stories under Henry IV., to the great advantage of the design. THE ADVANCED RENAISSANCE ▪ Château d’Anet, built in 1552 by Henry II. for Diane de Poitiers, of which, unfortunately, only fragments survive. ▪ while retaining the semi-military moat and bastions of feudal tradition, was planned with classic symmetry, adorned with superposed orders, court arcades, and rectangular corner-pavilions, and provided with a domical cruciform chapel, the earliest of its class in France. ▪ All the details were unusually pure and correct, with just enough of freedom and variety to lend a charm wanting in later works of the period. THE BOURBON OR CLASSIC PERIOD (1589–1715) ▪ STYLE OF HENRY IV., covering his reign and partly that of Louis XIII. (1610–45), employing the orders and other classic forms with a somewhat heavy, florid style of ornament. ▪ STYLE OF LOUIS XIV., beginning in the preceding reign and extending through that of Louis XIV. (1645–1715); the great age of classic architecture in France, corresponding to the Palladian in Italy STYLE OF HENRY IV ▪ Under this energetic but capricious monarch (1589–1610) and his Florentine queen, Marie de Médicis, architecture entered upon a new period of activity and a new stage of development. ▪ Without the 318charm of the early Renaissance or the stateliness of the age of Louis XIV., it has a touch of the Baroque, attributable partly to the influence of Marie de Médicis and her Italian prelates, and partly to the Italian training of many of the French architects. ▪ The great work of this period was the extension of the Tuileries byJ. B. du Cerceau, and the completion, by Métézeau and others, of the long gallery next the Seine, begun under Henry II., with the view of connecting the Tuileries with the Louvre. In this part of the work colossal orders were used with indifferent effect. ▪ Next in importance was the addition to Fontainebleau of a great court to the eastward, whose relatively quiet and dignified style offers less contrast than one might expect to the other wings and courts dating from Francis I. STYLE OF HENRY IV ▪ Luxemburg palace, built for the queen by Salomon De Brosse, in 1616. ▪ Its plan presents the favorite French arrangement of a main building separated from the street 319by a garden or court, the latter surrounded on three sides by low wings containing the dependencies. ▪ Externally, rusticated orders recall the garden front of the Pitti at Florence; but the scale is smaller, and the projecting pavilions and high roofs give it a grace and picturesqueness wanting in the Florentine model. STYLE OF HENRY IV ▪ The Place Royale, at Paris, and the château of Beaumesnil, illustrate a type of brick-and-stone architecture much in vogue at this time, stone quoins decorating the windows and corners, and the orders being generally omitted. STYLE OF LOUIS XIV  This was an age of remarkable literary and artistic activity, pompous and pedantic in many of its manifestations, but distinguished also by productions of a very high order.  Although contemporary with the Italian Baroque—Bernini having been the guest of Louis XIV.—the architecture of this period was free from the wild extravagances of that style. In its often cold and correct dignity it resembled rather that of Palladio, making large use of the orders in exterior design, and tending rather to monotony than to overloaded decoration.  In interior design there was more of lightness and caprice.  Papier-maché and stucco were freely used in a fanciful style of relief ornamentation by scrolls, wreaths, shells, etc., and 320decorative panelling was much employed. STYLE OF LOUIS XIV The Galerie d’Apollon, built during this reign over the Petite Galerie in the Louvre, escapes this reproach, however, by the sumptuous dignity of its interior treatment. STYLE OF LOUIS XIV ▪ VERSAILLES This immense edifice, built about an already existing villa of Louis XIII., was the work of Levau and J. H. Mansart (1647–1708). Its erection, with the laying out of its marvellous park, almost exhausted the resources of the realm, but with results quite incommensurate with the outlay. ▪ In spite of its vastness, its exterior is commonplace; the orders are used with singular monotony, which is not redeemed by the deep breaks and projections of the main front. ▪ There is no controlling or dominant feature; there is no adequate entrance or approach; the grand staircases are badly placed and unworthily treated, and the different elements of the plan are combined with singular lack of the usual French sense of monumental and rational arrangement. STYLE OF LOUIS XIV ▪ the Louvre, in 1688, from the designs of Claude Perrault, the court physician, whose plans were fortunately adopted in preference to those of Bernini. ▪ For the east front he designed a magnificent Corinthian colonnade nearly 600 feet long, with coupled columns upon a plain high basement, and with a central pediment and terminal pavilions. ▪ The whole forms one of the most imposing façades in existence; but it is a mere decoration, having no practical relation to the building behind it. STYLE OF LOUIS XIV ▪ Its height required the addition of a third story to match it on the north and south sides of the court, which as thus completed quadrupled the original area 321proposed by Lescot. ▪ Fortunately the style of Lescot’s work was retained throughout in the court façades, while externally the colonnade was recalled on the south front by a colossal order of pilasters. ▪ The Louvre as completed by Louis XIV was a stately and noble palace, as remarkable for the surpassing excellence of the sculptures of Jean Goujon as for the dignity and beauty of its architecture. THE DECLINE Also called ROCOCO PERIOD, corresponding with the reign of Louis XV. (1715–74); marked by pompous extravagance and capriciousness. ▪ Under Louis XV. the pedantry of the classic period gave place to a protracted struggle between license and the severest classical correctness. ▪ The exterior designs of this time were often even more uninteresting and bare than under Louis XIV.; while, on the other hand, interior decoration tended to the extreme of extravagance and disregard of constructive propriety. ▪ Contorted lines and crowded scrolls, shells, and palm-leaves adorned the mantelpieces, cornices, and ceilings, to the almost complete suppression of straight lines. ▪ While these tendencies prevailed in many directions, a counter-current of severe classicism manifested itself in the designs of a number of important public buildings, in which it was sought to copy the grandeur of the old Roman colonnades and arcades. THE DECLINE ▪ the church of St. Sulpice at Paris (Fig. 183) is an excellent example of this. Its interior, dating from the preceding century, is well designed, but in no wise a remarkable composition, following Italian models. ▪ The façade, added in 1755 by Servandoni, is, on the other hand, one of the most striking architectural objects in the city. ▪ It is a correct and well proportioned classic composition in two stories— an Ionic arcade over a Doric colonnade, surmounted by two lateral turre IN GENERAL ▪ French Renaissance architecture is marked by good proportions and harmonious and appropriate detail. ▪ Its most interesting phase was unquestionably that of Francis I., so far, at least, as concerns exterior design. ▪ It steadily progressed, however, in its mastery of planning; and in its use of projecting pavilions crowned by dominant masses of roof, it succeeded in preserving, even in severely classic designs, a picturesqueness and variety otherwise impossible. ▪ Roofs, dormers, chimneys, and staircases it treated with especial success; and in these matters, as well as in monumental dispositions of plan, the French have largely retained their pre-eminence to our own day.