Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Renaissance
The Renaissance set out to realise a 'rebirth' of classical Greek and Roman culture and first
affected France at the end of the 15th century, when Charles VIII began a series of invasions
of Italy, returning with some new ideas.
The Early Renaissance style, in which a variety of classical components and decorative
motifs (columns, tunnel vaults, round arches, domes etc) were blended with the rich decora-
tion of Flamboyant Gothic, is best exemplified in Paris by Église St-Eustache on the Right
Bank and Église St-Étienne du Mont on the Left Bank.
Mannerism was introduced by Italian architects and artists brought to France around 1530
by François I. In 1546 Pierre Lescot designed the richly decorated southwestern corner of
the Cour Carrée at the Musée du Louvre.
The Right Bank district of Le Marais remains the best area for Renaissance reminders in
Paris proper, with some fine
hôtels particuliers
, such as Hôtel Carnavalet, housing part of
the Musée Carnavalet.
Baroque
During the baroque period (tail end of the 16th to late-18th centuries), painting, sculpture
and classical architecture were integrated to create structures and interiors of great subtlety,
refinement and elegance. With the advent of the baroque, architecture became more pictori-
al, with painted church ceilings illustrating the Passion of Christ to the faithful, and palaces
invoking the power and order of the state.
Salomon de Brosse, who designed the Palais du Luxembourg in the Jardin du Luxem-
bourg in 1615, set the stage for two of France's most prominent early-baroque architects:
François Mansart, designer of Église Notre Dame du Val-de-Grâce, and his young rival
Louis Le Vau, architect of Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, which served as a model for Louis
XIV's palace at Versailles.
Other fine French-baroque examples: Église St-Louis en l'Île, Chapelle de la Sorbonne,
Palais Royal, and Hôtel de Sully with its inner courtyard decorated with allegorical figures.
Neoclassicism
Neoclassical architecture emerged about 1740 and had its roots in the renewed interest in
classical forms - a search for order, reason and serenity through the adoption of forms and
conventions of Graeco-Roman antiquity: columns, geometric forms and traditional orna-
mentation.
Among the earliest examples of this style are the Italianate facade of Église St-Sulpice;
and the Petit Trianon at Versailles, designed by Jacques-Ange Gabriel for Louis XV in 1761.
