French Classicism and the patronage of Louis XIV

Vaux-le-Vicomte (1657-1661)

Built for Louis XIV's finance minister, Nicolas Fouquet, by the architect Louis Le Vau (1612-70), the garden designer Andre Le Notre (1613-1700), and the painter Charles Lebrun (1619-90)

Aerial view, showing the garden designed by Andre Le Notre

  Note the moat surrounding the chateau and the patterned planting of the parterres

Plan. Note the two symmetrical suites of rooms either side of the oval saloon, one for the King and one for Fouquet. They are arranged to create an enfilade (a series of rooms with the doors lined up) - a familiar Baroque planning device.

Entrance facade, note the way the triglyph frieze from the Doric order of the entrance pavilion continues around the whole Chateaux, as though tying each of the separate pavilions together.

   Garden facade, note the projecting dome and walls of the saloon

  Contemporary engraving showing the water features of the garden (some of which , like the balustrade of water flanking the central path have never been restored)

  View from the chateau towards a distant statue of Hercules

The single-story, square, Doric vestibule

The double-height, oval Corinthian Saloon (note how the height of the arches is governed by the order of the preceding Doric vestibule)

  The King's bedchamber, note the proscenium-arch like device framing the bed, and the balustrade behind which it stands

Louis XIV

The Louvre, Paris

   Diagrams showing gradual development of the palaces of the Louvre and the Tuileries.

Bernini's Schemes for the East Facade (1665)

  First scheme, prepared while Bernini was still in Rome  Third scheme, prepared in Paris East Facade (1667-74) as designed by the anatomist and translator of Vitruvius Claude Perrault (with Louis Le Vau and Charles Le Brun)