French Architectural Theory and the Classical Revival: Descartes, Blondel, and Perrault at the Louvre

Prelude

• Claude Perrault noted a divergence in taste between his century and the Ancients, stating, "The taste of our century, or at least of our nation, is different from that of the Ancients."
• At the beginning of the $17$th century, architectural thought in France, Italy, and Spain was founded on the belief that architecture was part of a divinely sanctioned cosmology or natural order.
  • This order consisted of stable grammar of eternally valid forms, numbers, and proportional relations originating from antiquity.
• Jean Bautista Villalpanda's $1604$ commentary on the prophet Ezekiel and Solomon's Temple argued that these divine numbers and proportions not only aligned with the Vitruvian tradition but were directly given to Solomon by God.

Philosophical Resistance and Modern Theory

• This traditional tenet soon faced philosophical challenge from René Descartes ($1596-1650$).
• In his Rules for the Direction of the Mind (written before $1628$), Descartes advocated investigating only what could be clearly and evidently intuited or deduced with certainty, rather than relying on others' thoughts or mere conjecture.
• This intellectual clash—between inherited tradition and the burgeoning power of human reason—is considered the genesis of modern theory.
• Descartes's third rule introduced "Cartesian doubt": a provisional and methodical suspension of belief in knowledge acquired solely through books or idle speculation.
  • This critical skepticism was deemed necessary to separate modern science from late scholastic and ancient prejudices and to re-establish it on "clear and distinct" ideas.
  • For example, Descartes argued that Aristotle's teachings should no longer be considered sacrosanct; the modern mind should approach problems with empirical results and deductive reasoning.
• Cartesianism gained significant traction in French scientific circles by mid-century, influencing the arts as well.
• Roland Fréart de Chambray ($1606-76$), an architect, opened his $1650$ Parallèle de l'architecture antique avec la moderne (Parallel of ancient architecture with the modern) by urging contemporary architects to discard "blind respect and reverence" for antiquity and custom.
  • He asserted that "the mind is free, not bound" and that modern architects "have as good right to invent, and follow our Genius, as the Antients, without rendering our selves their Slaves."
• However, Fréart's critique of antiquity was qualified; he based his book "on the Principles of Geometry," believing essential architectural beauty lay in the "Symmetry and Oeconomy of the whole," or the "visible harmony and consent" perceived by eyes enlightened by the "real Intelligence of Art."
• Despite Fréart's skepticism, his views did not widely resonate, and France in the latter half of the $17$th century increasingly embraced the classical ideal.

The French Academic Tradition and Louis XIV's Reign

• The classical revival was significantly shaped by the reign of Louis XIV, who ascended the throne in $1661$ with a profound ambition to elevate France's standing globally.
• France's success was partly due to its emergence from the Thirty Years' War ($1618-48$) as Europe's strongest and most prosperous nation.
• With a population $4$ times that of England and $18$ times that of the Dutch Republic, France possessed substantial manpower and resources for large-scale ventures.
• Louis XIV was greatly aided by his chief minister and superintendent of building, Jean-Baptiste Colbert ($1619-83$).
• Voltaire, writing almost a century later, compared Louis XIV's era to those of Alexander, Augustus, and the Medicis, recognizing it as a period where "the arts were carried to perfection, and which, by serving as the era of greatness of the human mind, are examples for posterity."
• This era was marked by global exploration, with Jesuit missionaries reaching distant lands like China and North America.
• Colbert dispatched emissaries, such as Charles François Olier, the Marquis de Nointel, who in $1670$ negotiated a trade treaty in Constantinople and then traveled through Egypt and Greece, where his artists (notably Jacques Carrey) documented the Parthenon's still-intact sculptures.
• Domestically, Colbert focused on establishing and reorganizing various academies and supervising royal building projects, significantly altering the course of architectural theory.

The Evolution of Academies

• The term "academy" originated from Plato's park in Athens, where he taught his students.
• Its use was revived in $15$th-century Italy for any philosophical discussion, formal or informal.
• Giangiorgio Trissino's intellectual circle in Vincenza, where Palladio began his higher education in the $1530$s, was known as an academy due to its focus on classical learning.
• Palladio helped organize the Accademia Olimpica in $1555$, which discussed both classical works and mathematical questions.
• The Accademia del Designo, founded in Florence in $1563$, was one of the first academies exclusively for the arts, holding weekly meetings and planning an educational program (though largely theoretical).
• In contrast, Rome's Accademia de San Luca, inaugurated in $1593$, quickly became a renowned school for art theory and practice.
• Early academies in France were private entities.
• Cardinal Richelieu founded the French Academy in $1635$, initially tasked with producing a French dictionary and setting rules for literary composition.
• More influential was the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, established in $1648$ as a practical instruction school, modeled after Rome's San Luca.
• Under Louis XIV's reign in the $1660$s, the state launched an ambitious program of academic expansion and reorganization:
  • Academy of Dance founded in $1661$.
  • The "Little Academy" (forerunner to the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres), an offshoot of the French Academy, was created in $1663$.
  • In $1664$, Colbert reformed the Academy of Painting and Sculpture, mandating instruction and establishing the French Academy in Rome in $1666$ for top art students.
  • The Academy of Sciences was founded in $1666$.
  • The Academy of Music was established in $1669$.
  • The most prestigious institution of this academic system, the Royal Academy of Architecture, opened in $1671$.
• Through these foundations, Colbert and the king achieved several objectives:
  • They created a prestigious class of "academicians" with distinct privileges and instructional duties.
  • They centralized all artistic education under state authority.
  • They ensured that the rules of each discipline were strictly mandated and based on ancient and Renaissance precedents.

1. François Blondel and the French Academic Tradition (Continued)

• The first director of the Royal Academy of Architecture was François Blondel ($1618-86$), a $53$-year-old mathematician and engineer.
• Though entering architecture relatively late, Blondel was a distinguished polymath noted for military and naval service, a diplomatic mission to Turkey, travels to Italy, Greece, and Egypt, mathematics lectures at the Collège de France, ambassadorship to Denmark, and work on fortifying arsenals and improving seaports.
• Prior to his academy appointment, he mentored Colbert's second son on his Italian tour.
• The Royal Academy of Architecture aimed to codify and promote classical design principles through two public lectures per week: the first hour on theoretical architecture, the second on technical aspects (e.g., Euclidean geometry).
• Blondel's inaugural address on December $31$, $1671$, encouraged students to pursue their profession supported by the king's financial generosity and Colbert's oversight.
• A primary challenge for architectural reform was addressing perceived abuses of the baroque period within the classical tradition.
• France sought architectural independence from Italy, aiming to define its own classical legacy and surpass Italian architectural achievements.
• Antiquity, rather than the Renaissance, became the new theoretical starting point for French architectural development.
• To emulate Roman antiquity's masterworks, careful selection of approved models was crucial.
• Vitruvius's teachings took precedence in theory; Renaissance interpretations by Palladio, Scamozzi, Vignola, Serlio, and Alberti were consulted only when Vitruvius was ambiguous.
• Blondel published his lectures on theory in two substantial volumes, Cours d'architecture ($1675-1683$).
• His teachings rested on the traditional belief that architectural beauty primarily derives from proportions.
• He held that architectural proportions (visual) and musical tonalities (auditory) emanate from a higher cosmic order, and the perception of these consonances is facilitated by a divinely implanted idea in the mind.
• Blondel endorsed the arguments of his friend, musicologist René Ouvrard, who in Architecture harmonique asserted "that a building cannot be perfect if it does not follow the same rules as composition or the harmonizing of musical chords."
• Proportional relations remained central to architectural practice, with absolute beauty presumed to be discernible through the mind's grasp of these ratios.
• Though Blondel's analyses occasionally contained skepticism reminiscent of Fréart de Chambray's earlier views, it was presented in a manner that did not alienate devotees of the past.
• At the onset of Louis XIV's reign, architecture was firmly re-established within the classical tradition.

2. Claude Perrault and the Louvre

• Colbert's influence on the arts also stemmed from his role as superintendent of buildings, royal manufacturers, commerce, and fine arts, a post he assumed on January $1$, $1664$, granting him extensive control over royal artistic and architectural initiatives.
• One of Colbert's first actions was the nationalization of the Gobelin tapestry factory in Paris, placing it under the authority of Charles Le Brun, the king's first painter.
  • Hundreds of skilled artisans (painters, sculptors, engravers, goldsmiths, cabinet makers, weavers, dyers, mosaicists) were recruited from abroad, primarily Italy, to enhance France's glory.
• The principal architectural endeavor during this period was the eastern extension of the Louvre, designated as the king's urban residence.
  • The site's original turreted castle dated to early medieval times, gradually replaced during $16$th and early $17$th-century building campaigns.
  • In $1546$, Pierre Lescot (d. $1578$) designed the masterful southwest corner of the current square court, serving as an anchor for new expansion.
  • Jacques Lemercier ($1582-1654$) devised a more ambitious master plan in $1624$, doubling Lescot's building and adding a new central pavilion.
  • Lemercier's plan envisioned northern and southern wings joined by a new eastern building, creating a square with an interior court.
  • Construction ceased in $1643$ upon Louis XIII's death, with only some work completed on the basement of the north wing.
  • Work resumed in $1659$ as Louis XIV approached his ascension, with Louis Le Vau ($1612-70$), the king's first architect, preparing a new design.
  • The south wing was largely finished, and foundations and a portion of the eastern ceremonial front wall were erected.
• Upon Colbert's assumption of office in $1664$, the situation quickly changed due to his dissatisfaction with Le Vau's design.
  • Colbert had been privately seeking alternatives since as early as $1662$.
  • In $1664$, he solicited proposals from other French architects, including Jean Marot, Pierre Cottart, and François Mansart.
  • Two schemes significantly influenced the final outcome:
    • An anonymous design, exhibited in Paris in $1664$, for an open colonnade of Corinthian columns along the eastern front (a feature absent from Le Vau's design). This was later revealed to be the work of Claude Perrault ($1613-88$), older brother to Colbert's private secretary, Charles Perrault.
    • Another proposal, by François Le Vau ($1613-76$), Louis Le Vau's younger brother, also featured a freestanding colonnade with paired columns along the eastern façade.
  • François Le Vau's proposal reached Colbert in December $1664$.
  • Meanwhile, in March $1664$, Colbert requested a proposal from Italian baroque architect Gianlorenzo Bernini ($1598-1680$), which arrived in Paris in June.
  • By December $1664$, Colbert apparently favored Bernini, asking him to revise his proposal and travel from Rome to Paris.
  • Bernini's celebrated, costly arrival in Paris was on June $2$, $1665$. However, his revised design met severe criticism from French architects and Charles Perrault, ultimately being disregarded by the king.
  • Construction of the east wing halted in October after Bernini's departure, and the project remained dormant until spring $1667$.
  • Colbert then appointed a new committee (a petit conseil) to reconsider the design and develop a new proposal.
  • This committee comprised three individuals: Charles Le Brun (the king's first painter), Louis Le Vau (still the king's first architect), and Claude Perrault (the author of the unsolicited $1664$ design).
• Claude Perrault's Background and Contribution to the Louvre:
  • While the reasons for selecting the architecturally inexperienced Perrault are not fully understood historically, the political support of his younger brother and Colbert's desire for an influential voice on the committee likely played a role.
  • Claude Perrault was a man of considerable stature; at $51$, prior to his Louvre proposal, he had shown no interest in architecture beyond minor alterations to his country house at Viry.
  • He earned his medical degree from the Ecole de Médecine in $1642$ and lectured on anatomy and pathology for two decades.
  • Although he maintained a small medical practice, his primary professional interests shifted toward scientific research; he embodied a Cartesian scientific outlook.
  • His scientific work included numerous anatomical dissections of animals from the royal menagerie, studies in botany, geology, and mechanics, and experiments on the speed of sound with Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens.
  • In $1666$, a year before his Louvre appointment, Perrault, along with Huygens, was elected to the prestigious first class of the Academy of Sciences, an appointment approved by Colbert, indicating his scientific reputation.
  • Perrault also possessed a rare command of both Latin and Greek, which proved valuable when Colbert sought a translator for his state-sponsored Vitruvius translation (likely conceived with the future Academy of Architecture in mind) in late $1666$.
  • His selection for the translation seemed to accelerate or coincide with his architectural interests, as he proposed an obelisk for Louis XIV in late $1666$.
  • In spring $1667$, Perrault was commissioned as the architect for the new Royal Observatory, housing the Academy of Sciences, just weeks before the first meeting of the Louvre building committee.
• The extent of Perrault's contribution to the Louvre's final design (for which he later claimed sole credit) remains debated, but it is widely considered a genuine committee project.
  • Louis Le Vau's atelier produced the final drawings based on the committee's design.
  • The text makes reference to iron reinforcement bars utilized in the Louvre colonnade, as documented in Pierre Patte's $1769$ work, Mémoires sur les objets les plus importans de l'architecture.