226 RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE. 



chateaux of Fonts and Chauvigny and additions to that of Tanlay. 

 He long practised a manner very similar to that of Le Mercier, but, 

 younger and more open to new ideas, he kept up with, and perhaps 

 promoted, the progress in internal planning, and yielded to the growing 

 classicising current, so that his latest works may be reckoned as 

 examples of the Louis XIV. style. 



F. MANSART. While the du Cerceau and Metezeau dynasties were 

 coming to an end, two new ones, which were to hold an even more 

 prominent place in French architecture, and to be united by various 

 ties, were being founded by Jacques I. Gabriel, a humble practitioner 

 of Rouen, and Francois Mansart (1598-1666), the greatest figure 

 on the architectural stage during the rule of the cardinal-ministers. Of 

 obscure origin and training, he is believed to have conducted the works 

 at St Gervais under de Brosse. He owed much to the latter's influence, 

 as may be judged from a comparison, for instance, of his work at 

 Blois with the Luxembourg and the chateau of Coulommier (Figs. 

 228, 230, and 234). More original and fastidious than Le Mercier, he 

 exhibits in his earlier work the culmination of the style of Louis XIII., 

 and, becoming increasingly penetrated with the classical spirit, helped 

 largely in preparing the way for the style of the Grand Reigne. His 

 repeated refusal to palter with the dictates of his artistic conscience 

 is as creditable to his character as it was injurious to his worldly 

 advancement, but the independent spirit which lost him important 

 works was allied to an inordinate vanity, which prompted him to a 

 display more suitable to a duke. He caused a pedigree to be drawn 

 up, according to which his ancestors had been architects to every king 

 of France, from Hugh Capet in the tenth century downwards, and 

 drove about in a coach drawn by horses trained to a rhythmic step. 



Mansart's earliest known work is the chateau of Balleroy (1026-36), 

 followed by the church of Ste Marie, Rue St Antoine (1633-4), the 

 Hotel de la Vrilliere (1635-8), the new wing at Blois (1635-40), the 

 chateau of Maisons (1642-50), and the remodelling of the Hotel 

 d'Argouge (1662). It was in connection with the convent and 

 church of the Val-de- Grace (begun 1645) that the disagreement 

 with his royal employers occurred which deprived Mansart of their 

 favour. It was known that, at Maisons, he had pulled down some of 

 the work as soon as built, in order to improve the design, but not that 

 the employer's consent had been obtained before doing so. Anne of 

 Austria, fearing a repetition of these costly methods, insisted on the 

 work at the Val de-Grace being carried out in accordance with the 

 accepted scheme. Mansart preferred to throw up his post rather than 

 bind himself to a design which, in his maturer judgment, might require 

 modification, and the conduct of the building was transferred to Le 

 Mercier. Later on he lost the opportunity of completing the Louvre 



