240 



RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE. 



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234. CHATEAU OF BLOIS : ORLEANS WING, BY F. MANSART (1635-40). 

 ELEVATION TO COURT. 



Measured and Drawn by L. M. Gotch. 



with more romantic and popular neighbours, which owe their continued 

 existence only to the fact that lack of funds prevented its completion. 

 Considerations such as these, which are foreign to its intrinsic merits, 

 may be set aside in judging Mansart's work. The new chateau of 

 Blois is in effect a revised version of the Luxembourg, influenced by 

 Verneuil, and by Coulommier, which it closely resembles in the plan 

 of its main block, and probably of the unbuilt remainder which was to 

 consist of lower wings enclosing the existing court and the Place du 

 Chateau as well, and to be approached from the town by monumental 

 stairs at the east. The treatment of the elevations is in many respects 

 simpler than at the Luxembourg (Figs. 234 and 235). No balustrades, 

 dormers, or divisions between the blocks break the quiet simplicity of 

 the great mansard roofs. The sheer height of the storeys, the breadth 

 of spacing, and the boldness of the masses need no fuss of rustication 

 to convey an impression of dignity and repose, enhanced, it is true, by 

 the nature of the site, for Gaston's palace, standing as it does, terraced 

 on cliff-like retaining walls, rivals many a feudal keep in its air of defiant 

 strength. The orders of coupled pilasters with which the elevations 

 are treated are detailed with a vigour to which the absence of rustication 

 gives full value. In the court, the curved colonnade, tentatively sug- 

 gested at Coulommier, is used with greater assurance, and leads invit- 

 ingly by quadrant sweeps to the entrance, while the central bay is 



