262 



RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE. 



lines are more 

 strongly insisted on 

 and the decoration is 

 more florid. The 

 interior is a good 

 example of the Jesuit 

 type, with three 

 apses, and a high 

 dome on an octago- 

 nal drum lit by four 

 windows. In spite 

 of its undoubted 

 merits, it is difficult 

 nowadays to under- 

 stand the enthusiasm 

 which this edifice 

 aroused at the time. 

 Evelyn, who visited 

 it shortly after its 

 completion, refers to 

 it as " that noble fab- 

 riq, which I esteeme 

 to be one of the most 

 perfect pieces of ar- 

 chitecturein Europ." 

 Another church ex- 

 ample of a three- 

 order front by De- 

 rand is seen in the 

 ungainly and ill-pro- 

 portioned Jesuit 

 church at Blois (St 



Vincent de Paul, 1625). Mansart first attracted attention by the facade 

 which he designed for the church of the Reformed Cistercians, known 

 as "Feuillants" (1629), on the site of the present Rue Castiglione, a 

 reduced variant on the two upper storeys of that of St Gervais. 



THE ORATOIRE, PARIS ; CHURCH AT RICHELIEU. The history of 

 the " Oratoire," the church of the Oratorian Fathers in the Rue St 

 Honore, now a Protestant church, is a little obscure. The most 

 probable account is that the choir (1621-4) is by Le Mercier, the nave 

 (1624-7) by Jacques Clement Metezeau, and that the elliptical domed 

 retro-choir was added later by Francois Mansart. The church itself 

 follows the usual formula of a monastic church. The transepts, how- 

 ever, emerge only above the ground floor level, the chapels being 



257. NEVERS : STE MARIE. FACADE. 



