THE STYLE OF LOUIS XIV. 



28l 





SCALE: OP P. . , ,? ^METRES 



266. 



HOTEL CARNAVALET, AS 

 ALTERED IN SEVENTEENTH 

 CENTURY. PLAN. FROM 

 MA ROT. 



In some of Le Vau's houses a 

 decorative, if comfortless, feature is 

 made of the state staircase, which is 

 an open loggia occupying a central 

 pavilion between two suites of apart- 

 ments (Fig. 268). This was not a 

 new idea, but an old type, exempli- 

 fied at Chateaudun, rendered in 

 seventeenth century forms. In the 

 Hotel Roland by J. Marot there was 

 a novel and more convenient arrange- 

 ment (Fig. 264). The staircase was 

 at the junction of two wings and 

 approached through an elliptical 

 vestibule from the main entrance 

 situated in the angle of the court. 

 Large dormers begin to give place to 

 continuous attics or small dormers 

 behind balustrades (Fig. 263). Win- 

 dows reach their maximum size, and 

 even wooden mullions are dispensed 



with. The elevations show a tendency to decorative pomp with 

 increased scale and much sculpture; at the same time, in spite of 

 simplified and more refined detail and less dependence on rustication, 

 they retain much of the massiveness of the age of Louis XIII. Courts 

 of hotels were often decorated with colour as well as sculpture, and 

 perspective views, painted on blank walls, increased their apparent size. 



In chateaux the court, if not entirely open, was closed by a decorative 

 stone screen as at Brecy or Sorel, or by one consisting partly of metal 

 railings as at Vaux, and later at Clagny and Versailles. 



HOTELS BY F. MANSART. Among the earliest hotels to show a 

 more classic and refined feeling were the destroyed Hotel de Bellegarde 

 (Rue Crenelle St Honore), remodelled in 1630 by Jean du Cerceau for 

 Chancellor Seguier, and the Hotel d'Aumont (7 Rue de Jouy) (Fig. 265), 

 the front of which is by Le Vau and the back by Mansart. The culmi- 

 nation of the movement may be seen in Mansart's remodelling of the 

 Hotel Carnavalet (1661) (previously known as Hotel de Ligneris and 

 d'Argouge). His work here (Fig. 267), which was doubtless influenced 

 by a study of the exquisite distinction of Lescot's detail and Goujon's 

 sculpture, consisted principally in substituting a full upper storey with 

 an order of pilasters for the attic over the galleries round the court. 

 The vermiculation, too, was cut on the rustication at this time. With 

 infinite skill he succeeded in welding together the chief features of the 

 older work with new ones which bear comparison with them in refine. 



