THE STYLE OF LOUIS XIV. 



283 



ment, and, in do- 

 ing so, to produce 

 a result in harmony 

 with the taste of 

 his day, and a 

 worthy home for 

 a Madame de 

 Sevigne. 



HOTELS BY LE 

 MUET. Among 

 the mansions built 

 in Paris by Pierre 

 Le Muet was the 

 stately Hotel de 

 Luynes (Rue St 

 Dominique, now 

 destroyed) in which 

 a balustraded attic 

 was interrupted by 

 a large heraldic 

 panel, the only or- 

 nament in a well- 

 balanced scheme 

 of tall pedimented 

 windows and 

 simple rusticated 

 coigns. In his 

 sober Hotel de 1'Aigle (16 Rue St Guillaume) there appears a feature, 

 soon to grow common, in a pediment the full width of a pavilion. In 

 the Hotel d'Avaux (later de St Aignan, 71 Rue du Temple) he intro- 

 duced an arcade treatment with happy effect with a giant Corinthian 

 order of noble design. This mansion and the contemporary Hotel Sale 

 (5 Rue de Thorigny), by an -unknown architect, are among the most 

 imposing houses to be found in Paris. 



HOTELS BY LE VAU AND J. MAROT. Much younger than Le 

 Muet, Louis Le Vau, one of the most fashionable architects of the day, 

 passed like him through various stages of development, and his work, 

 though always typical of its period, has individualities of its own. The 

 open staircases above referred to are almost peculiar to him at this 

 period. Anxious to obtain increased scale and unity he experimented 

 with the giant order, but not daring to break altogether with the national 

 practice, invariably followed by Mansart, of applying one order to each 

 storey, he combined great and small orders in one design, retaining 

 the latter in intermediate positions and emphasising the total height 



268. 



PARIS: STAIRCASE OF HOTEL LAMBERT DE 

 THORIGNY, RUE ST LOUIS-EN-L'!LE, BY L. LE 

 VAU (c. 1645). ELEVATION. 



