THE STYLE OF LOUIS XIV. 303 



in all. Marot's device was to widen the angle pavilions, and to place 

 additional ones in the centre of the galleries, making five in all. Le 

 Mercier treated the ground storey as a rusticated basement, and left 

 the upper one plain, as on the other elevations, except in the main 

 pavilions, which had a giant order of engaged shafts embracing this 

 storey and the attic or mezzanine. The composition is a very artistic 

 one on the old lines, leading up by progressive increase in height and 

 richness to the main block. Marot struck out a new line by repeating 

 the order of the court on the outside, and making his central pavilion 

 circular with a dome. Le Vau's design has not survived, but there can 

 be little doubt that it was of the same general type as the above, 

 though his angle pavilions were a repetition of the western ones, 

 and he would probably have used a giant order in the same manner as 

 at the south entrance. This was the treatment adopted in Cottart's 

 design in combination with several original suggestions. In order to 

 make the court longer than it was wide, he introduced covered galleries 

 along the sides and brought them out with a curved sweep to the 

 entrance pavilion, and placed his new front further east than the eastern 

 angle pavilions instead of between them, with an arrangement of the 

 angles similar to that of the first scheme for Verneuil. This device 

 had the additional advantage of avoiding excessive length in the new 

 elevation. The domed entrance pavilion was connected with the 

 new angle pavilions by galleries of the height of the giant order, 

 with flat balustraded roofs. It is unfortunate that Mansart's sketches 

 are lost, since a solution of the problem by the architect of Maisons 

 and Blois could not fail to be of great artistic value. Though it 

 satisfied Colbert, it is difficult to imagine that it broke entirely with 

 the national tradition of group-building. It would be instructive to 

 know how far Perrault's first design, which is also lost, did so. 



BERNINI'S DESIGN. About the tendencies of Bernini's scheme (Fig. 

 292) there is no doubt, and therein lies its chief, if not its only, merit. 

 It proclaimed literally from the house tops that it was a single building 

 representing a single idea. It consisted of a lofty rectangular mass 

 with very shallow projections, and a colossal order carrying a massive 

 entablature, above which ran a balustrade and a line of statues. The 

 plan (Fig. 290), which involved the virtual destruction of the old palace, 

 comprised a square court, which was reduced to a Greek cross by pro- 

 jecting stair blocks in the angles, and narrow courts of the width of the 

 palace to east and west, each divided into two by a central gallery. The 

 gigantic mass was to be approached from the west through an equally 

 gigantic forecourt, of which the Grande Galerie and the Tuileries formed 

 part. It is not surprising that dissatisfaction was aroused. It was easy, 

 but inconclusive, to pick holes in the design on the ground of breaches 

 of Palladian laws : the irregular spacing of pilasters and consoles, the 



