THE STYLE OF LOUIS XIV. 



313 



299. VERSAILLES: GARDEN FRONT BY S. DE BROSSE(?) (1624), AS FIRST 

 REMODELLED BY LE VAU (1661-67). FROM PERELLE. 



by the greatest artists of the century. In judging the palace it is futile 

 to consider it as if it were the deliberate scheme of a single architect. 

 Versailles was a gradual growth keeping pace with the needs of a Court 

 ever increasing in power and splendour, and influenced at every stage 

 by the not very consistent caprices of a sovereign, whose commands 

 admitted of no evasion. Louis XIV., for instance, while forbidding 

 any alteration in the old chateau-front, in other respects loved constant 

 change, so that works were no sooner finished than they were trans- 

 formed, or removed altogether to make way for others. The most 

 obvious faults of Versailles, as it now stands, are nearly all due to this 

 cause, or to eighteenth century alterations. Though no extension of 

 the old brick chateau was undertaken between 1661 and 1667, yet 

 during that time it was repeatedly decorated internally, and modified 

 externally (Fig. 299) by the alteration of the dormers, the addition of 

 iron balconies, busts, and, in the court, of a giant order of pilasters at 

 the angles, and of an arcaded stone screen. New kitchen and stable 

 buildings were also put up to the right and left of the forecourt. 

 The main lines of the gardens were laid down, and the great terrace 

 formed on the west side, an orangery built to the south, and the 

 splendid grotto of Tethys to the north. 



LE VAU AT VERSAILLES : FIRST TRANSFORMATION. It soon, 

 however, became evident that the accommodation was becoming 

 inadequate, and plans for a general scheme of enlargement were 

 invited, not only from Le Vau, who had hitherto had the sole charge 

 of the buildings, but also from Le Pautre, Perrault, and Jacques 

 Gabriel. Le Vau's scheme was eventually adopted, but he was 

 instructed to omit circular or elliptical rooms, and to include sugges- 

 tions from his fellow-competitors. It had been definitely laid down 

 that the existing building was to be preserved intact, and this Le Vau 

 effected by enclosing the old brick chateau on three sides in a larger 



