322 



RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE. 



galleries they are 39 feet wide, and the longest over 1,000 feet long 

 carrying a terrace, and opening by tall arched windows on to a sunk 

 parterre, which they enclose on three sides. The wings terminate in 

 straight flights of 103 steps over 60 feet wide. The plainly rusticated 

 elevations have in the centre a portico of colossal Tuscan columns. 

 The sense of immovable strength conveyed by these cliff-like facades 

 fits them to form the base on which the huge palace appears to stand 

 when viewed from the south. The Bosquet des Domes has disappeared, 

 but the Colonnade survives. It consists of a circular arcade, whose 

 arches spring from Ionic columns alternately of red and grey marble, 

 each buttressed by a square pilaster, while under each arch a fountain 

 rises out of a raised marble basin. If these creations exhibit J. H. 

 Mansart in a mood of playful fancy, and the Orangery in one of almost 

 rugged severity, the housing of the various services of the palace, the 

 stable, the kitchens, and so forth, afforded him an opportunity of showing 

 how such utilitarian building could be invested with dignity by a 

 monumental grouping of masses with the judicious addition of good 

 sculpture at some crucial point (Fig. 308). 



SMALLER ROYAL HOUSES. Even Louis XIV. himself sometimes 

 found the splendours of Versailles oppressive, and experienced the 

 need for intervals of comparative privacy. Hence there grew up 

 in the neighbourhood several smaller houses to which the King might 

 retire with select society of intimates, or which he could present to one 

 of the princesses or mistresses. Among these were the Menagerie, whose 

 central feature was an octagonal building containing a grotto on the 

 lower floor with a domed saloon over it, and surrounded by radiating 

 courts containing foreign animals. It was built probably by Le Vau 

 (1663-5) an d later enlarged by J. H. Mansart. Another was Trianon 

 (Grand Trianon), first built by Le Vau in a pseudo-Chinese style 

 (1672-4) (see p. 363), and then superseded by a building by Mansart 

 (1687), comprising two separate blocks, later connected by an open 

 loggia or "Peristyle" 

 by Robert de Cotte. 

 It had but one storey 

 and a flat roof, and 

 its elevations were 

 treated with an Ionic 

 order with pink 

 marble shafts and a 

 balustrade with urns 

 and sculpture. The 

 wing known as 

 Trianon - sous - Bois 

 was added later. A 



SCALE OFFSET 



E OF METRES 



39- 



ROYAL PAVILION AT MARLY, BY J. H. MANSART 

 (1680-86): GROUND AND FIRST FLOOR PLANS. 

 FROM FER. 



