324 



RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE. 



SA 



: PORTE ST DENIS, BY F. BLONDEL 

 AND LE BRUN (1672). 



painted architecture 

 and figure subjects 

 designed by Le Brun 

 and varied in each 

 case. 



ARCHES, GATE- 

 WAYS. Outside the 

 royal palaces the 

 government of Louis 

 XIV. sought to im- 

 press the public 

 mind by pompous 

 monuments. The 

 triumphal arch was 

 a form greatly in 

 favour, and there 

 are many examples 

 among the designs 

 of Marot. An im- 

 portant one, in- 



tended to carry a colossal statue of the King, was erected on the Place 



du Trone, on the road from Vincennes to Paris (1670), to celebrate 



the conquest of Franche Comte and Flanders. It was the work of 



Claude Perrault, whose design had been preferred to those submitted 



by Le Brun and Le Vau 



in competition with it. 



Le Vau's design is not 



known. The two others 



were based on that of 



the Arch of Constantine 



at Rome, but with 



coupled columns. Per- 



rault's arch was much 



larger than its prototype, 



being nearly 180 feet 



long and 75 feet in total 



height as against 82 feet 



and 68 feet in the 



Roman example. Ex- 



cepting the plinth it was 



executed in plaster, and, 



becoming ruinous, was 



soon removed. Francois 



Blondel, after remodel- 



3I2 . MONTPELUER : PORTE DU PEYROU, 

 BY F. D'ORRAY (1691-1710). 



