334 RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IX FRANCE. 



319. PARIS: HOTEL DE SOUBISE. PRINCIPAL FRONT IN COURT. 



sculptured pediment. The composition derives additional value from 

 the plainness of the sides with their broad rusticated coigns and the 

 unusually wide spacing of the square-headed windows. 



EPISCOPAL RESIDENCES, MONASTIC BUILDING. Charles d'Aviler 

 had a considerable practice, especially in the south of France. He had 

 been a draughtsman in Mansart's office but appears to have quarrelled 

 with him. He went to Montpellier (1691) to superintend the building 

 of d'Orbay's Arc du Peyrou and spent ten years there. Among his other 

 works were the Archbishop's Palace at Toulouse and the Bishop's Palace 

 at Bezier. The contemporary Bishop's Palace at Blois is by J. J. 

 Gabriel, and those of St Omer and Arras (1680-1701) and of Castres 

 are attributed to Mansart. Such buildings as these are admirably 

 adapted by their extent and simple dignity for the public purposes to 

 which they are now often turned to account. Throughout the reign, 

 monastic or quasi-monastic buildings were erected on a large scale, 

 partly owing to the general interest in religious matters, but also to the 

 facts that education was largely in the hands of the religious orders, 

 and that nunneries often provided a residence for ladies, who frequently 

 brought with them their servants and the habits of secular life. The 

 buildings were often, therefore, of great size and splendour. As examples 

 the following may be mentioned : the Val-de-Grace in Paris, by F. 

 Mansart (1645-50), now a military hospital ; the Benedictine nunnery, 

 by Royers de la Valseniere (1659-65), at Lyons, now " Palais des Beaux 

 Arts " ; Mme. de Maintenon's foundation of St Cyr, by J. H. Mansart 

 (1685-6), now a military college. 



