RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE. 



of the Sorbonne by their churches, 

 Mansart was commissioned to make 

 good the deficiency. It may have been 

 intended that he should do so by adding 

 a domed choir to the existing nave, but 

 he preferred to give the addition the form 

 of a distinct church, having nothing in 

 common with the old one but the altar 

 (Figs. 332 and 333). This is placed in 

 an elliptical domed sacrarium open to 

 both churches, which are back to back, 

 the new one facing the country and 

 having its state entrance on that side. 

 The limitations imposed by the sur- 

 rounding buildings were thus reduced 

 to a minimum, and it is therefore not 

 surprising that, with the example of the 

 Val-de-Gra.ce to study, an architect of 

 Mansart's genius was able to produce a 

 design which in plan and section shows 

 a great advance on its predecessors and 

 in elevation at least rivals them. Begun 

 in 1693 tne Dome des Invalides, as the 

 new church was called, was practically 

 finished in 1706. With the exception 

 of the sacrarium the whole is contained 

 in a square block. The octagonal dome- 

 space, which is about half the width of 

 the square, forms the centre of a Greek 

 cross with arms each approximately 

 square, while the angles are occupied 

 by circular chapels opening not only 

 into the central space but into the 

 arms as well. There is much closer 

 correspondence between the internal 

 and external arrangements of the dome 



than at the Sorbonne and Val-de-Grace. The stone inner dome, 

 placed over a drum well-lit and pleasantly treated with an order 

 of pilasters, is so designed as to be visible from every point of 

 the cruciform area the span is 80 feet and the height at the 

 springing 140 feet. It is open at the crown, disclosing the painted 

 surface of a second dome, likewise in masonry, and independently 

 lit. This is a somewhat theatrical barocco device, which, however, 

 has the advantage of increasing the loftiness of effect without 



332- 



THE INVALIDES : FIRST 

 CHUKCH (NAVE), BY 

 BRUANU (1671-4). SECOND 

 CHURCH ("DOME"), BY J. 

 H. MANSART (1692-1704). 

 PLAN. FROM LEGRAND. 



