376 RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE. 



or nephew of Jean Francois. At their head was Jacques Ange 

 Gabriel (1699-1782), who on the death of his father, Jacques Jules, 

 in 1742, succeeded to the latter's posts and practice, and was largely 

 employed by the Court and in public works. 



The puristic reaction, which with its causes and results forms the 

 subject of the next chapter, is observable at this time only in the work 

 of one or two exceptional men. Servandony, its protagonist, produced 

 one work of first-class importance, but otherwise was but fitfully in 

 practice, while Soufflot, in whose hands the reaction eventually became 

 even more radical than in those of Servandony, was at this time still 

 engaged in maturing his style. In the third quarter of the century 

 the reaction rapidly gained ground. 



ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION. The reign of Louis XV. is remark- 

 able for the work it accomplished for architectural organisation and 

 education. The Academy was formally incorporated in 1717, and 

 its members increased to twenty-four. Later in the reign they seem 

 to have grown to forty, who were all architectes du rot. The system 

 of the "Prix de Rome," involving a five years' course of study in 

 Rome at the expense of the government, was extended from painters 

 and sculptors to architects. The first architectural student, as 

 such, was sent to the Palazzo Capranica in 1720, and five years later 

 the school was transferred to the Palazzo Mancini. The year 1743 

 was marked by the opening in Paris by Jacques Francois Blondel, who 

 held the professorship at the Academy, of the first of those private schools, 

 or ateliers, which have ever since been such a prominent feature in 

 French architectural education. This institution, which obtained the 

 approbation of the Academy and the financial support of the govern- 

 ment, had a staff of teachers in various branches of design, construction, 

 and engineering. Blondel also published a series of works, one of the 

 most important of which was " L' Architecture Francaise " (Paris, 1752), 

 a development of a work begun by Jean Marot. It attempted to do 

 for the early eighteenth century what Marot, Silvestre, and Perelle had 

 done for the seventeenth, and du Cerceau for the sixteenth. The 

 portions published illustrate and describe the architecture of Paris and 

 Versailles, but the author's intention of including other royal residences, 

 suburban and country houses, gardens, decoration, &c., was unfortun- 

 ately not carried out, though some of the material was utilised in his 

 "Cours d'Architecture " (Paris, 1774-7). This work, completed by 

 Pierre Patte, contained the substance of Blondel's lectures, and became 

 the standard handbook, superseding to a large extent those of F. 

 Blondel the elder, and of d'Aviler. 



