450 



RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE. 



are divided by plain pilaster strips into bays containing niches alternately 

 square and round-headed. The sober cartouches introduced and the 

 wreaths hanging from them are almost of the Louis XVI. type. 



The fountains in the Rue des Hauclriettes, Paris, by Moreau Desproux 

 (1775), in the Place St Louis, Versailles, by Pluyette (1766), and in the 

 Place des Precheurs, Aix, by J. P. Chastel (1758), and the charming 

 chateau d'eau at Montpellier are good examples of the Louis XVI. style. 

 THEATRES. One type of public building, the theatre, now comes for 

 the first time into prominence. Dramatic performances had hitherto 

 with few exceptions been held in buildings of a more or less temporary 

 character, or not primarily erected for the purpose. Of the few buildings 

 designed ad hoc, most formed part of a palace or other great house such 

 as the Tuileries and Palais Royal, and the remainder, as for instance the 

 Comedie Frangaise built by d'Orbay (1680), Rue des Fosses St Jacques 



in Paris, had few pretensions to 

 external architectural treatment, 

 while internally, everything being 

 sacrificed to the auditorium and 

 stage, they were deficient in all 

 other convenience for the per 

 formers and public. Theatres 

 being of all buildings the most 

 liable to fire, none of an earlier 

 period have survived. In the late 

 eighteenth century, however, inde- 

 pendent and permanent theatres 

 were frequently built, and some 

 of these are too important archi- 

 tecturally to be passed over in 

 silence. 



OPERA, VERSAILLES. One 

 of the last of the great private 

 theatres, that designed for Louis 

 XV. at Versailles by J. A. Gabriel 

 (1753-70), and destined for the 

 performance of opera, is the most 

 perfect example of the type. It 

 occupies the extremity of the 

 north wing of the palace, whose 

 elevations had been designed, in 

 t..:,.T r r r r ? T,... their main lines at least, by J. H. 



Mansart. The auditorium is of 

 BORDEAUX : " GRAND THEATRE," 



BY V. Louis (1777-80). PLAN OF the U plan, at that time universal 

 SECOND FLOOR, in France (Fig. 428). Above the 



430- 



