RENAISSANCE

ARCHITECTURE

In France

GEOGRAPHY INFLUENCE
Paris as the centre
New renaissance influence radiated to all parts of the country
Distance of Paris from Italy
Italian influences on southern commercial capital of Lyons.

CLIMATIC INFLUENCES
Large windows
High pitched roofs
Lofty chimneys

GEOLOGICAL INFLUENCE
Building stones
Paris city of stone instead of different geological condition
After 1780 iron wrought and cast

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL

Paris at this time was the capital of a Compact and rapidly consolidating kingdom.
All movement emanate from Paris, not only in architecture, but also in science and literature.
The number of chateaux erected during the early periods of the Renaissance in France was
due to many social causes.
The invasion of Italy by Charles VIII. in 1494,and by Francis I. in 1527
Claims to the thrones of Naples and Milan, marks the distribution of Italian artists and
workmen over Europe, and more especially France.
Among the chief of the artists were Leonardo da Vinci, brought to France by Francis I.
Cellini, Serlio, Vignola, Rosso, Prima- ticcio, and Cortona. In the later period, the Italian
Bernini was the guest of Louis XIV.
A band of Italians journeying from place to place was responsible for much of the picturesque
early Renaissance south of the Loire.

HISTORICAL
The English were driven from France in 1543,and the accession of LouisXL,in A.D. 1461
practically led to the consolidation of France in to one kingdom.
During the first half of the sixteenth century Italy became the battlefield of Europe.
In 1508 Louis joined the league of Cambray formed against Venice ,Florence being the
ally of France during all this period.
Francis I. was defeated and taken prisoner by the Spaniards at the Battle of Pavia,
1525.
In these wars the French kings , although failing in their actual object , were thus
brought into contact with the superior civilization of Italy, and drawn into the
Renaissance movement, at the same time becoming more absolute in their own country.
From 1558 to the end of the century, the religious wars, between the Huguenots and
Catholics, distracted the country.

HISTORICAL
During the reign of Louis XIII. (1610-1643) Cardinal Richelieu strengthened the royal
power.
Cardinal Mazarinn continued his policy, and Louis XIV., ascending the throne
in1643,becamean absolute monarch.
His conquests, in the Netherlands and Germany, led to a general coalition against him,
and to his great defeat at the hands of
Marlborough.
The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 led to a further emigration of Protestants to
England.
In the reign of Louis XV. (1715-1774) the evil effects of despotism and bad government
became more marked, and the writers Voltaire, Rousseau, and others weakened authority
by their attacks, and prepared the ground for the great revolution that began in 1792.

ARCHITECTURAL
CHARACTER
The early Period (1483-1498)
The Classical Period (1589-1610)
The late Period (1715-1830)

THE EARLY PERIOD (14831498)

Picturesque ensemble of Gothic and Renaissance features.
Renaissance details were grafted on to gothic features such as
flying buttresses and pinnacles.
The principle building in France were the castles in the country
round Paris and on the Loire for the King and his courtiers.
The influence of traditional gothic craftsmanship was more
pronounced
the salient feature of the architecture was the picturesque-ness
and the gothic verticality.
Early building in France were principally chateaux for the nobility.

THE CLASSICAL PERIOD

(1589-1610)
Notable for the dignity, sobriety and masculine quality of foremost
building
Subordination of plan composition and detail of the unity of the
whole.
Clearity and simplicirty of the element used
Ornamentation were coarse.
Baroque idea was mainly for civic and design and garden planning.
Very few buildings are recognisable as baroque in exterior.
Exterior were classical where as interior were much more luxuriant.

THE CLASSICAL PERIOD

(1589-1610)
At earlier brick were most used in building usually in conjunction with stone
of stucco.
Windows grow increasingly large up to the steep roofs
Stone mullions and transom at the place of timber.
Roofs were steep and treated as separate pavilion unit
Mansard roof with two different slope were popular.
Unified pitched roof or flat roof become increasingly common.
Interior decoration profuse with fanciful scrolls, nymphs, wreaths and shells,
carried out in stucco and papier-mache.
Ornamentation on furniture and fittings

THE LATE PERIOD (17151830)

Domestic planning and interior decoration
Residences and town hotels were erected with comfort and
convenience as prime importance
Rooms planned for independent approach of interlocked and
compact arrangements rather than in sequence.
Devices of circular, oval, curvilinear or polygonal shape.
Deep squares plan become normal
Internal corners are rounded
Walls followed sinuous curves on plan occasionally

THE LATE PERIOD (17151830)

Exterior become more simple and less classically pure
Orders were substituted by pilasters in domestic buildings
Windows grew larger often absorbing the greater part of the wall
Measured drawings and restoration of ancient remains
Richness of interiors in refined rather than simple
Decorative motif were drawn from divergent sources neighbouring
countries.
Cast and wrought iron were exploited .

THE CHATEAU DE
CHAMBORD
by Pierre Nepveu, is one of the most famous erected in the Loire district of central France.
semi-fortified character.
The traditional circular towers of defence , roofed with slate covered cones ,
palace design infused with Italian detail.
Conical roofs are broken up, where possible , by rich dormers and tall chimneys
The main block, 220 feet square was surrounded ,and protected on three sides by buildings inclosing a
courtyard while the fourth side was defended by a moat.
The central feature, or "donjon is square on plan, with four halls as lofty as the nave of a church ,and
tunnel-vaulted with coffered sinking's.
At the junction of these halls is the famous double spiral staircase, built up in a cage of stone whose
crowning lantern is the central object of the external grouping.
The smallness of scale in regard to mouldings, the flatness of the projection to the pilasters,
The Gothic feeling throughout the design, especially the high-pitched roofs, the ornamented chimneys,
and the general vertical treatment of the features

PALACE AT FONTAINEBLEAU
(A.D. 1528)
Was erected by Le Breton, architect, for Francis I.,
Remarkable irregularity in its plan.
Vignola and Serlio have worked on the design.
The sumptuous interiors

Decorated by Ben venuto Cellini, Primaticcio and Serlio.

The exterior is remarkably plain.

THE DOME OF THE

INVALIDES, PARIS (16701706)

by Jules Hardouin Mansard,

shows that the principles of the Italian Renaissance were fully established.
In plan it is a Greek cross,
with the corners filled in so as to make it a square Externally
The dome,92 feet in diameter, rests on four piers provided with openings to form eight,
The piers are so formed as to produce internally an octagonal effect,
The openings leading to four angle chapels,
The triple dome is provided with windows in the drum
175 feet high with a central opening over this comes a second or middle dome
Painted decorations, visible by means of windows at its base.
external dome crowned by a lantern of wood, covered with lead.

THEPANTHEON(1755-81)
Was erected from the designs of Soufflot (A.D. 1713-81).
The plan is approximately a Greek cross, four halls surrounding a central one, above
which rises a dome, 69feet in diameter.
The dome is a triple one as that of the Invalides.
But the outer dome is of stone covered with lead.
variety of the unbroken ring of free-stand columns unattached to the drum. The interior
of the church has an order of Corinthian columns with an attic over
The vaulting is ingenious, and elegance has been obtained by a tenuity of support which
at one time threatened the stability of the building.
The exterior has a Corinthian colonnade or portico at the west end, the cornice to which
is carried round the remainder of the facades, which have a blank wall treatment,
Light obtained for the nave by a clerestory over the aisles.