Fréart, Roland

Fréart, Roland, Sieur [ Master] de Chambray (b Le Mans, 13 July 1606; d Le Mans, 11 Dec. 1676). French civil servant and writer. He wrote, translated, or edited several works relating to art, architecture, and mathematics. These include the first printed edition of Leonardo da Vinci's treatise on painting, published in Paris in 1651 in French and Italian. In his own treatise, Idée de la perfection de la peinture (1662), he expresses his intellectual conception of painting; he greatly admired Poussin, whom he had met in Rome, and he condemned Caravaggio and Rubens, among other painters, for their disregard of classical principles. His brother Paul Fréart, Sieur de Chantelou (b Le Mans, 25 Mar. 1609; d ?1694), likewise a civil servant, was Poussin's main patron in France. They corresponded a good deal from 1639 until Poussin's death in 1665; Chantelou's letters to Poussin are lost, but Poussin's to Chantelou survive and they are an important source of information. Mainly they deal with practical matters, but they also set forth some of Poussin's views on art. When Bernini visited Paris in 1665–6 Chantelou was appointed his guide and companion, and he kept a diary documenting the visit; it was published in 1885 and an English translation appeared in 1985.