Jules Hardouin-Mansart

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Hardouin-Mansart, Jules (1646–1708). French architect. His great-uncle was F. Mansart, who trained him. He was the master of the Louis Quatorze style, imbibing architectural ideas from Le Vau and Bruant, and was eventually appointed to the important State offices associated with building, becoming Premier Architecte (1685) and Surintendant des Bâtiments du Roi (1699). He worked with Bruant on the Church of St-Louis, Invalides, Paris, in the 1670s, but himself designed and built the noble Dôme des Invalides (c.1677–91), where Baroque and Classical tendencies are serenely balanced, the whole constructed on a Greek-cross plan and influenced by F. Mansart's unexecuted designs for the Bourbon mortuary-chapel at St-Denis. From 1673 he worked at Versailles, taking charge in 1678, and filling in Le Vau's Garden-Court to form the Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors—1678–89), the epitome of the grand Louis Quatorze style. He also designed the Grand Trianon (again 1678–89), several fountains in the grounds, and the Chapel (1688–after 1708). The last, with its steeply pitched roof, looks like a Classicized medieval building, but the beautiful interior, with its arcade carrying an elegant screen of Corinthian columns, is almost a harbinger of Neo-Classicism, and was completed by de Cotte. In much of his work he was also assisted by Lassurance and Pierre Le Pautre (c.1643–1716)—who was the leading interior decorator at Versailles, responsible for the Salon de l'Œil de Bœuf (1701), and the finishings of the Chapel. Hardouin-Mansart's Place Vendôme (from 1698) has handsome, unified façades on an arcaded rez-de-chaussée, and is one of the French capital's most distinguished urban spaces. His circular Place des Victoires only partially survives. His grandson, Jean Hardouin-Mansart de Jouy (1700– ), rebuilt the west façade of St-Eustache, Paris (1733–88).

Bibliography

Builder (1982);
Bourget & and Cattaui (1960);
Builder & and Smith (1973);
Doumato (1981);
Hautecœur (1948);
Marie & and Marie (1972)

Hardouin-Mansart, Jules (1646–1708) French architect to Louis XIV. His bold Baroque style made him an ideal person to carry out the king's vast building works. His major achievements include the Hall of Mirrors (1678–84), the Orangerie (1681–86), and the Grand Trianon (1687–88), all at Versailles, and the dome of the Hôtel des Invalides, Paris (1680–91).