hôtel particulier

views updated

hôtel particulier. French town-house of considerable grandeur, the basic form of which was invented by Serlio and consisted of a corps de logis flanked by lower projecting wings on either side forming a court enclosed on the street side by a wall in which was the entrance-gate, often with an enclosed garden on the other side of the main block. The plans of the Hôtel Carnavalet (c.1545 and later additions) by Lescot, remodelled by Mansart (1660–1), and Mansart's Hôtel de la Vrillière (1635–45—destroyed), both in Paris, are good examples.

Bibliography

Contet (1914–34);
Gallet (1964, 1972, 1972a);
Loyer (1987);
Sturgis et al. (1901–2)