Claude Perrault

Claude Perrault

Claude Perrault is best known as the architect of the eastern range of the Louvre Palace in Paris , but he also achieved success as a physician and anatomist, and as an author, who wrote treatises on physics and natural history.Perrault was born and died in Paris...

’s Colonnade

Colonnade

In classical architecture, a colonnade denotes a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building....

is the easternmost façade of the Palais du Louvre

Palais du Louvre

The Louvre Palace , on the Right Bank of the Seine in Paris, is a former royal palace situated between the Tuileries Gardens and the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois...

in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. It has been celebrated as the foremost masterpiece of French Architectural Classicism

French Baroque and Classicism

17th-century French art is generally referred to as Baroque, but from the mid to late 17th century, French art is more often referred to as Neo-classicism, which implies an adherence to certain rules of proportion and sobriety uncharacteristic of the Baroque as it was practiced in Southern and...

 since its construction, mostly between 1667 and 1670. Cast in a restrained classicizing baroque manner, it interprets rules laid down by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius

Vitruvius

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman writer, architect and engineer, active in the 1st century BC. He is best known as the author of the multi-volume work De Architectura ....

, whose works Perrault had translated into French. Architect Louis Le Vau

Louis Le Vau

Louis Le Vau was a French Classical architect who worked for Louis XIV of France. He was born and died in Paris.He was responsible, with André Le Nôtre and Charles Le Brun, for the redesign of the château of Vaux-le-Vicomte. His later works included the Palace of Versailles and his collaboration...

 and artist Charles Le Brun

Charles Le Brun

Charles Le Brun , a French painter and art theorist, became the all-powerful, peerless master of 17th-century French art.-Biography:-Early life and training:...

 also contributed to the realization of Perrault's work.

Description

Little that could be called Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 can be identified in Perrault’s cool classicism that looks back to the 16th century. The façade, divided into five parts, is a typical solution of French classicism. The simple character of the ground floor basement sets off the paired Corinthian columns, modeled strictly according to Vitruvius, against a shadowed void, with pavilions at the ends. This idea of coupled columns on a high podium goes back as far as Bramante. Those rhythmical columns form a shadowed colonnade with a central pediment

Pediment

A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...

ed triumphal arch

Triumphal arch

A triumphal arch is a monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, crowned with a flat entablature or attic on which a statue might be...

 entrance raised on a high, rather defensive base. Crowned by an uncompromising Italian balustrade along its distinctly non-French flat roof, the whole ensemble represents a ground-breaking departure in French architecture.

History

Perrault (1613–1688) won the competition held by Louis XIV for a design for the eastern façade of the Louvre Palace, beating out even Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Gian Lorenzo Bernini was an Italian artist who worked principally in Rome. He was the leading sculptor of his age and also a prominent architect...

, who had traveled from Italy expressly for the purpose. This work consumed Perrault from 1665 to 1680, and established his reputation: the severely designed colonnade overlooking the Place du Louvre

Place du Louvre

The Place du Louvre is immediately to the east of the Palais du Louvre in Paris, France. To the south is the Quai du Louvre and beyond that is the River Seine. The Hôtel du Louvre is also located here, between the Louvre Palace and the Palais Royal.The clearing of cluttered buildings to create the...

— for which buildings were demolished to provide the necessary urban space — and the Quai du Louvre

Quai du Louvre

The Quai François Mitterrand is a quay by the River Seine in Paris, France, along the stretch where the Palais du Louvre is situated. Formerly Quai du Louvre, it was renamed Quai François Mitterrand after the former French president on October 26, 2003.- External links :* by Claude Monet*...

, became widely celebrated.

In 1964, the French Minister of Culture

Minister of Culture (France)

The Minister of Culture is, in the Government of France, the cabinet member in charge of national museums and monuments; promoting and protecting the arts in France and abroad; and managing the national archives and regional "maisons de culture"...

, André Malraux

André Malraux

André Malraux DSO was a French adventurer, award-winning author, and statesman. Having traveled extensively in Indochina and China, Malraux was noted especially for his novel entitled La Condition Humaine , which won the Prix Goncourt...

, ordered the digging of a dry moat in front of Perrault’s Colonnade. Although a characteristic feature of French classical architecture, the moat appears on none of the building's original plans and was probably never envisaged by Louis XIV.

Influence

For centuries, Perrault’s Colonnade has provided a model for many grand edifices in Europe and America:

• The Raczyński Library (1822-28) in Poznań
  Poznan
  Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...
  
  
• The Metropolitan Museum (1874) in New York City
  New York City
  New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
  
  
• The original Pennsylvania Station (1910) in New York City
• War Memorial Opera House (1932), San Francisco, California
  California
  California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
  
  , USA