French Architecture: The Baroque and Rococo Period

French Baroque is an architecture style and have its beginnings in the first decade of the seventeenth century, and have evolved in France during the reigns of Louis XIII (1610-43), Louis XIV (1643-1714) and Louis XV (1714-74). The best example of this architecture is the Palais du Luxembourg (1615-20) by Salomon de Brosse.

Other architects made also magnific works of art as the architect Jacques Lemercier, builder of Richelieu's Palais Cardinal (begun 1633), now the Palais Royale is there, he also built the Church of the Sorbonne in 1635. François Mansart designed the Château de Maisons (1642), introducing the full Baroque to France.

The architect Louis Le Vau constructed the Vaux-le-Vicomte (1656-61), and this palace have a beautiful garden which was constructed by the gardener André Le Nôtre, this new element contributed to the development of this kind of architecture in France and in Europe and was called as the "Magnificent Manner".

Jean Baptiste Colbert was the miniter of commerce and royal works in the period of reign Louis XIV (1661-1715), under his direction the arts served the state. The fabulous palace of Versailles was built in this period by the architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart, and was used as the king's residence, also the Louvre of Paris was enlarged.

When the château was built, Versailles was a country village, but it is now a suburb of Paris with city status in its own right. From 1682, when King Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in 1789, the Court of Versailles was the centre of power in Ancien Régime France.

Hardouin-Mansart's Bâtiments du Roi, took the shape of the rococo's more delicate and intimate manner, largely limited to interiors and works of decorative arts. Nicolas Pineau helped Hardouin-Mansart on the interiors of the royal Château de Marly. Architect Jean Aubert constructed the Château de Chantilly between 1728 and 1730, this house is one of the masterpieces of rocaille architecture.

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