Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/102

 82 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [August, era. To convey this peculiarity of char- acter, through a single circumstance, no better anecdote could occur than this : Colbert having addressed himself to Mansart for a design for the chief court ' of the Louvre, the latter shortly after presented the minister with quite a num- ber of very beautiful sketches, any one of which alone, Colbert would have been perfectly content with ; but, when Man- sart was told, that he himself must fix upon one, to be followed invariably when adopted, our architectural worthy begoerl to decline the commission. The portal of the Minims, in the Place Roj'ale, Paris, is his final work. He died in 1666, at the ripe age of sixty- nine. Francois had a nephew, Jules Har- douin, professionally educated by his uncle, who was also distinguished as an architect. Jules Hardouin-Mansart became a favorite of Louis XIV. ; and, under his patronage, was enabled to realize an immense fortune. Hardouin- Mansart did not set hand to the work of extending and adorning Versailles, till 1674. As, after repeated solicita- tion, he could not obtain the consent of -Louis XIV., to tear down the remnant of the hunting-box of his father, Louis XIII., he enveloped its walls in that magnificent structure fronting on the gardens. After his plans, arose, suc- cessively the little and the great stables, the south wing and the north wing ; and France is also indebted to him, for the chapel at Versailles. Jules Hardouin-Mansart was the most eminent architect of an age remark- able for the number of its eminent archi- tects. He was the chief minister of the prodigious architectural expenditures of that great king, whose palaces exhausted the resources of France. The ribbon of the knightly order of Saint Michael, the offices of Head Architect of the Kingdom, and Superintendent of Build- ings, Arts and Manufactures, besides his lordly income, were the reward of the builder of the palace of Versailles, the erector of the dome, and finisher, of what afterwards became the hospital of the Invalides. Hardouin-Mansart's portrait by Philip de Champagne, is extant, upon the same canvas with that of Claude Perrault, to which latter we owe the colonnade of the Louvre. Besides Hardouin Mansart 's operations at Ver- sailles, some of his greatest works were the Chateau de Clugny, the house of St. Cyr, the gallery of the Palais Royale, and the Palaces de Louis le Grand and des Victoires. He died suddenly at Marly, in the year 1708. The roof familiar to the France of the days of yore — older to the elder Mansai*t than his roof is to us — was the very lofty, steeple-like construction, sometimes conical, sometimes square ; but always attenuated and alwaj's end- ing in a point, or a contracted, sharp ridge, and containing from five to seven, or even nine, low stories, from the eaves upwards, constantly diminishing in height. The traveler of to-da} 7 sees many specimens of this very pictur- esque, but extremely ungraceful roof throughout Normandy, the Ardennes, Luxembourgh and Franche Comte. The Mansard roof as invented by Francois Mansart, in the sixteenth cen- tury, has since undergone many modifi- cations. The original form, as first in- troduced, was generally one story, but occasionally of two or more stories in height. In the latter case, the upper stories, in it were, constantly lower in proportion, ascending towards the peak of the roof; and the windows were small dormers, not much better than loop-holes, meant for a glimmering light in, and the ventilation of, stowage chambers, or mere lofts. The lower story in the Mansard, or, the first story above the main body of the structure, was always equal to and quite as desira- ble as either of those immediately be- neath it. The form and construction of these old French curb roofs are always such as to secure a plumb, or perpendicular