BROSSE, Salomon de

The seventeenth-century drawing shows the part elevation of the Palais du Luxembourg, Paris.

More than any of his contemporaries, Salomon de Brosse prepares the way for the next generation and the introduction of classicism. From about 1610 onwards he seems to have enjoyed considerable success as an architect. During the next few years he was commissioned to build three great châteaux: Coulommiers in 1613 for Catherine de Gonzague, Duchesse de Longueville; Bl�rancourt, begun by 1612 and finished before 1619 for Bernard Potier; and the Luxembourg in 1615 for Marie de’ Medici.

Of the three châteaux the Luxembourg and Coulommiers are in many ways traditional. In plan they are variants of the well-established form with corps-de-logis, two wings and a screen enclosing a court. At Bl�rancourt de Brosse’s plastic conception is more apparent, because the château has no wings, but is reduced to a single block with four flanking pavilions. This is an important step, leading up to the classical conception of the chateau as it was evolved by Fran�ois Mansart and bearing a closer relation to the ideals of the Italian Renaissance than any earlier buildings in France.

The dressed stone chateau was built as a country house for the de Gesvres family. During the French Revolution it was taken over by the state and the central part of the building was demolished. Ornamental elements and reusable building materials were auctioned off. All that remained were the great gate and two wings.

More than any of his contemporaries, Salomon de Brosse prepares the way for the next generation and the introduction of classicism. From about 1610 onwards he seems to have enjoyed considerable success as an architect. During the next few years he was commissioned to build three great châteaux: Coulommiers in 1613 for Catherine de Gonzague, Duchesse de Longueville; Bl�rancourt, begun by 1612 and finished before 1619 for Bernard Potier; and the Luxembourg in 1615 for Marie de’ Medici.

Of the three châteaux the Luxembourg and Coulommiers are in many ways traditional. In plan they are variants of the well-established form with corps-de-logis, two wings and a screen enclosing a court. At Bl�rancourt de Brosse’s plastic conception is more apparent, because the château has no wings, but is reduced to a single block with four flanking pavilions. This is an important step, leading up to the classical conception of the chateau as it was evolved by Fran�ois Mansart and bearing a closer relation to the ideals of the Italian Renaissance than any earlier buildings in France.

The dressed stone chateau was built as a country house for the de Gesvres family. During the French Revolution it was taken over by the state and the central part of the building was demolished. Ornamental elements and reusable building materials were auctioned off. All that remained were the great gate and two wings.

The photo shows the entrance pavilion of the château which still stands at the corner of the forecourt. We can see here how fine but severe was the design of the windows, far in advance of anything else which was being done in France at this time.

More than any of his contemporaries, Salomon de Brosse prepares the way for the next generation and the introduction of classicism. From about 1610 onwards he seems to have enjoyed considerable success as an architect. During the next few years he was commissioned to build three great châteaux: Coulommiers in 1613 for Catherine de Gonzague, Duchesse de Longueville; Bl�rancourt, begun by 1612 and finished before 1619 for Bernard Potier; and the Luxembourg in 1615 for Marie de’ Medici.

Of the three châteaux the Luxembourg and Coulommiers are in many ways traditional. In plan they are variants of the well-established form with corps-de-logis, two wings and a screen enclosing a court. At Bl�rancourt de Brosse’s plastic conception is more apparent, because the château has no wings, but is reduced to a single block with four flanking pavilions. This is an important step, leading up to the classical conception of the chateau as it was evolved by Fran�ois Mansart and bearing a closer relation to the ideals of the Italian Renaissance than any earlier buildings in France.

The dressed stone chateau was built as a country house for the de Gesvres family. During the French Revolution it was taken over by the state and the central part of the building was demolished. Ornamental elements and reusable building materials were auctioned off. All that remained were the great gate and two wings.

The photo shows the entrance pavilion of the château which still stands at the corner of the forecourt. We can see here how fine but severe was the design of the windows, far in advance of anything else which was being done in France at this time.

The first major religious building of the French Baroque was the fa�ade of Saint-Gervais in Paris, probably built by Salomon de Brosse in the sixteenth-century style. It combined the elements of the French palace with the grandeur of early Roman Baroque. The upward movement of the three-storey front stood in contrast with the weighty plasticity that imitates the Roman prototype. The stepped effect of the various motifs was to become characteristic of French church building.

This design is a novelty in ecclesiastical architecture in France, for it is the application to a church fa�ade of the three super-imposed Orders regularly used for the entrance to a château. The closest model is Delorme’s frontispiece at Anet, to which de Brosse simple added a straight pediment over the main door and a curved one at the top of the whole structure. In this way he invented a French form of the current Roman church fa�ade.

The first major religious building of the French Baroque was the fa�ade of Saint-Gervais in Paris, probably built by Salomon de Brosse in the sixteenth-century style. It combined the elements of the French palace with the grandeur of early Roman Baroque. The upward movement of the three-storey front stood in contrast with the weighty plasticity that imitates the Roman prototype. The stepped effect of the various motifs was to become characteristic of French church building.

This design is a novelty in ecclesiastical architecture in France, for it is the application to a church fa�ade of the three super-imposed Orders regularly used for the entrance to a château. The closest model is Delorme’s frontispiece at Anet, to which de Brosse simple added a straight pediment over the main door and a curved one at the top of the whole structure. In this way he invented a French form of the current Roman church fa�ade.

The photo shows the two upper storeys of the fa�ade.

During the regency of Marie de M�dicis, architects like Salomon de Brosse, Fran�ois Mansart, and Louis Le Vau conducted intensive research into modern methods for resolving traditional building problems. They developed models of palace and church buildings which were to have lasting influence, not only for French Baroque architecture.

Salomon de Brosse, court architect and member of a well-known family of architects, built three major palaces during the second decade of the seventeenth century: Coulommiers (1613), Bl�rancourt (1614-19) and the Palais du Luxembourg in Paris (1615-24). These were highly regarded and were a major influence on this type of architecture for a long time to come.

The palace was the royal residence of the regent Marie de M�dicis, mother of Louis XIII of France. After the Revolution it was refashioned into a legislative building and subsequently greatly enlarged and remodeled. Since 1958 it is the seat of the French Senate.

The picture shows the garden fa�ade of the palace.

View the ground plan of the Palais du Luxembourg.

More than any of his contemporaries, Salomon de Brosse prepares the way for the next generation and the introduction of classicism. From about 1610 onwards he seems to have enjoyed considerable success as an architect. During the next few years he was commissioned to build three great châteaux: Coulommiers in 1613 for Catherine de Gonzague, Duchesse de Longueville; Bl�rancourt, begun by 1612 and finished before 1619 for Bernard Potier; and the Luxembourg in 1615 for Marie de’ Medici.

Of the three châteaux the Luxembourg and Coulommiers are in many ways traditional. In plan they are variants of the well-established form with corps-de-logis, two wings and a screen enclosing a court. The Luxembourg is the more mature with its double pavilions at the corners of the main block, each pavilion providing a complete apartment on every floor. On the other hand, this plan has the disadvantage that its side elevation is asymmetrical. At Coulommier de Brosse gets over this difficulty by doubling the pavilions at the ends of the wings as well as those on the corps-de-logis.

The essential contribution of de Brosse to the development of French architecture lies in the fact that he was the first architect since Philibert Delorme to think in terms of mass, and not of decoration of surface. Most architects of the late sixteenth century were essentially inventors of ornaments. De Brosse’s sense of mass can be seen most clearly in the two later works, the Luxembourg and Bl�rencourt.

The photo shows the entrance front of the Palais du Luxembourg.

View the ground plan of the Palais du Luxembourg.

In this building de Brosse’s feeling for sharply defined mass, for the simplicity of the wall and for delicacy of detail appears at its clearest, anticipating many of the later developments of Mansart.

The fa�ade was unfortunately altered in the eighteenth century, when the open staircase and the terrace were removed and the middle bays of the ground floor altered.

More than any of his contemporaries, Salomon de Brosse prepares the way for the next generation and the introduction of classicism. From about 1610 onwards he seems to have enjoyed considerable success as an architect. During the next few years he was commissioned to build three great châteaux: Coulommiers in 1613 for Catherine de Gonzague, Duchesse de Longueville; Bl�rancourt, begun by 1612 and finished before 1619 for Bernard Potier; and the Luxembourg in 1615 for Marie de’ Medici.

Of the three châteaux the Luxembourg and Coulommiers are in many ways traditional. In plan they are variants of the well-established form with corps-de-logis, two wings and a screen enclosing a court. At Bl�rancourt de Brosse’s plastic conception is more apparent, because the château has no wings, but is reduced to a single block with four flanking pavilions. This is an important step, leading up to the classical conception of the chateau as it was evolved by Fran�ois Mansart and bearing a closer relation to the ideals of the Italian Renaissance than any earlier buildings in France.

The engraving shows a reproduction of the château by Peter Smith.