GABRIEL, Ange-Jacques

The photo shows the entire complex.

Unlike his major urban design achievements, most of Gabriel’s projects for extending and enlarging the royal palaces did not proceed beyond the planning state. The present drawing of 1759 shows a plan for rebuilding the Palace of Versailles. Work was actually begun only in 1772, and was still incomplete in 1783.

The theater at Versailles was completed in 1770. It was designed by Gabriel in consultation with Louis XV.

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The Palais de la Bourse (Stock Exchange, now the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce and Industry) is located on the Place de la Bourse in Bordeaux. This square is a fine example of French classical architecture, reminiscent of other royal squares built under the reign of King Louis XV in the 18th century.

The picture shows the upper part of the fa�ade of the palace.

The Palais de la Bourse (Stock Exchange, now the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce and Industry) is located on the Place de la Bourse in Bordeaux. This square is a fine example of French classical architecture, reminiscent of other royal squares built under the reign of King Louis XV in the 18th century.

The picture shows the upper part of the fa�ade of the palace.

The Gabriel family, related to the Mansart family, boasted three or four architects prior to Ange-Jacques, the fifth to bear that name. He succeeded de Cotte as First Architect, and was an engineer and builder of some of France’s most remarkable bridges - in Lyon, Poissy and Blois. He became the master architect of the reign of Louis XV, characterized by three exemplary edifices: the �cole Militaire (1751-68), the Versailles opera house (1753-70), and Place Louis XV (today Place de la Concorde) flanked by the Hotel du Garde-Meuble (1757-70). In addition, he also built the Petit Trianon.

The �cole Militaire was planned as early as 1751 by Ange-Jacques Gabriel at the request of Madame de Pompadour. A kind of pendant to the nearby Hotel des Invalides, it was only built after 1765. The north fa�ade is powerfully composed, with a central portico featuring colossal order columns topped by a dome set on a square plan. The south fa�ade, facing the inner courtyard, had a more simple portico, yet also boasted colossal order columns echoing the outer fa�ade.

The photo shows the north fa�ade of the central building.

In Gabriel’s first draft of 1751, the building was conceived as an educational institution for young aristocrats and was intended to rival the nearby H�tel-des-Invalides. The version actually implemented as a military academy was limited to the château-style principal building. The main fa�ade facing the Champs de Mars, drawn together by a strongly projecting entablature, is dominated by the central pavilion. Its domed roof on a square base and the austere pedimented windows draw on French 17th-century tradition.

The Gabriel family, related to the Mansart family, boasted three or four architects prior to Ange-Jacques, the fifth to bear that name. He succeeded de Cotte as First Architect, and was an engineer and builder of some of France’s most remarkable bridges - in Lyon, Poissy and Blois. He became the master architect of the reign of Louis XV, characterized by three exemplary edifices: the �cole Militaire (1751-68), the Versailles opera house (1753-70), and Place Louis XV (today Place de la Concorde) flanked by the Hotel du Garde-Meuble (1757-70). In addition, he also built the Petit Trianon.

The �cole Militaire was planned as early as 1751 by Ange-Jacques Gabriel at the request of Madame de Pompadour. A kind of pendant to the nearby Hotel des Invalides, it was only built after 1765. The north fa�ade is powerfully composed, with a central portico featuring colossal order columns topped by a dome set on a square plan. The south fa�ade, facing the inner courtyard, had a more simple portico, yet also boasted colossal order columns echoing the outer fa�ade.

The photo shows the south fa�ade overlooking the inner courtyard.

The Gabriel family, related to the Mansart family, boasted three or four architects prior to Ange-Jacques, the fifth to bear that name. He succeeded de Cotte as First Architect, and was an engineer and builder of some of France’s most remarkable bridges - in Lyon, Poissy and Blois. He became the master architect of the reign of Louis XV, characterized by three exemplary edifices: the �cole Militaire (1751-68), the Versailles opera house (1753-70), and Place Louis XV (today Place de la Concorde) flanked by the Hotel du Garde-Meuble (1757-70). In addition, he also built the Petit Trianon.

The photo shows the fa�ade overlooking the garden.

The Grand Trianon was built for Louis XIV in the park of Versailles by Hardouin-Mansart in only six months in 1687-88. It is a permanent structure with an open columned hall and extended single-storey wings. His light-spirited design based on Italian models. Almost eighty years later, Louis XV ordered the building of its companion piece, the Petit Trianon for his favourite, Madame de Pompadour. Ange-Jacques Gabriel gave it a Palladian structure.

Gabriel’s sober rationality in planning and detail promoted the transition from Rococo to Neoclassicism. For forty years, Gabriel supplied all designs not only for exterior construction (the “Gabriel Wing” at Versailles was named for him in modern times) and also for the constant remodeling of interiors at Versailles. His Petit Trianon at Versailles is one of the gems of French Classicism.

The picture shows the courtyard fa�ade of the Petit Trianon in Versailles.

The Grand Trianon was built for Louis XIV in the park of Versailles by Hardouin-Mansart in only six months in 1687-88. It is a permanent structure with an open columned hall and extended single-storey wings. His light-spirited design based on Italian models. Almost eighty years later, Louis XV ordered the building of its companion piece, the Petit Trianon for his favourite, Madame de Pompadour. Ange-Jacques Gabriel gave it a Palladian structure.

This square-shaped but decorative building has a Corinthian peristyle in front of the garden fa�ade; the whole concept was closely related to the interpretation of the Palladian villa by the British neo-Palladians.

The picture shows the courtyard fa�ade of the Petit Trianon in Versailles.

In eighteenth-century France, the royal squares became the main expression of a monumental conception of towns. There is no city that is not beholden to the charm and openness of these spectacular squares. The landscaping of royal squares provided an occasion for partial urban redevelopment in the towns where they were built. In Bordeaux the three-sided Place Royal (today called Place de la Bourse) was built by Ange-Jacques Gabriel at the river’s edge. It was in Bordeaux that the idea of “programmed ensemble” along the lines of Place Vend�me took shape, adapted to the site beginning 1743 by Claude Boucher.

One of the most grandiloquent urban planning projects of Paris, Gabriel’s design for the Place Louis Quinze, now the Place de la Concorde, dated back to the middle of the century, but it was not until the 1770s that it was carried out. In the centre of the place stood Bouchardon’s equestrian statue of the king Louis XV (later destroyed in the Revolution). The large rectangle enclosed by water channels is overlooked only by two symmetrical buildings on the narrow northerly side opposite the Seine. These two buildings were here solely for aesthetic planning reasons and were allocated functions post hoc. Their articulation by means of corner pavilions and the absence of a central feature are attuned to the open centre axis of the square, the termination of which was to marked by the dome of the Madeleine church.

One of the most grandiloquent urban planning projects of Paris, Gabriel’s design for the Place Louis Quinze, now the Place de la Concorde, dated back to the middle of the century, but it was not until the 1770s that it was carried out. In the centre of the place stood Bouchardon’s equestrian statue of the king Louis XV (later destroyed in the Revolution). The large rectangle enclosed by water channels is overlooked only by two symmetrical buildings on the narrow northerly side opposite the Seine. These two buildings were here solely for aesthetic planning reasons and were allocated functions post hoc. Their articulation by means of corner pavilions and the absence of a central feature are attuned to the open centre axis of the square, the termination of which was to marked by the dome of the Madeleine church.

A reaction against Rococo, which was characterized by the dominance of divertingly playful decoration, coincided with a return to the principles of the “grand century” of Louis XIV. The most exquisite accomplishment of the classical revival was the Petit Trianon, a masterpiece of “purified classicism” completed in 1762 by Ange-Jacques Gabriel.

The photo shows the grand staircase in Petit Trianon.

The project for a theatre at the head of the exterior right wing of the Palace of Versailles was begun in 1765 and completed in 1770, in time for the wedding of the Dauphin (the later Louis XVI) with Marie Antoinette. On an oval ground plan with its Corinthian colonnade running all the way round above the circle, the auditorium goes back to classical models as already re-used in Palladio’s Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza.

Hardouin-Mansart’s chapel in Versailles had been inaugurated not long before Louis XIV’s death; similarly, the palace’s final missing element - a theater - would be inaugurated not long before Louis XV died. It was in 1770 that a theater was finally completed, an accomplished ensemble designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel in consultation with Louis XV. The orchestra was placed in a rectangular space adorned with a set of heavy, colossal Corinthian columns; the rest of the hall was a half-oval whose curves harboured the boxes, topped on the third level by in Ionic colonnade, with large mirrors on the back wall reelecting the sparkle of the chandeliers. The seats were upholstered in blue velvet, there was gilding everywhere, and discreet reliefs by Augustin Pajou adorned the balustrades of the loges. The green faux-marble on the walls were offset by columns of high quality marble from the Pyrenees. It was a masterpiece of court art.

The photo shows the upper balcony of the Opera House.