Vingt ans de recherches sur l'architecture française (1540-1708)

Twenty years of studies in French Architecture (1540-1708). This article reviews the last twenty years (1983-2003) of French historiography about the first 150 years of classical French architecture, from Serlio’s arrival in Fontainebleau to Jules Hardouin-Mansart’s death. Rather than an outdated or too uncertain terminology (manierism, baroque, classicism) new notions came to light : French rustic style, architectural licence, atticism, Grand style, notions linked to a more complex chronological sequence with successive inflexions concerning the use of ornament (1560), religious architecture (1600-1610), new commodities in private houses (c. 1630-1640), a first reform in relation with Palladianism (1638-1640) and, finally, the birth of a Grand style, inspired by Michelanglo, Bernni, Vignola and Palladio (1653-1660). Until 1988, the monographies on French architects of the period were very few, or coming from abroad, mainly from Anthony Blunt and his students. In the past twelve years, the situation reversed with a lot of monographies listed in appendix. In the same years a new attention was paid to the reconstruction on paper of the original planning, to the links between social life and room arrangements, to the evolution of each component of the French apartment, and a more precise reading of formal langague, from the smallest classical motives to the lasting taste for wall ornaments and contrasting volumes.Mignot Claude. Vingt ans de recherches sur l'architecture française (1540-1708). In: Histoire de l'art, N°54, 2004. Architecture des Temps modernes. pp. 3-12