(NON ITALIAN SECULAR) Vaux-le-Vicomte

• Louis Le Vau, Vaux-le-Vicomte, 1657-1661, Maincy, France.
• The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is a grand country house (château) located in Maincy, 34 miles southeast of Paris.
• The Château was built for Nicolas Fouquet, Minister of Finance for King Louis XIV of France. At Vaux-le-Vicomte, the architect Louis Le Vau, the landscape architect André le Nôtre, and the painter-decorator Charles Le Brun worked together on a large-scale project for the first time.
• Their collaboration marked the beginning of the "Louis XIV style" combining architecture, interior design and landscape design. They would later be brought together again by the King to work on his palace at Versailles.
• The garden's pronounced visual axis is an example of the King’s style.
• Composition

  • A completely free-standing and monumental structure elevated above ground level with a central pavilion.
• The central section is eye catching because it is elaborately decorated with reclining sculpted figures above the pediment, clock and balustrades. This treatment contrasts with the wings which are simpler.
• The whole is predominantly horizontal: emphasised by the triglyphs and metopes of the Doric entablature, string course and oculi of attic storey.
• The central section extends vertically beyond the roofline of the flanking elements to give a sense of importance. Some of the decorations such the urns and finials lead the eye upwards to convey a sense of awe and display of wealth.
• The symmetrical arrangement; regular fenestration and outside the building there are symmetrical ponds, parterres and terraces designed by Le Nôtre.
• Composed of two unequal storeys with a basement evident on two outer pavilions and an attic storey. There is a rhythmic arrangement of 7 bays (ABCDCBA).
• Flanking wings and characteristic Mansard roof (The French preferred these steeply pitched roofs). Repetition of decoration (and colour) unifies the whole composition.
• The use of giant orders on outer pavilions unifies the two storeys
• Colour


  uniform colour works with use of Classical elements to unify the building.
• Style

  French Baroque (restrained and more Classically-inspired Baroque). Integration of architecture and garden features and landscaping to create a theatrical effect, with the château at its centre. French architects such as Mansart had adapted the syntax of the Italian Renaissance in a sophisticated way ahead of the younger Le Vau.
• Function

  Partly to flatter King Louis: the East side was built for King Louis, the West side for Fouquet. In prison, Fouquet said: “It was a place that I saw as my main office, where I wanted to leave a few reminders of the status which I once enjoyed.”
• Monumental scale


  • Suggests importance
• Extensive use of finely cut stone, dressed stone and slate


  • Indicates expense
• Complexity of arrangement


  • Suggests wealth, taste and power
• Extent and variety of decoration

  • Shows fine craftsmanship and skill
• Ostentatious use of glass and tall windows

  • Wealth and importance of the owner
• Number of windows and their scale on the ground floor

  • Suggests many rooms with high ceilings being used for entertaining and the accommodation of guests
• Large number of chimneys


  • Suggests many fireplaces and rooms
• Basement


  • Suggests servants' quarters
• Height of roofline and dome with lantern

  • Suggests grandeur and importance
• Classical syntax

  • Suggests education and cultural sophistication
• Mixture of Classical language of architecture and French vernacular tradition

  • Suggest both learning and patriotism
• Clear unimpeded view of building


  • Conveys sense of social importance
• Parkland setting

  • Implies vast land and wealth
• Perfectly symmetrical and designed gardens

  • Imply expensive planning
• Balustrades surrounding the entrance and the elevated position, reached by steps


  • Suggest grandeur
• As Art historian Anne Sutherland Harris stated: 


  No one should live more splendidly than Louis XIV nor try, as Fouquet also did, to accrue so much influence behind the scenes that his power rivalled that of the king
• Primarily rusticated stone and slate in construction. The Mansard slate roof has a variety of levels however the slate colour unifies the complexity of the arrangement and contrasts with the main building and separates them visually.
• Influence

  The main château is constructed entirely on a moated platform, reached via two bridges. The moat is a legacy of medieval fortified residences, and a feature that Le Vau may have borrowed from François Mansart’s, the Château de Maisons
• Entrance front of Fouquet's château

  • Characteristically French
  • Two lateral pavilions flanking a central corps de logis
  • Reminiscent of Mansart's work at Maisons
• Le Vau's additions

  • Two additional receding volumes between the pavilions and the central mass
• Steep roofs

  Inherited from medieval times, rapidly going out of fashion
• Le Vau would never use steep roofs again
• Central oval salon

  Innovation adopted by Le Vau from Italy
• Le Vau had never been to Italy, but knew of examples from drawings and engravings