Charles Le Brun and the Louvre Colonnade

* A version of this paper was read at the joint meeting of the College Art Association of America and the Society of Architectural Historians, Boston, 1969.

Abstract

The magnificently preserved Château of Vaux-le-Vicomte, with its “garden of intelligence” and sumptuous interior decoration, constitutes the outstanding surviving architectural ensemble from mid-seventeenth-century France.¹ The chateau was begun in 1656 for Nicolas Fouquet, the powerful Superintendant of Finance. Louis Le Vau, architect, André Le Nôtre, garden designer, and Charles Le Brun, painter, combined their talents to produce Vaux—a masterpiece of French Baroque style and the initial collaborative effort of the three artists who were to create the Versailles of Louis XIV.