Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/101

SLOAN'S ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW AND BUILDERS' JOURNAL. AN ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY. CONDUCTED BY SAMUEL SLOAN, ARCHITECT: ASSISTANT EDITOR, CHARLES J. LUKENS. PUBLICATION OFFICE, No. 152 SOUTH FOURTH STREET, PHILADELPHIA, PA. -^-^•^ » " MONTHLY REVIEW. The two Mansarts and the Mansard Roof. THIS roof, either from certain minor characteristics, or the caprice of designers, — variously known by the titles, Curb roof, French roof and Man- sarde, or Mansard roof, — was the inven- tion of a celebrated French architect of the name of Mansart. Yet this is hardly definitive, since in the very same period at the French court, flourished two cele- brated architects of that surname, uncle and nephew. It is with the uncle, the originator of the French roof, that we have first to do. The son of the King's carpenter, Francois Mansart, was born in Paris, in the year 1598. He was carefully edu- cated ; and received those professional instructions, leading him on to emi- nence, from the famous Gautier. Man- sart's high rank, as an architect, how- ever, was mainly attributable to the force of his own genius. Borne along by a fertile imagination, united with sublime ideas in theory, chastened by great taste and judgment in execution, he fairly attained, in his projections, the height of the greatest masters. We say in his projections; not that he was un- able to execute, in the best and most agreeable manner, but because his idio- syncrasy was such, that, in practice, aiming at the most absolute perfection, he was constantly altering his most elaborate and masterly designs super- imposing one superb conception upon another, starting at incongruities that nobody else could see ; and, often actu- ally tearing down, what was already so well done, as to be almost unsurpass- able. From this tendency to super-self- criticism, although his constructions ai*e great and numerous, he did not accom- plish near as much, as he otherwise would have clone. And this peculiarity, becoming finally well known, somewhat impaired his professional honors and emoluments. For instance, he was de- prived of the satisfaction of finishing the fine Abbey of Val de Grace, founded by Anne of Austria. This he had begun in 1645 ; and, when it was raised to the first story, the queen put it into other hands, in order to prevent its destruction by the one who had reared it. Having been chosen by the Presi- dent Longueil, to erect his imposing Chateau des liaisons, near Saint Ger- mains, when a very considerable part of it was erected, and that much to the satisfaction of Longueil, without ac- quainting the owner with his intentions, Mansart pulled it all down again, there- by quite disconcerting the president. Nevertheless, it must be allowed, with credit to the architect, that after this, he recommenced and finished the edifice in a style so noble, that it is accounted one of the choicest specimens of that