Orme, Philibert de L'

views updated Jun 11 2018

Orme, Philibert de L', also given as Delorme, De L'Orme, or de l'Orme (c.1514–70). French architect who influenced later generations largely through his books. In Rome (1533–5), he became acquainted with Classicism, before returning to Paris where he designed several buildings (all very un-Italian), most of which have been mutilated or destroyed. He was responsible (with others) for the tomb of François Ier (1515–47) in St-Denis (1547–58), inspired by the triumphal arch of Septimius Severus, Rome, but with an Ionic Order substituted. The Château of Anet, Dreux (1547–55), was probably his finest building, of which the frontispiece of the central corps-de-logis (now in the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris) survives, as do the entrance-gate and chapel. The frontispiece has an assemblage of Orders, its severity and restraint making the contemporary work of Lescot at the Louvre seem over-elaborate and fussy. The gate is an interesting variation on the Roman triumphal arch, with a Mannerist Attic storey surmounted by a stag and hounds, motifs that give a foretaste of the complete scheme of iconography related to the hunt and Diana that ran through the château, for de L'Orme designed it for Diane de Poitiers (1499–1566), mistress (from c.1533) of King Henri II (reigned 1547–59). The chapel at Anet (1547–55) is a variation on the circular form, with coffering in the dome shaped like bent lozenges echoed in the design of the marble floor: it is a master-work of stereotomy. The celebrated jubé in the Church of St-Étienne-du-Mont, Paris (c.1545), is no longer attributed to him. He designed the stone bridge and gallery at Chenonceaux (1556–9), completed (1576–8) by Bullant.

De L'Orme established a French version of Classicism that was influential until C18, and his work was followed closely by Bullant, Salomon de Brosse, and F. Mansart. His published works include Nouvelles inventions pour bien bastir (New Inventions to Build Well—1561) and Le premier Tome de l'Architecture (The First Book of Architecture—1567 and later editions). Apart from useful practical considerations, some of the published designs for buildings are extraordinary, and include a basilica with a great arched wooden roof that looks like a C19 train-shed; there are also references to Divine systems of proportion and measurement and the importance of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem in tempering the rules of Classicism. He produced his own versions of the Orders, including a column with a pruned tree as the shaft, but his ‘French Orders’ had decorated bands to disguise the joints in the drums of the shaft, and this motif he used in his work at the Tuileries Palace, Paris (1564–70—mostly destroyed). French rationalism owed much to de L'Orme, and his system of timber trusses to span great widths was revived by Legrand and Molinos for the dome of the Halle au Blé, Paris (1782–3). His work inspired Jefferson in the USA and David Gilly in Prussia. Viollet-le-Duc recognized his importance in his Entretiens (1858–72).

Bibliography

Berty (1860);
Blunt (1982, 1997);
Brion-Guerry (1960);
Hautecœur (1943);
M. Mayer (1953);
Orme (1567);
Placzek (ed.) (1982);
Pérouse de Montclos (2000);
Potie (1996);
Pré vost (1948);
D. Watkin (1986)

A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture JAMES STEVENS CURL

Philibert de l'Orme

views updated Jun 11 2018

Philibert de l'Orme

The French architect Philibert de l'Orme (1510/15-1570), or Delorme, established on French soil true classical standards in architecture.

Philibert de l'Orme was born in Lyons, the son of a master mason. He went to Rome about 1533 to measure and excavate ancient Roman about buildings. In the humanist circle he frequented, he met Cardinal Jean du Bellay and François Rabelais, the cardinal's secretary, who became his friend. l'Orme returned to Lyons in 1536, where he built the house of Antoine Bullioud.

Du Bellay called l'Orme to Paris in 1540 to design his château at St-Maur-lès-Foussés, of which l'Orme boasted that it was the first building in France "to show how the proportions and measures of architecture should be observed." This single-story structure, reminiscent of Giulio Romano's Palazzo del Tè in Mantua, was the first building in France to have a horseshoe staircase and to use a single columnar order, the Corinthian, in all elements of its decoration.

Henry II in 1547 appointed l'Orme superintendent of buildings. For Henry II the architect built the tomb of Francis I at St-Denis (1547-1557).

Diane de Poitiers, mistress of Henry II, commissioned l'Orme to build her château at Anet (1547-1552), which was remarkable not only for its new monumentality and correct classicism but also for its brilliant originality. Only the chapel, entrance gate, and avant-corps (frontispiece at the house entrance) remain, the last element, however, now standing in the courtyard of the école des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The chapel was unique in France for the use of the circle as the figure of design; the entrance for the interaction of block forms discreetly ornamented with Doric columns; and the avant-corps, l'Orme's adaptation of the medieval château entrance bay, for the massive proportions of its orders.

When Henry II died in 1559, his widow, Catherine de Médicis, immediately dismissed l'Orme and replaced him with her countryman Primaticcio. During his period of disgrace l'Orme wrote two treatises: Nouvelles inventions pour bien bastir et à petits frais (1561), on the practical engineering of vaults and roofs, and Architecture (1567). The latter work, though exceedingly entertaining reading because of its many anecdotes, is very sound in practical advice to patrons and builders. About 1563 Catherine recalled l'Orme to enlarge St-Maur for her son, Charles IX, and to build her new palace of the Tuileries in Paris. Only the lower section of the central pavilion of the Tuileries was complete at the time of l'Orme's death.