BOULLÉE, Étienne-Louis
(b. 1728, Paris, d. 1799, Paris)

Plan for a Métropole

1781-82
Drawing
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris

The project for a 'métropole' was included in Boullée's unpublished 'Essai sur l'Art.' The massive dome on the cruciform building with an encircling colonnade is derived both from Soufflot's Sainte-Geneviève and Bramante's project for St. Peter's in Rome. However, the scale underwent a considerable enlargement here. He presented interior views, with the rows of columns and massive barrel vault, shoving both day and night aspects, that is the different effects of sunlight streaming in and a ghostly artificial lighting.

The drawing shows the daytime view of the interior with sunlight.