LE VAU, Louis
(b. 1612, Paris, d. 1670, Paris)

Interior view

1656-61
Photo
Château Vaux-le-Vicomte, Maincy (Seine-et-Marne)

The rooms in the château are elaborately decorated, some with painted grotesque panels, others, like the King's apartments, in a style new of France which Le Brun had brought from Italy. This is based on a combination of stucco, gilding and painting, which Le Brun seems to have learnt from studying Pietro da Cortona's rooms in the Palazzo Pitti. In the King's apartments Le Vau and his team of collaborators, Le Brun for painting, Gilles Guérin and Thibault Poissant for sculpture, invented the style which was to be used in the decoration of Louis XIV's first rooms in Versailles. This style is a compromise, a Roman Baroque tamed to suit a northern taste.

The photo shows the King's bedroom.