MANSART, François
(b. 1598, Paris, d. 1666, Paris)

Exterior view

1642-50
Photo
Château de Maisons, Maisons-Lafitte (Yvelines)

The building is three-storey high, and the disposition is well marked by the sectioned roofs, flanked by tall, traditional chimneys and adorned with a dormer window for each volume. On the garden façade, there are empty niches between the windows on the middle storey. The most subtle handling concerns the projections on the entrance façade, with a three-level frontispiece. The orders are stacked in standard fashion, Corinthian above Ionic above Doric, and their entablatures reflect this progression: they are unbroken across the ground floor level, centrally staggered in the middle, and completely broken at the top.

The picture shows the garden front.