DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63221#0370
324
THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE
fifteen he already had two hundred workmen under him.
In his “ Architecture ” he describes how one day he was
measuring and excavating, with all the ardour of youth,
near the Arch of Santa Maria Novella. A Roman Bishop
came by with a friend; the two men stopped to question
the boy and were so struck by him that they invited him
to the palace where they lodged. It was the beginning of
his success. Cardinals took him up; Paul HI made much of
him and commissioned him to build in Calabria. In 1536,
Jean du Bellay persuaded him to return to France and
enter his service at Lyons. The Cardinal was the focussing
point of very divers rays. Probably de I’Orme knew Rabe-
lais besides the poets of the Plei'ade. He left little in
Lyons except the unfinished church of St. Nizier. Later he
went to Paris, and it was not long before he entered the
King’s service. In 1545, he was made Architect of the
Fortifications—an honourable post, more military than artistic.
Like contemporary poets, de I’Orme over-valued conceits;
he revelled in ingenuity. He tells us with pride how he
routed the besiegers of Brest by painting wooden cannons
which they took for real ones; and by posting men without
pikes to look like serried rows. Henri II made him Court
Architect and Superintendent of the Works at Fontainebleau.
It was not till then—until Catherine de Medicis adopted
him—that his real career began. It reached its climax when
she gave him the commission to build the Tuileries, but that
was only in 1564. This carries us far beyond oui’ period,
and it is not for us to write his record—more of it, at least,
than affects the reign of Francis.
From first to last de I’Orme showed the same qualities.
THE FRENCH RENAISSANCE
fifteen he already had two hundred workmen under him.
In his “ Architecture ” he describes how one day he was
measuring and excavating, with all the ardour of youth,
near the Arch of Santa Maria Novella. A Roman Bishop
came by with a friend; the two men stopped to question
the boy and were so struck by him that they invited him
to the palace where they lodged. It was the beginning of
his success. Cardinals took him up; Paul HI made much of
him and commissioned him to build in Calabria. In 1536,
Jean du Bellay persuaded him to return to France and
enter his service at Lyons. The Cardinal was the focussing
point of very divers rays. Probably de I’Orme knew Rabe-
lais besides the poets of the Plei'ade. He left little in
Lyons except the unfinished church of St. Nizier. Later he
went to Paris, and it was not long before he entered the
King’s service. In 1545, he was made Architect of the
Fortifications—an honourable post, more military than artistic.
Like contemporary poets, de I’Orme over-valued conceits;
he revelled in ingenuity. He tells us with pride how he
routed the besiegers of Brest by painting wooden cannons
which they took for real ones; and by posting men without
pikes to look like serried rows. Henri II made him Court
Architect and Superintendent of the Works at Fontainebleau.
It was not till then—until Catherine de Medicis adopted
him—that his real career began. It reached its climax when
she gave him the commission to build the Tuileries, but that
was only in 1564. This carries us far beyond oui’ period,
and it is not for us to write his record—more of it, at least,
than affects the reign of Francis.
From first to last de I’Orme showed the same qualities.