Claude Perrault (; 25 September 1613 – 9 October 1688) was a French physician and amateur architect, best known for his participation in the design of the east façade of the Louvre in Paris."Claude Perrault. French physician and architect"
''Britannica'' online. Retrieved 5 May 2022. He also designed the Paris Observatory and was an

anatomist Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

and author who wrote treatises on architecture,

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

, and

natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

.Hazard 2007. His brother,

Charles Perrault Charles Perrault ( , , ; 12 January 162816 May 1703) was a French author and member of the Académie Française. He laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from earlier folk tales, published in his ...

, is remembered as the classic reteller of the old story of

Cinderella "Cinderella", or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a Folklore, folk tale with thousands of variants that are told throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. The protagonist is a you ...

among other fables.

Biography

Perrault was born and died in Paris.Tadgell 1996. As physician and natural philosopher, who received a medical degree from the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

in 1642, Perrault became one of the first members of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

when it was founded in 1666.Hermann 1982. A committee commissioned by

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

, the Petit Conseil, comprising Louis Le Vau,

Charles Le Brun Charles Le Brun (; baptised 24 February 1619 – 12 February 1690) was a French Painting, painter, Physiognomy, physiognomist, Aesthetics, art theorist, and a director of several art schools of his time. He served as a court painter to Louis XIV, ...

, and Perrault, designed the east façade of the Louvre. It was begun in 1667 and was essentially complete in 1674. By 1680, Louis XIV had abandoned the Louvre and focused his attention on the

Palace of Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

. The wing behind the east façade was not finished until the 19th century with the advent of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

. The definitive design of the east façade is attributed to Perrault, who made the final alterations needed to accommodate a decision to double the width of the south wing. He also created projects for the joining of the Louvre with the Tuileries PalaceBlondel 1756, pp. 9–15
and may have devised the use of iron tie rods behind the entablature of the east façade in order to solve engineering problems arising from forces causing stress in the masonry. File:Claude Perrault, perspective bird's-eye view of the Louvre from the east – Berger 1993, figure 67.jpg, Drawing of 1668, attributed to Perrault, showing a design for the east façade of the Louvre File:Louvre et Tuileries - Plan général suivant le second projet de Claude Perrault - Architecture françoise Tome4 Livre6 Pl2.jpg, General plan of Perrault's second project for the joining of the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

and the Tuileries, engraved by Jacques-François Blondel Perrault designed the Paris Observatory (1667–1669), a research institute of the Académie des Sciences. His design for a

triumphal arch A triumphal arch is a free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road, and usually standing alone, unconnected to other buildings. In its simplest form, a triumphal ...

on Rue St-Antoine was preferred over the competing designs of Le Brun and Le Vau, but was only partly executed in stone. When the arch was taken down in the 19th century, it was found that he had devised a means of interlocking the stones, without mortar, so that it had become an inseparable mass. He also created a design (unexecuted) which used free-standing columns for the reconstruction of the church of Sainte-Geneviève in Paris. File:Claude Perrault, perspective bird's-eye view of the Observatoire, Paris – Berger 1993, figure 68.jpg, Bird's-eye view of the Paris Observatory, 1667 drawing by Perrault File:Arc de Triomphe du Thrône, RP-P-1964-1779.jpg, Design for the Arc de Triomphe du Thrône on the Rue Saint-Antoine, 1670 Mansard champaigne

Aside from his participation in the design of the Louvre, he became well known for his translation into French of the ten books of

Vitruvius Vitruvius ( ; ; –70 BC – after ) was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work titled . As the only treatise on architecture to survive from antiquity, it has been regarded since the Renaissan ...

, the only surviving Roman work on architecture. Begun at the instigation of Colbert, it was published, with Perrault's annotations, in 1673. His treatise on the five

classical order An order in architecture is a certain assemblage of parts subject to uniform established proportions, regulated by the office that each part has to perform. Coming down to the present from Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman civiliz ...

s of architecture followed in 1683. In addition, he made a valuable contribution in acoustics. His treatise on sound was a part of the book ''Oeuvres diverses de Physique et de Mecanique''. In his later book, he treats such subjects as sound media, sources of sound and sound receivers. In musical acoustics, he noted the importance of vibration on consonance and dissonance. His study "De la Musique des Anciens" in the ''Oeuvres diverses'' discussed how combinations of notes yields harmony. It also contains critical examinations of old manuscripts on European music.Perrault; Lesure.

Written works

* ''Les dix livres d'architecture de Vitruve, corrigez et traduits nouvellement en françois avec des notes et des figures''. Paris, Coignard, 1673.
''Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire naturelle des animaux''
1676
Memoirs for a natural history of animals: containing the anatomical descriptions of several creatures dissected by the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris
. * ''Essais de Physique, ou receuil de plusieurs traitez touchant les choses naturelles'', 4 volumes. Paris, Coignard, 1680–1688.
''Ordonnance des cinq espèces de colonnes selon la méthode des anciennes''
Paris, Coignard, 1683. * ''Ordonnance for the five kinds of columns after the method of the Ancients'', translated by Indra Kagis McEwen with an introduction by Alberto Pérez-Gómez. Santa Monica, California: Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1993. * *

Notes

Bibliography

* Ayers, Andrew (2004). ''The Architecture of Paris''. Stuttgart; London: Edition Axel Menges. . * Berger, Robert W. (1993). ''The Palace of the Sun: The Louvre of Louis XIV''. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press. . * Blondel, Jacques-François (1756)
''Architecture françoise'', vol. 4
Paris: Charles-Antoine Jombert. * Daufresne, Jean-Claude (1987). ''Louvre et Tuileries: Architectures de papier''. Brussels: Pierre Mardaga. . * Gietmann, Gerhard (1913)
"Perrault, Claude", vol. 11, pp. 701–702
in ''

The Catholic Encyclopedia ''The'' ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'', also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedi ...

'', edited by Charles G. Herbermann et al., 15 volumes. New York: The Encyclopedia Press. * Hazard, Jean (2007)
"Claude Perrault, architecte célèbre, médecin inconnu, chercheur indefatigable"
(in French) Claude Perrault, famous architect, unknown physician, untiring researcher"br>''Histoire des Sciences médicales'', vol 41, no. 4
pp. 399–406. . * Hermann, Wolfgang (1982). "Perrault, Claude", vol. 3, pp. 391–392, in ''Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects'', edited by Adolf K. Placzek. London: The Free Press. . * Michel, Christian (1996)
"Perrault family: (3) Charles Perrault"
vol. 24, p. 470, in ''

The Dictionary of Art ''Grove Art Online'' is the online edition of ''The Dictionary of Art'', often referred to as the ''Grove Dictionary of Art'', and part of Oxford Art Online, an internet gateway to online art reference publications of Oxford University Press, ...

'', edited by Jane Turner. London: Macmillan. * Neuman, Robert (2013). ''Baroque and Rococo Art and Architecture''. Boston: Pearson. . * Perrault, Claude; Lesure, François. "Du bruit"; et "De la musique des anciens", extracts from ''Oeuvres diverses de physique et de mécanique'' (tome 2); and ''Préface manuscrite du Traité de la musique de Claude Perrault'' (Bibl. Nat. manuscr. fr. 25,350). Bibliothèque nationale de France. * Picon, Antoine (1988). ''Claude Perrault, 1613–1688, ou, La curiosité d'un classique''. Paris: Picard. . * Tadgell, Christopher (1996)
"Perrault family. (2) Claude Perrault"
vol. 24, pp. 470, in ''

'', edited by Jane Turner. London: Macmillan.

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Perrault, Claude 1613 births 1688 deaths Deaths from sepsis in France Architects from Paris 17th-century French architects French zoologists French Baroque architects 17th-century French physicians French architecture writers Members of the Académie royale d'architecture Members of the French Academy of Sciences