François Blondel

Biography

1618 - Birth with Ribemont in Aisne (disputed) of Nicolas-François Blondel. This year, beginning of the War Thirty Year old.

After having learned the old languages, the Spanish , the Italian , the Portuguese, the German and the Mathematical , it takes part in the Guerre Thirty Year old. Then in 1640, the Cardinal of Richelieu entrusts to him missions with the Portugal, in Spain and Italy. For this period, he studies the Fortification S. Richelieu names it then Sous-lieutenant of one of his galères “the Cardinal one”. It will order in 1641, the attack of the mole of Tarragone and will exert a time the function of governor of Palamos. In 1647, Blondel orders artillery of the naval forwarding which was to operate in front of Naples, against Spanish. The November 26th 1652, it receives its patent of marshal of the camps and stops his military career.

He then becomes the tutor of the son of the Secretary of State Loménie de Brienne and voyage with him through all Europe, mixing diplomatic missions and undoubtedly espionage. Its route is the following: Langres - Besancon - Basle - Alsace (Brisach) - Strasbourg (where he admires the mechanism of the clock) - Philipsbourg - Mannheim - Mainz - $the Hague - Hamburg - Lübeck - Kiel - Denmark - Sweden (Frederiksborg to see poem) - Stockholm - Uppsala - Finland - Estonia - Riga - Königsberg - Dantzig - Cracow - Presbourg - Vienna - Prague - Venice - Rome - Florence - Toulon. Its voyages will be used to him for some examples given in the Cours as Architecture… . In the years 1660, Blondel will remake a voyage with the son of Colbert whose detail is less known.

In 1656, it is named reader of Mathematics to the Royal College (Collège de France) where it is supposed to teach Mathematics & the Fortification, but, because of its (very) many absences, it will be often compensated by the Picard astronomer. From 1662 to 1668, Blondel will exert the function of syndic of the College.

1657/63- Mazarin sends it on mission diplomatic, it travels then to Italy, Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Poland, Russia (Moscow, regrets not being not last in Kazan, nor to have seen the defense of the borders against the Tartars, notes that the maritime places are strengthened with the Dutchwoman….), Prussia, Livonie (Riga strengthened by the Swedes), Lithuania… Meet during its voyage Paul Wurz which is at the origin of its first publication, F.B. (Blondelle) Epistola AD P.W. (Paulum Wurzium), in qua famosa Galilei propositio discutitur, circa naturam lineæ qua trabes resistentia and in qua lineam illam not quidem parabolicam, C ipse Galilaeus arbitratus is, sed ellipticam ess demonstratur Parisiis is a discussion on the resistance and the inflection of the beams in which it takes party against Galileo, which held for a parabolic inflection (with the imitation of the fall of the low registers), Blondel holding it for elliptic (what is false). This question will be taken again in 1673 in the Résolution of the four main issues of Architecture… In 1659, at the time of its voyage to Constantinople, it will draw one of the aqueducts of Sinan “which, by its size, its height & the magnificence of its structure, does not yield of anything to celuy Bridge Gard… " with its 3 superimposed ordinances… ( Course of Architecture , VII, CH. 10, p. 666…). The same year, it will be named resident (ambassador) in Denmark, posts that it occupies until 1663, before returning to France and being named to advise of State.

In 1664, Colbert appoints it Engineer of Roy for the Navy, which is worth to him to supervise various work of fortification in Normandy (Cherbourg, Le Havre), in Brittany and with the the Antilles (Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint-Domingue), which is worth us in his Cours… (V-I-9) the account of its experiment of a hurricane of which he saw the extraordinary effects in the island Saint-Christophe… Many reports presented to the Academy of Science result from observations made during its tour in the Antilles…

“Its talens for architecture developed only in 1665…” (Quatremère de Quincy) whereas, being with Rochefort for the construction of the rope manufacture, Blondel was in charge of the rebuilding of the bridge the Holy ones…

In 1669, Blondel makes her entry with the Academy of Science like associated geometrician. This year, during a voyage to London with Of Hamel, then secretary of the Academy, it would have attended the spectacle of the martyr of Royal Society, insane which one would have transfused to cure it of his madness. But if passions passed then by blood, they were not cured by this means, original… If François Blondel is not most famous of the academicians, it is incontestably that whose literature will be most widespread in the public, cf Cours of Mathematics , Art of jetter the Bombs , Cours of Architecture , Nouvelle manner of strengthening the places …

The same year, it is indicated to deal with the embellishments of Paris, which essentially consists in rebuilding the doors Saint-Denis and Saint-Bernard, and with the survey of the plan of the city, all tasks which it will achieve with the assistance of the architect Pierre Bullet. “Another abuse this kind, consisted in mixing the two types together, so that the object is any more neither pyramid nor obelisk. One must say that it is the reproach which one can make with the Blondel architect in the decoration of his triumphal arch of the Saint-Denis door. Are this obelisks or missed pyramids, which it covered besides extremely skilfully trophies? It is especially in the works which are recommended by great beauties, and the celebrity of the name of their author, that it is necessary to point out these defects of suitability, so much the influence of a bad example given by a skilful man is contagious; as well it is true as what one most easily imitates of the great men, they is their defects. Nothing more important, in architecture especially, than to respect the significances of each form.” (Quatremère de Quincy, “Dictionary of Architecture…, § Obélisque)

The December 31st 1671, it is named director and professor of the Academy of architecture by Louis XIV. According to the foreword: “Lastly, as it was not done, since the establishment of Monarchy, of Bâtimens so majestic, in so great number & in so much of places of the Kingdom than saw we raising under the reign of Louis the Large one; not only this wise Prince had care that one appliquast with the research of the things which can contribute to give Architecture in its old gloss, it wanted to facilitate with everyone the means of the connoître perfectly. It is for this effect that Its Majesty established in Paris on the end of the year millet six taxable quotas sixty & eleven, the Academy of Architecture, composed of good number of subjects which esté chosen like able in this Art, so much parmy those which faisoient profession of it that elsewhere, in order to work with the re-establishment of the beautiful Architecture & to make public lessons of them. She thus wanted firstly that these Architects applying seriously to the study, were assembled one day of each week to confer & to communicate their connoissances…”

In 1673, Blondel is the mathematics professor of the Large Dolphin, a pupil of poor talent, if one believes of it the rumor, which also profited, royal blood obliges, of the services of the astronomer Romer for astronomy and physics, of the engraver Israel Sylvestre for the drawing and of Couplet for levelling and the fortifications. The Cours of Mathematics will be published in 1683 with the reason that each one was to be able to profit from this education of quality.

From 1670 with her death in 1686, Blondel will not deal any more but of erudite questions and teaching. He will also collaborate in the dictionary of Furetière for the parts relating to it (cf also Auzout for mathematics and Borelli for astronomy).

With the door Saint-Denis, the bridge of Holy (rebuilding of a Roman bridge) and the Rope manufacture of Rochefort, the list of its work of architect is exhaustive.

Its praise with the Academy of Science will be marked only in the years 1780 by Condorcet, him so born in Ribemont.

With the assessment, François Blondel had a particularly interesting institutional career and, alas, strong evil known, except with regard to the academic part. It is rare that a " architecte" travelled as much in these times, but one could say the same thing of the soldier and the diplomat. Perhaps it would be time that somebody of imaginative, conscientious and one nothing adventurous deals with finally establishing an illustrated biography of this man full with curiosity. It is damage that its Cours of Architecture does not reflect more this single visual culture, but it is true that the Course must be seen as the result of an academic work which aimed above all to the establishment of doctrines common to all. One can see with the wire of the work which it is also about a direct discussion with Claude Perrault whose Ordonnance of the five species of columns according to the method of old the appears in 1683. Like Blondel says it:

“And for moy (…) I am more assured to conform me to the reasoning & the practices of the largest old and modern Masters, leaving with others which are by the high force of their genius above the vulgar one, the pleasure which they have in the singularity of their opinions, of which they can taste softness rapidly, without I carrying desire to them. They can even have pity of our ignorance & our foibless & treat us the ridiculous ones; We, say I, " who sums not able to see what they voyent & to include/understand the force of their designs… " ” ( Course… , V, p. 719)

It is not sure that the debate on the orders has truly interested Blondel, which would explain her fold on a very conventional position of restitution and comparison of the opinions of the various authors, that is to say what made Fréart de Chambray in its Parallèle . But the mission of the Academy being establishment of rules " certaines" decoration for the works of the King, Blondel at least discharged questions of decoration accurately.

The Course of architecture , or the Quarrel of Old and Modern the

In 1675, it publishes its Cours of architecture taught to the royal Academy of architecture . In this work, he refutes the positions systematically that Claude Perrault develops in the Ten books of architecture of Vitruve (decorated translation of comments of the ten books of architecture of Vitruve appeared in 1673). This confrontation fits in the Querelle of Old and Modern the.

This confrontation relates to: ; the interpretation of “Symmetry”: Symmetry ( symmetria in Greek) has the direction of Proportion. Nicolas-François Blondel, engineer and mathematician remain as a whole, faithful to the Greek definition of symmetry. Claude Perrault takes party for the symmetry taken with the modern direction of the balance of the masses on both sides of an axis, with the detriment of the “ Symmetria ” or proportion which implies the recourse to a module and a “reason of progression” to regulate the correspondence between the parts. ; Coupled columns: Claude Perrault calls upon the right to dissociate tradition gréco-Roman and to the great displeasure introduce this reason (medieval inspiration) for Nicolas-François Blondel and partisans of antiquity. Perrault used this device with the colonnade of Louvre at the end of the Années 1660. ; optical corrections: Claude Perrault is opposed to this practice which wants that one increases dimensions of the objects located in height or remote, it is based on its physiological research and considers that it is not the sight which misleads but the judgment of the sight. In this standpoint, Perrault runs the counter to Vitruve and the current practices of its time.

The business is full with sourness on the two sides. One already quoted Blondel, one quotes here Perrault in his Vitruve (Viii, note 3):

“I ay covered this question in the seventh Chapter of the second part of the book of the Ordinance of the five species of columns according to the method of Old the ; this enough important Problem paroissant me to deserve examined estre a little more seriously than one did not make recently in a work of Architecture where covering this subject, & the reporting Author what is contained in this notte, it makes pretense neglect my reasons to stick to my person, whom it attacks by mocking remarks, but of a manner enough grains to make believe that it has spite to feel convinced & reduced to answer only by insults: because instead of showing that what I ay advanced am not vray, to sçavoir that the old ones did not practice this change of the proportions, one answers only that I ay recognized moy-mesme need that there is to make it, when I ay put at the top of the Triumphal arch, that Roy made bastir at the end of the avenue of Vincennes, a statue of thirty piez top, so says one that estant extremely high, it parish to have its natural size: & on what I ay declared that it is not my intention there, & that I make this Colossal Statue so that it Colossale parish; it is answered me that I ay thus wrong to find too large the entablature of the three columns of Campo Vaccino that one avouë estre of exorbitant & monstrous size, then that one can believe that the Architect had intention making paroistre these Colossal Buildings: but it faudroit to say that it wanted to make paroistre these entablemens Colossaux, i.e. to make them paroistre larger than they do not owe estre; of mesme that I ay have intention making paroistre the Equestrian Statue of the Triumphal arch larger than a man & a horse do not owe estre. However it is not that which one wants to say; because it is claimed that the extraordinary rise in this entablature it must make paroistre have its ordinary size quoyqu' it does not have it: & it is what is in question.

One still answers with more negligence my second argument based on than the veue misleads us only seldom; because quoy that one remains of agreement, that if that is, one should not change the proportions, one is satisfied to answer that the veue horn sometimes the enfans; i.e. the precautions that good Architecture must employ, are only for the enfans, & that it is not important to shock by the corruption of the proportions, all intelligens.

This manner of answering makes me understand that the intention that I ay have by communicating to the public the thought which is to me particuliere, on the change of the proportions did not have it succez only I étois proposed…”

For the quarrel of old and the modern ones, it is necessary to also see there a quarrel between the titular professor and that which would have liked the being. The place was extremely coveted, but this type of things is business of institutional support. With died of Blondel, the place remained free one year during, but Colbert having died, Charles Perrault not being more Surintendant of the Building industries, it is with Philippe of Hire, protected from Louvois, that the place returned finally…

Achievements

1665 : the bridge and of restoration of the Holy triumphal arch of .
1666 : the plan of the city and the arsenal and royal rope manufacture of Rochefort.

the doors Saint-Bernard and Saint-Anthony, with Paris.

1672 : the Door Saint-Denis, with Paris 10 {{E}}.

decoration of the chorus and the Vault of the virgin of the church the St. Lawrence, with Paris

1676: with Pierre Bullet, it publishes the Plan of Paris raised by the orders of the King and the care of the provosts of the merchants and aldermen and by the sieurs Bullet, architect of the king and the city, under the control of Mr Blondel, brigadier to the armies of the king, director of the royal academy of architecture and Master of mathematics of monseigneur Dauphin , more commonly called Plan of Bullet and Blondel .

Others

The town of Paris honors the memory with François Blondel by a street bearing her name close to the Porte Saint-Denis (which it built), between the streets Saint-Denis and Saint Martin's day.

External bond

Article on the oppositions of Blondel and Perrault.

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