L'Orme, Philibert de

(c. 1510-1570)

   French architect responsible for proliferating the Italian architectural vocabulary in France. Trained by his father in Lyon, L'Orme went to Italy in 1533 to study Italian architecture firsthand. Upon his return to France, he was appointed official architect to King Francis I, and when Francis died, L'Orme continued his official charge under Henry II. Much of his work is no longer extant. His masterpiece is the Château d'Anet (beg. 1550) in Paris, a commission he received from Henry's mistress, Diane de Poitiers. Only the building's frontispiece, entrance gate, and parts of the chapel have survived and are now incorporated into the grounds of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. The frontispiece shows a melding of Italian and Gothic elements with the classical orders applied utilizing the Colosseum principle, but superimposed with a triangular form that is too pitched to be qualified as a pediment. The applied ornamentation on the various surfaces is typically Northern. L'Orme was also an author. He published the Nouvelles inventions pour bien bastir et à petits frais in 1561, in essence a building manual, and Le premier tome de l'architecture in 1567, a theoretical architectural treatise.