Chief architect of Versailles, master of French classical Baroque
Chief architect to France’s "Sun King" Louis XIV, the key figure who expanded Versailles into the most dazzling symbol of European royal power. He designed Versailles’ famous Hall of Mirrors — a long gallery with seventeen great arched windows onto the garden on one side and seventeen answering great mirrors on the other, so sunlight and the garden’s scene reflect endlessly, ablaze with light — the peak stage of absolute power and luxury. He also designed the gleaming golden dome of Les Invalides in Paris. The French classical Baroque he represents is more solemn, restrained, and grand than the Italian Baroque, turning architecture into a declaration of state power and order — the style of Versailles then became the model the courts of all Europe rushed to imitate.
In an age when glass mirrors were extremely costly, Mansart set seventeen great mirrors facing seventeen windows onto the garden in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. By day, sunlight and garden reflect to infinity in the mirrors; by night, thousands of candles become a dazzling sea of stars in them. This glittering gallery turned the "Sun King’s" absolute power and France’s luxury into a feast of light that dazzled every visitor.
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