In 1645 Mansart was appointed by the queen, Anne of Austria, to add a church and palace to the convent of the Val-de-Grâce, which she frequently visited on retreat. For this project Mansart devised a highly imaginative scheme based on the Escorial in Spain, where Anne had spent her youth. His design for the church was original in many respects, with bell-towers flanking the nave and a projecting single-storey entrance portico, more reminiscent of his château frontispieces than of a conventional church front. The portico was possibly influenced by that on the north side of Jacques Le Mercier's church of the Sorbonne (1635-1648). The plan of the church of the Val-de-Grâce is characterized by a dominant central domed space at the crossing, surrounded by three equal apses for the choir and transepts, a layout reminiscent of that adopted by Andrea Palladio for Il Redentore (1576-1580), Venice, where there is a similar play on circular forms. The whole of the domed space is located in a square block that projects s
work_description_source
In 1645 Mansart was appointed by the queen, Anne of Austria, to add a church and palace to the convent of the Val-de-Grâce, which she frequently visited on retreat. For this project Mansart devised a highly imaginative scheme based on the Escorial in Spain, where Anne had spent her youth. His design for the church was original in many respects, with bell-towers flanking the nave and a projecting single-storey entrance portico, more reminiscent of his château frontispieces than of a conventional church front. The portico was possibly influenced by that on the north side of Jacques Le Mercier's church of the Sorbonne (1635-1648). The plan of the church of the Val-de-Grâce is characterized by a dominant central domed space at the crossing, surrounded by three equal apses for the choir and transepts, a layout reminiscent of that adopted by Andrea Palladio for Il Redentore (1576-1580), Venice, where there is a similar play on circular forms. The whole of the domed space is located in a square block that projects s
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