During his trial Foucquet declared that he had begun the building of
his house at Vaux as early as 1640. On this point his memory betrayed
him. Reference to the inscription on an engraving by Pérelle, after
Israël Silvestre, assigns the commencement of work upon the house to
the year 1653, but there is no doubt that Israël Silvestre planned
the château on lines which were not absolutely final. Nor was the _ne
varietur_ plan, signed in 1666, exactly followed.[1]
It is not until 1657 that the registers of the parish of Maincy attest
the presence of foreign workmen who had come to undertake certain
building operations on the estate of Vaux.
The architect, Louis Levau, employed by Foucquet, was not a
beginner. He had already built "a house at the apex of the island
of Notre-Dame,"[2] which is none other than the Hôtel Lambert,[3]
the ingenious novelties of which were greatly admired. Especially
noteworthy was the chamber of Madame de Torigny, on the second floor,
which Le Sueur had decorated with a grace which recalls the mural
paintings of Herculaneum. This chamber was called the Italian room,
"Because," said Guillet de Saint-Georges, "the beauty of the woodwork
and the richness of the panelling took the place of tapestry."
Levau, born in 1612, was forty-three years of age when he signed the
_ne varietur_ plan. We know little about the life of this man whose
work is so famous. A document of the 23rd March, 1651,[4] describes
him as "a man of noble birth, Councillor and Secretary to the King,
House and Crown of France." He then lived in Paris, in the Rue du
Roi-de-Sicile, with his wife and his three young children, Jean, Louis
and Nicolas.
Besides the Hôtel Lambert and the Château de Vaux, we are indebted to
him for the design for the Collège des Quatre-Nations, now the Palace
of the Institute; the Maison Bautru, called by Sauvai "La Gentille,"
and engraved by Marot; the Hôtel de Pons, in the Rue du Colombier
(to-day the Rue du Vieux-Colombier), built for President Tambruneau;
the Hôtel Deshameaux, which, according to Sauvai, had an Italian room;
the Hôtel d'Hesselin in the He Saint-Louis; the Hôtel de Rohan, in the
Rue de l'Université; the Château de Livry, since known as Le Rainey,
built for the Intendant of Finances, Bordier; the Château de Seignelay;
a château near Troyes; and the Château de Bercy.[5]
We may add that Louis Levau, having become first architect to the King,
succeeded Gamard in directing the works of the church of Saint-Sulpice,
and that he, in his turn, was succeeded by Daniel Gillard in 1660.[6]
Louis Levau died in Paris. His body was carried to the church of
Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, his parish church, on Saturday, the nth
October, 1670, as attested by the register of this church. There,
under the above date, may be read: "On the said day was buried Messire
Louys Levau, aged 57 or thereabouts, who died this morning at three
o'clock. In his life a Councillor of the King in his Council, general
Superintendent of His Majesty's buildings, first Architect of his
buildings, Secretary to His Majesty and the House and Crown of France,
etc., taken from the Rue des Fossés, from the ancient Hôtel de
Longueville."[7]
In the _Archives de l'Art français_ (Vol. I) there is a document
relating to Louis Levau:
"There has been submitted to us the plan and elevation of the building
of the Cathedral Church of Saint-Pierre of Nantes, of which the part
not already constructed is marked in red. This church is one hundred
and eleven feet high from the floor to the keystones of the vaults at
the meeting of the diagonals, and the lower aisles and chapels are
fifty-six feet, measured also from the floor.
"It is desired to finish the said church, and to respect its symmetry
as far as may be, and to make the lower aisles and chapels around the
choir like those which are on the right of the nave.
"The difficulty is that, in order to finish this work, it is necessary
to pull down the walls of the town, and to carry it out into the moat,
and it is desirable to take as little ground as can be, in order not to
diminish too greatly the breadth of the moat. Wherefore it is proposed
to do away with the three chapels behind the choir, marked by the
letter H.
"But, if those three chapels are removed, it will be seen that the
flying buttresses which support the choir will not have the same thrust
as those which support the nave; the strength of these buttresses will
be diminished, and the symmetry of the church destroyed, in a place
where the church is most visible.
"With this plan we send the elevation of the pillars and buttresses to
show how they are constructed in the neighborhood of the nave.
"The whole of this is in order to ascertain whether the three chapels
can be dispensed with, and the safety of the choir and the whole
edifice secured."
To create the estate of Vaux in its prodigious magnificence, it was
necessary to destroy three villages: Vaux-le-Vicomte, with its church
and its mill, the hamlet of Maison-Rouge and that of Jumeau. The
gigantic works which were necessary are hardly imaginable; immense
rocks were carried away; deep canals were excavated.
Foucquet hurried on the work with all the impatience of his intemperate
mind. As early as 1657 the animation which prevailed in the works was
so great that it was spoken of as something immoderate, as though more
befitting royalty. Foucquet felt that it was of importance to conceal
proceedings