Claude Perrault

Claude Perrault (; 25 September 1613 – 9 October 1688) was a French physician and amateur architect, best known for his participation in the design of the east façade of the Louvre in Paris. He also designed the Paris Observatory and was an anatomist and author who wrote treatises on architecture, physics, and natural history.

His brother, Charles Perrault, is remembered as the classic reteller of the old story of Cinderella among other fables.

Biography Perrault was born and died in Paris.

As physician and natural philosopher, who received a medical degree from the University of Paris in 1642, Perrault became one of the first members of the French Academy of Sciences when it was founded in 1666.

A committee commissioned by Louis XIV, the Petit Conseil, comprising Louis Le Vau, Charles Le Brun, and Perrault, designed the east façade of the Louvre. It was begun in 1667 and was essentially complete in 1674. By 1680, Louis XIV had abandoned the Louvre and focused his attention on the Palace of Versailles. The wing behind the east façade was not finished until the 19th century with the advent of Napoleon. The definitive design of the east façade is attributed to Perrault, who made the final alterations needed to accommodate a decision to double the width of the south wing. He also created projects for the joining of the Louvre with the Tuileries Palace and may have devised the use of iron tie rods behind the entablature of the east façade in order to solve engineering problems arising from forces causing stress in the masonry.

Aside from his participation in the design of the Louvre, he became well known for his translation into French of the ten books of Vitruvius, the only surviving Roman work on architecture. Begun at the instigation of Colbert, it was published, with Perrault's annotations, in 1673. His treatise on the five classical orders of architecture followed in 1683.

Written works

Les dix livres d'architecture de Vitruve, corrigez et traduits nouvellement en françois avec des notes et des figures. Paris, Coignard, 1673. Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire naturelle des animaux, 1676 (Memoirs for a natural history of animals: containing the anatomical descriptions of several creatures dissected by the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris). Essais de Physique, ou receuil de plusieurs traitez touchant les choses naturelles, 4 volumes. Paris, Coignard, 1680–1688. Ordonnance des cinq espèces de colonnes selon la méthode des anciennes. Paris, Coignard, 1683. Ordonnance for the five kinds of columns after the method of the Ancients, translated by Indra Kagis McEwen with an introduction by Alberto Pérez-Gómez. Santa Monica, California: Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1993.