ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 explores the relationship between the Académie and the contemporaneous architectural profession. This chapter contends that the French profession of architecture was effectively, though unintentionally, conceived with the introduction of the Académie, and that whilst the Académie never completely controlled the profession, it acted as its public face. This chapter also examines the relationship between the Académie’s ideology and French architecture of the time, and the extent to which the Académie affected the theory and form of contemporaneous architecture. Against an overview of French eighteenth-century architecture is an examination of the built work undertaken by those who most affected the ideological trajectory of the Académie, namely, the Professeurs. The chapter argues that until the 1760s buildings produced by Membres of the Académie generally adhered to the rationalist belief that beauty is afforded by the adherence to certain rules and proportions. However, after the appointment of Jacques-François Blondel, the ideology of the Académie emphasised an acceptance of relative values; beauty was replaced by the notion of utility and a desire to demonstrate structural logic grew in line with the emergence of French Neoclassicism during the latter half of the eighteenth century. Lastly, this chapter explores the differences between the Académie’s ideology and royal buildings; it demonstrates that not only did Louis XIV ignore much of the aesthetic preferences of the Académie, but often played the role of the designer himself.
