DERAND, Père François

French Jesuit priest and architect. Entering the novitiate of the Society of Jesus in 1611, he studied in Rouen and La Flèche, was ordained a priest in 1621 and studied theology in Paris (1621-22). He had also taught grammar at Rennes (1615-18) and mathematics at La Flèche (1618-21). He worked first as an architect at the Jesuit college in Rouen, where from 1622 to 1629 he was praefectus fabricae; then as architectus at the college in Rennes, where he supervised the building works; at the college of Orléans, for which he provided plans in 1632; and, above all, at the Jesuit church in Paris, Saint-Louis (now Saint-Paul-et-Saint-Louis). In plans for the latter he found himself in competition with Étienne Martellange. Both sets of plans were submitted to Rome; those by Martellange were preferred, and he began work on the church in 1627. Two years later, however, the Father Provincial brought in Derand, who found the building erected to a height of two metres. He finished it in 1641, including the vaults and the great façadeGLOSSARYthe front or principal face of a building, especially one elaborately constructed; a blind façade is a façade that is purely decorative and does not relate to the structure of the building. on the Rue Saint-Antoine, the first stone of which was laid in 1634.

Derand's style is very different from the architectural propriety sought by Martellange: it is BaroqueGLOSSARYThe period in art history from about 1600 to about 1750. In this sense the term covers a wide range of styles and artists. In painting and sculpture there were three main forms of Baroque: (1) sumptuous display, a style associated with the Catholic Counter Reformation and the absolutist courts of Europe (Bernini, Rubens); (2) dramatic realism (Caravaggio); and (3) everyday realism, a development seen in particular in Holland (Rembrandt, Vermeer). In architecture, there was an emphasis on expressiveness and grandeur, achieved through scale, the dramatic use of light and shadow, and increasingly elaborate decoration. In a more limited sense the term Baroque often refers to the first of these categories. The development of the Baroque reflects the period's religious tensions (Catholic versus Protestant); a new and more expansive world view based on science and exploration; and the growth of absolutist monarchies. in its expressiveness, its use of strong chiaroscuroGLOSSARYIn painting, the modelling of form (the creation of a sense of three-dimensionality in objects) through the use of light and shade. The introduction of oil paints in the 15th century, replacing tempera, encouraged the development of chiaroscuro, for oil paint allowed a far greater range and control of tone. The term chiaroscuro is used in particular for the dramatic contrasts of light and dark introduced by Caravaggio. When the contrast of light and dark is strong, chiaroscuro becomes an important element of composition. and its abundance of sculptural decoration. The façade of Saint-Paul-et-Saint-Louis, visibly inspired by that of Saint-Gervais by Salomon de Brosse (1616), is a great stone screen, scarcely pierced by openings, in which attention is focused on its articulation of columns and niches.

Derand was a theoretician of stereotomy and in 1643 published a treatise on it, which was much used. An album of drawings of designs for doors, windows and chimneypieces (Paris, Louvre), called the 'Album Derand' on the strength of an inscription Der or Dev, has been attributed to him, though probably erroneously.