Exterior view

During the 1640s a change comes over Mansart's style. His buildings become freer in planning, more plastic in conception, and more classical in decoration. This is also the period when he seems to approach most closely the ideals of High Renaissance architecture in Italy, sometimes through direct borrowing, but sometimes apparently unconsciously. In this decade Mansart embarked on two of his most important undertakings in church architecture, the Val-de-Grâce and the chapel in the château of Fresnes.

The Val-de-Grâce was begun in 1645 by Anne of Austria in fulfillment of a vow made before the birth of the Dauphin, later Louis XIV. Mansart's original project consisted of a church flanked on one side by a convent and on the other by a palace, a conception which went back directly to the Escorial and ultimately to the temple of Solomon. His drawing for this magnificent scheme survives, but after little more than a year he was dismissed. He was, however, responsible for the plan of the church and for its construction up to the entablatures of the nave and for the lower storey of the façade. The building was finished by Jacques Lemercier, Pierre Le Muet and Gabriel Le Duc, and the <a onclick="return OpenOther('/html/a/anguier/michel/valgrace.html')" href="/html/a/anguier/michel/valgrace.html">decoration of the interior</a> was carried out by Michel Anguier between 1662 and 1667 and the <a onclick="return OpenOther('/html/m/mignard/pierre/v_grace.html')" href="/html/m/mignard/pierre/v_grace.html">dome was painted by Pierre Mignard</a> in 1663.