Libéral Bruant


Libéral Bruant, was a French architect best known as the designer of the Hôtel des Invalides, Paris, which is now dominated by the dome erected by Jules Hardouin Mansart, his collaborator in earlier stages of the construction. A comparison of Bruant's central entrance to the Invalides, under an arched cornice packed with military trophies with Mansart's Église du Dome, gives a clear idea of the difference between Bruant's High Baroque and Hardouin-Mansart's restrained and somewhat academic Late Baroque.
Bruant was the most notable in a family that produced a long series of architects active from the 16th to the 18th century.
In 1660, Bryuant was the architect chosen for rehabilitations to Louis XIII's old arsenal, which was being converted into a combination workhouse and orphanage. It is now the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital.
In the Marais district of Paris, the hôtel particulier Bruant built for himself in 1685, at 1 rue de la Perle now houses the Bricard Lock Museum. Its Baroque façade of golden limestone is enlivened by windows set into blind arches that march across its front and busts in oval reserves, all under a richly-sculptured pediment that is pierced by an oval window.
In 1671, he became one of the first eight members of the Académie royale d'architecture, created by Louis XIV.