Claude Perrault
Explore in the Atlas →Details
- Nationality
- French
Notes
Physician, anatomist and architect of the east front of the Louvre; annotated French translation of Vitruvius (1673) and Ordonnance des cinq espèces de colonnes (1683). Drew the distinction between beauté positive and beauté arbitraire, central to the Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes. The source listed with year 1993 is the modern English translation by Indra Kagis McEwen (Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities); the original French publication was Paris: Jean Baptiste Coignard, 1683.
Connections
- authored Ordonnance des cinq espèces de colonnes selon la méthode des Anciens
- proposed Positive and Arbitrary Beauty
- opposes François Blondel
- influenced Marc-Antoine Laugier
Referenced by
- Vitruvius influenced
- Leon Battista Alberti influenced
Sources
- Perrault. Ordonnance des cinq espèces de colonnes selon la méthode des Anciens. 1993.
- Pérez-Gómez. Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science. 1983.
- Perrault, Claude. Ordonnance des cinq espèces de colonnes selon la méthode des Anciens. Jean Baptiste Coignard, 1683.
Cite this entry
First published May 2026Last revised Jul 2026
CLAD. "Claude Perrault." Atlas of Architectural Thought. CLAD, 2026. https://www.cl-ad.com.au/research/atlas/theorist/claude-perrault/. Accessed July 17, 2026.