De·lorme or de l'Orme  (də-lôrm')  French royal architect who directed the construction at Fontainebleau and built the Tuileries for Catherine de Médicis. |
Delorme, Philibert
one of the great Renaissance architects of the 16th century and, possibly, the first French architect to possess some measure of the universal outlook of the Italian masters but without merely imitating them. Mindful that French architectural requirements differed from Italian, and respectful of native materials, he founded his designs on sound engineering principles. He assimilated the orders of classical architecture and mastered their use; but, being a man with an independent, logical turn of mind and a vigorous personality, he fused the orders with a delicacy of invention, restraint, and harmony characteristic of purest French classicism.
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