Pierre Levesville (c. 1570 in

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

) was a 17th-century French architect. He was the son of a master mason from Orléans. His brother, Jean Levesville, was also a master mason as well as his nephew, Simon Levesville.

Biography

His father worked with his brother, Jehan or Jean Levesville, on the reconstruction of the

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

and then the

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...

of the Cathédrale Sainte-Croix d'Orléans. It was on this site that he did his apprenticeship. Having made an engraving of Rome kept in the

print room A print room is a room in an art gallery or museum where a collection of old master and modern prints, usually together with drawings, watercolours, and photographs, are held and viewed. A further meaning is a room decorated by pasting prints ...

of the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...

, circa 1595-1600, signed ''Petrus Levesville Aurelianensis Inventor Romae'', it is assumed he went to Italy for further training. In 1599, the manufacture of the Basilique-cathédrale Notre-Dame-et-Saint-Privat de Mende signed a contract with Jean Despeysses to rebuild it following the demolitions by the Protestant troops of captain Merle in 1579. It seems that this one did not give entirely satisfaction, so the persons in charge of the reconstruction asked Levesville, who has just arrived from Orléans, to take in charge part of this task at a

sales quote A sales quote allows a prospective buyer to see the costs that will be involved for desired work. Many businesses provide services that cannot have an upfront price because the costs involved can vary. This can be due to the materials used, which c ...

with the assent of the bishop. On 20 January 1603, he married in Mende. He did some work at the Consular House and ''à un pont rompeu qui s'en allait en ruine''. In 1604 he was entrusted with the construction of the cathedral gallery. Instead of a

rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

, Jean Despeysses was accused of having made "a big hole without shape" where it was "impossible to put any glass ..because of its deformity". Levesville therefore signed a contract in 1608 to rebuild the western rose. The consecration of the cathedral took place in 1620. He subsequently did some works for the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Saint-Flour. During the night of 9 to 10 December 1609, a fire ravaged the Gothic choir of the Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Toulouse. In 1610, he hired Jean Tardieu, master mason in Saint-Alban, by contract with the notary Parrouton. At that time, he worked on the bridges of Lavoûte-Chilhac,

Massiac Massiac (; oc, Maciac) is a commune in the Cantal department in south-central France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas ...

, Saint-Germain-Lembron and the terrasse of the . He directed the works of the since the 11 May (completed in 1614 by Jean Tardieu). Levesville came to Toulouse in 1610. No master mason contacted by the chapter wanted to deal with this contract. Levesville was the only one to accept it for the sum of 45,000 French livres in addition to the materials to be provided by the Chapter. All work was completed on 23 July 1614. The success of this work of restoration of the Toulouse cathedral earned him to be called as expert on 24 November 1614 by the Judge Mage of the Présidial of Nîmes to give his opinion on the work carried out at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame-et-Saint-Castor de Nîmes. After receiving the report of the appointed experts and having received 360 livres for his session, Levesville left Nîmes on 3 January 1615 for Toulouse, where he had to complete the work he had been doing at the arsenal of the Hôtel-de-ville, for the extension of the

altarpiece An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting o ...

of the Saint-Étienne cathedral, and the construction of a house for Anne de Cadilhac. In 1613 he was consulted on a lease for the restoration of the church of Feuillants of Labastide-Clermont. Following a house fire around a square (now National Square) in 1614, the consuls of

Montauban Montauban (, ; oc, Montalban ) is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department, region of Occitania, Southern France. It is the capital of the department and lies north of Toulouse. Montauban is the most populated town in Tarn-et-Garonne, an ...

asked him for a reconstruction project. The work lasted until 1621. A new fire occurred on 15 June 1649 requiring new work. They were entrusted to the Toulouse architect

Claude Pacot Claude Pacot was a French architect in the 17th century. He designed many hôtels particuliers in Toulouse. He also designed new facades on the National Square in Montauban after the fire of 1646, based on the 1614 designs of architect Pierre Lev ...

, asking him to respect the facades already built by Levesville. The consuls of the city of Montauban and Levesville signed a contract in 1615 to build the Temple Neuf. 13 m high, it was in the shape of a brick rotunda with a panelled vault and surmounted by a

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

. It was completed in 1617 but was demolished following a royal ruling dated 29 October 1664. On 26 January 1615, the regents of the Confraternity of the Rosary entrusted him with the contract of ''desmolir et réédiffier la chapelle de Notre Dame du Rozairx'' and ''parfaicte… par tout le moys de juin prochain'' the

Church of the Jacobins The Church of the Jacobins is a deconsecrated Roman Catholic church located in Toulouse, France. It is a large brick building whose construction started in 1230, and whose architecture influenced the development of the ''Gothique méridional'' (So ...

. On 22 September 1617, Levesville was chosen preferably by Marcel Le Roy, a Parisian architect, to build the vaults of the choir of the

Cathédrale Sainte-Marie d'Auch Auch Cathedral (french: Basilique Cathédrale Sainte-Marie d'Auch) is a Roman Catholic church located in the town of Auch in the Midi-Pyrénées, France. It is a national monument, and is the seat of the Archbishopric of Auch. Under the Concordat ...

. The work lasted until August 1620. At the end of the work, two architects, Géraud of Spain and Audibert Cousteau, proceeded to the control of the good end of the works before the fabriciens pay him the 75,000 livres agreed to the contract. He worked on the construction of new buildings for the for the lord of Roquelaure in 1620. Some historians believe that he might also be one of the authors of the at

Roquelaure Roquelaure (; ''Ròcalaura'' in Gascon) is a commune in the Gers department in southwestern France. A type of knee-length cloak, which was worn by men in the 18th and 19th Centuries of the Common Era, is named for the commune. Geography His ...

, built for the same, erected from 1619 because his signature can be seen as a witness on a contract.J.-H. Ducos, ''Le château du Rieutort'', , in ''Congrès archéologique de France. 128th session. Gascogne. 1970'', Société Française d'Archéologie, Paris, 1970 In 1622, he was called by the Confrérie royale des Pénitents Bleus to build their chapel, modern . After the peace of Montpellier, in 1625, the king had a new cathedral built in

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...

at the request of Bishop Pierre de Fenouillet of Montpellier (1607-1652). A commission of architects was appointed including Levesville and submitted its report. Levesville was accompanied by his nephew Simon Levesville. Construction of the foundations began but was abandoned in 1629, on the orders of cardinal Richelieu wjho asked for the restoration of the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Montpellier. These unfinished foundations are still visible place de la Canourgue. In February 1627, he gave the plans and models of the convent of the nuns of Saint John of Jerusalem or of Malta, installed in the Saint-Cyprien suburb.

References

Bibliography

* Georges Costa, ''Pierre Levesville. L'œuvre d'un architecte orléanais dans le Midi de la France pendant le premier tiers du XVII'', , in ''Archéologie''. Volume II, 96e Congrès des Sociétés Savantes tenu à Toulouse en 1971 * Hélène Rousteau-Chambon, ''Le gothique des Temps modernes. Architecture religieuse en milieu urbain'', Éditions A. et J. Picard, Paris, 2003 * Georges Costa, ''La chapelle Notre-Dame du Rosaire aux Jacobins de Toulouse, une œuvre de Pierre Levesville'', , in ''Mémoires de la Société archéologique du Midi de la France'', 2004, volume 6
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External links

Pierre Lesvilles
on Structurae
Un architecte du Nord dans le Midi : Pierre Levesville (compte-rendu)
on

Persée ''Persée'' (''Perseus'') is a tragédie lyrique with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully and a libretto by Philippe Quinault, first performed on 18 April 1682 by the Opéra at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris. Roles Synopsis ACT I: The Palac ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Levesville, Pierre 1570s births 1632 deaths People from Orléans 17th-century French architects