MARION

See also:

• MARION DELORME (c. 1613-165o)

DELORME (c. 1613-165o)  , French courtesan, was the daughter of Jean de Lou, sieur de 1'Orme, president of the treasurers of France in Champagne, and of Marie Chastelain . She was born at her father's chateau near Champaubert . Initiated into the philosophy of pleasure by the epicurean and atheist Jacques Vallee, sieur Desbarreaux, she soon left him for Cinq Mars, at that time at the height of his popularity, and succeeded, it is said, in marrying him in secret . From this time Marion Delorme's salon became one of the most brilliant centres of elegant Parisian society . After the execution of Cinq Mars she is said to have numbered among herlovers Charles de St Evremond (1610-17o3) the wit and litterateur, Buckingham (Villiers), the great Conde, and even Cardinal Richelieu . Under the Fronde her salon became a meeting place for the disaffected, and Mazarin is said to have sent to arrest her when she suddenly died . Her last years have been adorned with considerable legend (cf . Mere-court, Confessions de Marie Delorme, Paris, 1856) . It seems established that she died in 165o . But she was believed to have lived until 1706 or even 1741, after having had the most fantastic adventures, including marriage with an English lord, and an old age spent in poverty in Paris . Her name has been popularized by various authors, especially by Alfred de Vigny in his novel Cinq Mars, by Victor Hugo in the drama Marion Delorme, and by G . Bottesini in an opera of the same title .

See P . J .

Jacob, Marion Delorme et Ninon Lenclos (Paris, 1859) ; J . Peladan, Histoire et legende de Marion de Lorme (Paris, 1882) . DE L'ORME, PHILIBERT (c . 1510-1570), French architect, one of the great masters of the Renaissance, was born at Lyons, the son of Jehan de L'Orme, who practised the same art and brought his son up to it . At an early age Philibert was sent to Italy to study (1533-t536) and was employed there by Pope Paul III . Returning to France he was patronized by Cardinal du Bellay at Lyons, and was sent by him about 1540 to Paris,where he began the Chateau de St Maur, and enjoyed royal favour; in 1545 he was made architect to Francis I. and given the charge of works in Brittany . In 1548 Henry II. gave him the supervision of Fontainebleau, Saint-Germain and the other royal buildings; but on his death (1559) Philibert fell into disgrace . Under Charles IX., however, he returned to favour, and was employed to construct the Tuileries, in collaboration with Jean Brillant . He died in Paris on the 8th of January 1570 . Much of his work has disappeared, but his fame remains .

An ardent humanist and student of the

antique, he yet vindicated resolutely the French tradition in opposition to Italian tendencies; he was a man of independent mind and a vigorous originality . His masterpiece was the Chateau d' Anet (1552-1559), built for Diane de Poitiers, the plans of which are preserved in Du Cerceau's Plus excellens basti- mens de France, though part of the building alone remains; and his designs for the Tui- leries (also given by Du Cerceau), begun by Catherine de' Medici in 1565, were magnificent . His work is also seen at Chenonceaux and other famous chateaux; and his tomb of Francis I. at St Denis remains a perfect speci- men of his art . He wrote two books on architecture (1561 and 1567) . See Marius Vachon, Philibert de L'Orme (1887) ; Chevalier, Lettres et devis relatifs a la construction de Chenonceaux (1864) ; Pfror, Monographie du chateau d'Anet (1867) ; Herbet, Travaux de P. de L'Orme a Fontainebleau (1890) .