, sieur de Chambrai, under which name he is classed in some biographical
, sieur de Chambrai, under which
name he is classed in some biographical works, was a
learned architect of the seventeenth century, and a native
of Chambrai. He was connected by relationship, as well
as love of the art, with Sublet des Noyers, secretary of
state and superintend ant of the buildings under Louis XIII.
About 1640, Freart was sent, with one of his brothers, to
Italy, on an important mission to the pope, and he was
also ordered to collect antiquities, &c. and engage the
ablest artists to reside in France. Among the latter he
brought Poussin to Paris. Freart died in iv76. He published a French translation of Da Vinci on painting, Paris,
1651, fol. and another of Palladia’s Architecture, Paris,
1650. Of this a fine edition was printed by Nicolas du
Bois at the Hague in 1726, with engravings by Piea*t, but
he has strangely divided the translator into two persons,
asserting that Freart published one edition of Palladio, and
the sieur de Chambrai another. But the work by which
Freart is best known is his “Parallele de l'architecture
antique avec la rooderne,
” Paris,