Liberal Bruant (ca 1635 - Paris, November 22, 1697), was a Frencharchitect best known as the designer of the Hôtel des Invalides, Paris, now dominated by the dome erected by Jules Hardouin Mansart, his collaborator in earlier stages of the construction. A comparison of Bruant's central entrance to the Invalides, under an arched cornice packed with military trophies with Mansart's Eglise du Dome (see Les Invalides), gives a clear idea of the difference between Bruant's High Baroque and Hardouin-Mansart's restrained and somewhat academic Late Baroque.
Libéral Bruant was the most notable in a family that produced a long series of architects active from the 16th to the 18th century.
In 1660, Liberal Bruant was the architect chosen for rehabilitations to Louis XIII's old arsenal (the Salpetrière), which was being converted into a combination workhouse and orphanage.
In the Marais district of Paris, the hotel particulier Bruant built for himself in 1685, at rue de la Perle no.1 now houses the Bricard lock museum. Its Baroque facade of golden limestone is enlivened by windows set into blind arches that march across its front and busts in oval reserves, all under a richly-sculptured pediment that is pierced by an oval window.
By the time the enlarged project was completed in 1676, the river front measured 196 metres and the complex had fifteen courtyards, the largest being the cour d'honneur ("court of honour") for military parades.
Then it was felt that the veterans required a chapel, in which Jules Hardouin Mansart assisted the aged Bruant, and finished it in 1679 to Bruant's designs after the elder architect's death.
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