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in the fifteenth century and most recently by Henri IV, Maria de’ Medici demonstrated her
willingness to follow tradition and to perpetuate the patronage initiated by her husband. By
maintaining these connections the foreign queen asserted her right to rule as regent.
Although it cannot be certain whether the duc de La Vieuville’s right to be the founder of
the monastery or a personal decision by Maria de’ Medici explains the absence of royal imagery
in the church, the queen undoubtedly used her support of the order to legitimize her claims to the
throne. The remaining churches receiving aid from the regent likewise functioned as political
tools, aiding the queen’s assertion of her right to rule. An examination of these buildings will
illuminate the second goal pursued by Maria de’ Medici, the promotion of the Catholic faith.
Discalced Carmelites of the rue de Vaugirard
In June 1610 a group a Discalced Carmelites arrived in Paris from Italy with the hopes of
establishing a monastery. Although a Carmelite convent had existed in the capital since 1603,
efforts to found a community of reformed males only proved successful following the death of
Henri IV. At this time the regent-queen Maria de’ Medici, who had been a strong supporter of
the female Carmelites since their establishment in Paris, persuaded Louis XIII to authorize the
community that his father had previously shunned. 21 A month after arrival of the Discalced
Carmelites, the minor king issued letters patent authorizing the religious group to form a
monastery in Paris.
The following year the fathers established their community in a house on the rue de
Vaugirard in the faubourg Saint-Germain. Nicolas Vivien, master of the Chambres des Comptes,
donated the house and property and provided additional funds to construct a monastery on the
site, leading him to be named the community’s founder. 22 As work on the buildings progressed,
plans were begun to construct a church dedicated to St. Joseph. 23
Built from 1613 to 1620 by an unknown architect, the extant church of Saint-Joseph-des-
Carmes preserves much of the original seventeenth-century structure. 24 Its plan consists of a
single nave of two bays, a non-projecting transept, and a rectangular choir of one bay, beyond
which is a semi-circular apse, closed off from the rest of the church by a wall at the back of the
high altar (fig. 60). Bordering either side of the nave are two chapels framed by large piers. The
nave and transepts are covered with a barrel vault while a small dome, only the second to be built
in Paris, rises over the crossing supported on a drum on pendentives (fig. 61). 25
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