Georg Bähr
architect; b. March 15, 1666; d. March 16, 1738.
Of his early life nothing is known. It is not probable that he visited France or Italy. Bähr held the office of Rathsbaumeister in Dresden (Saxony), and devoted his life to the developments of the architecture of Protestant churches. His most important building is the monumental Frauenkirche in Dresden, built between 1726 and 1740, one of the most notable domical buildings of the time.
Germain Boffrand
architect and decorator; b. May 7, 1667; d. March 18, 1754.
The son of Germain Boffrand, an architect and sculptor of Nantes, France. He went to Paris quite early and studied architecture, probably under Jules Hardouin-Mansart. In 1690 he was made custodian of the drawings in the cabinet du roi. In 1706 he assisted in the decoration of the Hôtel Soubise, Paris. In 1708 he was admitted to the Académie de l'Architecture. Between 1715 and 1718 Boffrand rebuilt a great part of the Arsenal, Paris, where he decorated a salon. Between 1725 and 1727 he repaired the southern portal of the church of Notre Dame, Paris, with the rose window. November 29, 1711, he was made chief architect of the Duke of Lorraine at Nancy, where he built the great altar of the cathedral and the Hôtel de la Monnaie. He was architect of the Duke of Bavaria, for whom he erected a hunting lodge, and worked also on the episcopal palace at Würzburg, Germany. In France, Boffrand held the position of architecte du roi and premier ingénieur et inspecteur général des ponts et chaussées du royaume. In 1745 he published the Livre d'Architecture contenant les principes généraux de cet art, etc.
François Girardon
sculptor and architect ; b. March 17, 1628, at Troyes (Aube), France ; d. 1715.
Girardon was a pupil of François Anguier. He studied in Rome, and on his return became the favorite sculptor of Charles Lebrun. His earliest known work is the tomb of the Duke d'Epernon and his wife in a chapel of the church of Cadillac (Gironde, France). In 1690 Girardon contracted to build the great altar of the church of S. Jean-au-Marche in Troyes, which still exists. About 1699 he began the equestrian statue of Louis XIV which stood in the Place Louis le Grand (now Place Vendôme), and was melted down for cannon in the Revolution. Perhaps his most famous work is the monument of the Cardinal Richelieu in the church of Sorbonne, Paris. Many of his works are in the Garden of Versailles.
| |
| |
|