Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, the younger (1550 – 16 September 1614),Miller 1996, p. 353. was a French

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Life and career

He was born in Paris, the son of the eminent French architect and engraver,

Jacques I Androuet du Cerceau Jacques I Androuet du Cerceau, also given as Du Cerceau, DuCerceau, or Ducerceau (1510–1584) was a well-known French designer of architecture, ornament, furniture, metalwork and other decorative designs during the 16th century, and the founder ...

, and the brother of the architect

Baptiste Androuet du Cerceau Jean Baptiste Androuet du Cerceau (1544/47–1590) was a French architect who designed the Pont Neuf (1579), spanning the Seine, Paris, and became supervisor of the royal works under Henri III and Henri IV, including the Louvre. Several ''hôtel ...

. He worked at the Château de Charleval in the 1570s and was responsible for military fortifications in

Tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 ...

in the 1580s. He also worked on the

Château de Verneuil-sur-Oise A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions. Nowaday ...

(ruins), the

Château de Montceaux The Château de Montceaux, also known as the Château de Montceaux-en-Brie or the Château de Montceaux-lès-Meaux, was a royal French Renaissance château, located in what is now the commune of Montceaux-lès-Meaux in the Seine-et-Marne departme ...

(destroyed 1798; ruins), and the

Château de Nérac The Château de Nérac is a castle in the Lot-et-Garonne ''Departments of France, département'' in southwest France. An edifice of the French Renaissance architecture, Renaissance style, it was finished during the reign of Jeanne d'Albret, Queen o ...

. He became a royal architect during the reign of Henry III. In 1594, during the reign of Henry IV,

Louis Métezeau Louis Métezeau (1559 – 18 August 1615) was a French architect.Babelon 1996, p. 345. Life and career He was born in Dreux, Eure-et-Loir, and died in Paris. He was the son of Thibault Métezeau, the brother of Clément II Métezeau and the n ...

was also appointed royal architect, a designation opposed by Androuet du Cerceau on the grounds that only one architect could hold the position at any given time. Androuet du Cerceau's claims were rejected in 1599, when the crown asserted its right to name as many royal architects as it wished.Ballon 1991, p. 39. It is considered unlikely that the two architects collaborated during their dispute. Androuet du Cerceau is traditionally credited with the design of the western section of the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

's Grande Galerie (1595–1610), which extended along the right bank of the

Seine ) , mouth_location = Le Havre/Honfleur , mouth_coordinates = , mouth_elevation = , progression = , river_system = Seine basin , basin_size = , tributaries_left = Yonne, Loing, Eure, Risle , tributarie ...

as part of Henry IV's grand project to link the Louvre to the

Tuileries Palace The Tuileries Palace (french: Palais des Tuileries, ) was a royal and imperial palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the River Seine, directly in front of the Louvre. It was the usual Parisian residence of most French monarchs, from ...

, while the eastern section, in a very different style, is traditionally credited to Louis Métezeau. The project was abruptly halted after the assassination of the king in 1610, but the Grande Galerie and the Gros Pavilion des Tuileries (begun in 1595, now known as the

Pavillon de Flore The Pavillon de Flore, part of the Palais du Louvre in Paris, France, stands at the southwest end of the Louvre, near the Pont Royal. It was originally constructed in 1607–1610, during the reign of Henry IV, as the corner pavilion between ...

), that formed the junction between the Grande Galerie and the south end of the Tuileries, were completed, but in the 1860s Androuet du Cerceau's work was entirely demolished and rebuilt in a different design by the Louvre's architect

Hector Lefuel Hector-Martin Lefuel (14 November 1810 – 31 December 1880) was a French architect, best known for his work on the Palais du Louvre, including Napoleon III's Louvre expansion and the reconstruction of the Pavillon de Flore. Biography He was ...

.Ballon 1991, pp. 55–56. File:L'Architecture française (Marot) BnF RES-V-371 173v-f378 Louvre, Face de la partie occidentale de la Grande Galerie du côté de la rivière (adjusted).jpg, River facade of the

and the western section of the

's Grande Galerie, engraved by

Jean Marot Jean Marot (Mathieu, near Caen, 1463 – c. 1526) was a French poet of the late 15th and early 16 century and the father of the French Renaissance poet Clément Marot. He is often grouped with the "Grands Rhétoriqueurs". Jean Marot seems to ha ...

(c. 1670)

Notes

Bibliography

* Baldus, Eduoard. Oeuvre de Jacques Androuet dit du Cerceau. Meubles. Paris; Edouard Baldus: c.1880 * Ballon, Hilary (1991). ''The Paris of Henri IV: Architecture and Urbanism''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. . * Miller, Naomi (1996). "Du Cerceau. French family of artists.", vol. 9, pp. 350–354, in ''The Dictionary of Art'', edited by Jane Turner, reprinted with minor corrections in 1998. . Also a
Oxford Art Online

External links

Jacques I Androuet du Cerceau's partnership with designer and mechanician Jacques Besson * Du Cerceau's Books on line: https://web.archive.org/web/20070420012058/http://www.cesr.univ-tours.fr/architectura/Traite/Auteur/Androuet_du_Cerceau.asp {{DEFAULTSORT:Androuet du Cerceau, Jacques II 16th-century French architects Huguenots 1614 deaths 1550 births

Life and career

See also

Notes

Bibliography

External links