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 of the Androuet du Cerceau family. He introduced

Renaissance architecture Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Ancient Greece, ancient Greek and ...

to France with the assistance of

Pierre Lescot Pierre Lescot (c. 1515 – 10 September 1578) was a French architect active during the French Renaissance. His most notable works include the Fontaine des Innocents and the Lescot wing of the Louvre in Paris. He played an important role in t ...

Philibert Delorme Philibert de l'Orme () (3-9 June 1514 – 8 January 1570) was a French architect and writer, and one of the great masters of French Renaissance architecture. His surname is also written De l'Orme, de L'Orme, or Delorme. Biography Early care ...

and

Jean Bullant Jean Bullant (1515 – 13 October 1578) was a French architect and sculptor who built the tombs of Anne de Montmorency, Grand Connétable of France, Henri II, and Catherine de' Medici. He also worked on the Tuileries, the Louvre, and th ...

. Though he was referred to by contemporaries as ''architecte'' and was even appointed ''architecte du roi'', he is remembered especially for his suites of engravings produced from 1549 (beginning with a suite of

Triumphal arch A triumphal arch is a free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, cro ...

es) from his printshop in

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, but worked in Orléans until 1559, when he returned to Paris, where he produced his notable ''Livre d'architecture'' (dedicated to Henri II). In 1569, under the pressures of the

French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion is the term which is used in reference to a period of civil war between French Catholics and Protestants, commonly called Huguenots, which lasted from 1562 to 1598. According to estimates, between two and four mi ...

, Jacques I Androuet du Cerceau fled to the Huguenot stronghold of

Montargis Montargis () is a commune in the Loiret department, Centre-Val de Loire, France. Montargis is the seventh most populous commune in the Loiret, after Orléans and its suburbs. It is near a large forest, and contains light industry and farming, ...

, the seat of

Renée de France Renée (without the accent in non-French speaking countries) is a French/Latin feminine given name. Renée is the female form of René, with the extra –e making it feminine according to French grammar. The name Renée is the French form of th ...

, duchess of Ferrara, daughter of

Louis XII Louis XII (27 June 14621 January 1515), was King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples from 1501 to 1504. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Maria of Cleves, he succeeded his 2nd cousin once removed and brother in law at the tim ...

; the château featured strongly in his best-known work, the folio volumes of ''Les plus excellents bastiments de France'' (1576, second volume 1579). He died in Annecy. His fine engravings of French châteaux and the perspective views of their gardens— which he documented but did not design— and his extravagantly fanciful suites of engravings of decorative architectural elements and furniture, heavily loaded with sculptural ornament, were especially influential for the designers and luxury craftsmen of Antwerp, working in the style broadly called

Northern Mannerism Northern Mannerism is the form of Mannerism found in the visual arts north of the Alps in the 16th and early 17th centuries. Styles largely derived from Italian Mannerism were found in the Netherlands and elsewhere from around the mid-century, e ...

. In the 1570s he was back in Paris, working for Charles IX and Catherine de' Medici. Though documentation is lacking, and attribution to the author of a widely used patternbook is generally risky, he is credited with the designs of the

château 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. Now ...

x of Verneuil, in Verneuil-en-Halatte, which was later purchased by Henri IV in 1600, and Charles IX's château of Charleval (demolished), where he was assisted by his son Baptiste. The nickname "Cerceau" comes from the emblem of a ring that appears in lieu of a signature on engravings by Jacques Androuet. Answering the pressure of demand for authentic "Henri II" furniture designs in the 1880s, suites of designs by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau for chimneypieces, furniture and

arabesque The arabesque is a form of artistic decoration consisting of "surface decorations based on rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils" or plain lines, often combined with other elements. Another definition is "Foli ...

ornament were reproduced by the new technique of

heliogravure Photogravure (in French ''héliogravure'') is a process for printing photographs, also sometimes used for reproductive intaglio printmaking. It is a photo-mechanical process whereby a copper plate is grained (adding a pattern to the plate) an ...

. In the years after 1906, the detailed bird's-eye-view perspective engravings of Jacques Androuet enabled the patterned parterres of the

Château de Villandry The Château de Villandry is a grand country house located in Villandry, in the ''département'' of Indre-et-Loire, France. It is especially known for its beautiful gardens. History The lands where an ancient fortress once stood were known as ' ...

to be restored to their 16th-century appearance. The standard work on Jacques Androuet du Cerceau the Elder remains the 1887 monograph of .Miller 1996, p. 352; Geymüller 1887. Medaille-du-cerceau

References

;Notes ;Sources * Baldus, Édouard (1884). ''Oeuvre de Jacques Androuet dit du Cerceau. Meubles.'' Paris: Edouard Baldus
Copy
at the University of Heidelberg. * Geymüller, Henry de (1887). ''Les Du Cerceau, leur vie et leur oeuvre''. Paris: Librairie de l'Art
Copy
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

. * 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. .

External links

*: Jacques I Androuet du Cerceau's partnership with designer and mechanician Jacques Besson *Du Cerceau's Books on line: http://architectura.cesr.univ-tours.fr/Traite/Auteur/Androuet_du_Cerceau.asp?param= {{DEFAULTSORT:Androuet du Cerceau, Jacques I Renaissance architects 16th-century French architects French architecture writers Huguenots 1510 births 1584 deaths Architects from Paris

See also

References

External links