Étienne Dupérac (or du Pérac) (–March 1604) was a French architect, painter, engraver, and garden designer."Dupérac, Etienne"
Union List of Artist Names Online. He is most well known for his

topographical Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the landforms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary scienc ...

studies of

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

and its ruins in the late 16th century.Arnold 1998.

Rome

Dupérac was born in

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Miller 1982. and arrived in Rome in 1550, where he became a skilled designer and engraver. He published a bird's-eye view of

Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

with buildings reconstructed (''Urbis Romae Sciographia'', 1574) and one of modern Rome (''Descriptio'', 1577) and a book of forty engravings of Roman monuments and antiquities, ''I vestigi dell'antichità di Roma'' (Rome, 1575). An unpublished book of drawings on parchment of ruins of Rome confronted with reconstructions of their original appearance, from the same angle, ''Disegni de le Ruine di Roma e Come Anticamente Erono'', attributed to him and dated was published in

facsimile A facsimile (from Latin ''fac simile'', "to make alike") is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from other forms of r ...

(Milan 1964) with an introduction by

Rudolf Wittkower Rudolf Wittkower (22 June 1901 – 11 October 1971) was a British art historian specializing in Italian Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture, who spent much of his career in London, but was educated in Germany, and later moved to the Unit ...

, who dated them on the basis of the actual state of the buildings shown; the text that must have accompanied the drawings has not survived, and Dupérac's authorship has been called into question. The book is part of the collection of the

Morgan Library & Museum The Morgan Library & Museum (originally known as the Pierpont Morgan Library and colloquially known the Morgan) is a museum and research library in New York City, New York, U.S. Completed in 1906 as the private library of the banker J. P. Morg ...

in New York (acc. no. MS M.1106). Dupérac's engravings of modern Rome, such as the ''carrousel'' in the

Cortile del Belvedere The (Belvedere Courtyard or Belvedere Court) was a major architectural work of the High Renaissance at the Vatican Palace in Rome. Designed by Donato Bramante from 1505 onward, its concept and details reverberated in courtyard design, formalize ...

or his bird's-eye view of the

Villa d'Este The Villa d'Este is a 16th-century villa in Tivoli, Lazio, Tivoli, near Rome. It is a masterpiece of Italian architecture and garden design, famous for its terraced hillside Italian Renaissance garden and the ingenuity of its architectural featu ...

, served to transmit architectural and gardening ideas to France and the north of Europe. Dupérac worked for a time for Antonio Lafreri.

France

On his return to France by 1578, Dupérac was commissioned to paint the ''Cabinet des Bains'' at the

Château de Fontainebleau Palace of Fontainebleau ( , ; ), located southeast of the center of Paris, in the commune of Fontainebleau, is one of the largest French royal châteaux. It served as a hunting lodge and summer residence for many of the French monarchs, includ ...

, and may have designed some of the gardens. He has also been credited with the design of the gardens at

Anet Anet () is a commune in the Eure-et-Loir department in the Centre-Val de Loire region of north-central France. It lies 14 km north-northeast of Dreux between the rivers Eure and Vesgre, the latter flowing into the former some 4 km n ...

, as architect to the

duke of Aumale Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobi ...

. As architect to Henri IV beginning in 1595, he may have designed the terraced gardens at

Saint-Germain-en-Laye Saint-Germain-en-Laye () is a Communes of France, commune in the Yvelines Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. ...

, and was engaged in work at the

Tuileries The Tuileries Palace (, ) was a palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the Seine, directly in the west-front of the Louvre Palace. It was the Parisian residence of most French monarchs, from Henri IV to Napoleon III, until it was b ...

in Paris (). Dupérac died in Paris. An album signed by Dupérac and dated 1575, ''Illustration des fragments antiques'', is conserved in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

. An etching from ''Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae'' is exhibited in the

Palazzo Braschi Palazzo Braschi () is a large Neoclassical palace in Rome, Italy and is located between the Piazza Navona, the Campo de' Fiori, the Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and the Piazza di Pasquino. It presently houses the Museo di Roma, the "Museum of R ...

in Rome.Etching of Seven Pilgrimage Churches of Rome
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Notes

Sources

* Arnold, Dana (1998). "Dupérac, Etienne" in Turner 1998, vol. 9, p. 398. * Karling, Sten (1974). "The importance of André Mollet and his family for the development of the French formal garden", pp. 2–25, in ''The French Formal Garden'', edited by Elizabeth B. Macdougall and F. Hamilton Hazlehurst. Washington: Dumbarton Oaks. . * Miller, Naomi (1982). "Dupérac, Etienne", vol. 1, p. 613, in ''Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects'', edited by Adolf K. Placzek. New York: The Free Press. . * Turner, Jane, editor (1998). ''

The Dictionary of Art ''Grove Art Online'' is the online edition of ''The Dictionary of Art'', often referred to as the ''Grove Dictionary of Art'', and part of Oxford Art Online, an internet gateway to online art reference publications of Oxford University Press, ...

'', reprinted with minor corrections, 34 volumes. New York: Grove. . * Zerner, Henri (1965). "Observations on Dupérac and the ''Disegni de le ruine di Roma e come anticamente erono''", ''The Art Bulletin'', vol. 47, no. 4 (December 1965), pp. 507–512.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Duperac, Etienne 1520s births 1604 deaths Architects from Bordeaux 16th-century French architects Expatriates in the Papal States