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(b Ghemme, Novara, July 14, 1798; d Maggiora, Novara, Aug 18, 1888).

Italian architect and urban planner. He was the most prominent Neo-classical 19th-century architect in Piedmont, with a long and prolific career that included designs for houses, churches and major urban planning schemes. He trained at the Accademia di Brera, Milan, and the Politecnico, Turin, qualifying in 1824. Shortly afterwards he won a scholarship to Rome, where he remained until 1831. This long period of Classical studies profoundly influenced his career. One of his first commissions on his return to Piedmont was the completion of the church of S Agapito, Maggiora. Begun in 1817 by Giuseppe Zanoia (1752–1817), the church was completed in 1838; Antonelli’s work included the portico and the complex Neo-classical interior, with richly coffered, decorated vaults and a dome on pendentives. His next work was the Santuario del Crocefisso at Boca, near Maggiora. Begun in 1830, the design underwent many revisions and was not completed until ...

(b Alicante, 1770; d Madrid, 1838).

Spanish painter. He studied at the Real Academia de S Fernando in Madrid (1792–8) and then completed his training as a pensionnaire in Paris with David (until 1807) and in Rome until 1815. Though having didactic and moralizing pretensions, his paintings are, in fact, rhetorical, theatrical and sycophantic, factors that explain his constant success in official circles. His works include his scholarship submission, Godoy Presenting Peace to Charles IV (1796; Madrid, Real Acad. S Fernando); his triumph in the Paris Salon of 1804, Athaliah and Jonah; and his presentation piece to the Accademia di S Luca in Rome, Ransom of Prisoners in the Reign of Charles III (1815). His appointment in 1815 as Pintor de Cámara was marked by his painting of the Glories of Spain. He also achieved popular recognition through such patriotic and nationalistic works as Famine of Madrid (1818; Madrid, Mus. Mun.). His carefully drawn compositions were well suited to engraved reproductions, and this led to their wider circulation. ...

(b Milan, May 31, 1754; d Milan, Nov 8, 1817).

Italian painter and designer. He had been intended to follow his father’s career in medicine but instead entered the private academy of the painter Carlo Maria Giudici (1723–1804). He received instruction in drawing, copying mainly from sculpture and prints. He studied Raphael through the engravings of Marcantonio Raimondi, as well as the work of Giulio, Anton Raphael Mengs and, again from prints, the compositions in Trajan’s Column. He then joined the class of the fresco painter Antonio de’ Giorgi (1720–93), which was held at the Ambrosiana picture gallery in Milan, where he was able to study Raphael’s art directly from the cartoon of the School of Athens and the work of Leonardo’s followers, particularly Bernardino Luini. He also frequented the studio of Martin Knoller, where he deepened his knowledge of painting in oils; and he studied anatomy at the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan with the sculptor ...

(b Lobositz [now Lovosice], May 27, 1793; d Kremsier [now Kroměříž], Nov 7, 1851).

Bohemian architect, active in Moravia. He studied at the Royal Professional Polytechnical Institute in Prague under Georg Fischer (1768–1828), in whose office he subsequently worked. During the 1820s he worked on two Bohemian estates of the Chotek family, becoming involved in the final stages of building their country house at Kačina (1802–22), by Christian Friedrich Schuricht (1753–1832) and building some of the many follies in the park at Veltrusy. From 1832 until his death Arche worked in the office of works of the archdiocese of Olmütz (now Olomouc) at Kremsier, in Moravia, becoming director (1833) and later counsellor (1838). Arche worked in two styles, the Neo-classical, for which he derived his ideas from contemporary engravings and particularly the Leipzig Ideenmagazin, and the Gothic Revival, which he used in some of his remodellings. Soon after his arrival at Kremsier, he remodelled (...

(b Hamburg, Oct 2, 1757; d Pisa, Aug 18, 1806).

German architect, draughtsman, landscape designer and painter. He studied from 1778 to 1783 at the University of Göttingen and the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen, where he was awarded four prizes. His early designs included drawings for the hothouse of the botanic gardens in Copenhagen and a lecture room at Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin. While visiting Paris in 1784–5 he devoted himself to the study of Revolutionary architecture, and in England and Italy (1786) he studied landscape design and ancient sites. In Rome in 1787 he met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who later summoned him to Weimar to rebuild the prince’s Schloss. In addition to a number of designs for the palace at Weimar he produced drawings for various summer-houses. In 1790 he moved to Hamburg, his plans for the Schloss at Weimar still largely unexecuted. By the end of his life he had designed numerous public buildings and private houses in Hamburg, including the house for Bürgermeister ...

(b Rome, May 20, 1723; d Rome, Feb 14, 1808).

Italian architect. He trained first with his father, the architect Mario Asprucci il vecchio, and then with Nicola Salvi, for whom he later worked as an assistant, often supervising such works as the construction of S Maria in Gradi (1737), Viterbo, and the extension of the palace of the Duca di Bracciano on Piazza dei SS Apostoli in Rome. His early projects included the restoration of the monastery of S Francesca Romana in Rome and the construction of a monastic building for S Stefano in Cacco. In 1756 Asprucci was made architect to Francis, Grand Duke of Tuscany, for his Roman buildings, directing restorations at the Villa Medici from 1757 to 1762. In the same year he also became architect to Marcantonio IV Borghese, a wealthy, powerful nobleman and patron of the arts (see Borghese, Prince Marcantonio, IV). He built a house at Pratica da Mare and remodelled the gallery of the Palazzo Borghese in Rome. His major undertaking for Marcantonio IV, also in Rome, was the reworking of the casino and gardens of the Villa Borghese into a Neo-classical ‘display-case’ for the Borghese art collection....

(b Dôle, Jura, Dec 14, 1728; d Dôle, July 15, 1804).

French sculptor. He was the son of a joiner, who sent him to Paris to train with Jean-Baptiste Pigalle. In 1757 Attiret was in Rome, where he received a prize from the Accademia di S Luca; returning to Paris, he was accepted as a member of the Académie de St Luc in 1760, and was a professor there. He exhibited several times at the Salon of the Académie de St Luc: among the works that he showed was Roman Charity (terracotta, 1726; Dijon, Mus. B.-A.); Hannibal Preparing to Take Poison (terracotta, 1764); and the Chercheuse d’esprit (terracotta, 1774; Dijon, Mus. B.-A.; marble version, Paris, David–Weill col.). This idealized portrait bust of a young woman, graceful in concept and mischievous in expression, is his best-known work.

By 1776 Attiret had settled in Dijon and had executed two stone statues for St Bénigne, St Andrew and St John the Evangelist, and a bronze low relief of the ...

(b New Haven, CT, Feb 21, 1791; d New Haven, CT, Jan 10, 1858).

American sculptor. Although as a youth he showed talent for handling tools, his father, a joiner and carpenter, discouraged him from becoming a wood-carver. After opening a fruit shop in New Haven, he began carving musical instruments and furniture legs for a local cabinetmaker. With his invention of a lace-making machine, he was able to settle his business debts and devote himself entirely to sculpture.

About 1825 Samuel F. B. Morse encouraged Augur to try working in marble. Among his earliest attempts in this medium was a bust of Professor Alexander Metcalf Fisher (c. 1825–7; New Haven, CT, Yale U. A.G.), which was exhibited in 1827 at the National Academy of Design in New York. The impact of the Neo-classical style is clearly evident in his most ambitious work, Jephthah and his Daughter (c. 1828–30; New Haven, CT, Yale U. A.G.), a pair of free-standing half life-size marble figures. The treatment of the heads shows Roman influence, which Augur must have absorbed from engravings; this is borne out by the detailed work on Jephthah’s armour. The bold handling of the hair and drapery reveals his experience as a wood-carver. In ...

French family of gold- and silversmiths. Robert-Joseph Auguste (b 1723; d ?1805) became a master in 1757 after an apprenticeship that included work for Louis XV. His repertoire was unusual in that it embraced both silver tableware and gold objects of vertu; the latter includes four gold boxes made between 1762 and 1763, and 1769 and 1771 (Paris, Louvre; New York, Met.; London, V&A; Althorp House, Northants). In 1775 he received payment for the royal crown and other regalia (destr.) made for the coronation of Louis XVI in 1774. The majority of his work in silver is tableware and includes partial or complete services for the courts of Denmark (Copenhagen, Kon. Saml.) and Russia (St Petersburg, Hermitage) and for Gustav Filip Creutz of Sweden (1775–6; Stockholm, Kun. Slottet). He also made a service for George III of England (1776–85; Paris, Louvre). Auguste’s style is characterized by a light and graceful Neo-classicism, in which festoons and figures of children as handles or finials are prominent....

(b Florence, June 6, 1792; d Florence, July 12, 1867).

Italian architect . He studied under Giuseppe Cacialli at the school of architecture of the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, which was directed by Gasparo Maria Paoletti, the leader of the Neo-classical architectural movement in Tuscany. In 1812 Baccani was awarded first prize for architecture in the Accademia’s prestigious triennial competition with a design for a prison, a project that already demonstrated the principal characteristic of Baccani’s work, his alternation between a Neo-classical vocabulary and a medieval, Romantic one. Indeed, his earliest executed works in Florence were the Gothic Revival tower (1817–21) in the garden of the Marchesi Torrigiani in the Via dei Serragli, and the Neo-classical Palazzo Borghese (1821) in the Via Ghibellina. In 1824 he succeeded Cacialli as architect to Florence Cathedral, and in 1826, when the cathedral square was extended to the south, he designed the adaptation and new façade of the Canonica di S Maria del Fiore. He also directed the remodelling of numerous houses in Florence, including the Palazzo Brignole-Durazzo (...

(b Quebec, c. Sept 29, 1826; d Quebec, c. May 10, 1906).

Canadian architect, civil engineer and writer, great-grandson of Jean Baillairgé and second cousin of Thomas Baillairgé. Precocious and restless as a child, he abandoned formal studies at the Séminaire de Québec at 16. Following an apprenticeship with Thomas Baillairgé and his own independent studies, Charles Baillairgé trained in three separate professions—architecture, land surveying and civil engineering—by the age of 22. Unlike the previous generations of his family, he broke clearly from the hybrid craftsman–architect role to become the designer who conceived but did not execute his own work, a development that had parallels in other North American cities in the mid-19th century. Intensely curious about developments in Europe, he also quickly distanced himself from the traditional Neo-classicism of his family to experiment with the latest styles and construction techniques, working in both Gothic Revival and Greek Revival styles. He persuaded the architecturally conservative Roman Catholic clergy to accept Gothic Revival for the majestic parish church of Ste Marie de la Beauce (...

(b Quebec, c. Jan 21, 1759; d Quebec, Sept 15, 1830).

Canadian sculptor, architect and painter, elder son of Jean Baillairgé. From his youth, his intellectual promise and manual dexterity attracted attention. Although relations between the mother country and New France had been severed for almost two decades, François’s father obtained the support of the Séminaire de Québec to send him to Paris from 1778 to 1781 to study at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. On his return, Baillairgé displayed his virtuosity on a wide range of projects, including classically inspired altarpieces and retables, large religious paintings, such as his work in the church of Sainte-Famille on the Ile d’Orléans, carved figureheads for ships and decorative works such as the coat of arms for the carriage of Edward, Duke of Kent. Among the best of his richly carved church interiors are Notre-Dame de Bonsecours (1782–6) at L’Islet, St Ambroise de la Jeune Lorette (1810–16), Loretteville, and St Joachim (...

(b Quebec, c. Dec 20, 1791; d Quebec, Feb 9, 1859).

Canadian architect and sculptor, son of François Baillairgé. Influenced by his father and grandfather, he refined the design of classical churches in Quebec to its most satisfying and cohesive form. He blended the Renaissance classical tradition in which he had been trained with more current strains of French and English Neo-classicism, integrating all the elements into unified compositions. His majestic chancel (1816–29) in St Joachim, Montmorency, where he worked with his father, featured an inner ring of magnificent life-sized statues alternating with ornate gilded columns. His carefully composed twin-towered church façades were particularly innovative; examples include his addition (1843) to Notre-Dame Cathedral in Quebec, Ste Geneviève (1844), Pierrefonds, in Québec province, and St Roch (1845), Quebec. Thomas Baillairgé’s designs for churches showed considerable variety, and he was arguably the greatest church architect of French Canada, influencing generations of designers to the end of the 19th century. In his wood carvings for church interiors, he preferred symbolic designs to narrative....

(b Bristol, March 10, 1788; d London, May 22, 1867).

English sculptor and designer . He was the son of a ship’s carver and began his career as ‘a modeller of small busts in wax’. He spent seven years in John Flaxman’s studio, acknowledged as his favourite and most devoted pupil. He attended the Royal Academy Schools, London, won the first silver medal of the Society of Artists and was awarded gold and silver medals by the Royal Academy in 1809 and 1811. He was elected ARA in 1817, the year he exhibited Apollo Discharging Arrows against the Greeks (plaster; destr.). Full membership followed in 1820 with the exhibition of Eve at the Fountain (probably plaster, untraced; marble version, 1822, Bristol, Mus. & A.G.), one of the most famous pieces of British sculpture in the 19th century.

From 1809 Baily worked for the firm of Rundell, Bridge & Rundell, goldsmiths to the royal family, and on Flaxman’s death in 1826 he became Chief Modeller and Designer. In ...

(b Gochenée, May 15, 1818; d Ixelles, Brussels, Sept 16, 1895).

Belgian architect. He studied in Namur and at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, where he won a medal (1838) for architectural composition. After further studies in Paris in 1840 he settled in Namur, where he taught for six years. In 1852 he became architect to the Duke of Brabant (later Leopold II, King of Belgium), an important future patron. Balat’s work in the Neo-classical style appealed to the Walloon nobility, who commissioned him to modernize or redecorate many châteaux in the current taste, including Seilles (1850), Mirwart (c. 1855), Dave (1858) and Presles (1885). Balat undertook a wide range of commissions, mostly in Brussels, ranging from simple buildings to grand town houses, for example the hôtel (1856–8) for the Marquis d’Assche in Place Frère-Orban (see Belgium, Kingdom of, §II, 4). The numerous commissions for interior decoration or remodelling included the covered market of La Madeleine (...

(b Paris, July 9, 1764; d Paris, Jan 22, 1846).

French architect, painter, engraver, and teacher. Louis-Pierre Baltard was a pupil of Antoine-François Peyre and began working with Richard Mique in 1784 on the design of the garden of the Petit Trianon. In 1788 he left for Italy, where he painted, drew, and engraved as well as studying antique monuments; he also met Percier and Fontaine there. He was in France again in 1791, where he presented himself primarily as a painter (his début at the Salon was in 1791) and held the position of scenery designer at the Opéra from 1792. In 1793 he became a military engineer and presented various fortification plans. He subsequently obtained a post as professor of architecture when the Ecole Polytechnique de Paris was created in 1796. Under the Consulate, he was the engraver for the publication documenting the Egyptian expedition. Baltard’s architectural career really began under the first Empire, a period when he became the architect of the Panthéon and subsequently of prisons, food depots, and markets in Paris. In ...

(bapt London, Dec 22, 1735; d London, Feb 2, 1805).

English sculptor. To his contemporaries and immediate heirs, Banks was one of the most original British Neo-classical sculptors, distinguished from John Bacon (i) and Joseph Nollekens by his greater dedication to the antique spirit rather than to the fashionable classical style alone. His persistent efforts to establish a market for modern gallery sculpture were exceptional in an age when most patrons preferred restored antique marbles, replicas, pastiches, busts and memorials. Sir Joshua Reynolds is said to have considered him to be ‘the first British sculptor who had produced works of classic grace’ and John Flaxman ranked him alongside Canova in stature.

The eldest son of William Banks, who became steward to the 4th Duke of Beaufort at Badminton, Thomas Banks attended school in Ross-on-Wye, Hereford & Worcs, then returned to London to be apprenticed for seven years to the mason and ornament-carver William Barlow. He spent his evenings studying in the studio of ...

(b Genoa, Feb 11, 1768; d Genoa, Sept 3, 1835).

Italian architect . He was a major architect in Genoa during the Napoleonic and post-Napoleonic eras. He first studied in Genoa, from 1785, at the Accademia Ligustica and then in Rome, from 1788, under Giuseppe Barberi (1746–1809); he received prizes in the competitions of the Accademia di S Luca (1789) and the Accademia Parmense (1792). His drawings (Genoa, Pal. Rosso) show that he was strongly influenced on the one hand by Giovanni Battista Piranesi and the architecture of antiquity, and on the other by the architecture parlante of the French Enlightenment and in particular the more decorative tendencies of Charles de Wailly. Barabino was able to use these disparate influences in the period of renewed civic confidence in Genoa after the departure of the French in 1815 and the subsequent cession of the city to the House of Savoy.

Although Barabino returned to Genoa in ...

(b c. 1732; d 1824).

French architect . He studied at the Académie d’Architecture, Paris, and worked for wealthy financiers (rather than for the nobility), a clientele he inherited from Antoine-Mathieu Le Carpentier. Among the large houses he designed in Paris were the Hôtel de la Reynière, Hôtel d’Aubeterre and Hôtel d’Harvelay (all destr.). His most important work, however, was the Château du Marais (c. 1770) in the Remarde Valley, south of Paris; this building reveals the influence of Anges-Jacques Gabriel, although its style is more severely classical, not least in the Grand Salon, which is dominated by the architectural forms of coupled Ionic columns that articulate the walls. Externally, Barré’s intelligent exploitation of the site is particularly noteworthy, as is the proportion of the building in relation to the expanse of water and to the canals, which are extensions of the moat behind the building. Also of note is the play of light created by the Italianate peristyle and its corresponding ...

(b Paris, 1725; d Paris, June 29, 1765).

French architect . A pupil of Germain Boffrand, he won the Prix de Rome in 1749 with a design for a Temple of Peace. From 1752 he spent three years in Rome, where his compatriots Charles-Louis Clérisseau and Marie-Joseph Peyre introduced him to the circle of Robert Adam (i) and Giovanni Battista Piranesi. On his return to Paris he was commissioned by Ange-Laurent de La Live de Jully to design the decoration à la grecque for his Cabinet Flamand in the Rue de Menars, Paris (executed 1765–8). No record of this survives but it must have echoed Louis-Joseph Le Lorrain’s furniture for the room, now in the Musée Condé, Chantilly, which is massive and rectilinear with heavy friezes of Greek-key frets and Vitruvian scrolls. The bold simplicity of these motifs, selected from French 17th-century decoration rather than Greek antiquity, became characteristic of the Goût grec, a short-lived but important style of which Barreau de Chefdeville was an early exponent. More genuinely antique in inspiration was his design for a pavilion (destr.) in the garden of a house in the Rue de Clichy, Paris. This contained four Doric columns disposed in imitation of a Roman atrium. The patron was either ...