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 ( – 10 September 1578) was a French architect of the French Renaissance period. He is known for designing the Fontaine des Innocents and the Lescot wing of the Louvre in Paris. Lescot contributed to the incorporation of classical ...

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, an ...

. 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, and usually standing alone, unconnected to other buildings. In its simplest form, a triumphal ...

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, 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 ...

, 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 were a series of civil wars between French Catholic Church, Catholics and Protestantism, Protestants (called Huguenots) from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease di ...

, 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 Centre-Val de Loire ''région'', and the second in the Loiret ''département'' after Orléans. It is near ...

, the seat of

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

, duchess of Ferrara, daughter of

Louis XII Louis XII (27 June 14621 January 1515), also known as Louis of Orléans was King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples (as Louis III) from 1501 to 1504. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Marie of Cleves, he succeeded his second ...

; 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 Annecy ( , ; , also ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Haute-Savoie Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, regi ...

. 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 Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

, 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, es ...

. In the 1570s he was back in Paris, working for Charles IX and

Catherine de' Medici Catherine de' Medici (, ; , ; 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was an Italian Republic of Florence, Florentine noblewoman of the Medici family and Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to Henry II of France, King Henry II. Sh ...

. 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 palace, 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 re ...

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 "Foliate ...

ornament were reproduced by the new technique of heliogravure. 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 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

. * 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