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Brush up on the designs of despotism with the new monograph on Napoleon's official architects

A Neoclassical Education

Brush up on the designs of despotism with the new monograph on Napoleon's official architects

By Drew Zeiba • • Architecture, Art, International, Pictorial
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  • Interior view of a church with a layout inspired by early Christian basilicas. (Courtesy Bibliothèque de l’Institut national d’histoire de l’art, collection Jacques Doucet. From The Complete Works of Percier and Fontaine published by Princeton Architectural Press. Reprinted with permission of the publisher.)
  • (From The Complete Works of Percier and Fontaine published by Princeton Architectural Press. Reprinted with permission of the publisher.)
  • View of part of the gallery of the Palazzo Farnese. (Courtesy Bibliothèque de l’Institut national d’histoire de l’art, collection Jacques Doucet. From The Complete Works of Percier and Fontaine published by Princeton Architectural Press. Reprinted with permission of the publisher.)
  • Plan from restoration project for the Villa Madama. (From The Complete Works of Percier and Fontaine published by Princeton Architectural Press. Reprinted with permission of the publisher.)
  • Plan for the Villa Madama. (From The Complete Works of Percier and Fontaine published by Princeton Architectural Press. Reprinted with permission of the publisher.)
  • Friezes, altars, candelabra, cineraria, and other antiquities appropriated from various places and sources. (Courtesy Bibliothèque de l’Institut national d’histoire de l’art, collection Jacques Doucet. From The Complete Works of Percier and Fontaine published by Princeton Architectural Press. Reprinted with permission of the publisher.)
  • (From The Complete Works of Percier and Fontaine published by Princeton Architectural Press. Reprinted with permission of the publisher.)
  • General view of the Villa Pia, seen from below the terrace. (From The Complete Works of Percier and Fontaine published by Princeton Architectural Press. Reprinted with permission of the publisher.)
  • View of a gallery decorated with arabesques and stucco work, in the style of Vatican loggia.(Courtesy Bibliothèque de l’Institut national d’histoire de l’art, collection Jacques Doucet. From The Complete Works of Percier and Fontaine published by Princeton Architectural Press. Reprinted with permission of the publisher.)
  • (From The Complete Works of Percier and Fontaine published by Princeton Architectural Press. Reprinted with permission of the publisher.)

Napoleon, a man with ambitions to conquer the world, was not known for his small designs. The architecture that he favored, on view in a massive new monograph, shared his grand self-confidence and fascination with a mythologized imperial past.

The French architects Charles Percier and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine, the official architects of Napoleon, introduced a neoclassical style informed by an archaeological approach to the Greco-Roman urban past to the 19th-century French architectural landscape. Their tremendous output has been collected in the new monograph The Complete Works of Percier and Fontaine, now available through Princeton Architectural Press. The substantial and definitive tome pulls together four separate volumes, reproducing the pair’s entire written output along with numerous extravagant illustrations. While a full appreciation of the monograph text requires reading knowledge of French, their vibrant images offer universal appeal.

 

 


an interior imports 2NapoleonneoclassicalPrinceton Architectural Press
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