People:

Jacques Androuet Du Cerceau (designer)

Title:

Détails d'architecture

Date:

engraved circa 1566-1570

Description:

The etchings in this set include designs for various parts of architectural orders including column bases, capitals, and entablatures.
There is some overlap with prints in Du Cerceau’s 'Détails d’ordres antiques' (notably elements on Plates 007 and 011), however most of the etchings include novel elements drawn from the type of ornament in use in works produced by the First School of Fontainebleau such as armor, musical instruments, and fruit. In purportedly representing architectural elements drawn from antiquity, Du Cerceau introduces a high level of variation and innovation. Some of these details are whimsical, for example a small detail of a dog on the entablature of Plate 002.

Each plate is organized to accommodate the greatest number of variations possible. For example, Plate 12 includes two friezes, one with a series of musical instruments and the other with instruments of war – suggesting that the designs could be adapted to suit each patron’s particular interests.

Form:
works of art

Quantity / Object type:
20 print(s)

Stage and Purpose:

pattern drawings
record drawings

Technique and media:

Etchings

Dimensions:

plate marks: 20.0 x 14.0 cm sheets: 28.0 x 19.0 cm

Reference number:

DR1990:0047:001-020

Drawing Type:

renderings

Method of Projection:

pictorial drawings
sections (orthographic drawings)
elevations (drawings)

Physical characteristics and technical requirements:

- Set of twenty unbound etchings on filigree paper. - All pages have been torn from a binding at either the left or right edge, where there are traces of an orange/red adhesive (?). The opposite edge is sometimes irregularly cropped.

Inscription:

inscribed - on DR1990:0047:015, by a twentieth-century hand ? lower centre: "Repr. en partie Geymuller fig 83 p. 169" Plate 001-020, verso: numbers 001722001-001722020 proceeding sequentially Plate 005, 015, 018, recto in graphite: bottom centre, below image – “13”

Subject:

architecture

Subject Descriptive Terms:

ornament
architectural orders

Credit line:
Collection Centre Canadien d'Architecture/
Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal