Joachim Visconti
Encyclopedia
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
- December 29, 1853) was an Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
-born French architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
and designer
Designer
A designer is a person who designs. More formally, a designer is an agent that "specifies the structural properties of a design object". In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, such as consumer products, processes, laws, games and graphics, is referred to as a...
.
Son of the Italian archaeologist and art historian Ennio Quirino Visconti
Ennio Quirino Visconti
Ennio Quirino Visconti was an Italian antiquarian and art historian, papal Prefect of Antiquities, and the leading expert of his day in the field of ancient Roman sculpture....
, Visconti designed many Parisian residences, public buildings and squares, including the Place Saint Sulpice and the overall design of the Fontaine Molière
Fontaine Molière
The Fontaine Molière is a fountain in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, at the junction of rue Molière and rue de Richelieu.Its site was occupied by a fountain known as the fontaine Richelieu until 1838, when it was demolished due to interfering with traffic flow...
, and was the briefly official architect for the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
under Napoleon III. He is probably most famed for designing the 1842 tomb of Napoleon at Les Invalides
Les Invalides
Les Invalides , officially known as L'Hôtel national des Invalides , is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building's...
. His students include Joseph Poelaert
Joseph Poelaert
Joseph Poelaert was a Belgian architect.- Life :Born in Brussels to Philip Poelaert , a former architecture student at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Poelaert also trained there under Tilman-François Suys, and then in Paris under Louis Visconti and Jean-Nicolas Huyot.Poelaert...
, designer of the Palais de justice de Bruxelles.
Life
Louis Visconti came from a famous family of archaeologists - his grandfather Giambattista Antonio Visconti (1722-1784) had founded the Vatican MuseumsVatican Museums
The Vatican Museums , in Viale Vaticano in Rome, inside the Vatican City, are among the greatest museums in the world, since they display works from the immense collection built up by the Roman Catholic Church throughout the centuries, including some of the most renowned classical sculptures and...
and his father, Ennio Quirino Visconti
Ennio Quirino Visconti
Ennio Quirino Visconti was an Italian antiquarian and art historian, papal Prefect of Antiquities, and the leading expert of his day in the field of ancient Roman sculpture....
(1751-1818), was a curator. Ennio and his family moved to Paris in 1798 and were naturalised as French citizens in 1799, with Ennio becoming a curator of antiquities and paintings at the Musée du Louvre.
Between 1808 and 1817 Louis studied at Paris's École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The most famous is the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, now located on the left bank in Paris, across the Seine from the Louvre, in the 6th arrondissement. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years,...
under Charles Percier
Charles Percier
Charles Percier was a neoclassical French architect, interior decorator and designer, who worked in a close partnership with Pierre François Léonard Fontaine, originally his friend from student days...
. He also studied under the painter François-André Vincent
François-André Vincent
François-André Vincent was a French neoclassical painter.He was the son of the miniaturist François-Elie Vincent and studied under Joseph-Marie Vien. He travelled to Rome, where he won the Prix de Rome in 1768...
. After winning second prize in the architecture section of the prix de Rome
Prix de Rome
The Prix de Rome was a scholarship for arts students, principally of painting, sculpture, and architecture. It was created, initially for painters and sculptors, in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by...
(1814) and the architecture department prize at the École des Beaux-Arts (1817), he was made architecte-voyer to the 3rd and 8th arrondissements of Paris in 1826, curator of the 8th section of public monuments in Paris (made up of the Bibliothèque royale
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...
, the monument on place des Victoires, Porte Saint-Martin
Porte Saint-Martin
The Porte Saint-Martin is a Parisian monument located at the site of one of the gates of the now-destroyed fortifications of Paris. It is located at the crossing of Rue Saint-Martin, Rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin and the grands boulevards Boulevard Saint-Martin and Boulevard Saint-Denis.- History...
, Saint-Denis
Porte Saint-Denis
The Porte Saint-Denis is a Parisian monument located in the 10th arrondissement, at the site of one of the gates of the Wall of Charles V, one of the now-destroyed fortifications of Paris...
and the colonne Vendôme) in 1832, divisional architect in 1848, and government architect in 1849. In the meantime, in 1840, he designed Paris's decorations for the return of Napoleon's remains
Retour des cendres
The retour des cendres was the return of the mortal remains of Napoleon I of France from the island of St Helena to France and their burial in the Hôtel des Invalides in Paris in 1840, on the initiative of Adolphe Thiers and King Louis-Philippe.-Previous attempts:In a codicil to his will, written...
and Napoleon's tomb at the Invalides.
Collaborating with Émile Trélat in the works to rebuild the Bibliothèque royale du Louvre in May 1848, he produced a first-draft design for completing the Palais du Louvre
Palais du Louvre
The Louvre Palace , on the Right Bank of the Seine in Paris, is a former royal palace situated between the Tuileries Gardens and the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois...
. He was made architect to the palais des Tuileries on 7 July 1852 and architect to Napoléon III on 16 February 1853, and was put in charge of connecting the Palais du Louvre and the Palais des Tuileries, a project only completed later by Hector-Martin Lefuel. He was also made president of the Société centrale des architectes in 1852. Visconti died of a heart attack in 1853, the year of his election to the Académie des Beaux-Arts.
Major works
- Hôtel de Gouvion Saint-Cyr, also known as Mle MarsMademoiselle MarsMademoiselle Mars, , French actress, was born in Paris, the natural daughter of the actor-author named Monvel and Jeanne-Marie Salvetat , an actress known as Madame Mars, whose southern accent had made her Paris debut a failure.Mlle Mars began her stage career...
, 1 rue de la Tour-des-Dames, 1821. - Aménagements de l'hôtel de Charost, 39 rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, 1825.
- Fontaine Gaillon, place Gaillon, Paris, 1824-1828.
- Agrandissement du Palais du Luxembourg, 1834.
- Immeuble Farine, 104 rue de RichelieuRue de RichelieuRue de Richelieu is a long street of Paris, starting in the south of the Ier arrondissement, ending in the IIe arrondissement. For the first half of the nineteenth century, before Baron Hausmann redefined Paris with grand boulevards, it was one of the most fashionable streets of Paris:The Rue de...
, 1834. - Château du Grand-Bury, 1834.
- Fontaine LouvoisFontaine LouvoisThe Fontaine Louvois is a monumental public fountain in Square Louvois on the rue Richelieu in the Second Arrondissement of Paris, near the entrance of the Bibliothèque nationale de France...
, Paris, 1835-1839. - Hôtel de Pontalba, 41 rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, 1839.
- Hôtel Collot, 25 quai Anatole-France, Paris, 1840, neoclassical style
- Hôtel Visconti, 3 rue Fortin, 1840.
- Fontaine Molière, 37 rue de RichelieuRue de RichelieuRue de Richelieu is a long street of Paris, starting in the south of the Ier arrondissement, ending in the IIe arrondissement. For the first half of the nineteenth century, before Baron Hausmann redefined Paris with grand boulevards, it was one of the most fashionable streets of Paris:The Rue de...
, Paris, 1841-1843. - Fontaine de la place Saint-SulpicePlace Saint-SulpiceThe large public space at the Place Saint Sulpice, which is dominated on its eastern side by the church of Saint-Sulpice, was built in 1754 as a tranquil garden in the Latin Quarter of the 6th arrondissement of Paris.-Attractions of the square:...
, Paris, 1842-1848. - Hôtel de La Tour du Pin, 25 rue Barbet-de-Jouy, 1844.
- Château de Lissy, Seine-et-MarneSeine-et-MarneSeine-et-Marne is a French department, named after the Seine and Marne rivers, and located in the Île-de-France region.- History:Seine-et-Marne is one of the original 83 departments, created on March 4, 1790 during the French Revolution in application of the law of December 22, 1789...
, 1844. - Hôtel Rigaud, 10 rue Mogador, 1845.
- Agrandissement du ministère de l'Intérieur, rue de Grenelle, with Moreau, 1846.
- Extension du ministère des Finances, 1846.
- Hôtel de La Vaupalière, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, rebuilding (undated)
Sources
- A Dictionary of Architecture and Building, Biographical, Historical, and Descriptive, Russell Sturgis editor, 1901 Françoise Hamon and Charles MacCallum, Louis Visconti. 1791-1853, Paris, Délégation à l'Action Artistique de la Ville de Paris, 1991 – ISBN 2-905118-38-5.