This room
is entirely devoted to Ennemond Alexandre Petitot (1727-1801), the great
French architect who performed most of his work for the Bourbon court
of Parma and who was one of the main influences in the passage of the
artistic culture of the city from Rococo to Neoclassicism. He was a temperamental
artist, eclectic and at the same time austere, who was able to give his
work a profound poetic unity amid the variety of ideas from which he drew.
He was born in Lyons in 1727 and attended
the Academy of Architecture in Paris. In 1746 he began to attend the French
Academy in Rome but was called back from Rome in 1753 by Minister Du Tillot
to take over the prestigious position of Architect of the Duchy and instructor
at the newly opened Academy of Fine Arts. His first works were for Palazzo
Ducale di Colorno and the Giardino Ducale di Parma.
From 1759 to 1760 his activity was particularly
intense, both in the arrangements for the marriage of Isabelle of Bourbon,
daughter of Duke Philip, with the Archduke Joseph of Hapsburg, and in
the restructuring of Piazza Grande with the reconstruction of St. Peter's
church. In the Sixties he worked on the restructuring of the Nobles' Lodge
in the Reserve Palace, as well as on the High Road, studies on aqueducts,
plans for reconstruction of Palazzo Ducale, restructuring of Palazzo del
Giardino and the Ministry building and Palatine Library. In 1769 he organized
the festivities and decorations for the marriage of Duke Ferdinand of
Bourbon with Maria Amalia of Hapsburg. In 1771 he designed the series
of ten tables entitled "Mascarade à la Grecque" that are exhibited here
in their entirety.
After the fall of Minister Du Tillot,
Petitot left to his students the performance of the court commissions,
but continued his participation in the activities of the Academy. He died
in Parma in 1801.
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E.
A. Petitot
Petitot’s visiting card |
E.
A. Petitot - Mascarade
à la greque, The Bride |
E.
A. Petitot - Façade of the Nobles' Lodge |
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E.
A. Petitot - Areostat |
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