The world doesn't need architects to make buildings. The world needs architects to make architecture.
Expanding on the medieval mantra of let's make really ornate stuff, Early Modern architects created some truly impressive structures using pre-modern construction tools before settling down with simpler and more practical designs; here are some of the more note-worthy.
a Dutch Golden Age painter and architect. Van Bassen was the illegitimate son of Cornelis van Bassen who lived and died in The Hague. Little is known of his early life, he became a member of the Delft Guild of St. Luke in 1613. In 1638 he became city architect of the Hague.
a Dutch artist and architect of the Golden Age. Being of noble birth and with time on his hands, he took up painting mainly as a pastime. Van Campen's first known building was the Coymans house built in 1625 in Amsterdam. Van Campen worked as an architect, a painter and a designer of decorative schemes, like that for the church organ in Alkmaar. His art also...
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a Dutch artist and architect of the Golden Age. Being of noble birth and with time on his hands, he took up painting mainly as a pastime. Van Campen's first known building was the Coymans house built in 1625 in Amsterdam. Van Campen worked as an architect, a painter and a designer of decorative schemes, like that for the church organ in Alkmaar. His art also influenced sculpture.
an English architect and dramatist, perhaps best known as the designer of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. He wrote two argumentative and outspoken Restoration comedies, The Relapse (1696) and The Provoked Wife (1697), which have become enduring stage favourites but originally occasioned much controversy. He was knighted in 1714.
an Italian engineer and architect. The most prominent 18th-century architect of Italy, he practised a sober classicizing academic Late Baroque style that made an easy transition to Neoclassicism.
an Italian painter, architect, writer and historian, most famous today for his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, considered the ideological foundation of art-historical writing.
a British-American architect and landscape designer. He is best known as the co-designer, along with his protégé and junior partner Frederick Law Olmsted, of what would become New York's Central Park.
a Spanish late-Baroque architect and painter. He studied painting at the School Board for the establishment of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, and trained at the Italian technique quadrature. As an architect, Velázquez provided the plans for the redevelopment of the Church of Bernardine nunnery Vallecas, taking charge himself from the tra...
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a Spanish late-Baroque architect and painter. He studied painting at the School Board for the establishment of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, and trained at the Italian technique quadrature. As an architect, Velázquez provided the plans for the redevelopment of the Church of Bernardine nunnery Vallecas, taking charge himself from the traces of its altarpieces, and also traces of the altarpiece of the church of Alpajés in Aranjuez.
a French architect and theorist, famous for his interpretive "restorations" of medieval buildings. Born in Paris, he was a major Gothic Revival architect.
an Italian architect and writer. He was one of the three most important Baroque architects active in the Piedmont region of Northern Italy; the other two were Filippo Juvarra and Guarino Guarini. The youngest of the three, Vittone was the only one who was born in the Piedmont. He achieved a synthesis of the spatial inventiveness of Juvarra and the engineerin...
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an Italian architect and writer. He was one of the three most important Baroque architects active in the Piedmont region of Northern Italy; the other two were Filippo Juvarra and Guarino Guarini. The youngest of the three, Vittone was the only one who was born in the Piedmont. He achieved a synthesis of the spatial inventiveness of Juvarra and the engineering ingenuity of Guarini, particularly in the design of his churches, the buildings for which he is best known.
a 19th-century architect and painter. He was descended from a Germano-Baltic noble family and was a subject of the Russian Empire. He studied at Darmstadt and moved to Saint Petersburg in 1831. He worked in Alexander Brullov's studio and was made a free painter in the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1832, an academician there in 1839 and a professor there in 185...
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a 19th-century architect and painter. He was descended from a Germano-Baltic noble family and was a subject of the Russian Empire. He studied at Darmstadt and moved to Saint Petersburg in 1831. He worked in Alexander Brullov's studio and was made a free painter in the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1832, an academician there in 1839 and a professor there in 1854. He designed public buildings and became court architect in 1858.
a German painter and architect. Under Charles II August, Duke of Zweibrücken, he was general director of buildings, in which capacity he was responsible for the design and construction of Schloss Karlsberg near Homburg, besides forming the duke's picture collection. When the castle was destroyed by French Revolutionary forces, he was able to rescue not only...
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a German painter and architect. Under Charles II August, Duke of Zweibrücken, he was general director of buildings, in which capacity he was responsible for the design and construction of Schloss Karlsberg near Homburg, besides forming the duke's picture collection. When the castle was destroyed by French Revolutionary forces, he was able to rescue not only the picture collection but also the library and quantities of furniture, tapestries and other items.
