Étienne Dupérac

Étienne Dupérac or du Pérac (1520 — 1607) was a French painter, draughtsman and engraver, and a topographer and antiquary, who arrived in Rome in 1559. He published a plan of Ancient Rome (his "Urbis Romae Sciographia", 1574) and one of modern Rome (his "Descriptio", 1577) [It is a uniquely detailed representation of Rome as it was before the urbanistic projects of Sixtus V; it was published, as "Roma primo di Sisto V", with an introduction by Francesco Ehrle (Rome: Danesi) 1908.] and a book of forty engravings of Roman monuments and antiquities, "I vestigi dell'antichità di Roma" (Rome, 1575). An unpublished book of drawings on parchment of ruins of Rome confronted with reconstructions of their original appearance, from the same angle, "Disegni de le Ruine di Roma e Come Anticamente Erono", attributed to him and dated c. 1564-1574 was published in facsimile (Milan 1964) with an introduction by Rudolf Wittkower, who dated them on the basis of the actual state of the buildings shown; [The codex was discovered by T. Ashby in the Dyson Perrins collection and thoroughly described in "Archaeological Journal", 1908, then issued with an extended version of Ashby's article as preface, in an expensive facsimile, (London:Roxburghe Club, 1916.] the text that must have accompanied the drawings has not survived, and Dupérac's authorship has been called into question. [Henri Zerner, "Observations on Dupérac and the Disegni de le Ruine di Roma e Come Anticamente Erono" "The Art Bulletin" 47.4 (December 1965, pp. 507-512)] His engravings of modern Rome, such as the "carrousel" in the Cortile del Belvedere or his view of Villa Lante, served to transmit architectural and gardening ideas to France and the north of Europe. Du Pérac worked for a time for Antonio Lafreri. [Known as the entrepreneur behind the Lafreri atlases.]

On his return to France by 1578, [He was documented at Caen in 1578, and in Paris, October 1580) (Zerner 1965:507, note 2, and 508). Zerner doubted Ashby's and Wittkower's attribution of the mutilated Ashby Codex to Dupérac.] du Pérac was commissioned to paint the "Cabinet des Bains" at the Château de Fontainebleau, to design parterres for gardens [He was the inventor of the scrolling "parterre de broderie", according to André Mollet, "Théâtre des plans et iardinages" (posthumous, 1652), noted by Sten Karling, "The importance of André Mollet and his family for the development of the French formal garden" in Elizabeth B. Macdougall and F. Hamilton Hazlehurst, (eds.) "The French Formal Garden" (Washington: Dumbarton Oaks) 1974.] and then, under Henri IV, to provide designs for the Tuileries in Paris.

An album signed by Dupérac and dated 1575, "Illustration des fragments antiques", is conserved in the Musée du Louvre.An etching from "Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae" is exhibited in the Palazzo Braschi in Rome. [ [http://www.museodiroma.comune.roma.it/PalazzoBraschi/MAIN_PAGE.show?p_web=INTE&p_lingua=02 Etching of Seven Pilgrimage Churches of Rome] ]

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