French Visionary Architects--Boullee, Ledoux, Lequeu

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I've been collecting images by some of  the great, visionary architects of 18th century France:  Etienne Boullee (1728-1799), Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (1736-1806) and the semi-impossible Jean-Jacques Lequeu (1737-1825).  It was a tough time for these architects to see far into the future at the time of the Revolution, as people who were even less deserving than these men lost their heads.  In any event I've compiled a short three minute video exhibiting some of their works, using the music of Wim Mertens for Peter Greenaway's love poem to M. Boullee called The Belly of an Architect.  I couldn't but help using this music in this context, sorry to say--it just goes perfectly with these images.  (Also, I've written about M. Ledoux here.)

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Comments

[Veach]

Thanks for that montage; the curve-round-arch-sphere theme was especially pleasing to me.

[John Ptak]

Thanks. Check out the Greenaway film--its a wonderful BAD Great movie.

[Kathy]

What a compelling montage - these images have always seemed to me to create some sense of great longing and mystery. They are in so many ways similar, and so grand, really large and out of scale. How strikingly different from today's visionaries, who seem to often adore chaos. The anti-sphere.

I am much less familiar with Lequeu, so thanks for that too.

I was just gifted the Greenaway film for Christmas - it still sits on my stand unopened. Not much longer, I see!

[John Ptak]

AHA! The anti-sphere is something I like writing about--the dot, that is. Thanks for your comments--and you're right, these buildings are by and large really big, beyond human scale. Although there are big swaths of proposals by Ledoux that are on the very personal, workaday scale--buildings for workers and such. Garden houses. Lequeu went that way too occasionally, but his buildings were still monumental and difficult, even though small(ish).

[Sonson]

Hi, erm im just wondering if you can list out all the names of the art/paintings? i want to know the name of the 'architecture painting' that they did. Thanks