Th. 3e cycle--Hist. de l'art--Paris--Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, 1987.

In the fantastical world of the Architecture Civile, Jean-Jacques Lequeu (1757-1826) designed the architect's space of appearance across a ritual act of representation. The meticulous crafting of the architectural drawing defined the very site upon which his highly syncretic and imaginative ornamental language was developed. It was in the idea of ornament that Lequeu articulated his veneration of, and dedication to the restoration of, architectural beauty and delight. / In the drawing and writing of the orthograph(i)e, Lequeu enacted the promordial trait of the dessinateur to found his art and science of representation. In the shadowed depths of the surface and its edge, the elevation and its section, the portrait and its profile, the figural ornaments of Nature and Architecture were made to appear. These, the principal characteristics of his architectural language, were expressed across all three scales of being: the cosmic-sacred, the mythic-historic, and the poetic-psychic. Lequeu's allegorical and symbolic narratives sought to reveal the problematic relationship that existed between architectural thought and its representation, at the threshold of modernity.

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The work of Jean-Jacques Lequeu (1757-1826) is often used by architectural historians to demonstrate the erosion of the principles of classical architecture at the end of the eighteenth century. The Nouvelle Methode appliquee aux Principes elementaires du dessin completed by Lequeu in 1792, a drawing method showing the correct proportions of the face obtained through geometry, reveal another Lequeu, one sympathetic to the architectural theories of his time. The similarities between the Nouvelle Methode and the Dissertation sur les especes naturelles by the Dutch naturalist Petrus Camper (1722-1789) show the importance of the notion of caractere in the structure of knowledge of the classical age as portrayed by Michel Foucault. Simultaneously a theory of physionomy and a theory of architecture, the Nouvelle Methode demonstrates that the theory of caractere in both disciplines, far from announcing the birth of the modern age, is central to the pursuit of order which sustained architecture in the classical age.

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Le travail de recherche vise à encadrer la figure de Lequeu dans le paysage culturel et architectural de la Révolution française, en proposant une prise de distance critique et une mise à part des célèbres dessins des Figures lascives, à lesquels la figure de l'architecte a été parfois grossièrement éclairée. Au contraire, notre analyse se concentre sur ce qui constitue le cœur de son œuvre graphique: les planches numérotées de l'Architecture civile, que Lequeu rédige à partir de 1778, et qui sont aujourd'hui, conservées au Cabinet des estampes de la Bibliothèque nationale de France. Visionnaire dans sa tentative de créer une nouvelle conception du dessin architectural, qu'il élabore conjointement au caractère de son architecture, les plus amères des contradictions du XVIIIe siècle se concentrent en lui inévitablement attiré par le moderne, il en a systématiquement horreur et tourne son regard vers un passé idéalisé, rêvé comme un port salvateur mais insaisissable. C'est dans cette juxtaposition d'éléments qui de la littérature chevaleresque aboutit aux traités théorico-pratiques de la Renaissance, redécouvre les mouvements humains et entre en contact, pour la première fois avec l’introspection psychologique, décrit donc le rôle de Lequeu, dans l'histoire de l'architecture européenne. Les planches de !"Architecture civile interprètent à la fois les angoisses d'un artiste aux prises avec l'ancien, et la modernité de la culture technique française du XVIIIe siècle. / The research aims to explore the figure of Lequeu in the cultural and architectural panorama of the French Revolution, proposing a critical distance from the famous drawings named Figures lascives. Our analysis focused on what constitutes the core of his graphic work: the numbered drawings of Architecture Civile, that Lequeu drafts from 1778 and now conserved at the Cabinet des estampes of Bibliothèque nationale de France (Paris). Visionary in its attempt to create a new conception of architectural drawing, Lequeu developed the character of its architecture, where the most of eighteenth century's contradictions are concentrated. lnevitably attracted to the modern, it has systematically horror oh that, and turns his eyes to an idealized past, dreamed but elusive port. lt is in this juxtaposition of elements, which of place of Lequeu: no architect before him has tried such a great mix of different interests and skills. The link with the art of his time, who discovers, for the first lime, the psychological introspection, describes the role of Lequeu in the history of European architecture. The drawings of Architecture Civile interpret both the anguish of an artist struggling with the old, and the modernity of the French technical culture of the eighteenth century.