Viollet-le-Duc, Eugène-Emmanuel

(1814-1879)

   architect, theorist

   Born in Paris, Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc was self-taught and, with great enthusiasm for medieval architecture, visited italy in 1836. He then traveled through France accompanied by his friend prosper Mérimée while the latter was inspector of historical monuments. In 1839, Mérimée commissioned Viollet-le-Duc to restore the basilica of Vézelay, and he soon began the restoration of other important medieval religious and civil structures (saint-Germain-des-Prés, saint-séverin, Notre-Dame de Paris, the walled city of Carcas-sone). His rationalist concept of Gothic architecture and his ideas of restoration (alterations of what were considered characteristic aspects of the medieval style) were strongly criticized. in the rebuilding of the château of Pierrefonds (1859-70), he applied his ideas of feudal architecture most obviously and, in his buildings, he based his plans on stylized medieval and classical formulas, often using floral decorative motifs that foreshadow those of Art Nouveau. He was an audacious theorist, extolling the use of functional forms and of metal. Viollet-le-Duc is the author of a number of works of which his Dictionnaire raisoné de l'architecture française du xie au XVIe siècle (1854-68) and Entretiens sur l'architecture (1863-72) influenced the majority of architectural innovations of succeeding generations.