Pigage, Nicolas de

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Pigage, Nicolas de (1723–96). French architect, a pupil of J. -F. Blondel. Called to the Court of Karl Theodor, Elector Palatine (1743–99), in 1749 as a landscape-architect, he became Court Architect in 1752. He adorned the enchanting gardens at Schwetzingen, near Mannheim (1752–95), with the sumptuous Court Theatre (1752), Temples of Minerva and Apollo (1761), Bath-House (1766–73—with exquisite Louis Seize interiors), serpentine bird-bath, water-spouting birds, water-castle, ruined aqueduct, ‘Mosque’ (1778–95), and Classical Temple of Mercury. These constitute a collection of some of the finest fabriques in Europe. He created the beautiful interiors of the Electoral Palace, Mannheim (1752–96—destroyed 1943, rebuilt 1947–72), and realized his greatest work, the charming Schloss Benrath and gardens, near Düsseldorf (1755–65), where a restrained Rococo merges with nascent Classicism.

Bibliography

Colombier (1956);
Heber (1986);
Pigage (1805);
C. Powell (1959);
J. & and Turner (1996).
Watkin & and Mellinghoff (1987).