Bodt, Jean de (1670–1745). Huguenot military engineer and architect who left France after 1685, trained in The Netherlands, arrived in England in 1688, served in King William III's army in Ireland (1690–1) and in Flanders (1692–5), and worked for a while in England, producing grand Baroque designs for Whitehall and Greenwich Palaces (1698), neither of which was realized. He eventually moved to Berlin in 1699 (where he was known as Johann von Bodt or von Bott). He completed (c.1706) the Baroque Zeughaus (Arsenal) on Unter den Linden (begun by Nering, with sculptures by Schlüter), built the great Fortuna Gate of the Stadtschloss (Town Palace), Potsdam (1701), and added the steeple (resembling Wren's work at St Vedast, Foster Lane, London) to Nering's Parish Church, Potsdam (1695–1703). Thomas Wentworth, Lord Raby (1672–1739), British envoy to Prussia (1703–11), who had also been involved in King William's many military campaigns, obtained designs from Bodt from which the east wing of Stainborough Hall (Wentworth Castle), Yorks., was built (c.1710–20): the elevation is almost pure Franco-Prussian in style, a considerable rarity in England. Although much of his work in Prussia was concerned with fortifications, he also designed several fine houses, including the Schwerin (1700–2) and Rademacher (1701–4) Palaces, Berlin, and Friedrichstein (1709–14) and Dönhoffstadt (1710–16) Castles, East Prussia. In 1728 Bodt moved to Dresden to take up a position as Superintendent of the Royal Works, and oversaw the construction of Pöppelmann's extensions and restorations of the Dutch (later Japanese) Palace (c.1730). He also designed parts of the castle of Königstein, near Dresden (1734–6).

Bibliography

Colvin (1995);
Colombier (1956);
E. Hempel (1965);
Lorck (1972);
Jane Turner (1996)

de Bodt, Jean (1670–1745). See Bodt.