CLÉRISSEAU, Charles Louis

French architect, painter, and archaeologist. He was a notable if controversial figure associated with the development of the Neo-classicalGLOSSARYRelating to the culture of ancient Greece and Rome (classical Antiquity). The classical world played a profoundly important role in the Renaissance, with Italian scholars, writers, and artists seeing their own period as the rebirth (the "renaissance") of classical values after the Middle Ages. The classical world was considered the golden age for the arts, literature, philosophy, and politics. Concepts of the classical, however, changed greatly from one period to the next. Roman literature provided the starting point in the 14th century, scholars patiently finding, editing and translating a wide range of texts. In the 15th century Greek literature, philosophy and art - together with the close study of the remains of Roman buildings and sculptures-expanded the concept of the classical and ensured it remained a vital source of ideas and inspiration. style of architecture and interior design and its dissemination throughout Europe and the United States. He trained as an architect in Paris under Germain Boffrand (1667-1754). He was awarded the Prix de RomeGLOSSARYA scholarship, founded concurrently with the French Academy in Rome (1666), that enabled prize-winning students at the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris to spend a period (usually 4 years) in Rome at the state's expense. Prizes for architecture began to be awarded regularly in 1723, and prizes for engravers and musicians were added in the 19th century. The prizes were meant to perpetuate the academic tradition and during the 18th and 19th centuries winning the award was the traditional stepping stone to the highest honours for painters and sculptors. Many distinguished artists (as well as many nonentities) were Prix de Rome winners, notably David, Fragonard, and Ingres among painters and Clodion, Girardon, and Houdon among sculptors. The prizes are still awarded and the system has been adopted by other countries. in 1746 and was "pensionnaire du Roi" at the French Academy in Rome from 1749 to 1754.

In 1755 Clérisseau began an association with Robert Adam, the Scottish architect and designer, first as a teacher and later as an employee assisting him with his study of ancient architecture and decorative forms and their adaptation to new architectural style.

In 1778 Clérisseau was appointed "premier architecte" and "membre honoraire de l'Académie Impériale des Arts" by Catherine the Great of Russia, and in 1781 "premier architecte de Sa Majesté." Clérisseau exhibited at the Royal Academy, England, in 1772. Clerisseau's one complete building is the gigantic Palais de Gouverneur (1776-89) in Metz. The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg has the largest collection of his drawings.