Villard de Honnecourt
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Villard de Honnecourt was possibly a 13th century itinerant master-builder of Picardy in northern France, whose surviving portfolio of drawings (ca 1230s?) is in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (MS Fr 19093). It appears to be a model-book, with a wide range of religious and secular figures suitable for sculpture, and architectural plans, elevations and details, ecclesiastical objects and mechanical devices, with copious annotations. Villard apparently travelled through many of the cathedral building-sites in 13th century France and recorded in his sketchbook in great detail work in construction. Of particular interest are drawings of the Laon cathedral bell towers and the Reims cathedral nave being built, which provide a valuable clue for building techniques of High Gothic architecture.
In many respects, the work of Villard de Honnecourt, such as "Constructions", "The Wheel of Fortune", and most particularly his "Lion and Porcupine" (all c. 1235) represent a tentative move from the universal to the particular, a conceptual breakthrough of sorts.
[edit] External links
- Dr. Carl F. Barnes Jr website: The Portfolio of Villard de Honnecourt Barnes is the undisputed authority on this enigmatic figure and has a new critical edition in color of the Villard portfolio in press with Ashgate Publishing Ltd., publication expected Spring 2007.
- AVISTA is a scholarly Villard de Honnecourt society for interdisciplinary study of medieval technology, science and art.
- L'album de Villard de Honnecourt, by Claude Gagne, including reproductions of Villard's drawings.
- La Cathedrale et Villard de Honnecourt at the French National Library has a sizeable number of sheets from Villard's portfolio.
- Association Villard de Honnecourt à Honnecourt" mail: villarddehonnecourt@free.fr
