Dominique Girard (architect)

Dominique Girard (* 1680, † 1738 in Munich) was a French landscape architect and engineer. He was instrumental in the design of the Baroque castle gardens of Nymphenburg and Schleissheim in Munich, the Belvedere Garden in Vienna and the Garden of Augustus Castle in Brühl.

Life

The origin of Girard 's how his date of birth unknown. He may have been a child of the architect Jean Girard. Dominique Girard probably first worked in the gardens of Saint- Cloud. From 1709 he worked at Versailles, where he earned his water garden design and technical skills.

Girard in 1715 provided by the French king Louis XIV as " cy -devant garçon fontainier " the Bavarian Elector Max Emanuel available. In this way, Girard was born on April 1, 1715 Garden inspector and maître fontainier ( " fountains Master ") in the park of Nymphenburg Palace. He worked from 1715 together with Matthias Diesel and François de Cuvilliés the Elder. Work in Schleißheim 1727 completed. Between 1717 and 1722 he took leave of the Bavarian elector, so that he could participate in the development of the Belvedere Garden in Vienna, together with Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt. He worked there in the years 1717, 1719 and 1722. 1728/29 he created, in turn, together with Cuvillies, the Gardens of Augustus Castle in Brühl. One of his last works was the renewal of the great cascade of Nymphenburg (1731 ). Office was succeeded by his son Philip, who had been adjoined to him 1733.

Garden Artistic work

Although Girard specializes in the construction of ornate water features - he was all his life a prized fontainier - but he was also planning significant influence. In Nymphenburg he put among other things, the two channels before and behind the castle building on. These are its amendments of the plan in 1693 by Enrico Zuccalli for the garden of Schleißheim ( Girard's plan: 1717) which relate to the pattern for the design of parterres, among others. In Belvedere Gardens, he in turn created the fountains, but also designed garden games. Here he continued - different from the classic French style - grass -covered slopes instead of lining walls to overcome differences in level one. In the garden of Schloss Burg Girard Augustus was able to bring all the experiences of his previous work to fully develop.

As Girard's work is considered the main park of Nymphenburg Palace in its baroque form and layout of the parterre garden in the castle park Schleißheim. In Schleißheim Girard realized all three types of the parterre ( Broderie, flowers and turf ground floor) in the style of André Le Nôtre to the wishes of the electors by pomp ( "Bavarian Versailles " ) comply, even though they no longer the dominant Garden Fashion corresponded.