Leo von
Klenze

Germany • 1784−1864

Biography and information

Initially he studied law but then took up architecture. Studied in Germany in the workshops of F. W. Hirt and F. Gilli (Berlin), then in France by Percier and S. F. V. Fontane. In 1815 by order of Eugene Beauharnais finished the reconstruction of the castle Ismaning, Bavaria, Germany. In 1816 he wins the competition for the construction of the Glyptothek in Munich, and then became the court architect of Bavarian king Ludwig I and makes the city a "new Athens". By order of Ludwig von Klenze built in Munich, the ensemble of Königsplatz, the Glyptothek (1816-1830), Pinakothek, 1826-36, the Pantheon in the meadow Theresa (1833-1853), the Propylaea (1646-1860), the Royal Palace, the Marienkirche, the building of the Ministry of war, a series of palaces and residential buildings.

German architect, painter and writer. It is considered an outstanding representative of classicism. Studied in Germany, France, Italy; was a court architect of jérôme Bonaparte in Kassel (1808-13), and the Bavarian king Ludwig I in Munich (1815). Urban work of Klenze in Munich (1816) and Athens (1839-51) characterized by solemn, strict regularity. In their heavy ceremonial buildings (Glyptothek, 1816-30, and Alte Pinakothek, 1826-36, in Munich; the New Hermitage in St. Petersburg, 1839-52) Klenze combined the motifs of ancient Greek architecture, which are reproduced with meticulous precision and dryness.

In contrast to the works of Schinkel the architect ahead of his time, the works of von Klenze drawn in the past. Each of his building — a rather free variation on the theme of a particular historical style. Built in the Munich Glyptothek, a building (1816— 1830) — the collection of works of sculpture — in the style of ancient Greek architecture and the façade of the Old Pinakothek (1826— 1836) — art gallery, in which were collected the works of the old masters, repeats the forms of Italian architecture of the Renaissance. However, the construction of von Klenze also anticipate the future of architecture: few decades such borrowing forms and patterns from the past, and even more mechanical, will become the scourge of European architecture.

Portico (lat. porticus) gallery formed by pillars or columns, usually in front of the building with a pediment (a triangular end formed by the roof slopes and eaves) or attic (a low wall above the cornice, decorated with sculpture or inscriptions).

In 1830-1842. project von Klenze, was erected a monument Shaft of Galla (named after the abode of the hereafter of the fallen soldiers in Germanic mythology) near Regensburg, Germany. It was conceived as a Pantheon of German who people. The Central element of the memorial is a building of grey marble in the form of a classical temple, inside which are placed the busts of one hundred and sixty-three famous Germans. The building successfully combines with picturesque landscapes — it is crowned with a high wooded hill on the banks of the Danube, from the foot of the hill to the memorial leads to a Grand staircase.As a European celebrity, Leo von Klenze was repeatedly carried out orders of foreign sovereigns. For the Russian Emperor Nicholas I, he performed in 1839 the project of the building of the New Hermitage in St. Petersburg (it was built from 1839 to 1852).