Laurent-Benoît Dewez (1731–1812), Architect in the Age of Enlightenment

Dirk Van de Vijver is associate professor of Architectural History and Conservation at the Department of History and Art History at Utrecht University.

• Introduction1 Historiography 1.1. Architectural criticism of Dewez during his lifetime 1.2. Printed and handwritten biographical notes, obituaries, and epigraphs until 1812 1.3. Dewez’s architecture in the published history of the period: Goetghebuer and Schayes 1.4. Biographic notes, local monograph articles, and syntheses 1850–1965 1.5. Duquenne2 Architectural Training 2.1. Liège to Rome 2.2. Adam’s draughtsman: Rome to London 2.3. Dewez’s Italian and English sources through his drawings 2.4. The SCAB drawings rejected3 Commissions 3.1. Architect of (church and) government Architect of “Eglise Belgique” The financial precondition: the origin of the building craze of religious patrons Orval, Dewez’s call to the Southern Low Countries Cobenzl and Neny Abbatial elections Loan permissions The decision process within the abbey Architect of the central government and civil policy issues Infrastructure at Ostend Education and the Old University of Louvain Penitentiary and Vilvorde Accommodation of governmental institutions The city administrations of Brussels, Ostend, Binche, and Bouillon 3.2. Court architect 3.3. Private architect 3.4. Dewez challenged and end of career Some local challengers Guymard The end of career The prison of Vilvorde Château Charles Fin 3.5. Conclusion4 Organisation 4.1. Drawings: from design to detailing The conserved drawings Accounts of drawings Technical drawings Proportions 4.2. Building costs 4.3. (Permanent) Employees 4.4. Building materials5 Architectural Typologies and Language: “Le goût antique ridiculement mêlé avec le moderne” 5.1. Architectural typologies The palace-abbey The church Country houses, hotels “entre cour et jardin”, and the “distribution à la française” 5.2. The architectural language Antique taste The orders Conclusion: a personal style6 Dewez’s Pupils 6.1. Dewez’s pupils and their work 6.2. Italo-English architecture in the image of the master 6.3. The case of the Château de Laeken 6.4. Even more English: Montoyer’s neo-Palladianism 6.5. ConclusionConclusion Appendices Catalogue of Works Religious commissions Public commissions Private commissions Commissions for festive occasions Attributions Rejected attributions Documents Writings on Dewez. Historical biographical notes on Dewez, from Bedaus to Goetghebuer. 1762 to mid-nineteenth century Writings by Dewez Expertise by Louis ‘t Kint of the penitentiary of Vilvorde Notes Illustration Credits Sources and Bibliography Index Dewez Today by Karin Borghouts