Aubert, Jean
Robert Neuman (Author)
(fl 1702; d Oct 13, 1741). French architect and designer. The son of a master carpenter employed by the Service des Bâtiments du Roi at various French royal residences, from 1702 to 1708 Aubert worked as a draughtsman under Jules Hardouin Mansart. He became the favourite architect of the princely Bourbon-Condé family with the remodelling of the château of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés (1709-10), near Paris. For Louis-Henri de Bourbon, Prince de Condé (1692-1740), the grandson of Louis XIV, Aubert carried out several projects at the château of Chantilly (Oise). The magnificent stables (designed 1719, built 1721-35; show the influence of Hardouin Mansart in Aubert’s extensive use of arcades, the discreet presence of the classical orders, and the rich sculptural decoration, all elements drawn from the Grandes et Petites Ecuries of the Palace of Versailles. Aubert’s most distinctive stylistic trait, emphatic horizontal channelling of rusticated wall surfaces, made its first appearance on the one-storey elevation of the stable wing facing the meadow...
Encyclopedia Article, 2003
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2003