Étienne Dupérac
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Étienne Dupérac (or du Pérac) (1520–1607) was a French painter, draughtsman and engraver, and a topographer and antiquary, who arrived in Rome in 1559. He published a plan of Ancient Rome (his Urbis Romae Sciographia, 1574) and one of modern Rome (his Descriptio, 1577) and a book of forty engravings of Roman monuments and antiquities, I vestigi dell'antichità di Roma (Rome, 1575). An unpublished book of drawings on parchment of ruins of Rome confronted with reconstructions of their original appearance, from the same angle, Disegni de le Ruine di Roma e Come Anticamente Erono, attributed to him and dated c. 1564-1574 was published in facsimile (Milan 1964) with an introduction by Rudolf Wittkower, who dated them on the basis of the actual state of the buildings shown; the text that must have accompanied the drawings has not survived, and Dupérac's authorship has been called into question. The book is part of the collection of the Morgan Library & Museum in New York (acc. no. MS M.1106). Dupérac's engravings of modern Rome, such as the carrousel in the Cortile del Belvedere or his view of Villa Lante, served to transmit architectural and gardening ideas to France and the north of Europe. Dupérac worked for a time for Antonio Lafreri.
On his return to France by 1578, Dupérac was commissioned to paint the Cabinet des Bains at the Château de Fontainebleau, to design parterres for gardens and then, under Henri IV, to provide designs for the Tuileries in Paris.
An album signed by Dupérac and dated 1575, Illustration des fragments antiques, is conserved in the Musée du Louvre.
An etching from Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae is exhibited in the Palazzo Braschi in Rome.
