Figures of Death and Life in the Architecture of Grandjean de Montigny: Resemblances, Homologies and Remembrances as Epistemic Devices in Creative Processes

Milton Vitis Feferman
Saarbrücken, Germany: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, 2009
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/688493704

Many architectural works produced at the end of the 18th century in France, while programmatically distinct, incorporated images drawn from common philosophical, religious and secular ideas. They produced imaginative narratives around a central theme: the representation of an earthly pilgrimage, where, after conquering a symbolic path of sins and difficulties, one arrived at a “space” that represented liberation, the Garden of Eden, the ladder to the heavens, or a spatial “ambitus.” Following these themes, the book analyzes two architectural models by Auguste H.V. Grandjean de Montigny (1776-1850): an elysée or cimitère, and his house in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

PhD Dissertation title: Imaginary Figures of Death and Life in the Architecture of Grandjean de Montigny
Completed: 2005
Supervisor: Joseph Rykwert