Ennemond Alexandre Petitot
French, 1727-1801
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Ennemond Alexandre Petitot was a French-born architect, mainly active in the Duchy of Parma.
He was born in Lyon in 1727, and by 1741, he had joined the studio of the architect Jacques Soufflot. From there he moved to study at the Académie d'Architecture in Paris. From there he moved under a grant to study architecture in Rome, and was there recruited by the prime minister Guillaume du Tillot to become the architect of the recently installed Bourbon Dukes in Parma.
His projects envisioning updating the Duchy along the lines of the Neoclassical style regnant in France. Many of his ambitious projects have either been reduced, razed, or remained unfinished. He also published series of engravings on various designs for architectural decoration.
With the fall of minister du Tillot, and later the dislocations occurring Northern Italy after the French Revolution, the influence and scope of commissions for Petitot waned. He kept a teaching appointment at the Academy of Fine Arts of Parma.
