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Daniel Marot

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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DANIEL MAROT (seventeenth century), French architect, furniture designer and engraver, and pupil of Jean le Pautre, was the son of Jean Marot (1620-1679), who was also an architect and engraver. He was a Huguenot, and was compelled by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 to settle in Holland. His earlier work is characteristic of the second period of Louis XIV., but eventually it became tinged with Dutch influence, and in the end the English style which is loosely called "Queen Anne" owed much to his manner. In Holland he was taken almost immediately into the service of the Stadtholder, who, when he shortly afterwards became William III. of England, appointed him one of his architects and master of the works. Comparatively little is known of his architectural achievements, and his name cannot be attached to any English building, although we know from his own engraving that he designed the great hall of audience for the States-General at the Hague. He also decorated many Dutch country-houses. In England his activities appear to have been concentrated upon the adornment of Hampton Court Palace. Among his plans for gardens is one inscribed: "Parterre d'Amton-court invente par ID. Marot." Much of the furniture - especially the mirrors, gueridons and beds - at Hampton Court bears unmistakable traces of his authorship; the tall and monumental beds, with their plumes of ostrich feathers, their elaborate valances and chantournes in crimson velvet or other rich stuffs agree very closely with his published designs. As befits an artist of the time of Louis XIV. splendour and elaboration are the outstanding characteristics of Marot's style, and he appears even to have been responsible for some of the curious and rather barbaric silver furniture which was introduced into England from France in the latter part of the 17th century. At Windsor Castle there is a silver table, attributed to him, supported by caryatid legs and gadrooned feet, with a foot-rail supporting the pine-apple which is so familiar a motive in work of this type. The slab is engraved with the arms of William III. and with the British national emblems with crowns and cherubs. Unquestionably it is an exceedingly fine example of its type. During his life in France Marot made many designs for Andre Charles Boulle, more especially for long case and bracket clocks. The bracket clocks were intended to be mounted in chased and gilded bronze, and with their garlands and masquerons and elegant dials are far superior artistically to those of the "grandfather" variety. It is impossible to examine the designs for Marot's long clocks without suspecting that Chippendale derived from them some at least of the inspiration which made him a master of that kind of furniture. Marot's range was extraordinarily wide. He designed practically every detail in the internal ornamentation of the house - carved chimneypieces, ceilings, panels for walls, girandoles and wall brackets, and even tea urns and cream jugs - he was indeed a prolific designer of gold and silver plate. Many of his interiors are very rich and harmonious although commonly over-elaborated. The craze for collecting china which was at its height in his time is illustrated in his lavish designs for receptacles for porcelain - in one of his plates there are more than 300 pieces of china on the chimney-piece alone. Marot was still living in 1718, and the date of his death is unknown.

We owe much of our knowledge of his work to the volume of his designs published at Amsterdam in 1712: CEuvres du Sieur D. Marot, architecte de Guillaume III. Roi de la Grande Bretagne, and to Receuil des planches des sieurs Marot, pere et fils. In addition to decorative work these books contain prints of scenes in Dutch history, and engravings of the statues and vases, produced by Marot, at the Palace of Loo.