*H1TTORFF, JACQUES-IGNACE, architect, who has designed some of the chief buildings in Paris erected within a recent period, and who is the author of some standard books illustrative of classical architecture, was born at Cologne in the year 1793. His father, a passionate admirer of the architectural antiquities around him, devoted his aon to the practice of an art for which the latter also manifested in his early years an inclination. Having received a good scientific and literary education, M. Hittorff's professional training was commenced at Cologne, where, as was customary, it included practical exercise in mason's work and bricklaying: he was thus occu pied when about the age of fifteen years ; and houses built from his drawings, whereat he was himself a workman, are still remaining. In 1810, at the age of seventeen, M. Hitturff arrived in Paris : here he pursued his studies with M. Belanger, an architect of some repute, who was then engaged upon the construction of the abattoir Roche chouart, and the cupola constructed in iron of the Halle an M. In his academical studies in the School of Architecture, where he was under the guidance of Percier, he gained many medals. In 1818, after the death of Belanger, he was named architect to the king, and charged with the direction of the fetes and ceremonies at the court. Thus between 1819 and 1530, M. Hittorff, with his colleague M. Le Cointe, executed the decorations in the church of St.-Denis at the fnnerala of the Prince of Conde, the Duc de Berry, and the king Louis XVIII. ; those in the church of Notre Dame at Paris for the marriage of the Due de Berry, and for the baptism of the Due de Bordeaux, of which illustrations were published by the authors; and those on the coronation of Charlea X. at Reims. With the same architect he directed the works at the Theatre-haiku (previously Salle-Favart), and the construction of the Theatre de l'Ambigu-Conalque, which showed the way to many contrivances in theatrical architecture and decoration. In the intcrvala of his duties, M. Hittorff pursued the study of ancient architecture. In 1820 and 1521 he studied the examples of architecture in England and Germany. During the years 1822 to 1524 he was able to visit Italy, and to carry out a project for the exploration of the remains in Sicily. To the latter object, in con junction with his pupil M. Zantb, now architect to the King of Wiirtemberg, and M. Stier, professor of architecture at Berlin, he devoted nearly a year, and the result was the possession of more than a thousand drawings, and the solution of difficulties in history—espe cially through the light which was thrown by the discoveries, upon the question of the application of external colouring to their buildings by the Greeks. From the materials thus collected, Messrs. 'liftoff and Zauth published their two works—the one, the 'Architecture Moderne de la Sicile,' with 76 folio plates, Paris, 1535 ; and the other, the ' Architecture Antique de la Sicile,' which has reached to 43 plates, and which it is intended to continue to 150; and M. Hittorff pub lished his recent and valuable work, 'Architecture Polycreme chez lea Grecs,' &c., with 25 plates (Paris, 1851), where he gives a restoration of the temple of Empedocles at Selinus, coloured according to his matured conclusions as to the ancient practice. In 1830 M. Hittorff had published a translation from English of 'The Unedited Antiquities of Attica' of the Society of Diletanti, which he enriched with new illustrations, designs for restorations, and many notes. M. Hittorff is also the author of many Memoires' upon the ancient basilicas, Egyptian and antique metal work, the city of Pompeii, and ancient and modern arabesques, and of the articles on architecture in the 'Encyclopddie des Germs du Monde.' Amongst the works which M. Hittorff has designed and superin tended the construction of since the year 1833, may be named the following :—the arrangement of the Place de la Concorde (in which the obelisk of Luxor was placed), with the fountains, roatral columns, and other newly-designed embellishments; the five fountains of the Champatlyseee ; cafes, restaurants, small theatres, and guard-houses; the Panorama rotonda, commenced in October 1838, and opened to the public in May 1839; the present Cirque-de-l'Imperatrice, which was commenced at the end of 1539 and opened eight months after wards; the Cirque-Napoleon, commenced in April 1851 and opened in December of the same year ; the new disposition in 1855 of the Place de-rEtoile; the Avenue-de-l'Imperatrice, and the Bois-de-Bou logne. The two circuses—the one last named on the Boulevard.des
Filles-du-Calvaire, and the other in the Champs-Elysees—are of like dimensions; and in all, three circular structures have been completed' by M. Hittorff, each basing a diameter of 124 French feet, and answer ing the conditions of having the smallest possible area of points of support. At the Panorama, where the admission of light entailed great difficulty, tho roof, having a span equal to that of the Pantheon at Rome, was sustained without any actual internal support, on the suspension-bridge principle, by means of twelve cables, which were formed of iron wire. At the Cirque-de-l'Imperatrice, where a penta gonal plan was adopted, he designed a central portion of the roof, having a diameter of about 100 French feet, to be supported upon sixteen small iron columns, and so executed it, though without the authority of the Conseil des Betiments, by whom it was feared that the thrust of the roof would endanger the stability, and who required the introduction of ties. In the Cirque-Napoleon the whole area was covered by a conical roof without ties, standing on twenty points of support. These buildings have excited great interest in England, the Continent, and America; and illustrations of them have been published in several forms. M. Hitterff'a most important work however is perhaps the church of St.-Vincent-de-PauL In this he was at first joined with his father-in-law, the late M. Le Pere, an architect who was associated with Gondouin in the erection of the column of the Mee-Vendome, and had contributed to the great French work on Egypt some of its best illustrations. At the church alluded to, although the restraints upon the architect pre vented his completing the exterior as designed, in the interior a grand impression is produced by the proportions of the colonnades, the carpentry of the roof, the hemicycle, the organ, the ornaments, and the magnificent coloured decoration of the walls and stained glass. The architect has applied the knowledge of ancient monuments, and added all the results of modern artistic processes and industry ; and the work has earned high praise from all parts of Europe, Italy included. M. Hittorff's other works include the Mande of the 12th arrondisse meat, built between 1848 and 1851 ; the Ecole-Communale, in the Rue-des-Pretres-St-Germain-l'Auxerrois (1852-54) ; the building near the Barriere-du-Trone, for an institution founded by the empress for the education of 300 young girls (1854-56) ; and, in conjunction with other architects, the vast lieteldu-Louvre, the works of which, involving an outlay of 12 millions of francs and an enormous amount of contrivance in details, were completed within the space of a year. More recently M. Hittorff has been charged with a project for some important public buildings estimated to cost 2& millions of franca, proposed to be erected opposite the Louvre. In the autumn of 1856 however he started on a fresh visit to Italy, with a view to the completion of his work on ancient architecture. During the course of an honourable and active career, he has prepared, besides the works which have been named, many designs for theatres, museums, houses, sepulchral chapels, and tombs, at requisitiooa sent to him from all parts of Germany and France. He has been attached as architect to the government of France and the city of Paris, is a member of the Institute of France, and has been elected in the academies of Berlin, Munich, Vienna, and Milan, and the National Institute of Washington, and is a corresponding member of the Institute of British Architects ; he is an officer of the Prussian order of merit, and of other foreign orders, and was moat worthily selected by the Institute of British Architects to be the recipient of the royal medal—being the third foreigner upon whom that distinguished honour had been conferred.