HILDEBRANDT, JOHANN LUCAS von. — Architect, born in Genoa on 14 November 1668, died in Vienna on 16 November 1745. His father, a German, was a soldier in the service of the Genoese, while his mother was Italian; H. remained in Genoa during his youth and, having learned the art, carried out his first documented work there, a design for a convent near the church of S. Maria di Carignano.
In 1696 the architect was in Vienna, where he obtained the title of court engineer, and in Austria and the Catholic German countries he carried out the remainder of his activity. In 1730, upon the death of J. B. Fischer von Erlach, he also assumed the office of superintendent of the imperial buildings. Among his principal works are the Viennese Schwarzenberg, Schönburg, and Schönborn palaces; that of Prince Eugenio, later the Ministry of Finance; Mirabell Castle in Salzburg; as well as the Hetzendorf and Daun-Kinsky palaces and the two Belvedere castles, which, together with Pommersfelden, not far from Bamberg, in Germany, and Würzburg Castle, may be considered among his finest works.
Educated in the art in his father’s military environment, he acquired solid technical foundations that served as the basis for his free imagination as a Baroque architect, sensitive to the fascination exerted by Juvara and by the Piedmontese and Lombard masters who variously interpreted forms derived, albeit distantly, from Borromini. This education, nourished by a notable taste for the picturesque in architecture, continued to be reflected throughout the architect’s career, and he must be regarded, with Fischer von Erlach, as one of the foremost architects active during the Baroque age, not only in Austria but, more generally, in German lands.