DELESPINE, Jean

(b. 1505 ?, d. 1576 Angers)

Jean Delespine (also Jean de l’Espine), French architect. He was the master builder in the former province of Anjou, where about forty works are attributed to him. He was the student of Jean Mariau, an architect in Angers, to whom he succeeded, in 1535, as Commissaire des oeuvres et réparations de la ville of Angers.

Delespine was in charge of important urban developments. He worked under the direction of a succession of mayors, including Jean de Pincé, Pierre Poyet and René Ayrault. His official functions were at the origin of contacts with the Controller General of the Bâtiments de France, Philibert Delorme, a great Renaissance architect.

In 1571, Delespine ceased his duties as curator of the city’s works. He died in 1576 in his home in Angers.

Exterior view

In France in the beginning of the sixteenth century, the rich bourgeois played an important part in the evolution of the château, and naturally their share is even greater in town houses. The great model of the private houses was the house of Jacques Coeur at Bourges, built in the Late Gothic style between 1443 and 1451. The H�tel Pinc� at Angers is fully in the style of Fran�ois I. It is built on an L-shaped plan, of which the left-hand wing and the staircase tower date from 1523-33. Here are still the mullioned windows, the turrets, and the high-pitched roofs of a medieval building, but dormers and windows are all ornamented with rich decoration in the style of the Loire chateaux.

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Exterior view

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