Francois Cuvilliés

Few architectural careers can have followed a stranger course than that of Cuvillies. Born in Flanders in 1695, he had come to Bavaria as a professional dwarf, then trained as an engineer, and had then been sent to Paris to study architecture under Jean Francois Blondel. He returned to Munich as the ambassador of a new style, uniting in a seemingly effortless way the energy and richness of the Germans with French daintiness and discipline. He remained essentially a decorator, unable to challenge his German contemporaries (Neumann, Fischer, Zimmermann) in pure architectural virtuosity, the moulding and mani¬pulation of space.

IN: Tidworth, Simon : Theatres: An Illustrated History. London 1973 p. 90