Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach

Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, born Johann Bernhard Fischer (20 July 1656 – 5 April 1723) was probably the most influential Austrian architect of the Baroque period. Architectural tastes throughout the Habsburg Empire were profoundly influenced by his ideas, as articulated in A Plan of Civil and Historical Architecture (1721), one of the first and most popular comparative studies of world architecture. Born near Graz, Johann Fischer was trained in the workshop of his father, a provincial artisan, before departing for Rome at the precocious age of 16. He spent the following sixteen years in Italy. In Rome he joined the workshop of his fellow Austrian Johann Paul Schor and of the great Bernini, who gave him ample opportunities to...