Jacob (Pietersz.) Roman

(b The Hague, 1640; d 1716). Dutch architect and sculptor. He trained as a sculptor in the studio of his father, Pieter Roman. In 1677 he was commissioned by Willem Adriaan van Nassau-Odijk to design a country house at Zeist, a sober building comprising a corps de logis flanked on the entrance elevation by a lower wing. The interior, with a painted staircase, was decorated by Daniel Marot I (see MAROT, (2)). In 1681 Roman was appointed municipal architect of Leiden. One of his few works for the town is Meermansburg (1681), a group of almshouses arranged around a central courtyard. The central projection of the entrance block, executed in stone, is monumentally conceived. In 1689 he was appointed architect to the Stadholder-Prince William III of Orange Nassau, who was crowned King of England in the same year. Roman designed some outstanding country houses for the Stadholder and for members of his circle, and he came to be considered one of the most significant exponents of the Dutch Austere style and later, with Marot, of the Louis XIV style.

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