Biography

Dutch architect and painter, active in Poland as Tylman Gamerski, but also worked widely in Europe. At the age of 28, he settled in Poland and worked for Queen Marie Casimire, wife of Poland's King Jan III Sobieski.

He was trained in Utrecht by Jacob van Campen, then left for Italy in 1650. While in Venice, he earned the reputation as a highly skilled painter of battle scenes. In 1660, Tylman met in Leiden the Polish prince Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski, the Grand Crown Marshall of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and accepted his invitation to come to Poland as his architect and military engineer.

In Poland, first he served as an artillery officer, designing fortifications. From 1670 on, he won fame as a court architect of palaces, gardens, country houses, monasteries and churches in and around Warsaw, designing (among others) churches of the Holy Ghost, St. Casimir, and St. Boniface.

Tylman acted as chief architect to Micha³ Korybut Wiœniowiecki, and Jan III Sobieski, and his works include the Gniñski and Paca-Radziwi³³ Palaces. He also completed the Krasinski Palace, begun in 1682 by Giuseppe Bellotti (active 1681-1708 in Poland), whose sculptures were executed by Andreas Schlüter.

Van Gameren left behind more than 70 grand buildings, a collection of 118 books and some 1,000 drawings. His buildings are regarded as gems of Polish Baroque architecture.