The
Palace of Fontainebleau, located 55 kilometres from the centre of
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, is one of the largest French royal
châteauA château is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally—and still most frequently—in French-speaking regions...
x. The palace as it is today is the work of many French monarchs, building on an early 16th century structure of
Francis IFrancis I , was king of France from 1515 until his death.Francis I is considered to be France's first Renaissance monarch. His reign saw France make immense cultural advances...
. The building is arranged around a series of courtyards. The city of
FontainebleauFontainebleau is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the arrondissement of Fontainebleau...
has grown up around the remainder of the
Forest of FontainebleauThe forest of Fontainebleau is a mixed deciduous forest lying sixty kilometres southeast of Paris, France. It is located primarily in the arrondissement of Fontainebleau in the southwestern part of the department of Seine-et-Marne...
, a former royal hunting park.
The older château on this site was already used in the latter part of the 12th century by King
Louis VIILouis VII, called the Younger or the Young, , was King of France, the son and successor of Louis VI . He ruled from 1137 until his death. He was a member of the House of Capet...
, for whom
Thomas BecketThomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 to his death. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...
consecrated the chapel.
The
Palace of Fontainebleau, located 55 kilometres from the centre of
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, is one of the largest French royal
châteauA château is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally—and still most frequently—in French-speaking regions...
x. The palace as it is today is the work of many French monarchs, building on an early 16th century structure of
Francis IFrancis I , was king of France from 1515 until his death.Francis I is considered to be France's first Renaissance monarch. His reign saw France make immense cultural advances...
. The building is arranged around a series of courtyards. The city of
FontainebleauFontainebleau is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the arrondissement of Fontainebleau...
has grown up around the remainder of the
Forest of FontainebleauThe forest of Fontainebleau is a mixed deciduous forest lying sixty kilometres southeast of Paris, France. It is located primarily in the arrondissement of Fontainebleau in the southwestern part of the department of Seine-et-Marne...
, a former royal hunting park.
Royal palace
The older château on this site was already used in the latter part of the 12th century by King
Louis VIILouis VII, called the Younger or the Young, , was King of France, the son and successor of Louis VI . He ruled from 1137 until his death. He was a member of the House of Capet...
, for whom
Thomas BecketThomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 to his death. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...
consecrated the chapel. Fontainebleau was a favourite residence of
Philip AugustusPhilip II Augustus was the King of France from 1180 until his death. A member of the House of Capet, Philip Augustus was born at Gonesse in the Val-d'Oise, the son of Louis VII and his third wife, Adela of Champagne...
(Philip II) and
Louis IXLouis IX , commonly Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death. He was also styled Louis II, Count of Artois from 1226 to 1237. Born at Poissy, near Paris, he was a member of the House of Capet, the son of Louis VIII and Blanche of Castile...
. The creator of the present edifice was
Francis IFrancis I , was king of France from 1515 until his death.Francis I is considered to be France's first Renaissance monarch. His reign saw France make immense cultural advances...
, under whom the architect Gilles le Breton erected most of the buildings of the
Cour Ovale, including the
Porte Dorée, its southern entrance. The king also invited the architect
Sebastiano SerlioSebastiano Serlio was an Italian Mannerist architect, who was part of the Italian team building the Palace of Fontainebleau. Serlio helped canonize the classical orders of architecture in his influential treatise, "I sette libri dell'architettura"...
to France, and
Leonardo da VinciLeonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer....
. The Gallery of Francis I, with its frescoes framed in stucco by
Rosso FiorentinoGiovanni Battista di Jacopo , known as Rosso Fiorentino , or Il Rosso, was an Italian Mannerist painter, in oil and fresco, belonging to the Florentine school.-Biography:...
, carried out between 1522 and 1540, was the first great decorated gallery built in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
. Broadly speaking, at Fontainebleau the Renaissance was introduced to France. The
Salle des Fêtes, in the reign of
Henri IIHenry II of the House of Valois and son and successor of Francis I was King of France from 31 March 1547, until his death in 1559.-Early years:...
, was decorated by the Italian Mannerist painters,
Francesco PrimaticcioFrancesco Primaticcio was an Italian Mannerist painter, architect and sculptor who spent most of his career in France.-Biography:...
and
Niccolò dell'AbbateNicolò dell' Abate, sometimes Niccolò, was an Italian painter and decorator. He was of the Emilian school, and was part of the staff of artists called the School of Fontainebleau that introduced the Italianate Renaissance to France.-Biography:Niccolò dell'Abbate was born in Modena, the son of a...
.
Benvenuto CelliniBenvenuto Cellini was an Italian goldsmith, painter, sculptor, soldier and musician of the Renaissance, who also wrote a famous autobiography.-Youth:...
's "Nymph of Fontainebleau", commissioned for the château, is at the
LouvreThe Musée du Louvre or officially the Grand Louvre — in English, the Louvre Museum or Great Louvre, or simply the Louvre — is the largest national museum of France, the most visited museum in the world, and a historic monument. It is a central landmark of Paris, located on the Right Bank of the...
.
Another campaign of extensive construction was undertaken by
King Henri IIHenry II of the House of Valois and son and successor of Francis I was King of France from 31 March 1547, until his death in 1559.-Early years:...
and
Catherine de' MediciCatherine de' Medici was born in Florence, Italy, as Caterina Maria Romula di Lorenzo de' Medici. Both of her parents, Lorenzo II de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, and Madeleine de La Tour d'Auvergne, Countess of Boulogne, died within weeks of her birth...
, who commissioned architects Philibert Delorme and
Jean BullantJean Bullant was a French architect and sculptor who built the tombs of Anne de Montmorency, Grand Connétable of France, Henri II, and Catherine de' Medici, as well as the Tuileries, the Louvre, and the Château d'Écouen...
. To the Fontainebleau of François I and Henri II,
King Henri IVHenry IV was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France. His parents were Queen Jeanne III and King Antoine of Navarre.As a Huguenot, Henry was involved in the Wars of Religion before...
added the court that carries his name, the
Cour des Princes, with the adjoining
Galerie de Diane de Poitiers and the
Galerie des Cerfs, used as a library. A "second school of Fontainebleau" decorators, less ambitious and original than the first, evolved from these additional projects. Henri IV pierced the wooded park with a 1200m canal (which can be fished today) and ordered the planting of pines, elms and fruit trees. The park stretches of an area more than 80 hectares, enclosed by walls and pierced rectilinear paths. Henri IV's gardener,
Claude MolletClaude Mollet , premier jardinier du Roy—first gardener in fact to three French kings, Henri IV, Louis XIII and the young Louis XIV—was a member of the Mollet dynasty of French garden designers in the seventeenth century...
, trained at
Château d'AnetThe Château d'Anet is a French château near Dreux built by Philibert de l'Orme from 1547 to 1552 for Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of Henry II of France...
, laid out patterned parterres. Preserved on the grounds is Henry IV's
jeu de paume (
real tennisReal tennis, often called "Royal Tennis" – one of the several sports sometimes called the sport of Kings – is the original indoor racquet sport from which the modern game of lawn tennis, or tennis, is descended...
court). It is the largest such court in the world, and one of the few publicly owned.
Philip the FairPhilip IV , called the Fair , son and successor of Philip III, reigned as King of France from 1285 until his death. He was the husband of Joan I of Navarre, by virtue of which he was King of Navarre and Count of Champagne from 1284 to 1305...
(Philip IV),
Henry IIIHenry III of France , was King of France from 1574 to 1589, and as Henry of Valois, first elected Monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the dual titles of King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1573 to 1575.-Early years:Henry was born at the Royal Château de...
and
Louis XIIILouis XIII reigned as King of France and Navarre from 1610 to 1643.-Early life, 1601—1610:Born at the Château de Fontainebleau, Louis XIII was the eldest child of Henry IV of France and Marie de' Medici . As son of the king, he was a Fils de France, and as the eldest son, the Dauphin...
were all born in the palace, and Philip died there.
Christina of SwedenChristina , later known as Christina Alexandra and sometimes Countess Dohna, was Queen regnant of Sweden from 1632 to 1654. She was the only surviving legitimate child of King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden and his wife Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg...
lived there for years, following her abdication in 1654. In 1685 Fontainebleau saw the signing of the
Edict of FontainebleauThe Edict of Fontainebleau was an edict issued by Louis XIV of France, also known as the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes of 1598, which had granted to the Huguenots the right to practice their religion without persecution from the state...
, which revoked the
Edict of NantesThe Edict of Nantes was issued on April 13, 1598. by Henry IV of France to grant the Calvinist Protestants of France substantial rights in a nation still considered essentially Catholic...
(1598). Royal guests of the Bourbon kings were housed at Fontainebleau, including
Peter the GreatPeter I the Great or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov ruled Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his weak and sickly half-brother, Ivan V....
of Russia and
Christian VII of DenmarkChristian VII was King of Denmark and Norway, and Duke of Schleswig and Holstein from 1766 until his death. He was the son of Frederick V, King of Denmark, and his first consort Louisa, daughter of George II of Great Britain.He became king on his father’s death on 14 January 1766, weeks before his...
.
Revolution and Empire
By the late 18th century, the
châteauA château is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally—and still most frequently—in French-speaking regions...
had fallen into disrepair; during the
French RevolutionThe French Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval and radical change in the history of France, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based...
many of the original furnishings were sold, in the long Revolutionary sales of the contents of all the royal châteaux, intended as a way of raising money for the nation and ensuring that the Bourbons could not return to their comforts. Nevertheless, within a decade Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, began to transform the Château de Fontainebleau into a symbol of his grandeur, as an alternative to empty
VersaillesVersailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial center...
, with its Bourbon connotations. Napoleon hosted
Pope Pius VIIPope Pius VII, OSB , born Count Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti, was Pope from March 14, 1800 to August 20, 1823.-Early life:...
there in 1804, when he came to consecrate the emperor, and again in 1812–1814, when he was Napoleon's prisoner. With modifications of the château's structure, including the cobblestone entrance wide enough for his carriage, Napoleon helped make the château the place that visitors see today. At Fontainebleau Napoleon bade farewell to his Old Guard and went into exile in 1814. Fontainebleau was also the setting of the
Second EmpireThe Second French Empire or Second Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France.-Rule of Napoleon III:...
court of his nephew Napoleon III.
Today
Today part of the château is home to the Écoles d'Art Américaines, a school of art, architecture, and music for students from the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The school was founded by General Pershing when his men were stationed there during the First World War.
Style
The palace introduced to
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
the Italian Mannerist style in interior decoration and in gardens, and transformed them in the translation. The French Mannerist style of interior decoration of the 16th century is known as the "Fontainebleau style": it combined sculpture, metalwork, painting, stucco and woodwork, and outdoors introduced the patterned garden
parterreA parterre is a formal garden construction on a level surface consisting of planting beds, edged in stone or tightly clipped hedging, and gravel paths arranged to form a pleasing, usually symmetrical pattern. Parterres need not have any flowers at all...
. The Fontainebleau style combined allegorical paintings in moulded plasterwork where the framing was treated as if it were leather or paper, slashed and rolled into scrolls and combined with
arabesqueThe arabesque is an elaborative application of repeating geometric forms that often echo the forms of plants and animals. Arabesques are an element of Islamic art usually found decorating the walls of mosques. The choice of which geometric forms are to be used and how they are to be formatted is...
s and
grotesqueThe word grotesque comes from the same Latin root as "grotto", meaning a small cave or hollow. The original meaning was restricted to an extravagant style of Ancient Roman decorative art rediscovered and then copied in Rome in the 15th century...
s. Fontainebleau ideals of female beauty are Mannerist: a small neat head on a long neck, exaggeratedly long torso and limbs, small high breasts—almost a return to Late Gothic beauties. The new works at Fontainebleau were recorded in refined and detailed engravings that circulated among connoisseurs and artists. Through the engravings by the "
School of FontainebleauThe Ecole de Fontainebleau refers to two periods of artistic production in France during the late Renaissance centered around the royal Château de Fontainebleau, that were crucial in forming the French version of Northern Mannerism....
" this new style was transmitted to other northern European centres,
Antwerp||-||-||-||}Antwerp is a city and municipality in Belgium and the capital of the Antwerp province in Flanders, one of Belgium's three regions. Antwerp's total population is 472,071 and its total area is , giving a population density of 2,308 inhabitants per km²...
especially, and Germany, and eventually London.
Cultural references
- Jazz
Jazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
pianistA pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers....
and composerA composer is a person who creates music, usually by musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of...
Tadd DameronTadley Ewing Peake "Tadd" Dameron was an American jazz pianist, arranger, and composer. Dexter Gordon called Dameron the "romanticist" of the bop movement while reviewer Scott Yanow writes that Dameron was the "definitive arranger/composer of the bop era".-Biography:Born in Cleveland, Ohio,...
wrote the composition "Fontainebleau" upon visiting the palace.
- The artist Madonna
Madonna is an American recording artist, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, and raised in Rochester Hills, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977, for a career in modern dance...
refers in her song "Secret Garden-In literature and film:* The Secret Garden, a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, which spawned several adaptations:** The Secret Garden a movie directed by Gustav von Seyffertitz and starring Lila Lee, Spottiswoode Aitken and Paul Willis...
" from the Album EroticaErotica is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Madonna, released on October 20, 1992 by Maverick Records. The album was released simultaneously with Madonna's first book publication, Sex. The RIAA certified it double platinum on January 6, 1993, recognizing two million shipments...
to it being located somewhere in Fontainebleau.
External links