Party Central: L'Art de la Fête à la cour des Valois

Renaissance courtiers loved a good party. Fêtes, or celebrations, at court lasted for days and included any number of events: lavish banquets, jousts and mock battles, dramatic spectacles, elaborate costume balls. Festive gatherings served a multitude of purposes: impressing visiting dignitaries, marking births and marriages, commemorating important victories, displaying the skills and ingenuity of court artists--and, of course, manifesting the munificent generosity of the king.

Above and beyond their political purposes, parties were just plain fun. 

Photo credit: Cleveland Museum of Art 

Despite the frequency and extravagance of Renaissance court festivals, however, they are difficult to document. Parties are, after all, ephemeral things: the food is consumed, the decorations discarded, the music fades away. Before the invention of photography, it was impossible to capture such events in real time. Modern historians must rely on written memories and rare artifacts as they attempt to reconstruct the look, activity, and tenor of celebrations at the Renaissance court.

A current exhibition at the Château of Fontainebleau, the primary residence of François I and a favorite of his son Henri II and grandson Henri III, attempts to recreate the Renaissance celebration for modern-day visitors. L'Art de la fête à la cour des Valois, which runs through July 4, presents over one hundred works, many lent from international collections, in an attempt to capture these festivals in all their splendor and document the extensive behind-the-scenes preparation that glory required.

Organized by curators Oriane Beaufils and Vincent Droguet, the exhibit includes paintings, tapestries, parade armor, costume sketches and commemorative pamphlets from celebrations across several reigns. From the most solemn to the most extravagant, Renaissance celebrations were living, moving, breathing works of art that sprouted from the ingenuity of some of the greatest artists of the time: Rosso Fiorentino, Francesco Primaticcio, Robert Delorme, Antoine Caron, and poet Pierre de Ronsard. The collected works at Fontainebleau resurrect the decorations, program, and costumes of some of the Valois court's most magnificent events.

Masquerade balls were central to Valois celebrations. Sketches of costumes designed by court artist Primaticcio for events like the festivities surrounding Emperor Charles V's state visit to Fontainebleau in 1539 (I blogged about that here) survive to this day. 

Photo credit: Musée du Louvre

Photo credit: Musée du Louvre

In order to recreate the feel of the fête for modern visitors, the Château engaged the costume workshop of nearby Disneyland Paris to render two of Primaticcio's sketches into life-sized garments. These faithful, fanciful costumes stand on display in the Château's ballroom, site of so many Valois parties. If you can't make it to the salle de bal in person, you can view the recreated costumes here, courtesy of La République de Seine-et-Marne.

Scribeaccroupi.fr, a French art history site, has an excellent written preview of the exposition, as well as an engaging short film animated by Oriane Beaufils herself. Her enthusiasm for the subject is palpable.

As much as I'd love to view the exposition in person, I must content myself with the printed catalogue, which I expect to arrive next week. I'll share about it soon. In the meantime....

Party on!

(You can find more about the exhibit on Twitter under the hashtags #PartyLikeaValois and #FeteAFontainebleau.)

Happy Birthday, Rosso!

Today is the 527th anniversary of the birth of the artist Giovanni Battista da Jacopo, known as Il Rosso Fiorentino (the Red-headed Florentine). Born on March 8, 1494, and trained in Florence, Rosso is considered a leading proponent of the Mannerist movement. Having made a name for himself in Rome, he was invited to France by François I in 1530 and spent the next decade as the French king's Director of Artistic Work. Rosso created numerous masterpieces for the king, as well as designing and staging the elaborate pageants and festivals François so loved. Rosso's artistic vision guided the expansion and decoration of the Château of Fontainebleau, François's favorite palace, culminating in the creation of the grande galerie, now known as the galerie François I. Rosso's best known extant work, the gallery boasts an ornate interplay of fresco, stucco statues and garlands, and carved wood paneling. The allegorical and mythological iconography of the frescoes, thought to extol the virtues of the king, still defies definitive interpretation even to this day. What is never questioned, however, is the fecund beauty of the gallery's exuberant abundance.  

Well-read and richly rewarded by King François, Rosso lived as a wealthy gentleman at Fontainebleau until his mysterious death, assumed to be a suicide, in 1540 at the age of 46. Together, Rosso and his chief rival, fellow Italian Francesco Primaticcio, transformed a once-decrepit hunting lodge into the showplace of France, a dwelling not only fit for kings but worthy of comparison with the most sumptuous Italian palazzos. 

Descent from the Cross, Rosso Fiorentino

Ross Fiorentino (1494-1540)

Descent from the Cross (1521)

Oil on Panel

Sixteenth Century Quote of the Week

Mars and Venus (1530), pen and ink
The work that secured Rosso an invitation to the court of France.

"Nor could he in this life have obtained greater dignity, honor, or rank, since he was highly regarded and esteemed above everyone else in his craft by such a great monarch as the king of France. And in truth, the merits of Rosso were such that if Fortune had brought him any less, she would have done him a grave wrong."

---Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574), Italian painter, writer and historian

Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects (1550)

Exhibit on Mannerist Painter Rosso Fiorentino

The Morgan Library and Museum in New York City is holding an exhibit on Renaissance painter Rosso Fiorentino, one of the main characters in my novel-in-progress. Fantasy and Invention: Rosso Fiorentino and Sixteenth-Century Florentine Drawing runs through February 3, 2013, and features one of only three paintings by Rosso in the United States, his Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist (1520). Twenty drawings by other Renaissance artists, including Andrea Del Sarto, Agnolo Bronzino and Giorgio Vasari, complement the painting.

Rosso is considered a leading proponent of the Mannerist movement. Born and trained in Florence, he made a name for himself in Rome before coming to France at the invitation of François I in 1530. He spent the next decade as the French King's Director of Artistic Work, overseeing the expansion and decoration of the château de Fontainebleau. The ornate Galérie François I at Fontainebleau is Rosso's best known extant work. Well-read and richly rewarded by King François, Rosso lived as a wealthy gentleman at Fontainebleau until his mysterious death in 1540 at the age of 46. The New York Times has written a review of the exhibit that includes some details about Rosso's sensational, troubled life.

I'm thrilled to see his work on exhibit here in the United States. He deserves to be better known by the general public. I've previously posted about Rosso and the galérie, his Descent from the Cross, his Pièta, and the Royal Elephant.

Vasari Correspondence for Sale

Anyone with a few million Euros to spare, don't miss the auction that will be taking place this week in the Tuscan city of Arezzo.

As The Guardian reports, the archive of artist Georgio Vasari (1511-1574), who chronicled the lives of Renaissance painters and sculptors in his book Lives of the Artists, will be auctioned off by his hometown. The cache of letters includes 17 from Vasari's friend Michelangelo, as well as letters from five Renaissance popes and Cosimo I de' Medici, the ruler of Florence. Government debt collectors are selling the archive in order to raise money to cover taxes owed by the noble family that has owned the collection for generations. The bidding will start at a mere 2.6 million Euros.

I first became familiar with Vasari's work when I began researching the life of Rosso Fiorentino, the Florentine artist who came to France at François I's behest to decorate the palace of Fontainebleau. Rosso is one of the 130-odd artists whose lives are described in Vasari's Le Vite de' piú eccellenti pittori, scultore et architetti, first published in 1550 (English translation here). An accomplished artist and architect himself, Vasari trained with or befriended many Florentine artists, among them Andrea del Sarto, Rosso, Jacopo Pontormo, and Michelangelo. His book, dedicated to Cosimo de' Medici, presents short biographies of the artists working in Italy, mostly in and around Florence, in the sixteenth century. These biographies are amusing mixtures of fact, personal anecdote, and pure gossip. The book includes a treatise on the technical methods of the times and is considered a classic work of art history.

Rosso's biography, for example, includes an anecdote about his pet monkey stealing grapes from a monastery, a description of the artist's ill-treatment at the hands of the Germans during the sack of Rome in 1527, and speculation about his apparent guilt-induced suicide in 1541...all of which is finding its way into my novel in some form or another. I owe Vasari a great deal, especially for animating his portrait of Rosso with enough personal detail to bring the artist's personality to life, yet leaving enough room for fictional elaboration.

Vasari's hometown of Arezzo will be celebrating the 500th anniversary of the chronicler's birthday next year. I certainly hope the Italian heritage minister, who will be competing in the week's auction, will be able to purchase the documents and keep this important part of Italy's artistic heritage in the country.

A Mother's Anguish

The grand connétable Anne de Montmorency commissioned this Pietà from Rosso Fiorentino for the chapel at the château d'Ecouen. Painted sometime in 1538 or 1539, the Pietà is the only surviving example of an easel painting that can be dated with certainty to Rosso's stay in France. The artist acknowledged de Montmorency's patronage by decorating the orange cushion beneath Jesus's body with the connétable's coat of arms. Originally, the Pietà adorned the chapel altar, though it was later moved to hang above the door. During the Revolution, the painting was confiscated from Ecouen and transported to the Louvre, where it can be viewed today. The intense personal anguish exhibited by Mary, whose outstretched arms recall her son's posture on the Cross, may provide a glimpse into artist's troubled emotional state; Rosso died by his own hand a year or so after completing this work. 

Descent from the Cross

Rosso Fiorentino painted this Descent from the Cross in 1521, a good ten years before he came to France at the invitation of King François. It was commissioned by the Company of the Cross of the Day, a confraternity of flagellants in the Italian city of Volterra. The starkness of the painting's composition, the unnaturalness of its lighting and colors, and the rawness of its emotion shocked contemporary viewers. It is rumored that Rosso, in the tradition of Albrecht Dürer, painted himself into the composition in the red-headed figure of the apostle John, who grieves his beloved Christ's death in the lower right corner.

Abounding Abundance

I apologize for the slow pace of my blogging lately. Excuses abound: the kids are home from school for the summer; the baby hardly ever naps anymore; I've been helping my eldest research colleges. The main reason, though, is that I've been caught up in research for my next book. I swear, I'm like a little kid at Christmas when books I've requested arrive through interlibrary loan. Of course I always request too many at once and then have to scramble to get through them all before the due date. You'd think I'd learn to pace myself and not request a new book until I've finished with the current one, but no. I have to have a pile eight books thick, all due within days of each other.

Right now I'm learning all I can about the construction of the fabulous Grande Galerie, now known as the Galerie François I, at the château of Fontainebleau. The Galerie--a long room decorated with frescoes, stuccoed ornaments, and woodwork--is considered the masterpiece of French mannerism. Begun about 1533 and completed by the end of 1539, the room features twelve large frescoes surrounded by exuberant stucco frames depicting putti, nymphs, garlands of fruit, grotesque masks, and emblems. The walls beneath the artwork and the ceiling are paneled with fine woodwork. Rosso Fiorentino, an Italian artist who came to work at the French court in the early 1530's after the sack of Rome, oversaw work on the Galerie. Teams of Italian, French, and Flemish artists specializing in the various media worked under his supervision; he headed the group of artists and humanist scholars who, aided by the king himself, designed and coordinated the iconographic content of the room as an expression of political ideology. The interplay between the frescoes, many of which depict obscure mythological stories, and the lavish stucco frames continues to intrigue cultural historians today. Intriguing for me is the fact that the gallery was part of the king's private chambers and accessible only by key and royal invitation. François would take honored guests on a tour, engaging them in learned discussion and impressing them with the room's secret splendor.

I'll have more to say about the Galerie in later posts, as it is the principal backdrop for my work-in-progress. For now, here are a few photographs to arouse your admiration and pique your curiosity: 

For anyone interested in pursuing the subject, Rebecca Zorach's Blood, Milk, Ink, Gold: Abundance and Excess in the French Renaissance (U Chicago P 2005), is a fascinating interpretation of the luxurious abundance of the Galerie and of French Renaissance art in general.