{"id":19069,"date":"2013-05-21T23:14:37","date_gmt":"2013-05-21T21:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=19069"},"modified":"2017-10-20T14:53:40","modified_gmt":"2017-10-20T12:53:40","slug":"francois-ier-patron-of-french-renaissance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/francois-ier-patron-of-french-renaissance\/","title":{"rendered":"Fran\u00e7ois Ier: Patron of French Renaissance"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Une cour sans femmes est comme un jardin sans fleurs<\/strong><\/em><\/span>” (“a court without women is like a garden without flowers.”)<\/p>\n

Thus spoke\u00a0Fran\u00e7ois Ier<\/strong><\/em><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>(Francis I<\/strong> in English), like a true Frenchman some would say.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

But contrary to some other French monarchs, female company was not his only preoccupation.<\/p>\n

In fact, the lifetime dream of\u00a0Fran\u00e7ois\u00a0was to bring the fledgling Italian Renaissance\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/span>to the French soil.<\/p>\n

“Une nouvelle Rome<\/em><\/strong><\/span>” (a “New Rome<\/strong>“) was to emerge in the French capital.<\/p>\n

With that goal in mind, the French King invited to his court several Italian artists, whose task was to establish l’<\/strong>\u00c9cole <\/strong>de Fontainebleau<\/a><\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

This proved to be the most prolific and most influential of art schools in France at the time.<\/p>\n

The \u00c9cole<\/strong><\/em>‘s first uncontested leader was a Florence-born artist by the name of Rosso Fiorentino<\/strong><\/span>, literally meaning in Italian “the red from Florence<\/strong>“, an obvious reference to his hair color.<\/p>\n

By all accounts, “Il Rosso<\/strong><\/em>” was a highly eccentric figure. “Out of his time”, so to speak.<\/p>\n

His work has in many ways prefigured modern tendencies that were to be found in art schools throughout the following centuries.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, his immediate successor was also fellow\u00a0Italiano<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, called in French “Le Primatice<\/strong><\/em><\/span>“, who enjoyed the precious assistance of a skilled disciple, Niccol\u00f2 dell’Abbate<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n

In turn, these masters, or maestros<\/em><\/strong>, if you will, yielded a tremendous influence on the works of many other artists, most prominent of which is perhaps Jean Goujon<\/strong><\/span>, whose Allegories<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0can still be seen on the fa\u00e7ade of the Louvre<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Jean Goujon<\/strong>, as well as many other Protestant artists, had a deep impact on the French artistic scene of the 16th century and beyond.<\/p>\n

That is, until the Edict of Nantes<\/strong><\/span> was revoked in the following century by Louis XIV<\/strong><\/span>, when they all had to leave the French kingdom en masse<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Although Versailles<\/strong><\/span> was known to be the Sun King<\/strong>‘s favorite palace, the sudden decision of declaring French Protestants personas non gratas\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>was not taken there, but rather in Fontainebleau.<\/p>\n

The statement could not have been made any clearer, indeed.<\/p>\n

But back to Fran\u00e7ois Ier.<\/p>\n

If “la Jeconde<\/em><\/strong><\/span>“<\/em>, or “la Mona Lisa<\/em><\/strong><\/span>” (as it is better known in the non-Francophone world), is today a French property,\u00a0it is no doubt he who ought to receive the credit.<\/p>\n

Why so?<\/p>\n

Because if it were not for Fran\u00e7ois Ier, Leonardo da Vinci<\/strong><\/span> would probably never have felt compelled to set foot in France and bother to bring his still unfinished tableau <\/em><\/strong>(painting)\u00a0in his suitcase.<\/p>\n

In other words, that would have been one flower that le Roi\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>would have been particularly sorry to miss in his jardin<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

“Une cour sans femmes est comme un jardin sans fleurs” (“a court without women is like a garden without flowers.”) Thus spoke\u00a0Fran\u00e7ois Ier\u00a0(Francis I in English), like a true Frenchman some would say. But contrary to some other French monarchs, female company was not his only preoccupation. In fact, the lifetime dream of\u00a0Fran\u00e7ois\u00a0was to bring…<\/p>\n

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