{"id":6786,"date":"2012-09-19T17:55:33","date_gmt":"2012-09-19T21:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/?page_id=6786"},"modified":"2013-04-09T17:44:44","modified_gmt":"2013-04-09T21:44:44","slug":"a-3-rosso-tour-du-jardin","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/architecture\/a-3-rosso-tour-du-jardin\/","title":{"rendered":"A.3. Rosso? Tour du Jardin"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tour du Jardin<\/p><\/div>\n

(Pavillon des Armes) And its Egyptian Portal, Ch\u00e2teau, Fontainebleau.<\/p>\n

1530-1535<\/p>\n

Fig.Tour du Jardin, Egyptian Portal<\/a><\/p>\n

The exterior dimensions of the plan of the pavilion, without the attached staircase towers, are approximately 23 by 11 meters.1<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Rosso\u2019s authorship of the design of the Tour du Jardin at Fontainebleau and its Egyptian Portal was extensively argued by Guillaume (1979).\u00a0 The attribution to Rosso of the design of the building\u2019s unusual portal had earlier been suggested, but not defended, by Chatelet-Lange in 1972,2<\/sup><\/a> and was accepted by Babelon, 1989, 204, 206, Fig. top.\u00a0 Knecht, 1994, 410, mentioned that the two Egyptian atlantes are possibly by Rosso.\u00a0 Most of what follows is dependent upon Guillaume\u2019s account.<\/p>\n

The Tour du Jardin is the pavilion, now and at least since the middle of the seventeenth century called the Pavillon des Armes, at the north end of the east side of the Basse Cour.\u00a0 Within the period 1538-1540 it was referred to in the Comptes des b\u00e2timents du roi<\/em> (see below) as the tour du jardin<\/em>, apparently because its east side opened onto the king\u2019s garden (Fig.Du Cerceau Plan Detail, Tour du Jardin<\/a>).\u00a0 Access to the four levels of the pavilion was originally through two large square towers enclosing spiral staircases attached to the east and west ends of its south side (Fig.Tour du Jardin Plan, Ground Floor<\/a>).\u00a0 The principal entrance at ground level was through the large door flanked by armless Egyptian caryatids on the east side of the east staircase tower (Fig.Tour du Jardin, Egyptian Portal<\/a>); from this doorway one could not enter the ground floor of the pavilion, direct access to which was through two arches in its own east front (Fig.Tour du Jardin<\/a>).\u00a0 The ground level entrance to the west staircase was on the south side of the west tower under the arches supporting the terrace at the level of the first floor.<\/p>\n

There are no documents related to the construction of this pavilion but it was already in existence in the period 1538-1540 when Claude \u201cBadouin, paintre\u201d was paid \u201cpour ouvrages de painture par luy faits… au cabinet \u00e9rig\u00e9 pour ledit Sieur (Francis I) en la tour du jardin d\u2019iceluy cha(stea)u, du cost\u00e9 et joignant la conciergerie dudit lieu [Fontainebleau.]\u201d3<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 There are no earlier documents related to the building, but Guillaume convincingly argued that it was most probably built shortly after the purchase of the land on which it is built from the Trinitarian abbey in December 1529.\u00a0 The purchase of this land allowed for the extension of the king\u2019s garden westward, and it was at its new westernmost limit that the Tour du Jardin was erected.\u00a0 From it the garden could be enjoyed.\u00a0 Guillaume saw the style of the architecture of the pavilion as of the early 1530s and dated the building around 1530-1531 or at least before the period 1535-1540.\u00a0 It is not clear that this need be the case, for the one document related to its decoration in this decade is within the years 1538-1540.\u00a0 Nevertheless, Guillaume may well be right in recognizing its construction as dating from about the same time as that of the exterior staircase and portico in the Cour Ovale, which were commissioned in August 1531 (A.2<\/a>).\u00a0 Chastel attributed the design of that project to Rosso.\u00a0 Guillaume saw in the Tour du Jardin references to Italian architecture and specifically to Antonio da Sangallo the Younger\u2019s Torre del Monte that was at the south end of the Piazza Navona in Rome (Fig.Rome, Torre del Monte<\/a>).4<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 This resemblance is with the west fa\u00e7ade of the Tour du Jardin as seen in Du Cerceau\u2019s 1579 engraving of the east front of the Basse Cour (Fig.Du Cerceau, Tour du Jardin, East Front<\/a>; Fig.Du Cerceau, Basse Cour, East Front<\/a>).\u00a0 Both buildings show a massive ground floor supporting a second storey articulated with pilasters and a third level in the form of a loggia.\u00a0 The Italian aspect of the Tour du Jardin led Guillaume to attribute its design to Rosso, who had arrived from Italy in the autumn of 1530.\u00a0 Guillaume attributed the design of the Egyptian Portal to Rosso on the basis of comparisons with elements of the decoration of the Gallery of Francis I.\u00a0 The pieces of scrollwork that substitute for capitals above the heads of the Egyptian caryatids are similar to scrollwork found in the gallery.\u00a0 Similar paired and playful putti are also found there, as well as the use of a large Royal F held by putti (Fig.Left Pair with F<\/a>; Fig.Right Pair with F<\/a>; Fig.P.22, WestWall, b<\/a>).\u00a0 Two putti kneeling atop the leveled peak of the pediment hold up a large helmet, recalling the winged babes playing with the goddess\u2019s armor in the Venus and Minerva<\/em> (Fig.P.22 I N c<\/a>; Fig.P.22 I N e<\/a>).\u00a0 There are no Egyptian motifs in the gallery but small armless and bare-breasted figures can be found flanking the Cleobis and Biton <\/em>(Fig.P.22, V S e<\/a>).\u00a0 Guillaume pointed out that Rosso used caryatids supporting a strongly projecting entablature in his earlier Design for an Altar <\/em>(Fig.D.38a<\/a>), and it might be added that a certain disjunction of parts of that architectural and sculptural design appear in the Egyptian Portal.\u00a0 In the Altar<\/em> the second storey is rather awkwardly aligned with the lower one as in the portal the boldly projecting curved sides of the trapezoidal pediment rise – or rather spring – in an unprecedented and somewhat atectonic manner from the entablature which is recessed in the center.\u00a0 One has the impression that the pediment – which shows a faint arched area within it – was meant to contain an image, probably in fresco.\u00a0 An etching of the portal by Castellan shows a beribboned wreath containing a helmeted head \u2014 Francis I? \u2014 in profile (Fig.Portal, etching<\/a>), the overall shape of which, however, does not match the outline of a surviving arch.\u00a0 The whole conception of the portal suggests the invention of an artist who was not by training an architect and hence very possibly the same imagination that lay behind the architectural-sculptural parts of the Gallery of Francis I.\u00a0 Guillaume\u2019s attribution to Rosso is highly probable.\u00a0 It can be added that while Egyptian figures do not appear in the gallery, comparable large supporting sculptured figures do, flanking the Venus and Minerva<\/em> (Fig.P.22, I N a<\/a>), the Dana\u00eb<\/em> (Fig.P.22, IV S a<\/a>), and the Enlightenment of Francis I<\/em> (Fig.P.22, VII S a<\/a>).\u00a0 The symbolic function of these figures within the context of their settings must also be true of the Egyptian figures, perhaps in relation to the Roman helmet held triumphantly aloft by the putti at the top of the portal.5<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

The present pavilion is entirely faced with cut sandstone, apparently from the time of its reconstruction in 1728 after a fire of 1702 (Gebelin, 1927, 103, n. 42, and Herbet, 1937, 73).\u00a0 Originally, it was most likely built of mortar and pebble masonry (moellen<\/em>) and brick like the Pavillon des Po\u00eales (L.42<\/a>) and the still existing original north side of the Basse Cour (Cour de Cheval Blanc).\u00a0 The original appearance of the east fa\u00e7ade was probably as shown by Du Cerceau, with the ground floor unarticulated and without windows, the first divided evenly into three sections by four pilasters with a rectangular window filling the center section, and the second floor likewise divided by pilasters but with three rounded arches set on piers between them.\u00a0 Du Cerceau\u2019s print shows a winged cherub\u2019s head centered above each arch of the second storey of the west side that would have appeared on the east and north sides as well.6<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 The attic has one dormer window flanked by pilasters and surmounted by a pediment.\u00a0 The entablature above each floor has strongly projecting cornices.\u00a0 (Today the left third of the ground and first storey of the west are blocked by another building, and there is a window in the third bay of the first storey.)\u00a0The existing east fa\u00e7ade has the ground floor again without pilasters but with two large open arches.\u00a0 The first floor is divided in two by three pilasters between which are large arches, originally probably open, and now glazed.\u00a0 Double pilasters mark the ends of the second storey with a single-pilaster in the center.\u00a0 There are two arches, narrower than those below and flanked by piers slightly broader than those of the second storey of the west fa\u00e7ade.\u00a0 There is a dormer window in the attic like the one at the west.\u00a0 The original appearance of the north fa\u00e7ade is probably as it appears in Du Cerceau\u2019s view of the ch\u00e2teau from this direction (Fig.Du Cerceau North View Detail, Tour du Jardin<\/a>).\u00a0 The ground floor was unarticulated like that of the east side, although Du Cerceau shows two very small arched windows beneath the second bay of the first storey.\u00a0 The first storey was divided by six pilasters into five bays, with the second bay from the left filled with a rectangular window, and the top half of the third bay containing a square window.\u00a0 The second floor was articulated with five arches, piers, and six pilasters, in a manner matching the appearance of the second floor of the west side.\u00a0 From its present state and from what appears in Du Cerceau\u2019s views it can be seen that the major feature of this pavilion was the loggia at the top with arches on three sides, to the east in the direction of the king\u2019s garden, to the west with a view over the Basse Cour and what would become the major entranceway of the new ch\u00e2teau, and to the north overlooking a corner of the king\u2019s garden to the northeast and, beyond to the north, the town with the surrounding landscape in the distance.\u00a0 Although Du Cerceau\u2019s views show these arches open to form what looks like an Italian belvedere that was almost identical to what was at the top of the Pavillon des Po\u00eales, it is probable that the arches of the Tour du Jardin were fitted with casement windows as were those of the pavilion to the south.\u00a0 The attic had three dormers of the same design, it would seem, as those of the east and west fa\u00e7ades.\u00a0 The south side of the Tour du Jardin was without windows and contained on each floor the entrances from the two staircase towers, except, as mentioned above, the ground floor that was not accessible from the east tower.\u00a0 Both towers are the same in Du Cerceau\u2019s drawing in the British Museum (Fig.Du Cerceau BM Drawing<\/a>; Fig.Du Cerceau BM Drawing, Tour du Jardin<\/a>)7<\/sup><\/a> but slightly different in the prints, where the west one has an additional storey as is still the case (Fig.Du Cerceau Print View<\/a>; Fig.Du Cerceau Tour du Jardin<\/a>).8<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 It is not clear from Du Cerceau\u2019s engraving how the corners of all the levels above the ground floor were marked by pilasters.\u00a0 Small windows were set into the cornices separating the floors and into the walls.\u00a0 The designs of the doorways on the south side of the towers may have been very simple frames as is shown in the one doorway that appears in Du Cerceau\u2019s view of the east wing.\u00a0 Between the two towers at ground level the south wall is articulated with three arches supported by four free-standing columns with discs decorating the fronts and intradoses of the arches at the springings and at the keystones.\u00a0 These are now visible behind the altar of the adjacent Chapel of the Trinity.\u00a0 Guillaume was somewhat at a loss to explain why these columns and arches were here and thought that they might have been part of the first and contemporary construction of the church that would be continued later.9<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 But it is also possible that they were to be part of an arcade supporting a terrace between the two towers from which one could enter the towers.\u00a0 But Guillaume gives no other evidence for such an arcade or terrace, or related entrances, and it is possible that this supposed part of the project was abandoned.10<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 The upper parts of the exterior of the south wall were probably unarticulated except for cornices dividing the levels of it that Du Cerceau\u2019s drawing and print show.<\/p>\n

From Du Cerceau\u2019s plan and views, from plans of the seventeenth and eighteenth century used by Guillaume, and from its present state, Guillaume showed the original disposition of the interior spaces of the pavilion (see below).\u00a0 This is supported by the evidence of the eighteenth century plans in the Morgan Library.11<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 The ground floor (Fig.Tour du Jardin Plan, Ground Floor<\/a>) had an open gallery at the east that let directly onto the king\u2019s garden.12<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Behind the gallery was a large room, as wide as the pavilion and slightly longer than this dimension.\u00a0 Two large arches in its east wall,13<\/sup><\/a> matching those of the exterior wall, opened onto the loggia.\u00a0 Probably, then as now, these interior arches were fitted with doors, most likely glazed doors.\u00a0 Guillaume\u2019s plan shows a fireplace in the center of the south wall of this room, the chimney of which is visible in Du Cerceau\u2019s general view.14<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 The two small arched windows high in the north wall in Du Cerceau\u2019s view from the north would have partly illuminated this room, although light would also have entered from the glazed or opened doors of the loggia arches.\u00a0 This room was not accessible from the east staircase.\u00a0 There followed two small rooms, a narrow one first, with a doorway from the west staircase, and one about twice as large at the west end.\u00a0 Two single doorways at the north end of the interior walls of these rooms connected all three rooms on the ground floor.\u00a0 Du Cerceau\u2019s plan shows no windows in these two rooms but some light would have entered from the east through the doors in the interior walls.15<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Guillaume said there were no fireplaces in these rooms.16<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 It has to be supposed that these two small rooms functioned in relation to the other large room and its loggia and that their entrances were for servants.<\/p>\n

The open arches at the east of the first floor (Fig.Tour du Jardin Plan, First Floor<\/a>) again created a loggia facing the king\u2019s garden; this loggia was entered from the east staircase by way of the Egyptian Portal.\u00a0 A large room of the same dimensions as the one below followed this loggia, again through double arches, which originally would have had glazed doors.\u00a0 According to Guillaume, the fireplace in this room was immediately above that in the room below and was served by the same chimney.\u00a0 The large window in the north wall visible in Du Cerceau\u2019s view illuminated this room.\u00a0 To the west were two more rooms, identical in their dimensions to those below them.\u00a0 The very narrow first room was reached by the west staircase, which could be entered also from a terrace at this level to the south.\u00a0 This room had a small square window in its north wall as seen in Du Cerceau\u2019s print.\u00a0 The larger westernmost room had the large window in the center of its west wall, as seen in Du Cerceau\u2019s engraved view from that direction.\u00a0 This room had a fireplace in the center of its south wall, the chimney of which is visible in Du Cerceau\u2019s view of the east wing of the ch\u00e2teau.17<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Guillaume saw this room and its antichamber as an apartment with its own entrance from the west staircase, which could be entered from a terrace at this level to the south.\u00a0 This terrace and the entrance from it are visible in Du Cerceau\u2019s view of the east wing of the ch\u00e2teau but showing two storeys built behind and above it.\u00a0 These two rooms could also be entered from the large eastern room through doorways at the north end of the interior walls.<\/p>\n

Guillaume thought that the east fa\u00e7ade of the pavilion is its most original aspect, presenting as it does open galleries on the ground and first floors.\u00a0 But his account of the building actually indicates how special it was in its entire conception.\u00a0 The ground floor was directly related to the king\u2019s garden, presenting first a small loggia from which the garden could be seen and enjoyed, but also a space of refuge from it.\u00a0 An adjacent room allowed for more privacy, and also possibly for more extensive entertainment.\u00a0 One can imagine that the two dark western rooms, entered from the other side of the pavilion, were used to prepare whatever was necessary for the events in the large one and the loggia, and in the garden itself.\u00a0 The loggia and large room on the first floor allowed for something of the same enjoyment of the garden but they were more private, and the large room was more illuminated.\u00a0 They were also followed by two illuminated rooms with their own entrance.\u00a0 Although Guillaume saw them as a separate apartment, it is possible that the entire first floor was an apartment and that the west entrance was again for servants.\u00a0 The belvedere at the top of the pavilion was one large area with two entrances from the two towers (Fig.Tour du Jardin Plan, Second Floor<\/a>).\u00a0 There were also a room or rooms in the attic storey illuminated by five dormers.<\/p>\n

Badouin\u2019s activity of 1538-1540 in a \u201ccabinet\u201d of the Tour du Jardin is the only reference to painting or any other decoration of the interior of the pavilion within the lifetime of Rosso.\u00a0 Badouin was an assistant of Rosso\u2019s and although it cannot be known that he did not execute his own conceptions in this \u201ccabinet,\u201d it is quite possible that he worked from designs by Rosso, as sculptors would have used a drawing or drawings by him perhaps slightly earlier for the execution of the Egyptian Portal.\u00a0 One might wonder if Badouin\u2019s work was related thematically to this doorway.\u00a0 It is possible that some of the rooms were hung with already existing tapestries, which might account for no other mention of painting in the documents.<\/p>\n

Beginning in 1559 modifications were made to the interior of the building, including the addition of partition walls and fireplaces in the belvedere to create a room for Francis I\u2019s collection of arms.18<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 This room is mentioned as above the \u201cchambre\u201d of the \u201cConnestable\u201d (Anne de Montmorency), which Guillaume would identify with the \u201cappartement\u201d on the first floor.\u00a0 Probably in the large room of this floor there was in the early 1560s the king\u2019s collection of \u201canticailles.\u201d\u00a0 Dan mentioned Francis I\u2019s collection of ancient arms and \u201cautres curiositiz\u201d that had been in two rooms of this building, which he called the Pavillon des Armes.19<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 There is no documentary evidence that originally the pavilion or any part of it was for the housing of the king\u2019s collections of arms and antiquities.\u00a0 But it seems an appropriate place for them in a pavilion that was primarily designed in relation to the various delights of a garden.\u00a0 The collections would have been kept in the large room on the first floor, as the ground floor had too direct access from the outside and was too poorly illuminated, and the top floor was open on three sides and too unprotected from the\u00a0 weather.\u00a0 Guillaume, seeing that the pavilion might have housed Francis I\u2019s collections, thought that the caryatids of the Egyptian Portal would have given an indication of the marvels that were to be seen inside.\u00a0 It should also be noted that this portal led to the first floor.\u00a0 If the caryatids suggested the antiquities on the first floor, it is possible that the helmet held by the two putti atop the portal indicated the collection of arms.\u00a0 In 1559 the belvedere was altered to house the king\u2019s arms collection, which would not have been in this pavilion earlier.\u00a0 Thus it is likely that the helmet, carved from a separate block, replaced at this time a different object specifically related to the Egyptian caryatids.\u00a0 The putti hold two thin rectangular slabs that seem to have no relation to the helmet above.\u00a0 Terrasse, 1951, 57-59, and Fig. 170, wrote that the portal of c. 1530 recalls King Francis, who honors \u201c\u00e0 sa fa\u00e7on l\u2019egypte millenaire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guillaume related the Egyptian caryatids to the telemons in the Vatican that in the early sixteenth century were known at Tivoli as part of the canopus of Hadrian\u2019s nearby villa.20<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Hence it is possible that the Egyptian statues were to be seen in the context of the garden at the same time that they indicated what was inside the pavilion.\u00a0 The architectural function of these figures \u201csupports\u201d the latter conception, as with such large sculpted figures in the Gallery of Francis I alongside the Venus and Minerva<\/em> (Fig.P.22, I N a<\/a>) and the Enlightenment of Francis I<\/em> (Fig.P.22, VII S a<\/a>).<\/p>\n

In the 1530s the Tour du Jardin was joined to whatever else there was of the east wing of the Basse Cour by arcades at ground level and terraces above them to the south.\u00a0 It was, thus, almost a free-standing building.\u00a0 Only with the construction of the Chapel of the Trinity against its south side did the Tour du Jardin appear bound to the east wing of the Basse Cour.21<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 It is possible that this was foreseen and for this reason it was entirely closed on the south side between the towers.\u00a0 It was matched at the south end of the Basse Cour by the Pavillon des Po\u00eales (L.42<\/a>), the decoration of which was under way and partly completed before Rosso died.\u00a0 Guillaume has shown how these pavilions, with others, and with the sides of the Basse Cour, created a new ch\u00e2teau at Fontainebleau that was linked to the old castle by the Gallery of Francis I.\u00a0 This scheme must have been projected before Rosso arrived in France, even if not all of it is mentioned in the specifications of 1528.\u00a0 But the Tour du Jardin may not have been begun before Rosso\u2019s arrival, or had only just been begun.\u00a0 Thus while Rosso may not have been responsible for its location or size, he may well have had a part in determining its final appearance.\u00a0 This seems also to have been the case with the architecture of the Gallery of Francis I, the construction of which was probably largely completed when Rosso arrived at Fontainebleau.\u00a0 The design of the Pavillon des Po\u00eales, the west fa\u00e7ade of which mirrored that of the Tour du Jardin, may also have been due to Rosso.\u00a0 It, too, functioned to give views upon the special spaces – courtyards, lake, and garden – that its sides faced.\u00a0 The Tour du Jardin needs to be studied further, in regard to its proportions and the design of its details – capitals, cornices, moldings (which might reflect the design of the original ones before the building was refaced) – and with respect to other buildings and architectural projects that can be associated with Rosso in an attempt to identify more specifically what part he may have had in its conception and appearance.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>1<\/sup> From Morgan 1956.31, \u201cRez de Chauss\u00e9e des Batiments qui environnent les parterres de l\u2019orang\u00e9rie,\u201d translated from \u201ctoises.\u201d\u00a0 Guillaume, 1979, 226, gives 22 x 11 meters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>2<\/sup> Ch\u00e2telet-Lange, Liliane, \u201cMichelangelos Herkules in Fontainebleau,\u201d Pantheon<\/em>, XXX, 6, 1972, 466.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>3<\/sup> Laborde, I, 1877, 133; see under P.22.\u00a0 Guillaume, 1979, 232-233, 239, ns. 28-30, discussed the identification of the \u201ctour du jardin\u201d and its relationship to the \u201cconciergerie,\u201d of which he believed a vestige may appear immediately to the north of the \u201ctour\u201d in Du Cerceau\u2019s general view of the ch\u00e2teau from the north.\u00a0 This enigmatic detail (Fig.Du Cerceau North View Detail, Tour du Jardin<\/a>) does not appear on Du Cerceau\u2019s plans.\u00a0 The space between this building and the Tour du Jardin appears to form an entranceway into the north side of the ch\u00e2teau complex leading to the garden there.\u00a0 The building may have been destroyed just at the time that Du Cerceau was making the drawings for his prints.\u00a0 It is possible that it was one of the seventeen buildings of the abbey that were included in Francis I\u2019s land purchase in December 1529 (see document under P.22).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>4<\/sup> See Frommel, 1973, I, 125-126, III, 178a (print by Israel Sylvestre) – c; Guillaume, 1976, 229, 231, Fig. 8 (detail of Sylvestre print).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>5<\/sup> Castellan, 1840, 262-265, thought the Egyptian Portal might be by Jean Juste or Jean Cousin.\u00a0 Pfnor and Champollion, 1863, I, Pl. XII, and Pfnor, 1889, 183, the latter connecting Serlio\u2019s name with the Egyptian Portal.\u00a0 Palustre, I, 1879, 187-189, with Fig.\u00a0 Gebelin, 1927, 99, 103, n. 39, thought that this part of the ch\u00e2teau was built after 1540 but based this conclusion on documents primarily referring to the Chapel of the Trinity.\u00a0 Herbet, 1937, 72-74, thought that the Tour du Jardin was built as an isolated structure in 1528 but did not know who designed the portal dating from the same time, and denied it was by anyone whose name had earlier been suggested, including Castellan\u2019s suggestions.\u00a0 Curl, 1982, 58-59, Fig. 36, dated the portal around 1540 and thought that it might have been designed by Serlio. \u00a0Orazi, 1982, 142-145, Figs. 215, 219, dated the portal to the early 1540s and attributed its design to Vignola.\u00a0 Prinz and Kecks, 1985, 356, n. 20, 423-424, Fig. 482, dated the portal c. 1540 and attributed its design to Serlio.\u00a0 Vignola and Serlio arrived at Fontainebleau in November and December 1540; their activity at the Tour du Jardin would have taken place in 1541 at the earliest, at which time this pavilion already existed, according to the record of Badouin\u2019s activity there between 1538 and 1540.\u00a0 The assignment of the design of the Egyptian Portal to one of them is possible, if it is recognized that it is an addition to the building.\u00a0 Orazi, and Prinz and Kecks, indicated that both Vignola and Serlio can be associated with Egyptian art, as Rosso cannot.\u00a0 But I would not agree with Prinz and Kecks that the sculpted putti of the portal are merely conventional; they do quite closely resemble Rosso\u2019s in the Gallery of Francis I.\u00a0 Curl, 1982, 43-62, revealed that the use of Egyptian motifs in Italy before Rosso arrived in France was, if not frequent, certainly evident.\u00a0 The use of the Egyptian caryatids at the Tour du Jardin indicates a specific reference that is not known today, but a connection to the adjacent garden seems likely.\u00a0 The attribution of the design of this doorway to Rosso is problematic, as is the design of the entire pavilion to him, but in certain respects it is just as likely as an attribution to Vignola or Serlio.\u00a0 There is, in fact, a non-architectural quality about the doorway that suggests that it was not designed by an architect.\u00a0 Castellan, 1840, 262-265, and Pl. opp. 263, noted that the statues were made out of harder stone than that of the building itself, and thought that the sculptor was not Italian, suggesting the French sculptors Jean Juste de Tours, and Jean Tousin.\u00a0 Terrasse, 1951, 57-59, with Figs., 170, as done around 1530, the portal \u201crappelant que le roi Fran\u00e7ois honore \u00e0 sa fa\u00e7on l\u2019\u00e9gypte mill\u00e9naire.\u201d<\/p>\n

I have wondered if Rosso had anything to do with the design of the doorway in the Cour Ovale that leads to the stairway of Francis I (Dimier, 1925, 14-15, Fig.; Fig.Portal, Cour Ovale<\/a>).\u00a0 The bases of the statues of Minerva and Juno show pairs of children that slightly recall those of the Egyptian Portal and some of the putti in the Gallery of Francis I.\u00a0 But otherwise the portal appears something of a conglomerate that stylistically does not suggest Rosso.\u00a0 Still one would like to know more about its origins.\u00a0 Its present appearance was described by Guilbert, 1731, I, 19.\u00a0 Herbet, 1937, 237, thought it was designed by Florimond de Champeverne.\u00a0 See also Pressouyre, 1974, 30, and n. 23; and Orazi, 1982, 145, who mentioned this portal in relation to Vignola.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>6<\/sup> The cherubs could have been removed when the pavilion was faced with stone, possibly around 1565 when the Pavillon des Po\u00eales was also re-surfaced.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>7<\/sup> Inv. no. 1973,U.1354.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>8<\/sup> In Du Cerceau\u2019s engraved view from the south the west tower is round but this was almost certainly never the case, although Guillaume pointed out that the staircases inside both towers were cylindrical.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>9<\/sup> Guillaume, 1976, 227, 229.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>10<\/sup> Du Cerceau\u2019s view of the east front of the Basse Cour shows a terrace supported by three arches, with an entrance into the first floor of the square east stairway tower (Fig.Du Cerceau, Tour du Jardin, East Front<\/a>).\u00a0 In this view the arches supporting the terrace are not filled by the side chapels of the Chapel of the Trinity.\u00a0 Roy, 1929, 251-252, 279-280, mentions the columns behind the altar as in a passageway about four meters wide leading from the Cour de Cheval-Blanc (formerly the Basse Cour) to the garden of Diane (formerly the king\u2019s garden); he believed, however, that these columns and capitals belonged to the decoration of an apse.\u00a0 According to Roy, this passageway now leads to the Egyptian Portal in the east front of the east tower.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>11<\/sup> See n. 1.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>12<\/sup> One of Du Cerceau\u2019s plans (Fig.Du Cerceau Plan Detail, Tour du Jardin<\/a>) shows a door in the north wall of the loggia but it does not appear in the exterior view of this wall (Fig.Du Cerceau North View Detail, Tour du Jardin<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>13<\/sup> These arches are not shown in Du Cerceau\u2019s plans, where instead there is a solid wall, an arrangement that may have been contemplated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>14<\/sup> In Du Cerceau\u2019s plans this fireplace is set to the left of the center of this wall.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>15<\/sup> Guillaume, 1976, 229, under Fig. 5, stated that these two rooms must have had small windows, but there is no evidence for them.\u00a0 One of Du Cerceau\u2019s plans shows the west room divided in two.\u00a0 The other plan has an exterior door in the west wall in line with the two internal doors.\u00a0 This door does not appear in Du Cerceau\u2019s view of the west fa\u00e7ade but it might well have been planned.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>16<\/sup> Guillaume, 1976, 227.\u00a0 He did not state how he knew this but it can be assumed it is from the evidence of the building itself and from Du Cerceau\u2019s plans, which show none.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>17<\/sup> This chimney is not visible in Du Cerceau\u2019s etched general view from the south, where three chimneys are shown, one being the chimney that served the fireplaces in the large rooms on the ground and first floors.\u00a0 It should also be noted that the west staircase tower in this view is round, which is incorrect.\u00a0 It is possible that the left chimney is simply misdrawn behind rather than in front of the roof.\u00a0 The right chimney would almost certainly have to be a mistake, as it is over one of the arches of the loggias on all three levels of the ch\u00e2teau where there could not have been fireplaces.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>18<\/sup> On this project by Philibert De Lorme, see, in addition to Guillaume, Maurice Roy, \u201cLa Salle de l\u2019armurerie du roi au pavillon des Armes,\u201d in Roy, (1914), 1929, 259-280, 277-280.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>19<\/sup> Dan, 1642, 31.\u00a0 Babelon, 1989, 204, thought that originally this pavilion, built in 1530-1535, housed Francis I\u2019s collection of arms and antiquities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>20<\/sup> See also Curl, 1982, 58-59, Pl. 36, who suggested that Serlio was the designer of the doorway.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>21<\/sup> The relation of the Tour du Jardin to any then still existing convent buildings is not known.\u00a0 Pressouyre, 1974, 26, 28, mentions the gradual destruction of the church and convent for the new construction of the ch\u00e2teau, some of which existed until c. 1538-1541 (although Pressouyre may have meant 1528-1530).\u00a0 For the location of these buildings, see the plans in Bray, 1935, opp. 174 and 182.\u00a0 The old church was farther to the south and differently oriented than the new church that was begun, according to Pressouyre, in 1551, when the old church was finally pulled down.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Pavillon des Armes) And its Egyptian Portal, Ch\u00e2teau, Fontainebleau. 1530-1535 Fig.Tour du Jardin, Egyptian Portal The exterior dimensions of the plan of the pavilion, without the attached staircase towers, are approximately 23 by 11 meters.1 Rosso\u2019s authorship of the design of the Tour du Jardin at Fontainebleau and its Egyptian Portal was extensively argued by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":821,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6786","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6786"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9062,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6786\/revisions\/9062"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}