1538-1540<\/p>\n
Pavillon des Po\u00eales, Ch\u00e2teau, Fontainebleau.<\/p>\n
When Dan, 1642, 131, described the Galerie Basse of the now destroyed Pavillon des Po\u00eales, its central arches on the south side had already been fitted with windows, and hence he called it the Salle Basse:<\/p>\n
\u201c…il ne faute pas oublier de parler de la Salle basse qui est au dessous de la terrasse, par laquelle l\u2019on entre en la grande Galerie [of Ulysses], puis qu\u2019elle fait partie de ce Pavillon [des Po\u00eales], & departement.\u00a0 Elle ne sert plue maintenant que de passage pour entrer de la Cour de la Fontaine au Jardin des Pins.\u00a0 L\u2019on l\u2019appelloit autrefois la Salle du Conseil, parce que c\u2019estoit l\u00e0 o\u00f9 la Cour estant icy, l\u2019on le tenoit pour les parties.\u00a0 Ce qui reste de sa beaut\u00e9 fait bien paroistre qu\u2019elle a est\u00e9 en grande consideration, estant compos\u00e9e de vingt colomnes canel\u00e9es avec leurs bases & chapiteaux; le tout qui porte les arcades, & cintres de ladite terrasse, laquelle est par parquets: ouvrages des mieux entendu qui se voyent point pour de la gresserie.\u00a0 L\u00e0 est un lambry avec les Chiffres & Devise de Fran\u00e7ois I. Mais ce qui s\u2019y voyait de plus remarquable, c\u2019estoient plusieurs Tableaux \u00e0 frais, les uns du sieur Rousse, & les autres du sieur de saint Martin [Primaticcio]; ensemble leurs bordures de stuc, & quelques figures de relief qui servoient d\u2019ornemens, que les iniures du temps ont presque entierement ruin\u00e9es.\u201d1<\/sup><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
There is no mention of the Galerie Basse in Vasari\u2019s \u201cLife\u201d of Rosso.\u00a0 B\u00e9guin suggested that it may well be the \u201clunga galleria\u201d referred to in the \u201cLife\u201d of Primaticcio, and the \u201cbassa galleria\u201d that appears in the short account of the career of Nicol\u00f2 dell\u2019Abate.2<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 In the first (Vasari, 1568, III, 798-799; Vasari-Milanesi, VII, 408), Vasari writes: \u201cIn tanto essendo in Francia morto il Rosso, e per cio rimasta imperfetta una lunga Galleria, stata cominciata con suoi disegni, ed in grande parte ornata di stucchi e di pitture, fu richiamato da Roma il Primaticcio.\u201d\u00a0 Then, after telling of the casts of the ancients statues that Primaticcio made for Fontainebleau, Vasari continues: \u201cCi\u00f2 fatto, fu commesso al Primaticcio, che desse fine alla Galleria, che il Rosso aveva lasciata imperfetta; onde, messovi mano, la diede in poco tempo finita con tanti stucchi, e pitture, quante in altro siano state fatte gia mai.\u201d\u00a0 Subsequently, after speaking of the execution by Nicol\u00f2 dell\u2019Abate of Primaticcio\u2019s designs in the Salle de Bal, and in the Gallery of Ulysses by Nicol\u00f2 and others, Vasari (Vasari, 1568, III, 800; Vasari-Milanesi, VII, 411) added: \u201csi come \u00e8 ancho la sala vecchia e una bassa Galleria, che \u00e8 sopra lo stagno, la quale \u00e8 bellissima, e meglio, e di piu bell\u2019opere ornata, che tutto il rimanente di quel luogo. del quale troppo lunga cosa sarebbe voler pienamente ragionare.\u201d<\/p>\n
As B\u00e9guin pointed out, Vasari\u2019s \u201clunga galleria\u201d cannot be the Gallery of Francis I, not only because the documents clearly indicate that the latter was finished before Rosso died, but also because that gallery, in Vasari\u2019s \u201cLife\u201d of Rosso, is referred to as \u201cuna galleria sopra la bassa corte.\u201d3<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 B\u00e9guin thought that because the Galerie Basse was narrower (see below), Vasari\u2019s use of the word \u201clunga\u201d to describe it would be appropriate.\u00a0 Furthermore, the Galerie Basse was the only gallery at Fontainebleau for which some evidence exists affirming Vasari\u2019s report that its decoration was begun by Rosso and completed after his death by Primaticcio.\u00a0 In fact, aside from the Gallery of Ulysses, the Galerie Basse was the only other gallery at Fontainebleau to which Primaticcio\u2019s name can be attached.\u00a0 Vasari\u2019s later reference to a \u201cbassa galleria\u201d can be nothing other than the \u201cGalerie Basse,\u201d for only that gallery was situated above a lake.\u00a0 Although Vasari\u2019s passage might be interpreted to mean that Nicol\u00f2 dell\u2019Abate executed the frescoes in the Galerie Basse, this is not what Vasari actually said, for Vasari\u2019s previous statement, contained within the same sentence, speaks of the execution of the vault of the Gallery of Ulysses \u201cdai sopradetti, e altri pittori giovani, ma per\u00f2 con i disegni dell\u2019Abate [Primaticcio, \u201cAbate di San Martino\u201d].\u00a0 The \u201csopradetti e altri pittori\u201d are artists referred to earlier, and not necessarily including Nicol\u00f2 dell\u2019Abate, who arrived at Fontainebleau in 1552, about a decade after the decoration of the Galerie Basse seems to have been completed (see below).<\/p>\n
It does seem possible and likely that the incompletely decorated gallery discussed in Vasari\u2019s \u201cLife\u201d of Rosso is the Galerie Basse, but it is not easy to accept the suggestion that this gallery, so richly architecturally articulated inside, could have been called a \u201clunga galleria,\u201d no matter how narrow it was compared to the Gallery of Francis I.\u00a0 I am inclined to think that the designation \u201clunga galleria\u201d was wrongly applied here in confusion with another gallery that Rosso seems to have planned, and that Vasari had heard mentioned, the Long Gallery (L.46<\/a>).\u00a0 This, too, would have been begun by Rosso, and then long after his death transformed by Primaticcio into the Gallery of Ulysses.<\/p>\n
The Galerie Basse was first identified and discussed by Dimier.4<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 It was set on the edge of the lake on the south side of the Pavillon des Po\u00eales (Fig.Du Cerceau Print, Cour de la Fontaine<\/a>; Fig.Du Cerceau Print, Gallery<\/a>; Fig.Barberini Tapestry Cartoon reversed<\/a>).\u00a0 Its construction was begun around 1537 probably from Rosso\u2019s designs (see L.42<\/a>).\u00a0 The long south front of the gallery was divided into five equal bays, separated by pilasters set on plinths, with the center three bays containing arches.\u00a0 These were open except at the bottom where there was a low enclosing wall of the same height as the plinths.\u00a0 The end bays had no arches and were walled, and each had a door surmounted by a small round window.<\/p>\n
The interior of the Galerie Basse was about 19.3 meters long and about 4.8 wide; its height seems to have been approximately 6.5 meters.5<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 As the Du Cerceau and Morgan plans, along with Dan\u2019s description, indicate, the gallery contained twenty fluted columns (Fig.Du Cerceau, Galerie Basse, Plan<\/a>).\u00a0 A pair was set before each pier of the south side and before each of an equal number of shallow piers across from them that were attached to the north wall.\u00a0 There was also a column in each corner, those on the north side also set before attached piers, but narrower than the others.\u00a0 The columns were probably as high as the piers to the level of the springing of the arches.\u00a0 On the north wall the piers must have carried a blind arcade, probably the whole length of the wall.\u00a0 Dan indicated that the columns carried an arcade and vaults.\u00a0 One broad arch crossed from the south to the north side for each set of paired columns.\u00a0 An arch half as wide spanned the ends of the gallery between the single columns in the corners.\u00a0 The arches (somewhat flattened?) and spandrels, which supported a terrace above, carried a flat ceiling, and this arrangement allowed for the figures by Primaticcio that Dimier assigned to this room (see below).\u00a0 There was a door in the center of the east and west walls the same size as those in the end bays of the south side.6<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
The figures of the goddesses Juno, Venus, and Minerva, and of the nine Muses by Primaticcio are known from his own drawings and from twelve etchings, in reverse, by L\u00e9on Davent (Master L.D.).7<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Each figure is set within a spandrel in a semi-recumbent pose along the curve of an arch.\u00a0 The shape of the spandrels with the broad area at the figures\u2019 feet almost surely indicates that the figures were to be frescoed upon the spandrels above the crossing arches of the Galerie Basse and not above those of the arcades.\u00a0 The crossing arches had twenty spandrels in the Galerie Basse.\u00a0 One might assume that the designs of eight figures by Primaticcio are lost, except for the fact that the known images form what seems to be a complete set.\u00a0 Iconographically, the nine Muses with the three goddesses who were judged by Paris make an understandable group.\u00a0 Furthermore, there are designs for an equal number of right and left spandrels.\u00a0 A logical disposition of these figures together would be on the twelve spandrels of the three center bays.<\/p>\n
What has to be considered is where the other decoration in fresco and stucco would have been placed in this room.\u00a0 There were the other eight spandrels of the crossing arches in the end bays.\u00a0 Twenty smaller spandrels were above the arches on the north and south sides.\u00a0 Then there were the two large lunettes at the east and west ends, the smaller five across the north wall, and the two of the same size in the outer bays of the south side.\u00a0 There was a door in the center of the end walls and a door in the end bays of the south side with a round window above each just under the lunette.\u00a0 The major expanses of wall were beneath the lunettes of the north wall, and beneath those of the end walls on either side of their doors.\u00a0 Some wall area also existed at the sides of the doors at the south and around the oculi above them.\u00a0 Decoration would have covered all of the available surfaces set above wood paneling by Francisque Scibec as in the Gallery of Francis I.\u00a0 The specification for the oak woodwork in the agreement of 25 February 1542 calls for five sections of wainscoting between the columns of the north wall and two sections at the east and west ends.8<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 Each section was to have three sunken panels carved with the arms and devices of the kings and surrounded by moldings in the antique style, and between the panels of each section was to be placed a half column with base and capital.\u00a0 The doorways were to have a design to match the other woodwork.\u00a0 There was also to be paneling against the piers of the south side and against the reveals of the arches.\u00a0 Each section of paneling was to have a seat with four legs in the form of balusters or of some other rich antique design, but the number of these seats is not given.\u00a0 Nor is any mention made of the ceiling or the floor.\u00a0 Because this gallery was open and at ground level it is possible that the floor was of stone.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, no source gives the subjects of Rosso\u2019s decoration.\u00a0 Primaticcio\u2019s twelve figures indicate that the room probably would have had other mythological subjects and ones that according to some iconographical scheme would have borne a relationship to Juno, Minerva, Venus, and the nine Muses.\u00a0 There is one late drawing by Rosso of a mythological subject that could just possibly have been made for the decorative program of the Galerie Basse.\u00a0 The drawing of around 1539-1540 seems to represent Pandora Adorned by Aphrodite and the Hours<\/i> (Fig.D.77<\/a>).\u00a0 If this scene was intended for the Galerie Basse, as a fresco or a stucco relief, it could have been one of a series illustrating the story of Pandora.\u00a0 But it could also have been part of a program on some other larger theme.<\/p>\n
As the decoration of this room was incomplete when Rosso died, the planning and execution of it must have occupied him in 1540.\u00a0 But unlike the decoration of the Salle Haute of the Pavillon des Po\u00eales, which seems entirely to have been designed by him, that of the Galerie Basse was not.\u00a0 Part of it was designed by Primaticcio upon his return from Italy shortly after the end of October 1541.9<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 This seems to indicate that Rosso\u2019s designs for the gallery were made after those for the Salle Haute.\u00a0 The agreement with Scibec of February 1542 that mentions that the stuccoes and frescoes in the Salle Haute were completed makes no mention of the decoration of the Galerie Basse, although it is likely that some of them were done by this time. Rosso could have begun working on the designs for the decoration of the Galerie Basse in 1538 even as he was still working on those for the Salle Haute.\u00a0 Then as the latter were being executed in stucco and fresco he would have continued making drawings for the Galerie Basse until his death in November 1540.\u00a0 Some might even have been executed by his assistants in the gallery itself by that time.10<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\n\n<\/a>1<\/sup> Reiset, 1859, 205, quotes part of this passage under his mention of the Salle Ancienne du Conseil.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a>2<\/sup> B\u00e9guin, \u201cGalerie,\u201d RdA<\/i>, 1972, 122, n. 55, 172, n. 127.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a>3<\/sup> Dimier, 1900, 300-302, believed that the reference to an incomplete gallery was to the Gallery of Francis I, which was then completed by Primaticcio, although the only work by him in this room that Dimier could identify is the Dana\u00eb<\/i>.\u00a0 Kusenberg, 1931, 53-58, 199, n. 182, thought, on the basis of the information supplied by the documents, that the Gallery of Francis I was finished by the time of Rosso\u2019s death, and hence that Vasari\u2019s reference to work done later by Primaticcio could refer only to the Dana\u00eb<\/i> or to some later restoration.\u00a0 Barocchi, 1950, 170, also concluded that the Gallery of Francis I was completed before Rosso died but she did not comment upon just when Primaticcio executed his Dana\u00eb<\/i>.\u00a0 It should be noted that there is no reference in Vasari\u2019s \u201cLife\u201d of Rosso that the Gallery of Francis I was not finished at the time of Rosso\u2019s death.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a>4<\/sup> Dimier, 1900, 51-52, 254, 305, 319, 431-432, 470, 489-490; see also Dimier, 1904, 89; Dimier, 1925, 26; Dimier, 1928, 8; Kusenberg, 1931, 104, 202, n. 250, 203, n. 251; Dimier, 1942, 23-24; Barocchi, 1950, 252; Claude Lauriol, in EdF<\/i>, 1972, 480, and in Fontainebleau<\/i>, 1973, II, 154; and Carroll, 1987, 31, 35, n. 94.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a>5<\/sup> All of these views show the cabinet built at the east end of the terrace above the Galerie Basse.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a>6<\/sup> When the Long Gallery, known as the Gallery of Ulysses, was built (see L.46<\/a>), the door in the west wall would have led to the area under that gallery, and so it appears in Du Cerceau\u2019s plans.\u00a0 It is assumed here that this door existed before the construction of the Gallery of Ulysses to allow entrance from the Basse Cour as the east door provided an entrance from the Cour de la Fontaine.\u00a0 The Morgan plan shows a small flight of semi-circular steps descending from the east door to the Cour de la Fontaine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a>7<\/sup> In addition to Dimier, see Barocchi, 1951, 211, 213, Pl. LXI, 253; Zerner, 1969, L.D. 25-36; Zerner, in EdF<\/i>, 1972, 301, no. 376 and in Fontainebleau<\/i>, 1973, I, 55, Fig. 21, II, 92, no. 376; Bacou, in EdF<\/i>, 1972, 139, nos. 147, 148, with ills. on 138, and in Fontainebleau<\/i>, 1973, I, 54, Fig. 20, II, 57, no. 147; B\u00e9guin, 1982, 36, 38, Figs. 18-19, 49-50, ns. 43-48; Scailli\u00e9rez, 1992, 135, no. 59, with Fig.; and B\u00e9guin, 1992 (1987), 90, 93, Figs. 4-5.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a>8<\/sup> Paris, National Archives, where it should be among the papers of J. Trouv\u00e9, XIX, 154-157.<\/p>\n
February 25, 1542 (modern style).<\/p>\n
(For the first part of this document referring to the Salle Haute, see L.43<\/a>.)<\/p>\n
Item de faire en la gallerie voult\u00e9e de pierre de taille qui est entre led. pavillon et l\u2019estang sept pans de lambruys de menuyserie, dont en sera mis les cinq entre les collonnes rondes de pierre de taille qui sont contre la muraille dudict pavillon, et les deux aultres seront mises aux deux boutz de lad. gallerie, dont chacun pan portera trois penneaulx enfoncez garniz de mousleures tout \u00e0 l\u2019entour enrichiz de taille antique avec les armoiries et devises du Roy, et entre chacun panneau faire ung pillier \u00e0 demy rond enrichy de taille et aultre fa\u00e7on antique portant basse et chappiteau qui seront aussi enrichiz de mousleures et aultres ouvraiges faictz \u00e0 l\u2019anticque, et ce en faisant faire et \u00e9riger les huys des entr\u00e9es de pariel et semblable lambruys que dessus, ensemble les lambruys contre les pilliers au pan de lad. gallerie du cost\u00e9 de l\u2019estang et soubz les apuyes et revestements des jou\u00e9es des arceaulx dud. pan d\u2019icelle gallerie de lad. fa\u00e7on et ordonnance que dessus, ainsi qu\u2019il appartient, et \u00e0 l\u2019endroit de chacus desd. pans faire et \u00e9riger ung si\u00e8ge de la longueur des pans qui aura de saillye et haulteur telle qu\u2019il appartiendra, port\u00e9 ert soustenu de quatre piedz tournez en fa\u00e7on de balustre ou de telle aultre fa\u00e7on et anticaille qu\u2019il sera advis\u00e9 pour le plus riche,… Fait pass\u00e9 double l\u2019an mil Vc<\/sup> quarente et ung le samedy vingt cinquiesme jour de f\u00e9vrier.<\/p>\n
J. Trouv\u00e9 (Registre)<\/p>\n
[Copied from Roy, 1929, 261, but not checked against the original document.]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a>9<\/sup> On Primaticcio\u2019s departure for Italy in February 1540 and his return to France, see Pressouyre, 1969, 224-225.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a>10<\/sup> For the payment to Scibec for the finished woodwork, see L.43<\/a>.\u00a0 It is possible that payments to painters and others recorded in a document related to the decoration of the Salle Haute (L.43) may also refer to work in the Galerie Basse if it can be identified as the \u201cpavillon estant au coing du clos dudit estang.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1538-1540 Pavillon des Po\u00eales, Ch\u00e2teau, Fontainebleau. When Dan, 1642, 131, described the Galerie Basse of the now destroyed Pavillon des Po\u00eales, its central arches on the south side had already been fitted with windows, and hence he called it the Salle Basse: \u201c…il ne faute pas oublier de parler de la Salle basse qui est […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":826,"menu_order":49,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7821","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7821","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=7821"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9107,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7821\/revisions\/9107"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}