{"id":958,"date":"2011-06-09T12:24:13","date_gmt":"2011-06-09T16:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.vassar.edu\/rosso2\/"},"modified":"2013-06-04T16:26:28","modified_gmt":"2013-06-04T20:26:28","slug":"iv-north-the-entrance-wall-of-the-north-cabinet-and-the-north-cabinet","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/paintings\/p-22\/iv-north-the-entrance-wall-of-the-north-cabinet-and-the-north-cabinet\/","title":{"rendered":"P.22 IV North: Entrance Wall of The North Cabinet & The North Cabinet"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

P.22 IV North: North Cabinet<\/p><\/div>\n

Fig.P.22, IV N, Present Decoration<\/a>
\nFig.Boulogne le Jeune<\/a>
\nFig.Van Thulden drawing<\/a>
\nFig.Davent Semele<\/a><\/p>\n

The present decoration of the center north wall is of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Fig.P.22, IV N, Present Decoration<\/a>) and replaces the original entrance to the north cabinet and its surrounding decoration. \u00a0In 1786 the doorway was blocked up and the wall was decorated with a copy of the frame across from it. \u00a0This new frame was filled with a large oval oil painting by Boulogne le Jeune representing Minerva and the Arts with a Bust of Francis I<\/em> (Fig.Boulogne le Jeune<\/a>) that had been in the North Cabinet where it replaced Primaticcio\u2019s frescoed Jupiter and Semele<\/em> (see below). \u00a0Under this decoration was a fireplace, the opening of which was probably the width of the original door, flanked by wood paneling which was probably the same as that made by Scibec de Carpi for this wall. \u00a0A view of the arrangement appears in Alfred Guesdon\u2019s lithograph (see above, \u201cViews of the Gallery,\u201d and Fig.Guesdon<\/a>). \u00a0The Nymph of Fontainebleau<\/em> was painted here in the mid-nineteenth century at which time, it would seem, the fireplace was removed. \u00a0A copy of the present stuccoes at the left appears in Charles Percier\u2019s sketch, at the upper right, in the Biblioth\u00e8que de l\u2019Institut, Paris (\u201cGalerie,\u201d RdA<\/em>, 1972, 33, Fig. 48 (Fig.Percier drawing 1<\/a>), with caption wrongly indicating that it represents the stuccoes of the Dana\u00eb<\/em> wall).<\/p>\n

Entrance wall of the North Cabinet<\/span><\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n

PRINTS: E.5<\/a>. \u00a0Domenico del Barbiere, Fame<\/em>. \u00a0This engraving, inscribed GLORIA<\/em>, is generally thought to represent the painted figure of Fame<\/em> on a gold background that Dan and Guilbert said was at one side of the entrance. \u00a0Stylistically, the figure looks very much to be Rosso\u2019s invention; it is especially similar to his figure of Philyra to the right of the Royal Elephant<\/em> in the gallery (Fig.P.22, VI N a<\/a>). \u00a0The drapery of the engraved figure is quite like that of Minerva in the Venus and Minerva<\/em> (Fig.P.22, I N a<\/a>)\u00a0and the mother in the Cleobis and Biton<\/em> (Fig.P.22, V S a<\/a>). \u00a0Therefore, it seems reasonable to recognize this figure as Rosso\u2019s and derived from a drawing by him. \u00a0Because the globe beneath the figure shows its land masses in the opposite direction it would seem that the whole image is reversed. \u00a0Such being the case the figure would have been painted at the left of the door, as indicated in Mariette, Ab\u00e9c\u00e9dario<\/em>, 1858-1859, 23, with her glance upward in the direction of the bust of Francis I that was above the entrance. \u00a0Mariette (d. 1774) spoke of the entrance as an \u201carcade.\u201d<\/p>\n

E.141<\/a>. \u00a0Anonymous, Victory<\/em>. \u00a0It is very likely that this etching is related to the painted figure of Victory that Dan and Guilbert said was painted at one side of the entrance. \u00a0The dress of the figure and her flowing hair are quite in the manner of Rosso, and the fact that she holds up a wreath and tramples upon a pile of military arms clearly signifies her as Victory. \u00a0There is a certain flabbiness in the forms of the figure and an uncertainty in the description of her legs and the placement of her feet but these characteristics are easily attributable to the limitations of the etcher. \u00a0The posture of the figure, seen in profile and walking forward with her hands raised holding the wreath, is quite what one would expect of Rosso\u2019s Victory<\/em> placed on one side of the door which had a bust of Francis I above it. \u00a0She would be offering this wreath to the king. \u00a0(The platform on which the image is placed is a pen and ink addition to the print; also added in ink are the small circles and short lines on the military arms, and the figure\u2019s sandals.)<\/p>\n

As Domenico del Barbiere\u2019s engraving of Fame<\/em> appears to be in the reverse direction of the lost painting to which it is related, the figure of Victory<\/em> would have to be in the original direction to place it facing left on the right side of the door to the North Cabinet. \u00a0But the etcher probably worked from a lost drawing by Rosso or from a copy of it, rather than from the painting in the gallery.<\/p>\n

The North Cabinet<\/span><\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n

This small room, planned in 1528 to project into the adjacent courtyard from the center of the north side of the gallery, was built and decorated probably entirely by Primaticcio. \u00a0There is no evidence that Rosso had a hand in its decoration. I ts major image was Primaticcio\u2019s fresco of Jupiter and Semele<\/em> on its east wall. \u00a0Already in 1731 when Guilbert described the gallery this fresco had disappeared and had been replaced by Boulogne le Jeune\u2019s Minerva and the Arts with a Bust of Francis I <\/em>(Fig.Boulogne le Jeune<\/a>). \u00a0This picture, which was eventually placed in the gallery itself (see above) still exists at Fontainebleau (Pressouyre, \u201cCadre architectural,\u201d 1972, 16 and Fig. 12). \u00a0Its oval shape and its size are the same as those of the lost Semele<\/em>.1<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 According to Guilbert, 1731, 96-97, the oval fresco was \u201cheld\u201d by (stucco) figures in relief of a male nude and a female nude reclining on garlands of flowers, and above it were putti looking at a salamander. \u00a0Also according to Guilbert, the fireplace (on the west wall) was \u201c\u00e0 l\u2019antique\u201d and decorated with reliefs, in stucco presumably, of small \u201cVulcains\u201d and \u201cCiclopes\u201d and other grotesques, framing a small picture, in fresco, it would seem, of \u201cles faux Livres des Sibylles br\u00fbles.\u201d<\/p>\n

COPY, DRAWING, COUNTERPROOF: B\u00e9guin, 1994, 270-272, Pl. 35c, published a counterproof of a drawing by Van Thulden (or by Abraham van Diepenbeeck) that, she believes, shows the lost small fresco mentioned by Guilbert (Fig.Van Thulden drawing<\/a>).2<\/sup><\/a> She is certainly correct.3<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 The style of the image represented by the counterproof shows in the proportions of the figures, the parallelisms and extension of limbs, the \u201cclassicism\u201d of Primaticcio\u2019s style derived from Raphael by way of Giulio Romano. \u00a0B\u00e9guin identified the subject as Constantine\u2019s Burning of the Arian Books at the First Council of Nicaea,<\/em> rather than the subject proposed by Guilbert.<\/p>\n

PRINT: L\u00e9on Davent (Master L.D.), Jupiter and Semele<\/em> (Fig.Davent Semele<\/a>). \u00a0Bartsch, XVI, 1818, 397, no. 54. \u00a0Herbet, I, 1896, 72-73 (1969, 21-22), no. 5. \u00a0Zerner, 1969, L.D.11. \u00a0Dimier, 1900, 487. \u00a0Zerner, in EdF<\/em>, 1972, 300, no. 372, 302, Fig. \u00a0B\u00e9guin and Pressouyre, 1972, 131. \u00a0This oval etching most probably reproduces the major composition by Primaticcio in the North Cabinet. \u00a0It is also very probable that the print shows the composition in reverse as is true of L\u00e9on Davent\u2019s etching after Primaticcio\u2019s Dana\u00eb<\/em>. \u00a0If this is the case then the direction of the light is also reversed indicating that the picture was on the east wall with the light falling in correspondence with that entering the North Cabinet from the north window at the left.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/a>1<\/sup>Dimier, 1898, 100-101, thought that the document of 1538-1544 (see above) as referring to Badouin\u2019s painting in a cabinet was about the North Cabinet of the gallery while it actually concerns a cabinet in the Tour du Jardin (A.3<\/a>).<\/p>\n

<\/a>2<\/sup> Also B\u00e9guin, CASVA, 1989, 44. \u00a0Sale, Sotheby\u2019s, London, 30 October 1980, lot 87. \u00a0The medium, measurements, and location of this drawing are not known; the photograph of it is from the Getty Photo Archive.<\/p>\n

<\/a>3<\/sup> The sheet also shows a standing draped woman holding a mask in front of her face that is copied and, as a counterproof, reversed, from the frescoed figure at the far upper left of the Enlightenment of Francis I<\/em> in the Gallery of Francis I. \u00a0This appearance of this figure strongly indicates that the round scene was also copied at Fontainebleau.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fig.P.22, IV N, Present Decoration Fig.Boulogne le Jeune Fig.Van Thulden drawing Fig.Davent Semele The present decoration of the center north wall is of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Fig.P.22, IV N, Present Decoration) and replaces the original entrance to the north cabinet and its surrounding decoration. \u00a0In 1786 the doorway was blocked up and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":908,"menu_order":14,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-958","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/958","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=958"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9325,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/958\/revisions\/9325"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}