Renaissance Castles on the Loire -- Villandry

Re-creating this Renaissance château turned out to be the modus operandi for Joachim Carvallo when he bought Villandry in 1906. Researching old documents, conducting archeological digs, and studying old architectural blueprints served as a scientific and logical means for bringing back the past in order to beautify the present as visitors to Villandry will attest. Not only do we see how the Renaissance château and its gardens looked, but we experience the utter delight that this labor of love provided its 20th century owner.

The Villandry was built in 1536 by Jean Le Breton, minister of finance for François I. In 1754 the Marquis de Castellane, who came from a noble Provencal family,        purchased the château and had it redesigned to meet 18th century standards of comfort. The keep is the oldest part of the château and the only part retained from the original 12th century château. On July 4, 1189, the Treaty of Colombières was signed here between King Henry II of England, and King Philip Augustus of France. (Colombières was the name of Villandry before it was change in 1639.)

Joachim Carvallo, bought the château in 1906. His dream was to create 16th century gardens that were in perfect harmony with the architecture of the château. Each room enjoys its own unique view, particularly of the gardens. Carvallo was also a pioneer in opening private monuments to the public. The first exhibit included his collections of ancient Spanish art in 1908 and the second were of his garden in 1920. Anticipating the rise of cultural tourism, Carvallo worked to make Villandry an instrument for the promotion and preservation of French heritage and its artistic wealth to the tune of 350,000 visitors a year.

After a career in advanced research on the physiology of digestion at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, Joachim Carvallo devoted all his energy and fortune to restoring Villandry to its original state. Over time, the gardens underwent drastic changes in appearance. Carvallo re-created the garden by synthesizing the medieval style, the Renaissance style, and the French style.

 

He pursued this dream by assembling a series of archeological and literary clues to the château and the gardens. From the layout to the choice of vegetables, everything was conceived in terms of a return to the origins of the Renaissance formal garden.

 

The Vegetable Garden has nine squares of equal size with different geometric patterns. These squares are planted with vegetables of alternating colors to look like a chessboard. Such an arrangement goes back to the Middle Ages when monks layed out their vegetables in geometric shapes, particularly the cross. The garden's ornamental features (arbors, fountains) were influenced by  Italy while the French gardeners of the 16th century combined the monastic and the Italian styles with roses and vegetables from the Americas. This type of garden is called a "decorative kitchen garden". 

 

 The Ornamental Garden has sculpted patterns of box hedges in the form of the Maltese cross and the fleurs-de-lys. 

 

The Love Garden  features 4 different squares, each with a theme.

 

"Tender love"                                                                           "Passionate love"

 

 

   "Flighty love"                                                                          "Tragic love" 

 

 

The Water Garden is centered around a large pond in the form of a Louis XIV mirror, like at Versailles. It is enclosed by lime trees (background), which create a perfect place for rest and meditation.

                                            ChrisnSue photo -- https://chrisnsue.wordpress.com

 

The Sun Garden is made up of three green areas. The cloud chamber in blue and white shrubs and perennials; the sun chamber, with its oranges and yellows; and the children's chamber in the shade of the apple trees.

The Maze symbolizes our path on Earth. Of Christian inspiration and unlike the Greek labyrinth, it has no dead ends. The aim is not to find an exit but to raise up oneself humanly and spiritually by reaching the hut in the center.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Herb Garden is a traditional Middle Ages garden devoted to aromatic, cooking, and medicinal herbs.

 

 

 

These gardens require constant care. Each winter for three months, a team of four gardeners prune 1,015 lime trees. Over 115,000 flowers and vegetables are planted with 50% prepared in the estate's greenhouses. Since 2009, the gardeners have used organic methods, namely: digging and hoeing, reducing the need for chemical plant treatments by introducing certain insects. An automatic underground watering system was also installed.

 

The Château

The entrance exhibits symmetry and ornate decoration that complements the gardens.

The château has 15 rooms, including dining room, kitchen, study and bedrooms with views of the gardens. Below are just a few examples of the more interesting rooms.

 

 

 

 

 

The warmth of the dining room with close-up of a table setting--and a lot of wine glasses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The oriental drawing room was built in Mudejar style by Moorish craftsmen for their Spanish patrons. The ceiling combines decorative elements from Christian and Moorish art. It comes from the Maqueda ducal palace built in the 15th century in Toledo. When the palace was dismantled in 1905, Carvallo brought back one of the ceilings to Villandry. It took a full year to reassemble the 3,600 separate pieces.

Here is a close-up of the scallop shell corners of the ceiling and the tracery of knotted vines below it. 

Carvallo's bedroom is rather simple and even austere, but his focus was more on the outside of the château rather than the inside. From his room he had views of the ornamental garden to the south and the vegetable garden to the west. Carvallo was also a religious man, as the paintings in his room attest. Here's a close-up of the crowning of the Blessed Mother in Heaven.

 His study was his preferred work area where he would draw up plans for the vegetable garden. It is surrounded by Spanish paintings and a magnificent tapestry (below with our guide, Carol).

 

 

Carvallo's wife, Ann Coleman, slept here. The paintings picture three of the couple's six children.

 

 

  

 One of the children's room with some of their toys.

 

Other interesting items in the château

 

 

 

 

 

 Carvallo's heraldry collection was quite large and on display in one of the halls. 

Here are a few samples that are in keeping with the Renaissance theme.

 

Carvello's work on Villandry was a labor of love and careful research and attention to detail. As a result, we are able to get a glimpse into the life of Renaissance France and the beginning of the splendor of French culture and society.

Resources

https://www.chateauvillandry.fr/useful-information/?lang=en

 

 

Renaissance Castles on the Loire -- Clos Lucé in Amboise

Believe it or not, Leonardo da Vinci spent the last three years of his life in France. Why did he leave Italy? At age 64, he had lost his patron. However, François I admired Leonardo's work and genius and wanted him to be free to work, think, and dream. The king dubbed Leonardo his “first painter, first engineer and first architect of the king.” 

François had met the famous artist in Bologna shortly after the Battle of Marignan in 1515 and was immediately seduced by the artist and visionary scholar. In 1516, François invited Leonardo to live and work at Clos Lucé. Leonardo accepted the king's offer and stayed there until he died three years later on May 2, 1519.

 Château du Clos Lucé is a relatively small 15th century palace in Amboise. The chateau was the childhood home of François. Today, it is a museum on the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci with period furniture and many models of his designs on display.

 Leonardo brought three paintings with him (below) and his countless notebooks on art, architecture, painting, anatomy, invention, science, engineering, and urban planning, and a vast curiosity that defines what it is to be a Renaissance Man and a genius.

Actually, Leonardo da Vinci suffered from rheumatism and paralysis of his right arm. He painted little but instead directed the hands of his students: Francesco Melzi and Battista da Villanis. 

Clos Lucé also includes a large landscaped garden that has further models, art, and civil engineering works inspired by Leonardo da Vinci.
Every day, François used to visit Leonard, whom he called "my father", through a secret underground passageway that connected Clos Lucé with the Amboise Château 500 meters apart.

DaVinci dying in the arms of King Francis I was painted by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867). It shows the depth of love that the king had for the artist who did not disappoint him in his expectations. Da Vinci was buried in a crypt near the Château d'Amboise. This painting hangs in Château du Clos Lucé.

                                                                              

Paintings

Leonardo took these three paintings and all his manuscripts with him to Clos Lucé. After his death, the paintings became a part of François I’s personal collection and later were given to The Louvre in 1797 where they are to this day.

Leonardo started painting the "Mona Lisa" in Florence around 1503. The figure is believed to be Lisa Gherardini, wife of a Florentine cloth merchant.

In art terms, it is the earliest Italian portrait to focus firmly on the sitter in a half-length portrait and set the standard for future artists. Depicting the subject in front of an imaginary landscape, Leonardo was one of the first painters to use perspective in this way. He also pioneered a shadowing technique at the corners of her lips and the corners of her eyes, which give her a remarkably life-like appearance and look of amusement.  https://joyofmuseums.com

 

“St. John the Baptist” is a High Renaissance oil painting completed between 1513-1516. Before this work, St. John was traditionally portrayed as a gaunt ascetic.

Leonardo’s innovative depiction shows a youthful saint in isolation with a strong contrast between the dark background and the illumination of the figure. This technique called chiaroscuro makes the figure appear to emerge from the shadowy background. He is dressed in pelts, has long curly hair, and is smiling an enigmatic smile reminiscent of the "Mona Lisa". He holds a reed-cross and points up toward heaven.

Kenneth Clark noted the sense of “uneasiness” that the painting imbues while other critics have commented on its “disturbingly erotic” depiction. This painting is believed to be Leonardo’s final painting, which may be his view of the grace that awaited him.    https://joyofmuseums.com

 

The "Virgin and Child with Saint Anne” depicts the grandmother of Jesus, her daughter, the Virgin Mary, and the infant Jesus. Leonardo’s composition depicts the mother-daughter relationship between the two women with St Anne is looking at Mary, as Mary sits on her lap, and looks into her son's eyes.

Christ is shown grappling with a sacrificial lamb symbolizing his Passion. The painting and its theme had long preoccupied Leonardo, who took many years to complete it as he struggled to capture their relationships and personalities.    https://joyofmuseums.com

 

 

Medieval depictions of the three generations were very popular albeit more staid as each figure sat on each other's lap, as shown in this sculpture from Polignac, not far from Le Puy.

 

 

 

 

Leonardo studied human and animal anatomy in order to paint as closely as possible to reality. His originality lay in his interest both in veins and in internal organs in young and old bodies alike. He always thought of his models from the inside out, which enabled him to capture the movements, strength, and the soul of those he depicted.

 

Da Vinci's Inventions 

Leonardo may be best known for being a humanist, an artist, a scientist, and a philosopher, but he also was a military engineer who came up with some fearsome inventions. While working for Ludovic Sforza, the duke of Milan, he created several war machines including: catapult, crossbow, steam canon, assault chariot, fortress, machine gun and the wheel-lock musket which replaced the tedious use of fuses. He also used new materials like steel and developed the ball bearing to reduce friction.

The Da Vinci museum at Clos Lucé includes 40 models of the machines he designed but never built. His extensive notes on these machines, however, allowed IBM to re-create them for the museum. They were built with the materials of the time.

 

Catapult

 Flying machine

 

 

aerial screw helicopter

Machines with gears 

       Parachute

cut-away of a tank

 

Architect and Urban Planner

The king loved the countryside south of Paris and decided to move the French capital to the Loire Valley. He asked DaVinci to design an ideal city in Romorantin.

Leonardo had already thought about a planned city while living in Milan, Italy, and to solve the same public health problems that had ravaged Europe throughout the Middle Ages thought at the time to be related to poor sanitation. He likened a city to a living organism that focused on the movement of people, goods, and waste. His conception for the city involved a series of arcades on two levels. Below were the pipes, roads, and sewers for industrial and commercial activities. Above were the palaces and gardens for the wealthiest citizens of the city.

For example, to develop the economy, he planned to redirect rivers and manipulate water levels. He cleaned air and water with a series of windmills to circulate it. He wanted that animal stables built on canals so that waste water could be safely removed and streets to be cobbled to facilitate travel and the movement of building supplies. He also liked prefabricated houses to relocate townspeople.

Romorantin was never built and as da Vinci's health failed, François' interests turned to the opulent Château de Chambord, the king's hunting lodge. Scholars believe that many of the designs intended for Romorantin ended up in Chambord, including an intricate, helix-like spiral stairway where you can cross sides without ever meeting. It was an ideal castle with telephony, a water alley, pier, and automatic doors. 

Click here to see the blog on Château de Chambord

 

 Feast of Paradise

As a designer of royal festivities, Leonardo directed sumptuous feasts at the château. Mathurine, his cook, prepared the meal. She worked in this kitchen with copper pots and served the food on Hispano-Moorish glazed earthenware dishes.

 

Leonardo's Bed Chamber and Studio

Leonardo slept here until he died on May 2, 1519. The canopied  four-poster bed is carved with chimeras, cherubs, and sea creatures.

 

The fireplace is decorated with the French coat of arms and the chain of the Order of Saint Michael.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

The 17th century cabinet has secret compartments and is inlaid with ivory, ebony, and mother-of-pearl.

 

The 16th century chest of drawers is carved with depictions of Italian noblemen Leonardo knew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leonardo’s reconstructed workshop is on the ground floor of Clos Lucé and extends over 3 rooms with original wall frescoes repainted using pigments used in the Renaissance. Thanks to Leonardo's "Treatise on Painting", researchers were able to discover the pigments of sanguine, soil of sienna, and wash, as well as his tools: silver point and dry point. The large work table is equipped with a compass, ruler, paper weft, goose feather, candle, magnifying glass, and world map.

Bedchamber of Margaret of Navarre

Margaret of Navarre spent part of her childhood at Clos Lucé with her brother, François, and her mother Louise of Savoy. Celebrated for her grace, wit, spirituality, and refined culture, she was involved in the literary and religious world of the time. She wrote The Heptameron, which was inspired by Boccaccio's Decameron, only it takes place at Clos Lucé with descriptions of the place in rich detail. Margaret and her mother lived with Leonardo.

Château Amboise

The Château Amboise is surrounded by fortifications and towers. It was the home of the French kings since Charles VII confiscated it in 1434 after its owner, Louis d'Amboise, Viscount of Thours, was convicted of plotting against his father, Louis XI. Charles eventually pardoned him from execution, but took his château.

Charles VIII turned Château Amboise into a beautiful place after he saw what the Italians were doing with their castles. He hired 22 Italian artists, decorators, and gardeners to make the changes to "the first Italianate palace in France". His cousin, the future François I, was born in this château and became king at age 22.

Henry II (1547-59) and his wife, Catherine de Medici, raised their children in the Château d'Amboise. The château fell into decline in the second half of the 16th century and most of the interior buildings demolished. In its time, it was five times bigger than it is today.

Clos Lucé is located at 500 meters from Château d'Amboise and connected by an underground passageway that François and Leonardo used to use to visit each other.

Leonardo organized parties here and provided shows with special effects and machines to carry things. Actually, Leonardo had a genius for building shows, and in his earlier years, it helped him make a living.

The Loire River Valley

This area along the Loire has been inhabited since the Middle Paleolithic--about 300,000 to 30,000 years ago. For the French kings and noblemen, it was a place of pleasure and not one of defense against enemies. It was quiet in the country, teeming with game for hunting, and far enough away from the very dirty and congested city of Paris. In fact, the area has a concentration of 300 châteaux and fortresses. The French kings started living here in 1422. 

The Loire River in the 16th and 17th centuries was a very busy river even though there was not always enough wind or depth of water for shipping. Turin and the Loire River Valley supplied wine, food products, and stone. A series of canals were built to accommodate movement. In the 19th century, the railroads replaced most of the shipping activity.

Today, it is often referred to as the Garden of France due to the abundance of vineyards, fruit orchards, artichoke, and asparagus fields that line the banks of the river. Montlouis-sur-Loire produces a sparkling white wine while Saumur and Tours produce both red and white wines. Loire wines are known for a fruitiness taste with fresh, crisp flavors.

The Town of Amboise

 

 

 

These house are referred to as "troglodyte houses", that is, they are built from the rock. Troglodyte suggests that they are like "cave-man" houses, although they are modern homes. The stone is tufa, a variety of limestone that is a soft, yellow, and easy to shape. Empty quarries of this stone afterward became storage places for wine because the temperatures were steady and even.

Amboise is a medieval town with narrow streets and half-timbered houses.

Resources

Amazed

https://amazed.blog/2021/11/08/leonardo-da-vinci-at-his-home-at-clos-luce-amboise-loire-valley/

Thought Company

https://www.thoughtco.com/leonardos-last-years-177241

 

Da Vinci Clos Lucé -- https://vinci-closluce.com/en/leonardo-da-vinci

 

The Joy of Museums -- https://joyofmuseums.com/