Appel à communication : « Colloque Médicis. Architecture et mobilier de cour vers 1500 en Europe » (Amboise, 12-13 juin 2024)
Call for papers. Architecture and court furniture in Europe around the 1500s
Date : Mercredi 12 et jeudi 13 juin 2024
Lieu : château d’Amboise (37150)
Les propositions de communication seront adressées avant le 1er février 2024, avec résumé d’une dizaine de lignes, les noms et titres des communicants à l’adresse suivante :
salamagne@univ-tours.fr
Les actes du colloque seront publiés aux Presses universitaires François Rabelais de Tours. La remise des contributions sera demandée pour le 1er décembre 2024 afin d’assurer une publication des Actes pour 2025.
COLLOQUE MEDICIS. Architecture and court furniture in Europe around the 1500s
Between the previous tradition and the renovation of forms, European architecture is in deep change around the 1500s, either it relies on a body of previous references that are still pregnant, or it tries to surpass them. Recent research has highlighted the wealth of formal solutions specific to the Gothic style, which at the end of the Middle Ages became a place for experimenting with new solutions, while a new language inspired by Antiquity or Italy began to impose itself during the first Renaissance. Recent research has reevaluated the weight and influence of romanesque art in the Renaissance (Romanesque Renaissance, ed. Konrad Ottenheym, 2021) but, beyond that, the multiple architectural references found in the earlier monuments are recognizable. Around 1500 the French royal châteaux, such as those of Amboise and Blois, offered remarkable examples of buildings with a varied and apparently contradictory stylistic repertoire, drawing on their sources from earlier models. The opening to Italian humanism, the valorization of the history of the « Gauls » in works like the Romuleon, their illustration by the illuminators (as well as by Colombe) contributed to re-inscribing the distant past in the present, perceived not through the concept of Antiquity but through that of seniority.
As an integral part of the building, the furniture has the particularity of offering a reversible and adaptable interior decor according to courtyard uses, seasons and events. From immutable elements (woodwork and drums, floors, ceilings, monumental sculptures, etc.) to removable ones (textiles, wooden furniture, silverware, crockery and various art objects, etc.) which allow multiple possible variations according to the rhythm of the movements of the courtyard. To what extent does the interior decor fit into the logic of the specific characters of the architecture and the exterior decor? The conference aims to examine these relationships through the prism of European experiences.
Distribution and ornamentation
The distribution of the noble residence around 1500 is part of an earlier tradition, around the room, the “sallette”, rooms with wardrobes which accommodate the masters of the houses and their relatives. But the main staircase takes on a new dimension and adopts more complex shapes and a richer decor. Porticos open towards the courtyard space and are topped by galleries, places for tours but also for representation. The sculpted decoration, often heraldic, enriches and marks the exterior facades.
Architectural forms
The adoption of the forms of the Italian Renaissance took place gradually through different referential models whose characters were often adapted to parties or ancient structures. How were the elements of the new architectural language (supports, arches, windows, etc.) received and integrated into the previous vocabulary? How was the adaptation of these new elements to Renaissance Gothic, the complexity of which can be seen in particular in the stereotomy of the stairs? We will study in particular the typological characteristics of architecture, ornamental forms in relation to their sources from Antiquity or the Romanesque/Gothic world such as scholarly citations of models.
Interior decor and furniture
The questions must be transposed to the world of interior decoration of palatial or noble residences in an attempt to examine the transposition of a new repertoire at the level of furniture (from ordinary/or representational furniture to tapestries, hangings, floor rugs, stained glass windows, decoration of ceilings, floors, paneling, etc.) inspired by Italy or on the contrary testifying to the attachment of the patrons to forms anchored in an earlier tradition. What relationships in particular could be established between the architectural forms, their architectural ornamental decor and that of the furniture and interior decor of the residence. Very frequently, as we know, the furniture was, at least until the 1540s, the most common: trestle tables, bedsteads, chests, pulpits, dressers only rarely benefited from a decoration, being covered elsewhere of textiles. Can we identify permanences, ruptures, contradictions in the layout of princely or aristocratic residences? In the area of the interior decor of the noble residence, the choices made in the distribution of furniture, its richness, its decor and its relationships with the celebration of acts of court life will be questioned, in interaction with the places. Questions of typology of furniture in relation to lifestyles, uses and court ceremonial may also be questioned.
Finally, the conference would like to shed new light on our knowledge of furniture from the 1500s, often known through inventories, kept in public or private collections in Europe. How were they constituted and in what way were they transmitted or dispersed, from their order to their entry into collectors or museum institutions? So many questions which, we hope, will give rise to communications proposals allowing us to understand the circulation of furniture, from its status as furniture to that of a present, or even a diplomatic gift.
This conference is part of the Medici research project, Furniture and interior courtyard decor: spatial immersion,which aims to study the furniture and decor of princely residences in the Loire Valley in the 15th and 16th centuries, from Louis XI to Francis I.
The project, which covered the years 2021-2024, brought together three laboratories: the Renaissance Center for Higher Studies (CESR, Tours) leading the project, the Gabriel Lamé Mechanical Laboratory (LaMé, Orléans-Tours) and the laboratory in information and communication sciences PRIM (Information and Mediation Practices and Resources, Tours).
Steering Committee :
Alain Salamagne
Lucie Gaugain
Marie-Laure Masquillier
Marc Métay
Scientific committee
Krista de Jonge, Professor, University of Leuwen
Nuno Sennos, Professor, University of Lisbon
Uwe Albrecht, Professor Emeritus University of Kiel
Monique Chatenet, Honorary Curator of Heritage
Alain Salamagne, Professor Emeritus, University of Tours, CESR
Lucie Gaugain, Lecturer, University of Tours, CeTHiS
General informations
The conference will be held at the Château d’Amboise (37) on Wednesday June 12 and Thursday June 13, 2024.
Speakers will be reimbursed for their travel expenses. Accommodation and lunches will be covered.
Call for papers
Communication proposals will be sent before January 1, 2024, with a summary of around ten lines, the names and titles of the speakers to the following address:
salamagne@univ-tours.fr
Publication of the Proceedings
The proceedings of the conference will be published by Presses universitaires François Rabelais de Tours. Submission of contributions will be requested by December 1, 2024 to ensure publication of the Proceedings for 2025.
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