Fontainebleau is not just one monarch鈥檚 palace, it belonged to them all, a 鈥family home鈥 for the kings of France, passed down from generation to generation from the Middle Ages to the 19th听century. While the medieval origins of the castle are still visible in the former keep 鈥 which dominates the Oval Courtyard 鈥 it was Francis I, seduced by the site and the forest, who in 1528 commissioned spectacular redevelopments. He had the medieval palace turned into a large Italianate palace, as a reflection of the power of a learned and art-loving king. To this day the ch芒teau retains significant vestiges of the decoration and ornamentation from the French Renaissance, the principles of which were imported by Italian artists invited to Fontainebleau by Francis I (such as Rosso Fiorentino and Francesco Primaticcio).
Several interior decorations still remain, including the King鈥檚 gallery, the bedchamber of the duchess of Etampes, the ballroom, and the Golden gate. They attest to a new age in European art and can be reconsidered in the light of recent restorations and re-interpretations.
Today this heritage obliges us and the teams of the castle of Fontainebleau to work for its preservation but also for its large audience of visitors who no longer necessarily have the keys to understand it. The seminar will be an opportunity to ask: how do we deal with such a heritage today?
Muriel Barbier is a chief curator. She specialised in the history of architecture, furniture and interior decoration of the modern era (15th-18th centuries). She is a graduate of the 脡cole du Louvre and the Institut national du patrimoine, and director of heritage and collections at Ch芒teau de Fontainebleau. She worked as registrar at the Mus茅e Lorrain in Nancy, as a documentalist at the section “History of the Louvre”, and as a curator in the museums of Senlis, the Renaissance National Museum at Ecouen, and at the Mobilier national. Among other publications, she has written the catalogue of the textile collection of the Renaissance national museum, a monograph on the Elys茅e palace, and several exhibition catalogues, including Imperial silks for Versailles (Versailles, 2024), Palais disparus de Napol茅on Ier (Paris, Mobilier national, 2021), Theatre in the Renaissance (Ecouen, 2019), Louise de Savoie, mother of Fran莽ois Ier (Ecouen, 2015) and Music in the Renaissance (Ecouen 2013).
Organised by Guido Rebecchini, Professor of Sixteenth-Century Southern European Art, The Courtauld.听
