Everything about French Renaissance totally explained
French Renaissance is a recent term used to describe a
cultural and
artistic movement in
France from the late 15th century to the early 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European
Renaissance that many cultural historians believe originated in northern
Italy in the fourteenth century. The French Renaissance traditionally extends from (roughly) the
French invasion of Italy in 1494 during the reign of
Charles VIII until the death of
Henry IV in 1610. This chronology not withstanding, certain artistic, technological or literary developments associated with the
Italian Renaissance arrived in France earlier (for example, by way of the
Burgundy court or the Papal court in
Avignon); however, the
Black Death of the 14th century and the
Hundred Years' War kept France economically and politically weak until the late 15th century and this prevented the full use of these influences.
The reigns of
Francis I of France (from 1515 to 1547) and his son
Henry II (from 1547 to 1559) are generally considered the apex of the French Renaissance. After Henry II's unfortunate death in a joust, the country was ruled by his widow
Catherine de' Medici and her sons
Francis II,
Charles IX and
Henry III, and although the Renaissance continued to flourish, the
French Wars of Religion between
Huguenots and
Catholics ravaged the country.
Notable developments during the French Renaissance include the beginning of the
absolutism in France, the spread of
humanism; early
exploration of the "New World" (as by
Giovanni da Verrazzano and
Jacques Cartier); the importing (from Italy, Burgundy and elsewhere) and development of new techniques and artistic forms in the fields of printing,
architecture, painting, sculpture, music, the
sciences and
vernacular literature; and the elaboration of new codes of sociability, etiquette and discourse.
Art of the French Renaissance
The High Renaissance
In the late 15th century, the French
invasion of Italy and the proximity of the vibrant
Burgundy court (with its
Flemish connections) brought the French into contact with the goods, paintings, and the creative spirit of the
Northern and
Italian Renaissance, and the initial artistic changes in
France were often carried out by Italian and Flemish artists, such as
Jean Clouet and his son
François Clouet and the Italians
Rosso Fiorentino,
Francesco Primaticcio and
Niccolò dell'Abbate of the (so-called) first
School of Fontainebleau (from 1531).
Leonardo da Vinci was also invited to France by Francis I, but other than the paintings which he brought with him, he produced little for the
French king.
The art of the period from Francis I through Henry IV is often heavily inspired by late Italian pictorial and sculptural developments commonly referred to as
Mannerism (associated with
Michelangelo and
Parmigianino, among others), characterized by figures which are elongated and graceful and a reliance on visual
rhetoric, including the elaborate use of
allegory and
mythology.
There are a number of French artists of incredible talent in this period including the painter
Jean Fouquet of Tours (who achieved amazingly realistic portraits and remarkable illuminated manuscripts) and the sculptors
Jean Goujon and
Germain Pilon.
Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the French Renaissance was the construction of the
Châteaux of the Loire Valley: no longer conceived of as fortresses, these pleasure palaces took advantage of the richness of the rivers and lands of the
Loire region and they show remarkable architectural skill.
The old
Louvre castle in
Paris was also rebuilt under the direction of
Pierre Lescot and would become the core of a brand new Renaissance
château. To the west of the Louvre,
Catherine de' Medici had built for her the
Tuileries palace with extensive gardens and a
grotto.
» For more on architecture of the period, see French Renaissance architecture.
The
French Wars of Religion however dragged the country into thirty years of civil war which eclipsed much artistic production outside of religious and political propaganda.
Image:François Clouet 002.jpg|Lady in her Bath by François Clouet (1570) (National Gallery, Washington).
Image:Jean Clouet 001.jpg|Francis I of France, Jean and François Clouet (c.1535, oil on panel) (Louvre).
Image:Meister der Schule von Fontainebleau 001.jpg|"Diane the Huntress" - School of Fontainebleau (1550-60) (Louvre).
Image:Chenonceau2-20050320.jpg|The Château de Chenonceau.
Image:Louvre FranzI.JPG|The Pierre Lescot wing of the Louvre.
Image:Monument du coeur d'Henri II.jpg|Monument containing the heart of Henri II of France by Germain Pilon.
Late Mannerism and early Baroque
The ascension of
Henry IV of France to the throne brought a period of massive urban development in
Paris, including construction on the
Pont Neuf, the
Place des Vosges (called the "Place Royale"), the Place Dauphine, and parts of the
Louvre.
Henry IV also invited the artists
Toussaint Dubreuil,
Martin Fréminet and
Ambroise Dubois to work on the
château of Fontainebleau and they're typically called the second
School of Fontainebleau.
Marie de Medici, Henry IV's queen, invited the
Flemish painter
Peter Paul Rubens to
France, and the artist painted a number of large-scale works for the queen's
Luxembourg Palace in Paris. Another Flemish artist working for the court was
Frans Pourbus the younger.
Outside France, working for the dukes of
Lorraine, one finds a very different late mannerist style in the artists
Jacques Bellange,
Claude Deruet and
Jacques Callot. Having little contact with the French artists of the period, they developed a heightened, extreme, and often erotic mannerism (including night scenes and nightmare images), and excellent skill in
etching.
For a chronological list of French Renaissance artists, see here.
Image:Toussaint Dubreuil 001.jpg|"Hyacinthe and Climène at Their Morning Toilet" (detail) by Toussaint Dubreuil, (a scene from Pierre de Ronsard's Franciade - (1602) (Louvre).
Image:Peter Paul Rubens 050.jpg|Coronation of Marie de' Medici in St. Denis (detail), by Peter Paul Rubens, 1622-1625.
Literature of the French Renaissance
Music of the French Renaissance
Burgundy, the mostly
French-speaking area adjacent to and east of France, was the musical center of
Europe in the early and middle 15th century. Many of the most famous musicians in Europe either came from Burgundy, or went to study with composers there; in addition there was considerable interchange between the Burgundian court musical establishment and French courts and ecclesiastical organizations in the late 15th century. The
Burgundian style gave birth to the
Franco-Flemish style of
polyphony which dominated European music in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. However, by the end of the 15th century, a French national character was becoming distinct in music of the French royal and aristocratic courts, as well as the major centers of
church music. For the most part French composers of the time shunned the sombre colors of the Franco-Flemish style and strove for clarity of line and structure, and, in secular music such as the
chanson, lightness, singability, and popularity.
Guillaume Dufay and
Gilles Binchois are two notable examples from the Burgundian school during the early Renaissance period.
The most renowned composer in Europe,
Josquin Des Prez, worked for a time in the court of
Louis XII, and likely composed some of his most famous works there (his first setting of Psalm 129,
De profundis, was probably written for the funeral of Louis XII in 1515). Francis I, who became
king that year, made the creation of an opulent musical establishment a priority. His musicians went with him on his travels, and he competed with
Henry VIII at the
Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520 for the most magnificent musical entertainment; likely the event was directed by
Jean Mouton, one of the most famous
motet composers of the early 16th century after Josquin.
By far the most significant contribution of France to music in the Renaissance period was the
chanson. The chanson was a variety of secular song, of highly varied character, and which included some of the most overwhelmingly popular music of the 16th century: indeed many chansons were sung all over Europe. The chanson in the early 16th century was characterised by a
dactylic opening (long, short-short) and
contrapuntal style which was later adopted by the Italian
canzona, the predecessor of the
sonata. Typically chansons were for three or four voices, without instrumental accompaniment, but the most popular examples were inevitably made into instrumental versions as well. Famous composers of these "Parisian" chansons included
Claudin de Sermisy and
Clément Janequin. Janequin's
Le guerre, written to celebrate the French victory at
Marignano in 1515, imitates the sounds of cannon, the cries of the wounded, and the trumpets signaling advance and retreat. A later development of the chanson was the style of
musique mesurée, as exemplified in the work of
Claude Le Jeune: in this type of chanson, based on developments by the group of poets known as the
Pléiade under
Jean-Antoine de Baïf, the musical rhythm exactly matched the stress accents of the verse, in an attempt to capture some of the rhetorical effect of music in Ancient Greece (a coincident, and apparently unrelated movement in Italy at the same time was known as the
Florentine Camerata). Towards the end of the 16th century the chanson was gradually replaced by the
air de cour, the most popular song type in France in the early 17th century.
The era of religious wars had a profound effect on music in France. Influenced by
Calvinism, the Protestants produced a type of sacred music much different from the elaborate Latin motets written by their Catholic counterparts. Both Protestants and Catholics (especially the Protestant sympathizers among them) produced a variation of the chanson known as the
chanson spirituelle, which was like the secular song but was fitted with a religious or moralizing text.
Claude Goudimel, a Protestant composer most noted for his Calvinist-inspired psalm settings, was murdered in
Lyon during the
St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. However, not only Protestant composers were killed during the era of conflict; in 1581, Catholic
Antoine de Bertrand, a prolific composer of chansons, was murdered in
Toulouse by a Protestant mob.
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