Anet Castle
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The Château d'Anet is a French palace in the style of Renaissance in Anet near Dreux in the Eure-et-Loir , 65 kilometers west of Paris .
The castle was built from 1547 to 1555 on behalf of Henry II , who gave it to his lover Diana of Poitiers . The architect was Philibert Delorme .
The castle was used as the filming location for the James Bond film Thunderball in 1965 .
History of ownership
Anet and his castle go down in history at the time of King Philip II . In the Louvre there are letters that Philip II had written in Anet in 1192, in which he exempted the residents of Anet, who were under his direct jurisdiction, from all taxes and duties. Under his successors, Anet then belonged to the Domaine royal . In 1317 Philip V gave rulership over Anet Ludwig , Count of Évreux, as apanage . Ludwig, who died in 1319, was followed by his son Philipp, who was named Philipp III in 1328 . King of Navarre became, as well as his son Charles the Evil , who ascended the throne in Navarre in 1349. Karl in turn gave the rule of Anet as an appanage to his younger brother Ludwig, Count of Beaumont-le-Roger , who soon pledged it to King Charles V for 50,000 florins . After the childless death of Ludwig, Karl V confiscated Anet and had the castle largely demolished. In 1404 Charles III. of Navarre the counties of Evreux and Mantes and also the rule of Anet finally to the king. In 1447 Charles VII rewarded his Grand Seneschal of Normandy, Pierre de Brézé , Count of Maulévrier , for expelling the English from this province by giving him Anet as a fief (see also: House Brézé ). Pierre de Brézé was killed in the battle of Montlhéry in 1446 , he was followed by his son Jacques de Brézé , who had married Charlotte de Valois in 1462, the illegitimate daughter of Charles VII with Agnès Sorel . He was followed by his son Louis de Brézé , who married Diane de Poitiers in 1514 . When Louis died in 1531, Diane was 32 years old; she kept Anet until her death in 1566. In 1535 she became the mistress of the future King Henry II , who made her great gifts after his accession to the throne in 1547: the Chenonceau Castle , the title of Duchess of Valentinois, and the new building of the Anet Castle for he engaged the best craftsmen of the time: the architect Philibert Delorme , the sculptor Jean Goujon and the painter Jean Cousin .
With Diane's death, Anet went to her daughter Louise de Brézé, Duchess of Aumale , then (she died in 1577) to her son Charles de Lorraine († 1631). King Henry III Anet raised to a principality in February 1583. When Charles de Lorraine rose against King Henry IV , Anet was confiscated and given to Marie de Luxembourg, Duchess of Mercœur , who was one of Charles' creditors. In 1592 Marie gave Anet to her only daughter, Marie-Françoise de Lorraine , who married César , Duke of Vendôme in 1609 , the illegitimate son of Henry IV with Gabrielle d'Estrées . After César's death in 1665, Anet went to his son Louis , then in 1669 to his grandson Louis-Joseph de Vendôme , who gave the Principality of Anet to his wife Marie-Anne de Bourbon-Condé, known as Mademoiselle d'Enghien (1678-1718). After her death in 1718, Anet fell to her sister Anne-Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon, Duchesse du Maine (1676-1753), who in 1750 gave the Principality and County of Dreux to her son Louis Auguste de Bourbon, prince de Dombes . Louis Auguste died in 1756, he was followed by Louis Charles de Bourbon, Count of Eu , who passed Anet to King Louis XV. sold, but kept the usufruct until his death in 1775. In the same year, King Louis XVI. Anet to Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, duc de Penthièvre , from. The Duke of Penthièvre died in 1793 and was the last owner of Anet.
Palace complex from the 16th century
The castle is one of the main works of the architect Philibert Delorme. However, when he started in Anet (December 1547 at the latest), he had already found the foundations of the Corps de Logis . Large parts of the complex were demolished in the early 19th century. The existing remains are also no longer entirely in their original state, as extensive renovations of the entire complex and the castle itself were carried out in the 17th century under Louis-Joseph de Vendôme. Drawings by Du Cerceau , woodcuts in Delormes ' Architecture and the vedute by J. Rigaud from the 18th century provide a picture of Delormes' work.
The residential and farm buildings of the castle were arranged around three adjacent courtyards. Behind it, a regularly laid out garden stretched across the entire width. Walls with corner pavilions and a moat surrounded the entire complex. The central courtyard was enclosed by the three wings of the residential buildings. The side wings continued towards the garden in two square pavilions, which were connected by a terrace at the level of the ground floor; under it there is a cryptoporticus . The southern end of the main courtyard is formed by a projecting portal in the middle, to which a bridge leads over the moat. A chapel forms the middle of the east wing. The Porte Charles-le-Mauvais is a second entrance to the castle via the eastern moat . An orangery north of the garden, a ball house in the east, bird houses, a heron stand and, in front of the northern garden wall in the central axis outside, the large hall, from which one could go into the ditch to bathe. There were large fountains in the garden and the side courtyards, of which the Fontaine de Diane in the western courtyard are particularly well known. Her main decoration was Diana with the deer, traditionally attributed to Jean Goujon . Outside the castle district, Diane had a hospital for the poor and a burial chapel (1566/77, without Delorme's participation, still preserved) built.
Current condition
Only fragments of the castle in Anet have survived today. The left wing still stands at the main courtyard , which was also considerably redesigned in the 17th century. The central projection of the main building on the north side was removed in the 19th century and, after extensive “restoration”, was put back up in the courtyard of the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris . A new facade was placed in front of the chapel. The Porte Charles-le-Mauvais , the southern buildings of the eastern courtyard, the corner pavilion in the southwest and the central entrance portal are relatively undamaged , although part of the decoration has been lost here too. The cryptoporticus is only preserved as a ruin.
The inner facade of the west wing gives us an idea of the two-storey elevation system of the courtyard (if one disregards the redesign of the two central window axes from the 18th century) and the simple treatment of the individual elements in low relief. In his architecture he justifies the preference of the interiors over the facades for the decorative design. The three storeys of the central risalit are bounded by coupled columns in the classical order of Doric , Ionic , Corinthian , as it corresponds to the models that Delorme had studied in Italy. The center emphasis and rich decorative design, however, corresponds to an older French tradition. Other structural details are also reminiscent of late medieval customs: tracery-like parapet ornaments, net-like arches and the alternation between stone and brick masonry.
The portal system shows a free modification of the triumphal arch scheme . Between 1551 and 1555, Delorme placed the relief of a nymph with a stag in the arched area, one of the main works by Benvenuto Cellini , which, originally intended for Fontainebleau, is now in the Louvre . The clock floor is crowned by an ensemble of a deer and four dogs, who at the time accompanied the chime with barking and movements. The different types of stone and metals from which the gate was built gave the whole a colorful, splendid appearance.
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The cross-shaped plan of the chapel is inscribed in a circle. The resulting convex outer walls have led to the assumption of an influence on German baroque architecture. For the coffering of the dome, the ribs of which rise spirally in spatial curves and form diamond-shaped fields, an ancient model can be given that Delorme must have known, the half-domes of the Temple of Venus and Roma in the Roman Forum .
The Porte Charles-le-Mauvais most likely emphasizes the fortification character of the complex with its heavy cohesion and severity . Anet did not yet renounce the expression of the princely privilege of fortification, although it could no longer fulfill its original task.
Two themes determined the figurative and ornamental decoration of the palace complex: 1. There are always direct and indirect references to the client, in addition to her initials , mythological depictions of Diana as the goddess of the hunt or her attributes such as crescent moon, quiver, arrow and Arc. 2. The references to the mourning for her deceased husband include his former statue in a niche in the central risalit and the preference for black materials or the use of sakophagus-like chimney tops.
Dome of the Anet Chapel
Castle Chapel Anet
Portal system with a copy of the "Diana of Fontainebleau"
Sculpture from Diana Fountain in the western courtyard
Monogram of Diana of Poitiers in the Castle of Anet
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Individual evidence
- ^ Delorme, Architecture, Paris 1567, p. 88
- ↑ http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/nymph-fontainebleau
- ^ E. Grasshoff, in: Zeitschrift des dt. Verein f. Kunstwissenschaft 7, 1940, p. 123 ff
literature
- Alphonse Roux: Le Château d'Anet , Paris 1931
- Charles de Yturbe: Le Château d'Anet , Paris 1980
- Daniel Leloup: Le château d'Anet: l'amour de Diane de Poitiers et d'Henri II , Paris 2001
- Catherine Monbeig Goguel: Notes et Documents - Le portrait de femme en Diane au château d'Anet - Proposition pour Francesco Salviati en France . in: Revue de l'art, Paris 2011
Web links
Coordinates: 48 ° 51 ′ 31 ″ N , 1 ° 26 ′ 18 ″ E