The Château de Fontainebleau was formerly a royal residence located near Paris, having been used by a number of French monarchs as their summer residence (and as an interesting aside, Pope Pius VII stayed here in 1804 en route to crowning Napoleon 'emperor,' and he was also effectively imprisoned here another decade later). The palace contains numerous architectural features of interest of course, but it is specifically the chapel of the Trinity that caught my attention (though this is not the only chapel located in the Château I would hasten to note).
The Chapel of the Trinity dates to the seventeenth century and contains painted frescoes by the French painter Martin Freminet, as well as sculptural works by Barthèlemy Tremblay. The frescoes within the chapel contain painted depictions taken from both the Old and New Testaments and the chapel also contains statuary of a royal theme in the persons of Charlemagne and St. Louis. The two elements though that particularly stood out to me are the marble pavement and the beautiful marble altar -- both of which were designed by the Florentine sculptor, Francesco Bordoni (+1654).
With that very high level overview in mind, let's take a look, beginning with a very general look at the chapel.
The altar is, as I say, particularly noble and -- quite appropriately -- whatever other beauty might be found here in the chapel, it is to there that one's attention is naturally drawn to. There is something about the altar's design which I find particularly pleasing; it is both ornamental as well as suitably restrained (in typical Roman fashion). The altar also includes beautiful textural elements as well, such as the French fleur-de-lys.
As we look back toward the entrance to the chapel, we can gain a very good sense of the other element I wanted to particularly highlight: the beautiful marble pavement. Looking from this perspective, we can also can see the 'royal tribune' where the French royal family would 'hear Mass' when they were in residence here.
The 'regal' theme of the chapel is continued not only in the heraldry, crowns and fleur-de-lys found throughout the chapel, but also in the two statues found to either side of the altar that depict the Emperor Charlemagne and the sainted French king, St. Louis.
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| Statue of Charlemagne |
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| Statue of St. Louis |
Finally, we'll conclude this brief consideration with a brief look at the beautiful stuccoed and frescoed ceiling that we mentioned at the beginning of our consideration.
This chapel exudes the sort of style and elegance that makes this particular period of French sacred and secular art justly renowned. Personally, I find it to be a very appealing mix of Roman gravitas and baroque elegance
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