Leonardo da Vinci: The Royal Palace at Romorantin
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Architecture
Leonardo da Vinci: The Royal Palace at Romorantin Details
Leonardo da Vinci spent the last three years of his life as a guest of the king of France in Amboise, and the last masterpiece he produced was the project for a royal residence at Romorantin. It was to be a vast complex of buildings and gardens crossed by the Saudre River, and was to incorporate the old chateau of the ancestors of Francis I. "The eve of St. Anthony's Day I returned from Romorantin to Amboise, and the king had left Romorantin two days before," wrote Leonardo in January 1517. In 1518 a canal project at Romorantin was financed. But in the year of Leonardo's death, 1519, the project for the palace was abandoned and the king decided to build the castle of Chambord instead. The loss of the Romorantin Palace is comparable in magnitude to that of Leonardo's wall paintin of the Battle of Anghiari--perhaps even more tragic, for little influence could come from an abandoned work of architecture, the conception of which was soon forgotten. The remains of the portion that was built stood ten feet high until the time of the French Revolution. Mr. Pedretti has traced the records of their existence, brought together all possible references to the project in Leonardo's manuscripts, and identified the site of the proposed construction. The style and sources of the project are shown through a wealth of illustrations which bring to life the image of Leonardo's last dream.
Reviews
A fascinating detailed academic investigation of Leonardo Da Vinci's contribution to King Francis I's Romarantin architecture project (and others). After reading through this lovely unique and richly researched tome and studying its many illustrations from Leonardo's codexes, my feeling is stronger than ever that Leonardo at most, served as an inspiring advisor to a strong stable of practicing professional architects in the employ of this aggressive builder King. Francis I's works at Blois, Amboise and Chambord were all designed and built by men with deep formal training in architecture, many of whom were descended from prominant artisan families & teams that built France's magnificent gothic cathedrals and had already designed and built many magnificent gothic-classical hybrid structures over the previous hundred years at palaces like Blois and Amboise. Indeed, master architect Philibert De Lorme (truly the unheralded "Vitruvius" or "Palladio" of France) who had already completed gems like Chenonceau and would go on to supervise design and construction at the "new" Louvre for Francis I (Pierre Lescot's seminal wing with it's impeccable and extensive sculptural ornamentation by Jean Goujon was initially designed under De Lorme's supervision) as well as (after Francis I's death) massive new works at Fontainebleau and Saint-Germain-en-Laye (the Château Neuf, tragically lost) for Henry II, the Chateau d'Anet for Henry II's mistress Diane De Poitiers, and the massive Tuileries Palace for regent Catherine de Medici (tragically lost to fire and politically motivated demolition), was a major player throughout this whole era. There was also the impeccable builder Pierre Nepveu (who supervised every aspect of Chambord's realization over 28 years - a probably also construction of the Francis I wing at Blois) and the Italian Domenico da Cortona who came to France after training under Sangalo, and was, either in collaboration with or under supervision of De Lorme, probably the chief architect responsible for both the Francis I wing at Blois and the entire structure of Chambord (as well as, later, the Hotel De Ville, Paris, also commissioned by Francis I) - clearly a master of masters. The great Leonardo, In his final few years in residence at Amboise, had ceased painting and become an elderly court advisor, designer, inventor, thinker and teacher/mentor to the young and highly culturally ambitious King Francis I. If he made contribution to the structures commenced during his twilight years in France, they were, as stated earlier, fairly minor, as a high concept advisor. In the case of Romarantin, had it ever been built, Leonardo's initial sketches and planning work would undoubtedly have been ingested into the fire of competing full-time court architects and master builders and been used only, if at all, as inspiration. But of course, that is just one opinion and deep scholarly works like this are indispensable! Bravo.