Castles and Chateaux of Old BurgundyMansfield, M. F. (Milburg Francisco)
History
Castles and Chateaux of Old Burgundy
Mansfield, M. F. (Milburg Francisco)
Burgundy (France) -- Description and travel; Castles -- France -- Burgundy
At Dijon the northern portal was designed by Brouhée and the roofing of
the Grande Salle was made from the plans of Sambin and Chambrette, as
was the doorway from the street to the chapel. The Chambre Dorée has a
most beautiful ceiling of the time of François Premier, and the
_boiseries_ and the _grisaille_ of the same apartment date from the
period of Louis XIII.
There are two other notable ceilings in the edifice, those of the
Bibliothèque and the Salle d'Assises.
Dijon has ever been noted down by those who know as a city of a
distinctly local and a really great and celebrated art. The École de
Dijon was a unique thing which had no counterpart elsewhere. Under the
liberally encouraging patronage of the Ducs de Bourgogne numerous habile
artists banded together and constituted the local "École de Dijon." It
was a body of artists and craftsmen whose careers burned brilliantly
throughout the best period of the Renaissance, indeed up to its end, for
the Hôtel de Vogué at Dijon, of a very late period, shows the distinct
local manner of building at its best.
Hugues Sambin, who designed the Palace of the Burgundian Parliament, was
the best known of these Dijon craftsmen--best known perhaps because of
his architectural writings (1572), for his work was not indeed superior
to that of his fellows. His dwelling exists to-day at Dijon, in the Rue
de la Vannerie, somewhat disfigured and not at all reminiscent of the
great capabilities of his art which he so freely bestowed on the more
magnificent structures of his clients. A tower, presumably a part of the
house itself, rises close beside, and on its vaulting one sees the
_devise_ "Tout par Compas," the same that may be seen in the Hôtel de
Vogué, though it is declared that there is no other connection between
the two save that Sambin had a hand in the construction of both. The
motto is undeniably a good one for an architect.
The local Museum contains one of the most important provincial
collections in France. It occupies the ancient Salle des Gardes of the
Palais and encloses the tombs of Jean-Sans-Peur and Philippe-le-Hardi.
As examples of the sculptures of the Burgundian school of the fifteenth
century these ornate tombs are in the very first category. They were
brought from the Chartreux de Dijon in 1795. How they escaped
Revolutionary desecration is a marvel, but here they are to-day in all
the glory of their admirable design and execution. If Sargent's frieze
of the prophets in the Boston Public Library was not inspired by these
cowled figures surrounding the ducal tombs at Dijon, it must be a dull
critic indeed who will not at least admit the suggestion of similarity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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