15/5/23 - Restoration - Fontainebleau, Musée national du château - What remains of the original decoration? The 16th-century frescoes that adorn the Porte Dorée (Golden Gate) of the Château de Fontainebleau are in a sorry state, victims of the passage of time, climatic conditions, the quality of the plaster on which they were painted, and the successive restorations that they underwent from the 17th to the 20th century, the products used for these interventions having not evolved well.
Today, once again, restorers are trying to give back to these compositions their legibility (ill. 1 and 2). The operation is delicate, the pictorial layer is fragile and incomplete. The study and preservation of this ensemble are all the more important because a number of decorations designed by Primaticcio in Fontainebleau have disappeared, for example, the one of the Baths apartment, not to mention that of the famous Galerie d’Ulysse, destroyed by Louis XV in 1738. What remains is the decoration of the Ballroom, whose mythological paintings were painted in fresco by Nicolo dell’Abbate under the direction of Primaticcio, as well as part of the bedroom of the Duchess of Etampes, transformed into a staircase under Louis XV. The latter has been the subject of a dusting and a scientific study in 2020 and 2021; the restorers have analyzed its materials and will be able to compare them with those found on the current site.
-
- 1. La Porte Dorée avant restauration
Fontainebleau, Musée national du château
Photo : Château de Fontainebleau - See the image in its page
-
- 2. La Porte Dorée en cours de restauration
Fontainebleau, Musée national du château
Photo : bbsg - See the image in its page
An appeal is launched to the public to finance the restoration of the Porte Dorée: 650,000 euros are needed to complete this campaign, which began in 2022, entrusted to the group of restorers led by Emilie Checroun; the project manager is the Architecte en chef des monuments historiques (ACMH) Patrick Ponsot. The Fondation du patrimoine has been able to provide assistance thanks to the sponsorship of the company Gecina to the tune of 300,000 euros. With the support of individuals, companies and local authorities, the castle must raise 350,000 euros, and is counting on the public fundraising to collect 100 000 euros. Donations are tax-deductible.
Built in 1528, the Porte Dorée is decorated with the arms of François I on its capitals and the salamander on its tympanum. It was the royal entrance to the castle throughout the 16th century, participating in the staging of the king’s arrival and in the scenography of the festivities organized at the court of the Valois [1], four rectangular compositions on the sides, two octagonal ones on the ceiling, whose subjects have been taken from chants XIV and XV of the Iliad. The iconography is complex, the cycle tells how Hera asked Hypnos to put Zeus to sleep so that Poseidon could help the Greeks. Hypnos refused, reminding her that the last time he had put Zeus to sleep, she had caused a storm that threw Hercules’ boat on the island of Cos. Hera, descending from her chariot pulled by peacocks, managed to convince him by promising him the hand of the beautiful Pasitheus.
The two octagonal compositions (ill. 7) present characters in foreshortened perspective di sotto, giving a spectacular trompe l’oeil effect. Primaticcio was probably inspired by the works of Giulio Romano in the Palazzo Te in Mantua; the same is true of the feigned architecture that frames the scenes, probably inspired by the decor of the Té or the Vatican Lodges painted by Raphael. The feminine canons also bear witness to Primaticcio’s stay in Rome and the influence of ancient sculpture.
-
- 7. Francesco Primaticcio dit Primatice (1503-1570)
Voûte du vestibule de la Porte Dorée
Fontainebleau, Musée national du château
Photo : Guillaume Dinkel - See the image in its page
The decoration of the Porte Dorée deteriorated rather quickly: the paint did not adhere sufficiently to the supporting plaster, which was mediocre because of the local silica. Restorations were envisaged very quickly and some repaints still visible today could date from the 17th and 18th centuries. In the 19th century, when Charles Percier visited Fontainebleau, he made watercolors of the door that show a decoration already degraded (ill. 8).
-
- 8. Charles Percier (1764-1838)
Relevé du décor du vestibule de la Porte Dorée
Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Institut de France
Photo : RMN-GP/G. Blot - See the image in its page
A restoration was decided under Louis Philippe in 1834, led by François Édouard Picot. He chose to repaint entirely the two scenes in the portico, which were too damaged. The frescoes in the vestibule being in better condition, he undertook to restore them and to reconstitute the missing parts, relying on Primaticcio’s drawings (ill. 9) and on engravings of the different compositions. Picot avoided the constraints of a fresco work, he painted on dry plaster with a binder mixing oil and wax. The gilding that can still be seen today dates from the 19th century as does the panel with the arms of France.
-
- 9. Francesco Primaticcio dit Primatice (1503-1570)
Junon et le Sommeil endormant Jupiter
Plume lavis brun et rehauts de blanc - 30 x 30 cm
Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett (SMPK)
Photo : BPK/RMN-GP/J. P. Anders - See the image in its page
In 1964, a new restoration was planned as part of André Malraux’s program law, entrusted to Oreste Binenbaum. It was necessary to remove the 19th century interventions without damaging the original decoration. But the coatings were fragile, the underlying material incomplete, and the techniques of the time less precise than today. The restorer therefore left some of Picot’s repaints.
After preliminary studies conducted between 2015 and 2017, the Porte Dorée will be restored in its entirety: frescoes and sculpted decoration - tympanum, spandrels, capitals - as well as the door leaves of the 17th century. The paintings are difficult to read (ill. 10), their surface is no longer uniform and suffers in places from detachment of the material. It is necessary to consolidate, clean, de-restore, and plan a pictorial reintegration, and to do this, determine the characteristics of the support, discern the different techniques and dates of execution according to the areas, and identify the binders and pigments. The scenes of the portico repainted by Picot have a whitened appearance caused by soiling; a superficial cleaning should restore their harmony.
-
- 10. Francesco Primaticcio dit Primatice (1503-1570)
La Défait d’Hercule dans l’île de Cos
Vestibule de la Porte Dorée en cours de restauration
Fontainebleau, Musée national du château
Photo : bbsg - See the image in its page
It is indeed important to distinguish between the restorations of the seventeenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, as the products used in each period have not evolved in the same way. Some substances have darkened, the overflowing restorations have damaged the pictorial layer and the repaints have aged badly. To remove them, one must choose solvents, gels or laser depending on the case. The chemical action of the solvents allows the removal of the overpaintings made with vinyl products used in 1964 and now very deteriorated. Some parts have an organic layer of brown color that is difficult to remove, the use of laser allows to avoid the use of solvents too aggressive; this technique is increasingly used on the sites of wall paintings in Italy, but is not compatible with all materials and pigments.
Some figures are painted in oil and others in fresco, some were repainted in the nineteenth, others perhaps in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it is not always easy to date them. The presence of lead in colors such as white and yellow is a marker of time. The garment of Dawn is painted in oil, and may date from the seventeenth or eighteenth century. Should it be kept? The restorers have also noted some old frescoed covers in places. Nothing is simple, and an international scientific committee validates each step of the protocol.
The cleaning that began in 2023 has already made it possible to recover shadows, models, and the changing effects of iridescent Mannerist colors.
Analyses are carried out to deepen the information obtained by observation in the field. A study of the climatic conditions was also carried out for a whole year in order to determine whether it is possible to open the Porte Dorée again without risking damage to its decoration. Let’s hope that it will be visible to the public from time to time.