Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:43:37.889Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Bishop's Palace at Mirepoix (Ariege) and French Renaissance Oak Panelling in a Scottish House

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2011

Extract

The palace at Mirepoix (Ariege), erected by Bishop Philippe de Lévis in the 1520s, still stands today at the west end of the cathedral, its two-storey chapel and offices intact. With its original room layout still easily discernible, it is a unique survivor for its period, offering more information about the domestic arrangements of a bishop than can be deduced from the palaces at either Rouen or AIM. This paper proposes that a set of carved panelling, which for the past 150 years has found shelter in a Scottish baronial mansion, was almost certainly made for the gallery of the Mirepoix palace. A closely reasoned physical argument for this claim is adduced. The work is analysed and discussed in terms of its subject matter, function and style. An attempt is made to put it into the context of early Renaissance art in south-west France, the Loire valley and northern Italy. Its unique significance for the study of the early French Renaissance will become apparent. Finally, the monument's intriguing post-Revolutionary afterlife contributes important new information about the mechanisms of European and British nineteenth-century antiquarianism.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Antoine, E 2001. ‘Les jardins de plaisance’, in Paris et Charles V. Arts et Architecture, exh cat (ed Pleybert, F), 157–67, ParisGoogle Scholar
Augé, S, Pousthomis, N, Pradalier-Sclumberger, M and Pradalier, H 2000. Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges le choeur Renaissance. Saint-Just Valcabrere I'église Romane, GraulhetGoogle Scholar
Blanc, M nd. Le mobilier Français. Moyen Age/Renaissance, MalesherbesGoogle Scholar
Blanc, M 2000. Les frises oubliées de Vélez, ParisGoogle Scholar
Burnett, A and Schofield, R 1997. ‘The medallions of the basamento of the Certosa di Pavia’, Arte Lombarda, 120, 528Google Scholar
Burnett, A and Schofield, R 1998. ‘An introduction to the portrait medals on the Certosa di Pavia’, The Image of the Individual, exh cat, British Museum (eds Mann, N and Syson, L), 5564, LondonGoogle Scholar
Burnett, A and Schofield, R 1999. ‘The decoration of the Colleoni Chapel’, Arte Lombarda, 126, 6189Google Scholar
Chatenet, M 1999. ‘Cherchez le lit: the place of the bed in sixteenth-century French residences’, Trans Ancient Monuments Soc, 43, 724Google Scholar
Chatenet, M 2001. Chambord, ParisGoogle Scholar
Cloulas-Brousseau, A 1962. ‘Le jube de la Cathedrale de Limoges’, Bulletin de la Societe Archeologique et Historique du Limousin, 139, 101–88Google Scholar
Coope, R 1986. ‘The “Long Gallery”: Its origins, development, use and decoration’, Architect Hist, 29, 4372CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crépin-Leblond, T 2002. Parures d'Or et de Pourpre. Le mobilier a la cour de Valois, exh cat, chateau de Blois, ParisGoogle Scholar
C, De Boer (ed) 1931. Ovide Moralise, AmsterdamGoogle Scholar
De Vaux de Foletier, M F 1956. ‘L'eglise de de 139, Lonzac’, Congrés Archéologique de France, 114, La Rochelle, 269Google Scholar
Duprat, C P 1937. ‘Les travaux de Philippe de Levis Eveque de Mirepoix (1497-1537)’, Bulletin Monumental, 96, 409–23CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fratucello, C 1999. Note sull'iconografia degli affreschi nella Camera di Ercole nel Palazzo Paradiso di Ferrara, Musei di Ferrara, 18, FerraraGoogle Scholar
Gabaldo, (Abbé) 1884. ‘L'ancienne Èglise Cathédrale de Mirepoix’, with an appendix providing the piéces justicatives, signed by Champelay, T de, Congres Archaeologique de France, 51, Pamiers, Foix et St-Girons, 15253Google Scholar
Galinsky, G K 1972. The Herakles Theme, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Girouard, M 2000. Life in the French Country House 1400-1600, LondonGoogle Scholar
Graves, R 1960. The Greek Myths, 2 vols, rev edn, HarmondsworthGoogle Scholar
Guigard, J 1890. Nouvel Armorial du Bibliophile, I, ParisGoogle Scholar
Guillaume, J 1993. ‘La galerie dans le chateau francais: place et fonction’, La Revue de I'Art, 102, 3242CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hind, A M 1948. Early Italian Engraving, LondonGoogle Scholar
Jung, M R 1966. Hercule dans la litterature Franpaise du XIIe siécle, GenevaGoogle Scholar
Lanoux, A 1980. Chateau de la Loire, ParisGoogle Scholar
Leblanc, G 1972. ‘Le Labrynthe de la cathedrale de Mirepoix’, Memoires de la Societe archeologique du Midi de la France, 36, 5578Google Scholar
Leino, M A 2003. ‘Italian Renaissance plaquettes in context’, 2 vols, unpublished PhD thesis, Warburg Institute, University of LondonGoogle Scholar
Lieberschutz, N H 1926. Fulgentius Metaphoralis, Studien de Bibliothek Warburg Herausgegeben von Fritz Saxl, Leipzig and BerlinGoogle Scholar
Lugt, F 1936. Repertoire des catalogues de ventes publiques: interessant I'art ou la curiosite etc., 4 vols, La HayeGoogle Scholar
Miller, M C 2000. The Bishop's Palace. Architecture and Authority in Medieval Italy, Ithaca and LondonGoogle Scholar
Prinz, W 1977. Galleria storiae tipologia di uno spazio architectonico, ModenaGoogle Scholar
Prinz, W and Kecks, R G 1985. Das Franzosischer Schloss der Renaissance, BerlinGoogle Scholar
Robert, F 1913. ‘Histoire des Eveques de Mirepoix. Philippe de Levis (1497-1537)’, Bulletin historique du diocese de Pamiers, 2, 21–6Google Scholar
Rouault-Salette, M 1961. ‘Les jubes des eglises de Bretagne’, unpublished thesis, l'Ecole des ChartesGoogle Scholar
Sauval, H 1969. Histoire et recherches des antiquites de la ville de Paris, 3 vols, Farnborough [facsimile of original 1724 edn]Google Scholar
Scarpellini, P 1984. Perugino, MilanGoogle Scholar
Scher, S K 1994. The Currency of Fame, Frick Collection exh cat, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Seznec, J 1937-1938. ‘Youth, innocence and death. Some notes on a medallion on the Certosa de Pavia’, Jnl Courtauld Warburg, 1, 298303Google Scholar
Seznec, J 1940. The Survival of the Pagan Gods, Bollingen Series, XXXVIII, LondonGoogle Scholar
Tollon, B 1973. ‘Le Palais épiscopal de Mirepoix’, Congrés Archéologique de France, 131, Pays de I'Aude, 381–91Google Scholar
Tollon, B 1974. ‘Le Palais épiscopal de Mirepoix á la lumiére d'un nouveau document’, Bulletin de la Sociéte Ariégoise Sciences, Lettres et Arts, 269–78Google Scholar
Tollon, B 1981. ‘Le chateau de Montal’, Monuments Historiques de France, vol 115, 7-8, 2732Google Scholar
Tollon, B 1992. ‘Decors et Chateaux’, Vieilles Maisons Franpaises, Patrimoines Artistiques, vol 145, 4853Google Scholar
Tollon, B 2002. ‘Toulouse en 1550: architecture et culture’, in L'Hotel d'Assezat (eds Peyrusse, L and Tollon, B), ToulouseGoogle Scholar
Tracy, C 1988. English Medieval Furniture and Woodwork, Victoria and Albert Museum, LondonGoogle Scholar
Tracy, C and Harrison, H 2004. The Choir-Stalls of Amiens Cathedral, LondonGoogle Scholar
T, Urquart and Motteux, P L (eds) nd. Rabelais. Gargantua and Pantagruel, Oxford [transl of P Favre (ed) Oeuvres de Rabelais, Paris, 1855]Google Scholar
Van Marie, A 1933. The Renaissance Painters of Umbria, The HagueGoogle Scholar
Van't Sant, J 1929. Le Commentaire de Copenhague, AmsterdamGoogle Scholar
Vitry, P 1921. ‘Le chateau de Montal’, Congres Archeologique de France, 1921, Limoges, 411–19Google Scholar
Zucker, M J (ed) 1984. The Illustrated Bartsch, Early Italian Masters, New YorkGoogle Scholar