La construction du château de Cormatin. Nouvelles approches sur l'historique des travaux, à propos de documents inédits relatifs à Guillaume Tabourot

Abstract

At the outset, the work ordered by Antoine du Blé and his son Jacques conformed with a project inspired by the château d'Ecouen. Work began between 1607 and 1611 with the left wing and the two attendant pavillions. It continued around 1614 with the eastern enclosure, which was to include a drawbridge over the moat and a monumental doorway in the court, and for which Guillaume Tabourot, an amateur architect from Dijon, provided a composite model. Between 1615 and 1618, Jacques Gentillâtre built the northeast pavillion, the only part of the building that he reserved for himself. The wing at the end of the court (altered greatly in the nineteenth century) was undoubtedly built between 1618 and 1620, while most of the right wing, with its four-newel staircase and fore-structure, was realized between 1623 and 1625 under the direction of Jean Braconnier, a young mason called on to collaborate with Tabourot on the Hôpital général at Dijon from 1629 to 1644. The rôle of Braconnier must hâve been décisive because his work developed, like that of J. du Blé, in the entourage of the duke of Bellegarde, governor of Burgundy, and Marie de Medicis. This may well explain why the Porte O, the décoration anticipated for the old galery (on the first storey of the wing O), and the stairway reflect several borrowings from the château of Blérancourt and the Luxembourg palace, conceived by Salomon de Brosse, the architect of the queen mother.