La « salle du légat » de l'Hôtel-Dieu de Paris. Une architecture oubliée de la Renaissance française

Abstract

"The 'Salle du Légat' of the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris : a forgotten French Renaissance building", by Flaminia Bardati. The 'Salle du Légat' of the Hôtel-Dieu, built in the 1 530s for the Cardinal-Chancellor Antoine Du Prat, was one of the rare examples of the early Renaissance architecture in Paris. Demolished by a fire in 1773, the building has long suffered critical neglect, but many unpublished documents have survived, which allow its one-time appearance to be graphically reconstructed. The main façade is one of the most significant of the early French Renaissance because, for the first time in France, the motif of the triumphal arch from the Classical world is employed. The overall design shows deep sensitivity and remarkable competence in using Italian Renaissance forms in a traditional French context. Given that the Italian architect Domenico da Cortona was working in Paris in these very years, building the Hôtel de Ville, it is tempting to propose that the Salle du Légat is also by him : certainly, it is stylistically closer to his oeuvre than to any contemporary French architect's one. The adoption of the triumphal arch motif is characteristic of the patronage of Antoine Du Prat, who requested the same form in the Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire Abbey altar. This choice could be interpreted as Du Prat's wish to give a clear message to all those who, between 1516 and 1527, had tried to oppose his immense power and to demonstrate the esteem in which he was held by both King François I and his mother, Louise de Savoie.