Historical contextA concept of periodisation: two phases of the Renaissance
The educational file of the Musée national de la Renaissance (Écouen) describes a first phase, from the reign of Louis XII (1498-1515) to that of Francis I (1515-1547), in which Italian elements were adapted to French contexts: symmetrical plans with a central axis, and comfort and pleasure replacing defensive features. It was followed by a Second Renaissance under Henry II (1547-1559), in which classical orders were used more systematically. This division is a tool for reading the period, not a clear-cut boundary: the BnF points out that Italian influence was already evident in the fifteenth century.
PatronsFrancis I and his leading servants
The Ministry of Culture notes that Francis I invited Italian artists, including Leonardo da Vinci in 1516, and made Fontainebleau a major artistic centre after 1526. The BnF mentions the launch of Chambord in 1519. Within this circle, senior royal officials financed their own châteaux: this was the case of Jean Le Breton, Secretary of State to Francis I.
Landmark monumentVillandry: the last of the great Loire châteaux
According to the Blois-Chambord tourist office, Villandry was completed around 1536 and is presented as the last of the great Renaissance châteaux on the banks of the Loire. It is linked to Jean Le Breton, a former ambassador to Rome who had supervised the construction of Chambord on behalf of the Crown, which explains the taste for order and the garden. The main building illustrates the Early French Renaissance through its date, prior to 1547, and through its direct connection with the entourage of Francis I.
RestorationsTwentieth-century gardens that are not those of 1536
The same source indicates that in the nineteenth century the original garden was replaced by an English-style landscape park, and that in 1906 Dr Joachim Carvallo, a physician of Spanish origin, saved the estate from demolition and recreated the gardens in harmony with the Renaissance architecture. The six gardens on four terraces (ornamental kitchen garden, ornamental garden, medicinal garden, water garden, labyrinth, garden of the sun) are therefore a contemporary reconstruction, not to be confused with evidence of the Early French Renaissance.
