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dc.coverage.spatialSite: Château de Chambord (Chambord, Centre, France)en_US
dc.coverage.temporal1518-1519 (design); completed after 1550 (creation)en_US
dc.creatorFrancis I, King of Franceen_US
dc.creatorDomenico da Cortonaen_US
dc.creatorL'Orme, Philibert deen_US
dc.creatorLeonardo da Vincien_US
dc.date1550en_US
dc.date.accessioned2013-02-22T15:41:30Z
dc.date.available2013-02-22T15:41:30Z
dc.date.issued1550en_US
dc.identifier193810en_US
dc.identifier.otherarchrefid: 1414en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1721.3/101144
dc.descriptionWest elevation, showing northern tower; French royal château near Blois, Loir-et-Cher. It was built by Francis I, who in 1516, a year after becoming king and fresh from his victories in northern Italy, asked Leonardo da Vinci to draw up the plans for a new château to be built at Romorantin. This project was abandoned two years later, and the King decided to build instead at Chambord, on the edge of a great forest that was enclosed to make a hunting park. Construction started in 1519 and speeded up after 1526; it continued throughout Francis I's reign and was brought to a close under Henry II towards 1550, when the château was almost completed. It was later repaired and finished in the original style under Louis XIV. The project is extraordinary both for its sheer scale (the façade is 156 m long) and, still more, for its originality. The four enormous, round corner towers and the fantastic outline of the building's upper parts, bristling with chimney stacks, dormer windows and turrets, evokes the great princely châteaux of the end of the 14th century, while the square central keep (referred to as the 'donjon' from 1527), also with four round corner towers, resembles that of the château of Vincennes. The size of the keep, however, was without precedent (each side measures 44 m), and its centralized plan with a Greek cross-shaped hall and four apartments on each floor was evidently of Italian origin. The most remarkable part of the construction is the great staircase of the keep, situated at the centre of the cross-shaped hall: a spiral staircase supported by pillars in a 'transparent' cage, similar to that at the château of Blois. The staircase consists of two interlocking but independent spirals, so that it is possible for two people to ascend and descend without crossing one another's path. Leonardo's role in this design has been speculated; he experimented with these solutions in his drawings. Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.oxfordartonline.com/ (accessed 7/15/2008)en_US
dc.format.mediumstoneen_US
dc.rights© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.en_US
dc.subjectarchitectural exteriorsen_US
dc.subjecthistoricalen_US
dc.subjectlandscapesen_US
dc.subjectrulers and leadersen_US
dc.subjectFrancis I, King of France, 1494-1547en_US
dc.subjectcourten_US
dc.subjectroyalen_US
dc.subjecthuntingen_US
dc.subjectRenaissanceen_US
dc.titleChâteau de Chamborden_US
dc.typeimageen_US
dc.rights.accessLicensed for educational and research use by the MIT community onlyen_US
dc.identifier.vendorcode1A2-F-CC-C1en_US
vra.culturalContextFrenchen_US
vra.techniqueconstruction (assembling)en_US
vra.worktyperoyal palaceen_US
vra.worktypechâteauen_US
dc.contributor.displayattributed to Domenico da Cortona (Italian architect, ca. 1470-ca. 1549); attributed to Leonardo da Vinci (Italian architect, 1452-1519); attributed to Philibert de L'Orme (French architect, ca. 1510-1570); Francis I, King of France (French patron, 1494-1547)en_US


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