Location unknown: design of a hexagonal chapel (Chapel of Saint-Michel at the Château of Saint-Germain-en-Laye?), perspectival elevation (left) and plan (right)

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Dimensionsh x w: 44 x 58 cm

Inventory numberNMH CC 1302

AcqusitionDonated 1941 by Eric Langenskiöld. Formerly in the Cronstedt collection, Fullerö

Other titlesTitel (sv): Liten centralbyggnad med hexagonal grundplan. Plan och perspektiv Titel (en): Location unknown: design of a hexagonal chapel (Chapel of Saint-Michel at the Château of Saint-Germain-en-Laye?), perspectival elevation (left) and plan (right) Tidigare: Small Centralized Building with a Hexagonal Plan. Plan and perspective

DescriptionRes. Katalogtext: Bortolozzi, Italian Architectural Drawings from the Cronstedt Collection, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2020 (cat. no. 60) Anon. French draughtsman, last quarter of the 16th­century (Jacques Androuet du Cerceau after Philibert Delorme?) Pen and brown ink over black chalk, construction line in black chalk, grey wash, compass, straightedge and freehand, 43.2/44.4 × 59 cm NM H CC 1302 PAPER: folded in the middle, tears, small holes, stains WATERMARK: Grape 20 INSCRIPTIONS: none; no scale PROVENANCE: Carl Johan Cronstedt and descendants; Eric Langenskiöld; gift to the Nationalmuseum of Stockholm 1941 BIBLIOGRAPHY: Blunt 1997, 178; Pérouse de Montclos 2000, 136–137, figs. 128–129; 352, n. 148 Perspectival elevation and a plan of a hexagonal chapel, two storeys high, with a shallow dome capped by a lantern. Three semi-circular apses alternate with rectangular projections, one of which forms a temple-like porch with four paired Ionic columns. In the upper storey are large rectangular windows in the middle of each side. A similar design with alternating semicircular and rectangular chapels on the exterior could be seen in the park chapel of Saint-Michel outlined in a general plan of the castle and garden of Saint-Germain-en-Laye in a drawing by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, c. 1570 (London, BM, 1972, U.821–822; Blunt 1997, 90, figs. 94–95; Pérouse de Montclos 2000, 134, figs. 124–125). Pérouse de Montclos (2000, 352, cat. no. 148) suggests that the chapel shown in the Stockholm drawing may be a design by Philibert Delorme but rejects an attribution of the sheet to the hand of the architect. He also considers the identification of the building with the chapel of the castle of Saint-Germain-en-Laye unlikely. Manuela Morresi takes an opposing view (Blunt 1997, 178), considering the identification persuasive and ascribing the drawing to Jacques Androuet du Cerceau. The preference for the perspectival representation, the placement of the edifice on stepped bases and the skilled used of grey wash to emphasise light effects and to outline the shadow created by the building on the ground are in fact characteristic of Du Cerceau’s graphic style, as shown by the drawing of the trefoil-shaped chapel of the Château de Villers-Cotterêts (London, BM, 1972, U.862; Pérouse de Montclos 2000, 135, figs. 126–127). Yet, it must be noted that the support of the drawing in the BM (vellum) is different and the size of the sheet (51.1 ×74.7 cm) is larger than that of the Cronstedt drawing. Peter Fuhring does not include the Stockholm drawing in his catalogue of Du Cerceau’s drawings (Guillaume, Fuhring 2010, 323–332), and even if neither an attribution to Delorme nor to Du Cerceau appears conclusive, a French provenance is likely. The drawing is traced on the same kind of paper as NM H CC 839 (Cat. no. 40) and NM H CC 2296 (Cat. no. 46) and bears a watermark featuring a grape which had enjoyed considerable longevity north of the Alps. No clear matches with watermarks published in the common repertoria could be found, but according to Briquet (vol. IV, 643-44), a grape of the form and size associated with a monogram can be found in central and southern France during the last quarter of the 16th century. Anthony Blunt (Blunt 1997, p. 90) noted that the plan of the park chapel of Saint-Germain-en-Laye recalls Roman mausolea and that Giovanni Battista Montano drew ancient buildings with comparable plans. The possibility that the hexagonal plan designed by Delorme and the drawing in Stockholm were based on ancient models is strengthened by a similar design preserved at the Uffizi, apparently of independent origin (Uffizi 4499A; published in Lotz 1955, 90, fig. 62c and by Licht 1984, fig. 101 as a project of Alessandro Pieroni’s for the Cappella dei Principi. In the Uffizi catalogue, the drawing is ascribed to Bernardo Buontalenti). The drawing, dated 16 August 1601, is part of a series of fourteen different proposals for a centralised chapel, possibly the Cappella dei Principi (Daddi Giovannozzi 1937, 72; Fara 1998, 179–207). In the Uffizi drawing the circular alcoves are less protruding and the front porch is missing because the entrance to the chapel is from the church. LITERATURE: Blunt 1958; Licht 1984; Blunt 1997; Pérouse de Montclos 2000; Guillaume, Fuhring 2010 Fig. 1, Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, Château de Villers-Cotterêts, two studies of the trefoil-shaped chapel designed by Philibert Delorme, 51,1 × 74,7 cm, c. 1570. London, BM, 1972.U.862 [end]

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