In the 16th century, the Renaissance, which called for a return to the models of Roman antiquity, spread throughout Europe from Italy, notably through treatises and engravings referring to the treatise De architectura by Vitruvius (90–20 BC), Roman theorist of ancient architecture. Each center of culture and creation reinterpreted these new references according to its local traditions.Sarah Muñoz and Colin Debuiche, «Toulouse le caractère d'une ville» ("Toulouse, the character of a city"). La revue des Vieilles Maisons Françaises (VMF), No. 231 (march 2010).
At the beginning of the 16th century Toulouse was experiencing a prosperous period. It was the third largest city in France, a rich and powerful provincial capital that the woad trade was providing with merchants of international stature. The city was also the seat of the first French provincial parlement, whose jurisdiction extended from the Rhône to Gascony, of a university renowned even beyond the borders (mainly in law), and of a large archbishopric in wich the abbey church of Saint-Sernin, renowned for its exceptional collection of relics, was regarded as one of the holiest places in Christendom.Collective work directed by Pascal Julien, «catalogue de l'exposition Toulouse Renaissance» ("Toulouse Renaissance exhibition catalogue"), Somogy éditions d'art, 2018.With more than two hundred claimed holy relics, including those of six apostles, Saint-Sernin possesses one of the most important collections of relics in the Western world.
These factors of dynamism fostered a deep humanist impulse, affirmed the city's role as a radiant artistic place and maintained a climate of social emulation in which it was important to be visible. These characteristics of the Toulouse Renaissance can be found in the richness and quality of its architecture, fortunately largely preserved but perhaps difficult to apprehend in its entirety because it is somewhat scattered throughout the vast perimeter of the historical centre and moreover partially hidden in courtyards not easily accessible to the public.
It is therefore the purpose of this article to bring together and to present the various elements of the Renaissance architecture of Toulouse, which earned the city to be described as "the most beautiful city in France" by the scholar Joseph Justus Scaliger at the end of the sixteenth century.
Architecture in the service of municipal ambitions
A home of erudition and humanism, Toulouse welcomed the Renaissance and looked back on its rich ancient past of which there were few visible remains, the ancient Roman monuments having served as "brick quarries" throughout the Middle Ages.
Faced with a royal administration eager to diminish the prerogatives of the communal power of France's major cities, the municipal institution of Toulouse sought to promote its prestige and legitimacy. At the request of the capitouls (the city's chief magistrates) scholars such as Nicolas Bertrand, Guillaume de La Perrière and Antoine Noguier revived the Palladia Tolosa (Palladian Toulouse) evoked by the Latin poets Martial, Ausonius and Sidonius Apollinaris, the ancient Toulouse placed by emperor Domitian under the patronage of the goddess Pallas (Minerva)Jean-Marie Pailler, «Domitien et la "Cité de Pallas", un tournant dans l'histoire de Toulouse antique» ("Domitian and the City of Pallas, a turning point in the history of ancient Toulouse"). Link (in French): https://www.persee.fr/doc/palla_0031-0387_1988_num_34_1_1596 presented as the protector of arts and letters. In 1522, at the instigation of the clerk Pierre Salamon, the municipal palace of capitulum (chapter) became Capitolium (Capitol),Jules Chalande, «Histoire monumentale de l'hôtel-de-ville de Toulouse» ("Monumental history of the town hall of Toulouse"), 1919-1922. reflecting the desire to imitate Rome and its ancient references.
These idealized links between the municipal institution of Toulouse and Ancient Rome found expression in the arts and in particular in architecture.
The towers of the former Capitole
The Capitole Archive Tower Fearing an invasion of Languedoc by the Spanish army of Charles V who was maneuvering in the Pyrenees, and concerned to protect their gunpowder reserve and their precious archives, the capitouls built between 1525 and 1530 by Laurent Clary a tower then called "Archive tower", which is now called "the Keep" (le Donjon in French) for its fortified appearance. On the ground floor was the "Small Consistory", a prestigious room where the capitouls held their private meetings.
On a façade of this tower, in a stone frame arranged in the manner of an ancient temple whose column capitals implement the superimposition of the Doric and Ionic orders, the capitouls presented themselves as Roman consuls. The Latin inscription engraved in the stone announces: FIEBAT ANNO CHRISTIANAE SALUTIS MDXXV IDIBS NOVEBR NOBILIBUS PREINSIGNITIS CAPITOLINIS DECURIONIBUS, which means "Was made the year of salvation 1525, at the ides of November, by the noble and very distinguished decurions of the Capitol". By posing as "decurions" sitting in a "Capitol", the capitouls of the Renaissance hoped to put forward a historical legitimacy which they claimed dated back to antiquity and exceeded that of the kings of France,The Toulouse Capitoulate appeared in 1147, its consuls being advisers to Count Alfonso Jordan, in charge of the administration of the city. The claim of the Renaissance capitouls to hold their antiquity to the Roman Empire and Emperor Theodosius was therefore unfounded. However, this type of exaggeration was not peculiar to Toulouse at that time. in the face of a royal administration and a Parlement that tended more and more to limit their prerogatives and the municipal liberties they had conquered.
On the roof of the Archive tower stood between 1550 and 1829 a gilded bronze statue named Lady Tholose (Dame Tholose in French), work of the sculptor Jean Rancy and the foundryman Claude Pelhot, and exceptional personification, under the features of the goddess Pallas Athena, of the city and the values which ensured its cohesion around the municipal magistrates.Bruno Tollon, «Dame Tholose, une allégorie politique de la Renaissance» ("Lady Tholose, a Renaissance political allegory"), in Mémoires de la SAMF, tome LIX (1999). Link (in French): https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6576093v/f195.item.r=M%C3%A9moires%20Bulletins%20Soci%C3%A9t%C3%A9%20arch%C3%A9ologique%20midi%20France.langFR Toulouse took advantage of the presence of its large arsenal to cast this large statue, a first in France outside the king's workshops. No one, not even in Italy, had then ventured to such a dynamic work, encamped on one supporting leg (Giambologna made his Flying Mercury more than fifteen years later). Lady Tholose is also distinguished by the mastery of the wet drapery, the science of gestures, twists and multiple points of vision that Jean Rancy showed early on. The statue held a weather vane in her right hand and leaned with her left hand on a shield with the arms of the city. On the shield were inscribed the letters CPQT MDL, that is to say Capitulum Populusque Tolosanum 1550, the "Capitoulate and the people of Toulouse" which, in the manner of the Roman SPQR, referred to Rome and to the idea of an urban republic, the capitouls boasting of sitting within a Capitol.
The Tour de la Vis (destroyed in 1885) Although the Archive Tower is still of Gothic architecture, with the exception of the decorative elements presented in the previous chapter, the Tour de la Vis, which was added to it a few years later, was an important milestone of Renaissance architecture in Toulouse until its destruction in 1885.
Erected between 1532 and 1542, this stair tower was intended to replace the external wooden staircase that served the upper floor of the Archive Tower. A massive square construction, it contained a suspended staircase of 61 steps considered to be an architectural masterpiece with its helical vault, hollowed out in the centre and supported only on the perimeter of the building.
It was the master mason Sébastien Bouguereau who built this remarkable staircase, one of the first attempts of the Renaissance to replace spiral staircases. This example remained unique in Toulouse, where the straight staircase supported by a dividing wall, less complex to build, was later preferred. This feat of stereotomy, which was inspired by Spanish achievements (Bouguereau having worked in that country), was the first known suspended staircase in France; the formula was not found in Paris until a century later (after 1640) before it then returned to the province.Michèle Éclache, Christian Péligry, Jean Penent, "Images et fastes des capitouls de Toulouse" (Images and splendor of the capitouls of Toulouse), Mairie de Toulouse and Musée Paul Dupuy, 1990.
In 1885 the municipality decided to demolish it because it masked the perspective of the new rear facade of the Capitole.
The Henry IV courtyard of the Capitole and its triumphal portal The Henry IV courtyard The Henri IV courtyard of the Capitole was built between 1602 and 1609 by the architect Pierre Souffron. It is characterised by a brick and stone polychromy, a composition that influenced the later constructions of the municipal palace. The ground floor arcades were built by Dominique Capmartin and Jean Bordes, while upstairs galleries were built to accommodate prestigious rooms, such as the one for the maintainers of the Floral Games, richly decorated with coats of arms and flowers painted by Jean Chalette, embryo of the first Hall of Illustrious Men.Henri Ramet, «Le Capitole et le Parlement de Toulouse» ("The Capitole and the Parlement of Toulouse"), Éditions Pyrémonde, 2008 (first publication in 1926).
In 1606 the Parlement of Toulouse caused difficulties regarding these works, and the capitouls turned to King Henry IV for authorisation to continue them, which he accepted on condition that his marble statue be placed there and that the north gallery be named "Gallery Henry IV, King of France and Navarre".
On the galleries with superimposed orders, the capitouls of 1605 had the city's and the king's arms and coats of arms placed, which had been damaged by the revolutionaries but were restored in 1873. The portal to the west dates from 1576, but it was transformed in 1607, then reworked again in 1676 and enriched with two female figures with lamb and owl representing Pallas / Lady Tholose, works by sculptor Philibert Chaillon.
The triumphal portal The triumphal portal of the Henri IV courtyard is a superimposition of various parts successively made by Toulouse Renaissance artists. It was erected on its present site in the early years of the 17th century at the same time as the Henry IV courtyard was built. It is the support of a symbolic language highlighting the greatness of the city and, for its upper part, of the French Crown.
The lower part of the portal was designed by the architect and sculptor Nicolas Bachelier in 1546 on a drawing by Jean Rancy. It originally adorned the vestibule of the Grand Consistory and represents the goddess Pallas, protector of the city in Roman times. It was a prestigious tutelary figure brought to the fore by the capitouls of the Renaissance. Pallas is here surrounded by two winged women: one carrying a staff with the cross of Toulouse (originally it was an owl, an attribute of Pallas), the other brandishing a laurel wreath and a flowering branch.