BOOKS ON ARCHITECTURE

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French

     The progress and the decor of the entry of Henri II into Lyon in September, 1548, are well known and documented ; Richard Cooper took stock perfectly of the historic and symbolic aspects of this learned festival created by the poet Maurice Scève who had been made responsible for organizing it as the "conducteur et ordinateur des ystoires et triumphes".  The royal entry book La magnificence de la superbe et triumphante entrée de la noble & antique cité de Lyon came out at the shop of Guillaume Roville the following year, with engravings done very probably by Bernard Salomon.  A simultaneous Italian version, La magnifica et triumphale entrata del Christianiss. Re di Francia Henrico Secondo, was published at the same printer's shop.
Architecture is very evident in this festival book, revealing the culture of the erudite circles in France during the 1540s.  From this point of view, Lyon was advanced ; for a long time the humanists there had acquired avant-garde knowledge of the antique ruins and culture.  It was thus in Lyon, as early as 1536, that Philibert built the Bullioud residence, the first project built in which the architectural orders were implemented judiciously.  If a humanist like Maurice Scève did not know De l’Orme personally, he must have at least known his work, Pierre Lescot's projects at the Louvre, as well as Jean Martin's publications.  As a matter of fact, Bernard Salomon's engravings illustrating the festival book clearly show several influences : that of the Songe de Poliphile that Jean Martin had just published in 1546, and especially that of Sebastiano Serlio, in France since 1541 and who set up in Lyon around 1549.
Pierre Scize's obelisk, the first construction that Henri II encountered, reminds one both of Colonna's novel and Serlio's Terzo libro in which he showed several antique "needles".  Pierre Scize's arch, at the next stopping place, is more properly architectural.  This "gate", not really an arch since its opening is rectangular, has "salomonic" columns, imitations of the small spiral columns in the choir of the old Saint Peter's Basilica which came, it was said, from the Temple of Jerusalem.  They are decorated with oblique flutings which alternate with vines filled with birds and putti.  Jacques Androuet du Cerceau decorated two arches with them in his XXV exempla arcuum (1549) and Serlio makes mention of them in the text of the Extraordinario libro with reference to a "delicate portal" (1551, f. A 6).  The structure of the Lyonnais portal is hardly antique in itself : there is no attic but simply an aedicule above the central void, crowned by a pediment and flanked by volutes.  On the other hand such compositions are not rare in the models of the Livre extraordinaire, and once again it is not forbidden to see the mark of Serlio.  It is the same for the entablature presenting a frieze with consoles, like the composite model in the Regole generali (1537) or again in the upper order of the courtyard at the château of Ancy-le-Franc.
Likewise, the structure of the arch at Bourgneuf (f. E 4v°) was clearly inspired by the model of the Corinthian arch of triumph in folio 59 of the Regole generali, about which Serlio says expressly that it is usable "quando alcun gran personaggio fa l’entrata in una città, ò per passaggio ò per tor il possesso di quella".  This model, used among others for the Fountain of the Innocents in Paris in 1549, is characterized by the fact that the dripstone and the molding of the cornice are continuous across the whole width of the construction, whereas the architrave, the frieze and the lower parts of the cornice project under the columns at the two extremities and above the central arch.  This is exactly the solution of the arch in the festival book.  In addition one finds niches superimposed in the lateral spaces, as well as small lateral pilasters which give rythm to the attic story, and a large central panel.  The only noticeable difference, the width of the pediment at the top which is limited to the center in Serlio's model, occupies the whole width in the Lyonnais arch.  In addition, Serlio's pedestals are replaced by long plinths and the distance between the keystone of the arch and the entablature was reduced.  But there are many more similarities than differences and there is no doubt that Serlio inspired the decoration of the gate.
The "trophy at the Griffon" that the king ecountered next was made up "d’une colonne de quinze piedz peincte de Porphire toute cannellee d’or, la baze & chapiteau de marbre blanc enrichiz de feuillages dorez, avec son Pedestal, & Soubase" (f. F 1v°). This column was flanked by "deux arules en forme de piédestal presque tout quarré : sur lesquelles se presentoient deux jeunes Dames de la Ville aornees en Deesses…" (f. F 2). In fact the engraving is of a Corinthian column placed on a pedestal which is itself placed on a wider plinth.  This pedestal has a frieze decorated with vertical cavities.  The two "arules" on the sides are also endowed with a frieze, here ornamented with "running dogs".  Could it be a throwback to the "Doric pedestal" in Cesariano (1521, f. 65)?  The similarity is reinforced by the rams' heads on the corners, connected by a garland draped under an inscribed cartouche.  The work was known in Lyon ; De l’Orme used it for inspiration for the Doric frieze at the Bullioud residence, and the Vitruvius edition published in Lyon in 1523 by Guillaume Huyon for the heirs of Balthazar Gabiano took up many of the plates from the Como edition.  Another possible source, for the "arules" at least, could have been a pedestal with rams' heads and a garland from the Songe de Poliphile (f. 122 v°).  In any case, if Serlio's influence is not obvious here, it certainly is in the arch with two openings and three Ionic pilasters waiting for the king at the port of Saint-Paul (f. F 4v°), where one identifies a perfectly Serlian entablature : the three fasces of the architrave, the dentil course of the cornice and especially the convex frieze refer literally to the Ionic model in the Regole generali (1537, f. 62).
The triumphal arch of the "Temple of Honour & Virtue" (f. G 3) is a three-story construction : an arch covered by a pediment, draped terms on a plinth on the first level, a rusticated attic story crowned by a historiated frieze and finally a circular tempietto.  Not very antique on the whole, this arch evokes the fabulous architectural constructions in the Songe de Poliphile more than Serlio's Terzo libro.  Nevertheless, the rustication of the attic story, such as it is shown, reminds one of Serlio's "Tuscan" models.  In other respects, the placing of terms on a plinth which is itself placed on projecting consoles makes one think of the terms of the giardino segreto at the Palazzo Te in Mantua.
The connection between the "Perspective du change" and Serlio's work has already been established.  The very idea of a city represented in perspective "representing Troy again" refers naturally to the theater scenery of the Primo libro of 1545, and the tempietto appearing in the background of the image in the Terzo libro (1540, f. 148).  In other respects it is known that this illusionistic rotunda might have inspired a similar project for the portal of the Saint-Nizier church, never completed.  The sources of the "Occasion du grand palais", an exedra decorated with horned terms surrounding a Corinthian column topped with a fleur-de-lis, and of the "Colonne de la Victoire" on the place de l’Archevêché, a Doric column placed on a high pedestal, are more difficult to attribute.  Serlio is found more clearly at the port of the Archdiocese, the Doric order making an exedra in the center with a flight of concave steps leading down to a flight of convex steps with a circular platform in between, an obvious copy of the Pigna exedra in the upper courtyard of the Bevedere seen in the the Terzo libro (1540, f. 147). The engraver did represent the dentil course in the Doric cornice, which refers to the model of the theater of Marcellus, but he did not respect the alignment of the triglyphs on the columns- Bernard Salomon's theoretical consciousness was no doubt insufficiently aware of Vitruvian grammar.
The parade ended the first day of the celebration ; the following days are recounted only in images of ships navigating the Saône, including the Bucentaure which welcomed the king.  The vessel was carrying a palazetto decorated with a Doric order in which the entablature was ornamented with consoles extending beyond the frieze, like the composite entablature of the Regole.  The windows which opened out between the pilasters were topped with pediments, alternatively triangular and segmental, and their support was placed on small consoles.  These two solutions are reminiscent of the Farnese Palace (there are consoles on the ground floor, the pediments are on the second floor), and also the Louvre of Pierre Lescot, whose construction was already under way (consoles are placed under the openings of the ground floor and the pediments are alternated on the second level).  The proportion of the openings and the presence of the crossings establish a stronger connection between the Lyon engraving and the Parisian palace than to Sangallo's work.
Between Jean Martin's publication of the Vitruvius, illustrated by Jean Goujon in 1547 and the Parisian entry in 1549 created by the same two artists, the festival booklet of the entry into Lyon reveals clearly the progression of the new architecture in the antique style in France, while at the same time it underlines the fundamental role played by Serlio's treatise in diffusing new forms.  This is not surprising for a city which was one of the main centers of book production during the Renaissance while also one of the principal meeting points between France and Italy.

Yves Pauwels (Centre d’études supérieures de la Renaissance, Tours) – 2010

Critical bibliography

M. Scève, The Entry of Henri II into Lyon, September 1548. A Fac-simile with an Introduction by Richard Cooper, Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 160, Tempe, AZ, Medieval & Renaissance text & Studies, 1997.

I. Cloulas, Henri II, Paris, Fayard, 1985, pp. 196-213.

F.-R. Cottin, "Philibert De l’Orme et le portail de l’église Saint-Nizier", D. Bonnet Saint-Georges (ed.), Philibert De l’Orme, Lyonnais, Lyon, archives municipales, 1993, pp. 81-85.

Y. Pauwels, "Henri II Poliphile ? L’Hypnerotomachia Poliphili et les entrées solennelles de 1548 et 1549", M. Chaufour & S. Taussig (eds.), La cause en est cachée, Turnhout, Brepols, to published.

P. Sharatt, Bernard Salomon illustrateur lyonnais, Geneva, Droz, 2005, pp. 107-115, 277-279.