Decoration of the itinerant Court

• Put King Francis I, who commissioned Chambord, back in the centre of the visit: Chambord’s great paradox was to present only one 16th century arrangement, the King’s room, while Francis I was fundamental in Chambord’s creation.
• To propose a revocable compromise in collection policy: overcoming the tension between the empty and the full without giving in to the temptation to create a museum: Chambord did not have permanent furniture until the 18th century and it would therefore be a misnomer to turn it into a castle-museum.
  Give the keys to understanding: the French court was itinerant until the reign of Louis XIV. According to the seasons, she changed her place of residence and moved with her furniture.
• Welcome the visitor as a guest of the King: make the visit more sensitive, warm and accessible to facilitate mediation.
• The discovery of Chambord will be fundamentally transformed for the installation of this decor which remains in the order of experimentation: no structure is affected, the decor is revocable, it is similar to a permanent exhibition, the scenography starts from the idea that these furniture elements should be able to be rolled up and packed up as soon as possible to accompany the King.

For Jacques Garcia, thinking of the Renaissance and Francis I is like returning to the world of childhood…

“This feeling of glory, beauty, voluptuousness and playfulness cannot be dissociated from the glories of the Renaissance. Francis I leads us to become, what we will remain practically until today, a beacon for knowledge, taste, novelty, extravagance and education. We are always sensitive to literary evocation, and just as we admire the gardens of Babylon, the lighthouse of Alexandria, we dream in the same way of the Camp du Drap d’Or, thinking of Francis I. These are the symbols that attracted me to the idea of working in Chambord.

Chambord, in the Renaissance, was a model, a model of glory, a seizure of power over others, which the king wanted to impose on his partners.

Time will not allow him to fully invest the house, as unfortunately, he will die before the end of its construction.

Nevertheless, as was always the case during the Renaissance, temporary installations were made there to come and spend time there. It was the idea of recreating a temporary installation, however sumptuous it may be, that pleased me in Chambord. »

Jacques Garcia would like to thank in particular the Maison Pierre Frey et Rubelli, Dedar, Gross, Maison du lin and Henryot for their generosity and support as well as the specialists of the Renaissance, the Drac region Centre-Val de Loire and the Monuments Historiques for their scientific support in the design of the project.