The Capetians since the Valois (1328 - 1792)

In 1284 Charles, nephew of King Philip the Fair of France, was made Count of Valois, and founded the Valois' Capetian branch. He acceded to the French throne on the death of Philip the Fair's last son in 1328 and ruled as Philip VI of Valois until 1350. When his legitimacy as first sovereign of the Valois was challenged by Edward III of England, whose mother was Philip the Fair's daughter, the outcome was the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453), during which much French territory was occupied by the English and the landscape of France was transformed by the construction of numerous new fortresses. The main branch of the Valois died out in 1498, being succeeded by the Valois of Orleans and then the Valois of Angoulême, with François I. François' reign was the pivot for France's transition from Gothic to Renaissance: from the Middle Ages to Modernity.

In France the period of the fourteenth–sixteenth centuries was one of social, political, economic and spiritual redefinition in the context of major geopolitical change in Europe. While future colonial empires would use the Mediterranean to conquer the oceans of the world, what were the enduring links between the Kingdom of France and the sea basin it had sprung from?

The fourteenth century and International Gothic

Scarred by the Hundred Years' War, the Great Western Schism that began in 1378, and the Black Plague of 1348, France was experiencing troubled times.

The expansion of patronage under the Valois had a marked impact on cultural life, with the most innovative commissions coming from aristocratic, royal and princely circles.

France's relations with other Mediterranean countries in the fourteenth century were strictly indirect; it was the major Iberian and Italian ports that sent silk goods, precious metals and oriental spices out into Europe.  

The supplying of French workshops with elephant ivory, now imported from Africa via the Atlantic ports, testifies to a trade in exotic materials and a revival of the sculpting on ivory of low-reliefs portraying scenes from religious and secular literature. The most respected workshops were in Paris, and took their inspiration from such aesthetic innovations in the book field as the illuminations of Jean Pucelle.

Under Charles V (r. 1364–80), who created a library in the Louvre as part of its transformation into a royal residence, the art of the painted book was driven by the fashion for works of history and personal piety, epics and courtly novels. Illumination began to include secular subjects and the making of books was taken over by laymen. The similarities between English and French illuminations were attributable to reciprocal exchanges during the War. The most inspired of the workshops was that of Jean Pucelle, which modified the Gothic tradition with innovations deriving from the treatment of volume and space in Tuscan painting.

The centre the most open to Italian input in the fourteenth century was doubtless the Papal Palace in Avignon. Between 1309–76 the popes lived in exile in that city, which thus became the capital of Western Christendom. Carried out between 1335–37, the secular ornamentation – especially the painted walls – in the chamber of Benedict XII, pope from 1334–42, points to an international project which had French and Italian painters working side by side: the French-style foliated patterns have been given a three-dimensional Italian touch based on the work of Giotto. But while Avignon was the focal point for the spread of Italian art, it was also the scene of the few exchanges that took place with the Muslim world. Under Clement VI, pope from 1342–52, Cardinal Aubert Audouin called in two Muslim ceramicists from Manises in Spain to create a lustred ceramic pavement. Although an isolated case, this venture points to Avignon as the crucible for the development of the "international style".

The reign of King Charles VI (r. 1380–1422) coincides with the International Gothic period (1380-1420), which in art terms signals a closeness between regions geographically a long way apart. Many Flemish artists came to work in France, notably at the court of Jean de Berry in Bourges – the Limburg brothers created the Book of Hours of the Duc de Berry in 1413[1] – and that of Philip II the Bold in Dijon.

Between Flanders and Italy

In the 1420s, with the Hundred Years' War seemingly lost for the royal house of Valois, Joan of Arc brought the country to its feet and helped save the crown. Despite economic, political and social problems and the difficulties caused by the war, the artistic scene remained a thriving one.

Between 1440–80 Paris lost its supremacy as an art centre, with the provincial haute bourgeoisie representing a new clientele. This upper middle class was simultaneously receptive to Flemish innovation and the experiments being carried out in Italy: sculpture, tapestry and civil and religious architecture all showed evidence of this dual phenomenon, but easel painting was by far the most representative and Jean Fouquet's Melun Diptych (1450-60) sums up in a single work this innovative synthesis of the Flemish and Italian pictorial revolutions.

As both a transit zone between Asia, Africa and Europe, and a jumping-off point for the New World, by the mid-fifteenth century the Mediterranean was the nerve centre of the world economy, with its merchants laying the groundwork for modern capitalism.

The great financier and merchant Jacques Cœur (1394–1456) represents a remarkable chapter in the history of medieval France. A native of Bourges, Charles VII's capital during a reign lasting from 1422–61, Coeur went into business in a big way, establishing relations with the Levant, Spain and Italy and setting up branches in Avignon, Lyon, Limoges, Rouen, Paris and Bruges. His ships crisscrossed the Mediterranean laden with fabrics from Alexandria, carpets from Persia, perfumes from Araby and silk goods from Florence.

Charles VIII of France (r. 1483–98) proposed a last crusade intended to win back Jerusalem, but a failed military expedition into Italy in 1492 put paid to the scheme. This would be the last attempt at direct contact with the Orient. Europe's future no longer lay with the sea that had given it birth, but with the oceans of the world and the colonies the great Western powers would found.

The French Renaissance

The geopolitical and religious balance, already disturbed by conflict with the Protestants, was radically altered in the sixteenth century. With the coming of the Renaissance the West seemed to have cut the cord that had always linked it to the Orient, so as to accept its separate destiny and live it to the full.

In France's Ile de France and Val de Loire regions the Renaissance became a reality under Francis I (r. 1515–47). Directed by French and Italian artists, the building of the palace of Fontainebleau by the king created, according to Vasari, a "new Rome". Details of its highly original decoration by Rosso and Primaticcio spread rapidly throughout Europe via engravings and tapestries. In 1516 Leonardo da Vinci came to France and made his own contribution to the palace's remarkable collection of paintings.

The Mediterranean world remained fascinated by the Roman model and a notion of empire obsessively focused on total control. Artistically, Renaissance France looked to Italy while striving for independence: painting was totally dominated by Italian artists and the Italian manner, but French architecture was showing signs of an idiom of its own. With the château at Ancy-le-Franc, Serlio offered the king the first successful compromise between the two traditions, and the principle of the avant-corps with superposed columns would become a characteristic of the national style.

The last Valois monarch, Henry III (r. 1574-1589) died leaving no descendants. King Henry of Navarre then became king of France and instituted the Capetian branch of the Bourbons.

E. D. –P.

[1] Now in the Musée Condé in Chantilly.