A few steps away,
the passage of Catherine de Medicis at Chenonceau...
Education of Cupid by Correggio
is commemorated in this room on the second story of the chateau.
Supremely intelligent, patient Catherine had her way with things after the death of husband, Henri II. Catherine rid the place of mistress Diane de Poitiers, reclaiming at the same time the crown jewels. No more was she the tolerant spouse. As mother to three kings, she was the veritable ruler for approximately 30 years.
With her 'diabolical Florintine ambition', she brought Chenonceau to the height of its glory, further developing its architecture, decoration, gardens, vineyards, land revenues, even creating its own silk production - and all this in the midst of the turbulence of the Wars of Religions. She was, after all, the daughter of Lorenzo the Magnificent. She was a builder and had many projects, but Chenonceau was her residence of choice, where no blood had stained its stones.
If Catherine became more austere in her mise after Henri's death, according to Benedetta Craveri, it was to better project an image of majesty for the political role she had determined for herself. Since her authority was derived from her state as a widow and mother, she forced respect by permiting herself no feminine vanity. Nothing was left to chance.
Seen through the window is the gallery designed by Jean Bullant that Catherine had built to top, literally and figuratively, Diane's bridge.
Both it and the surrounding gardens were to become the sites for spectacular celebrations.
Catherine gave one of the most memorable of fetes here on the 15th of May 1577 in honor of two of her sons, Henri III and the Duc of Anjou. It seems that the party had ambiguity for theme, since the men dressed as women and the women as men, if dressed at all. Performers of the commedia dell’arte were brought in from Venice and performed among the revelers. A chronicler at the time reported that "at first glance everyone was perplexed,
not knowing whether there stood before them a woman king or a man queen."
The abbey Chevalier wrote in his
Histoire abregé de Chenonceau,
"It has never been involved with sad political events, no, everything about it speaks only of art, beauty, festivities,
and pleasures."
further reading:
Chenonceau by Jean-Pierre Babelon
