19th Century French School - Panorama Of The Royal Castle Of Amboise

French school from the mid-19th century

Panorama of the royal castle of Amboise

Oil on paper mounted on canvas
Signed indistinctly lower left and dated
31 x 46 cm
May 1859

A symbol of royal power during the Renaissance, the Château d'Amboise was destroyed during the Revolution, leaving only a fifth of its building from the time of its splendor. Yet what remains of this grandiose castle remains impressive.

Located in a strategic location on the Loire, the place has been inhabited since Antiquity. Clovis led battle there against the Visigoths while it was still only an oppidum. It was only at the time of the Norman invasions that the Bishop of Tours entrusted the site to his family, that of Amboise, who built the first fortifications which would make the city the best protected place in the west of the kingdom of the year 1000.
From 1434, the castle became a royal possession after being confiscated following the plot against Louis de Trémoille, one of the favorites of the King, Charles VII. His son, Charles VIII, converted Amboise into a palace while retaining its defensive character. The security there was such that the Château d'Amboise became the "school of Princes and Princesses" equipped with a remarkable library, the back of which would become the national library.
Charles VIII undertook numerous developments from the start of his reign: the construction of the Saint Hubert chapel, the so-called “Charles VIII” wing, the two bridle towers and the park. To create his palace, he enlisted the services of numerous French and Italian artists who transformed the castle into a Renaissance style. 250 masons work permanently on the site. Louis XII, his successor, will continue the development of Amboise with the construction of another wing and the Heurtault tower completed during the reign of François 1st. In fact, he abandoned Amboise in favor of Chambord, Blois then Fontainebleau. However, he invited Leonardo da Vinci to stay at Clos Lucé who would make it his home at the end of his life.
Henri II will carry out other expansions with the construction of several buildings but after him, the castle is abandoned and it will become a luxury prison for the great figures of the State. It then passed to the Duke of Choiseul then to the Duke of Penthièvre before falling into the hands of the revolutionaries in 1792.
It was not the Revolution that destroyed the castle but its owner, Roger Ducos, who had acquired it thanks to Napoleon. Indeed, this man did not have the resources necessary for the maintenance of the building, he had two thirds of it destroyed, including the Collegiate Church of Saint Florentin and the queens' apartments. Louis-Philippe I inherited the castle and continued the destruction of the houses adjoining the castle but redeveloped the Louis XII wing when the Revolution of 1848 confiscated everything again.
In 1873, the Orléans family recovered the castle which became a home for the elderly before Henri d'Orléans bequeathed it to the Saint-Louis Foundation, an organization that he founded and still manages today.

Amboise is the first Italian-inspired castle in the Loire Valley which reflects the transition from Gothic to Renaissance style. Indeed, if the Saint Hubert Chapel, built by Flemish artists in the pure Gothic style, the “Tour des minimes” and the “Tour Heurtault” are of Renaissance architecture, displaying an innovative technical feat which allowed carriages to access to the castle terrace from the banks of the Loire.