SUPERMEN: THE DECOR OF MANSIONS, CHATEAUX AND CHURCHES

THAT EXPLAINS SUPERHUMANS' PRESENCE IN THE ARTS: TAKE DECOR

The mansion of the Minister of Finance (toward 1600)  

The Hotel de Sully, on the first trade route (rue Saint-Antoine) and next to the first royal place (place des Vosges). 

Mantels, the most prestigious sites of glacial châteaux 

• At Écouen* north of Paris, Jacob sins, leaves, returns and is forgiven, like the owner** who offends Diane de Poitiers, leaves the court and eventually reconciles with the king.

*Now the Renaissance Museum

**The Constable of Montmorency (1493-1567) 

Esau's Hunt, museum publication

• At Condé en Brie in Champagne a god carries off a woman. The work alludes to the owner* making a married woman his mistress as Louis XIV had done with Madame de Montespan, and imitates a Versailles statue.

*The Marquis de la Faye, private secretary to Louis XIV

Claude Abron

Château de Condé - Aymeri de Rochefort; Pluto Carries off Prosperine by François Girardon, toward 1690, Versailles / zoom

That mistress, the marquise de Montespan —  suspected of black masses — chose the story of Helen of Troy as decor for her chateau.

-- Athénaïs, the Real Queen of France by Lisa Hilton, 2002

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The clergy could not use a pagan decor, but gave the humble the appearance of gods. Take 11th-and 16th-century views of the shepherds at Christ's birth:

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The most famous use of allegory:

Rubens' celebration of queen Marie de Medici

in 24 life-size paintings for her palace,

 now at the Louvre.

The first modern biography 

uses allegory and mythology to tell her story.

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Next,

Rubens's decor for a queen