Castles seen from the outbursts

The French Revolution has crystallized around the Palace of Versailles the image of royal absolutism, whose architectural and artistic refinements have long been assimilated to a form of moral and political debauchery, assimilated to the old regime. At XIX^e century, the Gothic novel, the romanticism and the restorations of Viollet-le-Duc bequeathed an imaginary of the fortified medieval castle, emblem of the seigneury and its civil and military powers. Christophe Morin is interested in other castles – those, very numerous, who have multiplied in France throughout the XVIII^e century, under the regency and then under the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVIin the great and the little nobility, but also in the high financial bourgeoisie which sought to conquer the attributes of the symbolic power of the monarchy. Despite some excursions to Normandy, Picardy and Touraine, the geographic space favored by the author is Île-de-France, which was the indisputable laboratory of Castral Architecture and its developments at the time of the Enlightenment, between town and countryside, near Paris and Versailles. But, as the beautiful title of the book indicates, the object of study is less the castle, to which important work has already been devoted, than all of the utility buildings which serve the life of the castle and its occupants, masters, servants and valets.

From field surveys and photographic campaigns – because many of these buildings remain today, partially or totally -, the results of which have been confronted with research of archives, plans and projects, and without ever losing sight of the differences between the theory and the achievements of the architects of time (Ledoux, Antoine, Brongniart or Chalgrin, to name just the most eminent), Christophe Analytical and learned look at utility spaces hitherto rather neglected by the history of art and the history of architecture. At the end connoisseur of uses, tastes and behaviors subject to convenience, a meticulous observer of space distributions and technical constraints of construction, the author first draws up a typology of dependencies or commons with regard to the main building, that is to say considered no longer as accessory places developed in the son of time and needs, but inscribed in the architectural program of the castle and the adjoining gardens. It is therefore to the apprehension of a “ castle Indirect, that the work invites us, where the buildings of utility take precedence, according to a paradox which crosses the XVIII^e century: how can these service spaces participate in the power, prestige and comfort of the owner of the castle, without being of an inconvenient presence ?

Around the castle

Thus, through the some 70 buildings whose commons he studies, Christophe Morin reviews the different dependencies of the castle, their theorization and their destination, their functions and their uses, their articulation, according to a series of approaches which associate the tools of the history of architecture, political and social history and cultural anthropology-the author knows the work of Jean-Louis Flandrin and Daniel Roche well. His journey starts from the spaces contiguous to the Lord’s home to gradually move away through the gardens. This course makes it possible to first specify the spaces of the service of the mouth: the kitchens and the office, the supply and the water points, in their relations with the dining room and the service, with their variants and their disadvantages: in wing or in the basement. Following, the author is interested in places of conservation, whose status is more ambiguous, sometimes confusing use and approval, such as the orangery established as a building of utility but also perceived as a place of pleasure and fantasy, a collection and spectacle space, whose requirements of insulation and heating have been understood as solutions adaptable to the castle, for the comfort of its inhabitants. Then come the coolers, whose establishment and the strong development must be reported to the rise of the “ ice drinking », Fashionable by Procope. Christophe Morin restores the simple principle of the functioning of coolers, their stewardship and their filling, which determine their underground location, their masonry construction and the orientation north of their openings. It also shows how they are gradually integrated into the garden whose shadow protects them, then to its factories. In a second step, the work questions the spaces devoted to the servants, according to their function and their rank, according to their degree of education and intimacy with the masters: they vary, inside the castle for the valets in the service of the lords, in the outbuildings according to their assignment to the stables or to the kennel-with a particular situation for the gardener, new candid of lights, with an autonomous space. Finally, Christophe Morin scans the important spaces dedicated to animals and which are, more or less, dedicated to the Vénerie: the stables including the stalls of the horses, the fodder and cereal granaries, the coaches discounts, the saddlery and the marshalie ; The kennel that can house sometimes numerous packs, like those of the Duke of Penthièvre (in Septuil) or the Prince of Condé (in Chantilly) ; The makeover, finally, which allows breeding in incubators and volers, both for the pleasure of hunting and for the distraction of the promenade and the prestige of attraction.

The organization of the outbuildings

In the second part of his work, Christophe Morin studies the organization prevailing in the construction and decoration of the architecture of the commons, that the XVIII^e century no longer considers a simple utility place, but as one of the constituent elements of the enhancement of the castle. The equation in which the architects are faced with the integration of the commons with a property organized according to a centered plan, where the main body remains the focal point, determining circulation and distributions, in accordance with the convenience criterion. It is therefore now, on the Versaillais model and its derivatives (Trianon or Marly), an overall attention which is paid to these buildings, correlatively to the castle and its gardens, its access, its relationships with the local topography, the surrounding nature and the village. Commons and dependencies are subject to the main house, but they participate in the rationalization of the space, the scheduling of the property and the valuation of the castle they serve. The symmetry of the locations, the hierarchy of constructions, the proportions of utility buildings and their decor, also ensure the readability of the seigniorial order, reconciled with the needs of the new vocation of the castle which has become a resort. It is in a series of complex balances-between utility and approval, between functionality and proclamation, between visibility and hierarchy-that Christophe Morin studies the plans, elevations and carved programs of these buildings: bas-reliefs of dogs in the leaves with the pediments of the chenils, iconography of the horse, hunting scenes or ovid mythological figures Archivolts of stables, attributes of gardening at the fore-body of the orangeies …

Small is beautiful

In the last part of his study, the author wonders about “ The fiction of living in a small house Which spreads in the wealthy French society of XVIII^e century, while the king himself seeks to free himself from the weight of the royal label by looking for the life of “ small apartments And by escaping from Versailles for Trianon, where he stays in the illusion of “ A pavilion in dependence of the main castle -In a country house, which seems to be out of commons and which pretends to be akin to an pleasure building. It follows from these new conceptions, also fertilized by Palladianism and English architecture, social codes and lifestyles which change and arouse an inflation of constructions, considering the domain as a composition in trompe-l’oeil, where buildings of utility will have to be hidden in the gardens (Anglo-Chinese or the English) or the greenery, The harmony of human and physical nature and to meet the requirements of convenience. It is, according to Christophe Morin, a sign of the secularization of the castle program and the democratization of this form of habitat which, before the revolution, is no longer entirely recognized as a symbolic element of monarchical power. It is also, paradoxically, the moment when the architects are the most inventive and the most free, in their theoretical proposals as in their creations, since the life of the castle is largely emancipated from the criteria of decorum and the obligations inherent in any political or social representation.

Enriched with an abundant iconography which accompanies the demonstration that reinforces of the documentary annexes provided, the book of Christophe Morin is a precious tool in many respects: it comes to consolidate the too small bibliography on the architecture of the XVIII^e century and more particularly that on castles, gardens and follies of the classical age, by examining a series of objects often considered minor ; It also opens the way to a transdisciplinary history of architecture as a form of aesthetic and philosophical, political, social and cultural considerations ; He finally offers considerations and elements of appreciation of contemporary France which, in the wake of the Revolution, inherited these buildings, sometimes neglected them or made a heritage object.