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35-526: Notable members of "La Pléiade" consisted of the following people: The core group of the French Renaissance "Pléiade"—Pierre de Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay and Jean-Antoine de Baïf—were young French poets who met at the Collège de Coqueret, where they studied under the famous Hellenist and Latinist scholar Jean Dorat ; they were generally called the "Brigade" at the time. Ronsard was regarded as

70-545: A form of divine inspiration (see Pontus de Tyard for example), a possession by the muses akin to romantic passion, prophetic fervour or alcoholic delirium. The forms that dominate the poetic production of these poets are the Petrarchan sonnet cycle (developed around an amorous encounter or an idealised woman) and the Horatian/Anacreontic ode (of the "wine, women and song" variety, often making use of

105-462: A poem in 1556 Ronsard announced that the "Brigade" had become the "Pléiade", but apparently no one in Ronsard's literary circle used the expression to refer to himself, and use of the term stems principally from Huguenot poets critical of Ronsard's pretensions (Ronsard was a polemicist for the royal Catholic policy). This use was finally consecrated by Ronsard's biographer Claude Binet, shortly after

140-569: A reliance on visual rhetoric , including the elaborate use of allegory and mythology . There are a number of French artists in this period including the painter Jean Fouquet of Tours (who achieved realistic portraits and remarkable illuminated manuscripts ) and the sculptors Jean Goujon and Germain Pilon . Late Mannerism and early Baroque Henry IV invited the artists Toussaint Dubreuil , Martin Fréminet and Ambroise Dubois to work on

175-556: A word first used by the French historian Jules Michelet to define the artistic and cultural "rebirth" of Europe. Notable developments during the French Renaissance include the spread of humanism , early exploration of the "New World" (as New France by Giovanni da Verrazzano and Jacques Cartier ); the development of new techniques and artistic forms in the fields of printing, architecture , painting, sculpture, music,

210-786: The Château d'Amboise and provided him with the Château du Clos Lucé , then called Château de Cloux, as a place to stay and work. Leonardo, a famous painter and inventor, arrived with three of his paintings, namely the Mona Lisa , Sainte Anne , and Saint Jean Baptiste , today owned by the Louvre museum of Paris . The art of the period from Francis I through Henry IV is often inspired by late Italian pictorial and sculptural developments commonly referred to as Mannerism (associated with Michelangelo and Parmigianino , among others), characterized by figures which are elongated and graceful and

245-587: The Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520 for the most magnificent musical entertainment; likely the event was directed by Jean Mouton , one of the most famous motet composers of the early 16th century after Josquin. By far the most significant contribution of France to music in the Renaissance period was the chanson . The chanson was a variety of secular song, of highly varied character, and which included some of

280-529: The Greek Anthology , as well as Virgil , Horace and Ovid . The ideal was not one of slavish imitation, but of a poet so well-versed in the entire corpus of Ancient literature (du Bellay uses the metaphor of "digestion") that he would be able to convert it into an entirely new and rich poetic language in the vernacular . For some of the members of the Pléiade, the act of the poetry itself was seen as

315-515: The château of Fontainebleau and they are typically called the second School of Fontainebleau . Marie de' Medici , Henry IV's queen, invited the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens to France , and the artist painted a number of large-scale works for the queen's Luxembourg Palace in Paris. Another Flemish artist working for the court was Frans Pourbus the younger . Outside France, working for

350-611: The 16th-century Renaissance in France as a period in Europe's cultural history that represented a break from the Middle Ages, creating a modern understanding of humanity and its place in the world. As a French citizen and historian, Michelet also claimed the Renaissance as a French movement. In the late 15th century, the French invasion of Italy and the proximity of the vibrant Burgundy court (with its Flemish connections) brought

385-606: The French into contact with the goods, paintings, and the creative spirit of the Northern and Italian Renaissance , and the initial artistic changes in France were often carried out by Italian and Flemish artists, such as Jean Clouet and his son François Clouet and the Italians Rosso Fiorentino , Francesco Primaticcio and Niccolò dell'Abbate of the first School of Fontainebleau (from 1531). In 1516, Francis I of France invited Leonardo da Vinci to

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420-545: The French royal and aristocratic courts, as well as the major centers of church music . For the most part French composers of the time shunned the sombre colors of the Franco-Flemish style and strove for clarity of line and structure, and, in secular music such as the chanson , lightness, singability, and popularity. Guillaume Du Fay and Gilles Binchois are two notable examples from the Burgundian school during

455-613: The Horatian carpe diem topos - life is short, seize the day). Ronsard also tried early on to adapt the Pindaric ode into French and, later, to write a nationalist verse epic modelled on Homer and Virgil (entitled the Franciade ), which he never completed. Throughout the period, the use of mythology is frequent, but so too is a depiction of the natural world (woods, rivers). Minor figures also associated with this term include

490-575: The Protestant sympathizers among them) produced a variation of the chanson known as the chanson spirituelle , which was like the secular song but was fitted with a religious or moralizing text. Claude Goudimel , a Protestant composer most noted for his Calvinist-inspired psalm settings, was murdered in Lyon during the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre . However, not only Protestant composers were killed during

525-757: The Renaissance arrived in France earlier (for example, by way of the Burgundy court or the papal court in Avignon ); however, the Black Death of the 14th century and the Hundred Years' War kept France economically and politically weak until the late 15th century. The word renaissance is a French word, whose literal translation into English is "rebirth". The term was first used and defined by French historian Jules Michelet in his 1855 work Histoire de France (History of France). Jules Michelet defined

560-541: The Tuscan of Petrarch and Dante ) was a worthy language for literary expression, to attempt to ennoble the French language by imitating the Ancients. To this end du Bellay recommended vernacular innovation of Greek and Roman poetic forms, emulation of specific models, and the creation of neologisms based on Greek and Latin. Among the models favoured by the Pléiade were Pindar , Anacreon , Alcaeus and other poets of

595-602: The chanson was the style of musique mesurée , as exemplified in the work of Claude Le Jeune : in this type of chanson, based on developments by the group of poets known as the Pléiade under Jean-Antoine de Baïf , the musical rhythm exactly matched the stress accents of the verse, in an attempt to capture some of the rhetorical effect of music in Ancient Greece (a coincident, and apparently unrelated movement in Italy at

630-418: The dukes of Lorraine , one finds a very different late mannerist style in the artists Jacques Bellange , Claude Deruet and Jacques Callot . Having little contact with the French artists of the period, they developed a heightened, extreme, and often erotic mannerism (including night scenes and nightmare images), and excellent skill in etching . One of the greatest accomplishments of the French Renaissance

665-492: The early Renaissance period. The most renowned composer in Europe, Josquin des Prez , worked for a time in the court of Louis XII , and likely composed some of his most famous works there (his first setting of Psalm 129, De profundis , was probably written for the funeral of Louis XII in 1515). Francis I, who became king that year, made the creation of an opulent musical establishment a priority. His musicians went with him on his travels, and he competed with Henry VIII at

700-702: The era of conflict; in 1581, Catholic Antoine de Bertrand , a prolific composer of chansons, was murdered in Toulouse by a Protestant mob. Cultural movement A cultural movement is a shared effort by loosely affiliated individuals to change the way others in society think by disseminating ideas through various art forms and making intentional choices in daily life. By definition, cultural movements are intertwined with other phenomena such as social movements and political movements , and can be difficult to distinguish from broader cultural change or transformation . Historically, different nations or regions of

735-509: The following: The use of the term "Pléiade" to refer to the group the French poets around Ronsard and Du Bellay is much criticised. In his poems, Ronsard frequently made lists of those he considered the best poets of his generation, but these lists changed several times. These lists always included Ronsard, du Bellay, de Baïf, Pontus de Tyard and Étienne Jodelle ; the last two positions were taken by Rémy Belleau , Jacques Pelletier du Mans , Jean de la Péruse , or Guillaume des Autels . In

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770-570: The form of canals, cascades and monumental fountains, and extensive use of artificial grottes , labyrinths and statues of mythological figures. They became an extension of the chateaux that they surrounded, and were designed to illustrate the Renaissance ideals of measure and proportion. Burgundy , the mostly French -speaking area unified with the Kingdom of France in 1477. Many of the most famous musicians in Europe either came from Burgundy, or went to study with composers there; in addition there

805-454: The leader of the "Brigade", and remained the most popular and well-known poet of the group. The Pléiade's "manifesto" was penned by Joachim du premiere Bellay ( La Défense et illustration de la langue française 1549). In it, Du Bellay detailed a literary program of renewal and revolution. The group aimed to break with earlier traditions of French poetry (especially Marot and the grands rhétoriqueurs ), and, maintaining that French (like

840-462: The most overwhelmingly popular music of the 16th century: indeed many chansons were sung all over Europe. The chanson in the early 16th century was characterised by a dactylic opening (long, short-short) and contrapuntal style which was later adopted by the Italian canzona , the predecessor of the sonata . Typically chansons were for three or four voices, without instrumental accompaniment, but

875-401: The most popular examples were inevitably made into instrumental versions as well. Famous composers of these "Parisian" chansons included Claudin de Sermisy and Clément Janequin . Janequin's La guerre , written to celebrate the French victory at Marignano in 1515, imitates the sounds of cannon, the cries of the wounded, and the trumpets signaling advance and retreat. A later development of

910-472: The poet's death. Some modern literary historians reject the use of the term, as it gives precedence to Ronsard's poetic ideas and minimises the diversity of poetic production in the French Renaissance. French Renaissance The French Renaissance was the cultural and artistic movement in France between the 15th and early 17th centuries. The period is associated with the pan-European Renaissance ,

945-495: The popular change from one to the next can be swift and sudden, the beginning and end of movements are somewhat subjective. This is because the movements did not spring out of the blue and into existence then come to an abrupt end and lose total support, as would be suggested by a date range. Thus use of the term "period" is somewhat deceptive. "Period" also suggests a linearity of development, whereas it has not been uncommon for two or more distinctive cultural approaches to be active at

980-531: The prior cultural form, which typically has grown stale and repetitive. An obsession emerges among the mainstream with the new movement, and the old one falls into neglect – sometimes it dies out entirely, but often it chugs along favored in a few disciplines and occasionally making reappearances (sometimes prefixed with "neo-"). There is continual argument over the precise definition of each of these periods as one historian might group them differently, or choose different names or descriptions. Even though in many cases

1015-619: The same time was known as the Florentine Camerata ). Towards the end of the 16th century the chanson was gradually replaced by the air de cour , the most popular song type in France in the early 17th century. The era of religious wars had a profound effect on music in France. Influenced by Calvinism , the Protestants produced a type of sacred music much different from the elaborate Latin motets written by their Catholic counterparts. Both Protestants and Catholics (especially

1050-407: The same time. Historians will be able to find distinctive traces of a cultural movement before its accepted beginning, and there will always be new creations in old forms. So it can be more useful to think in terms of broad "movements" that have rough beginnings and endings. Yet for historical perspective, some rough date ranges will be provided for each to indicate the "height" or accepted time span of

1085-453: The sciences and literature ; and the elaboration of new codes of sociability, etiquette and discourse. The French Renaissance traditionally extends from (roughly) the 1494 French invasion of Italy during the reign of Charles VIII until the 1610 death of Henry IV , with an apex during the 1515–1559 reigns of Francis I and Henry II . This chronology notwithstanding, certain artistic, technological or literary developments associated with

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1120-1005: The west of the Louvre, Catherine de' Medici had built for her the Tuileries palace with extensive gardens and a grotte . The ascension of Henry IV of France to the throne brought a period of massive urban development in Paris , including construction on the Pont Neuf , the Place des Vosges (called the "Place Royale"), the Place Dauphine , and parts of the Louvre (amongst which the Great Gallery). French Renaissance gardens were characterized by symmetrical and geometric planting beds or parterres ; plants in pots; paths of gravel and sand; terraces; stairways and ramps; moving water in

1155-400: The world have gone through their own independent sequence of movements in culture ; but as world communications have accelerated, this geographical distinction has become less distinct. When cultural movements go through revolutions from one to the next, genres tend to get attacked and mixed up, and often new genres are generated and old ones fade.: These changes are often reactions against

1190-477: Was considerable interchange between the Burgundian court musical establishment and French courts and ecclesiastical organizations in the late 15th century. The Burgundian style gave birth to the Franco-Flemish style of polyphony which dominated European music in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. However, by the end of the 15th century, a French national character was becoming distinct in music of

1225-571: Was the construction of the Châteaux of the Loire Valley : no longer conceived of as fortresses, these pleasure palaces took advantage of the richness of the rivers and lands of the Loire region and they show remarkable architectural skill. The old Louvre castle in Paris was also rebuilt under the direction of Pierre Lescot and would become the core of a brand new Renaissance château . To

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