L'appartement des bains du connétable de Montmorency au château d'Écouen

摘要

The bathing apartment of Anne de Montmorency at the château of Ecouen, by Thierry Crépin-Leblond. The château of Ecouen, begun in 1538, included in its original construction a large room, linely vaulted and graced with elegant sculptural decoration, which was intended to be used for bathing. It gave directly onto the garden and the royal tennis court. The room was compleniented toward 1550 by a vestry, a dry steam room and a room for relaxing. These modifications may be attributed to Jean Bullant, who also built the baths for the Parisian hotels of Anne de Montmorency and Catherine de Medici. The bathing apartment at Ecouen belongs to a tradition begun under François 1er and strongh encouraged by Henri II : Fontainebleau, Chantilly, the hôtel of Ferrara, the hôtel of Guise in Paris, the châteaux of Saint-Gennain-en-Laye and of Dampierre all had bathing installations, corresponding more to a social ritual at court under the influence of antiquity than to a habit of hygiène.