1. Amboise, town2. Château Gaillard, Amboise3. Tours, town4. Royal Château of Amboise5. Royal Château of Blois6. Château de Chenonceau7. Château de Nitray, Athée-sur-Cher8. Château d’Azay-le-Rideau9. Château de Chambord10. St. Anne's Collegiate Church, château, Ussé11. St. John the Baptist Collegiate Church, Montrésor1213. Town hall, Beaugency14. Château de Villesavin, Tour-en-Sologne15. Château de l’Islette, Cheillé – Azay-le-Rideau16. Loches, town17. Château de Villandry18. Château de La Côte, Reugny19. Sainte-Chapelle, Champigny-sur-Veude20. Royal Abbey of Fontevraud, the Grand Moûtier and the Chapter House21. Le Rivau, stables of the château, Lémeré
Jehan de Seigné Chapel, Bléré
The small town of Bléré lies on the left bank of the Cher River, east of Tours. The funeral chapel today adorns a public square, built on the site of an old cemetery. This lonely little building is a rare example of its kind, built in the early Renaissance style of the Touraine region.
Guillaume de Seigne was lord of Boispateau and Bois-Ramé, Governor of Montrichard, as well as Treasurer and Receveur général (receiver general) for the Royal Artillery between 1518 and 1526. In 1515, Guillaume de Seigne took part in the victorious Battle of Marignano in 1520 and was responsible for the manufacture and transport of tents and pavilions for the Field of the Cloth of Gold. His funeral chapel was built around 1526. While it is likely that he himself initiated its construction, it is certain that it was his son, Jehan, who completed it.
The appearance of the chapel as a whole is striking. What sets it apart is its cubic shape with a square layout, the addition of a polygonal apse, and an octagonal dome on top of a base. It used to be crowned by a lantern. The powerful classical entablature still has some elements of a railing and gargoyles. The treatment of its three façades is a reference to triumphal arches: the corners are accentuated by protruding buttresses, each spanned by a wide arch appearing in the wall. The entrance opens into a three-centred vault with columns, topped by an architrave decorated with rinceaux and military objects, and a curved pediment. The side façades and the three segments of the apse wall feature windows combining the two styles. The vaulted interior of the chapel remains late Gothic, with capitals and Renaissance niches. Today there is no trace of a tomb or the original furnishings.
The ornamental style, consisting of a diamond-shaped pattern, candelabra motifs and volutes, typically belongs to the early Renaissance. The military objects (i.e. cannons and flaming cannonballs) are a reference to the career of the deceased. The finesse of the motifs would suggest the involvement of an Italian artist.
A remarkable monument with its "Antiquity-inspired" architecture, the chapel differs greatly from his contemporaries. Firstly it is not attached to a church, and Gothic architecture has almost completely been abandoned. This independence allowed even more innovative ideas to be considered. The search for perfect shapes was a significant concern for Renaissance followers. Cubes and spheres were considered to be able to express perfection. Domes then symbolised infinity.
French echoes of the dome crowning Florence's Cathedral were rare at the time. Although the two small domes of the cathedral of Tours are reminiscent of it, they are not as curved as Bléré's. To these references must be added the allusion to the triumphal arch, the ultimate recognition for a soldier in Antiquity.
War and the search for perfection thus coexisted peacefully in the world of this man touched by the Renaissance. In devising this chapel, he not only demonstrated his refined taste, but also his audacity.
