There is nothing like the Metropolitan Museum of Art for
constant discovery and a wealth of treasures. Whenever I go, new things attract
my attention and add to my understanding of my characters and their world.
I am quite sure that I have learned as much by the art and
architecture that I have been able to see—starting in Pittsburgh, ongoing here
in New York, of course throughout France, and that excellent exhibition in
Chicago—to compensate in some measure for my inability to read original French
source documents.
Today, just walking
through the French Renaissance rooms of the Met, I saw several of “my
characters”—pieces that I do not think had been on display since I’ve been
working on this. There, all in one cabinet, were a bronze medal of Louise de
Savoie, and enamel and bronze representations of her son François I and his
symbolic salamander (which also appear in stone on the walls of the Alwyn Court
apartment house on West 58th Street).
There was also an enamel of Henri II, the son of Anne’s
daughter Claude and King François I, showing that he inherited his father’s
long pointy nose, as well as the crown of France and Duchy of Brittany after
the death of his older brother, the Dauphin François.
There were six large wooden relief panels from the Château
de Galion, which Cardinal Georges d'Amboise had built—two showed his portrait,
and one that of Louis XII.
The double wood
panels were too high for me to photograph; I asked a very tall man to take the
photos and engaged in a nice conversation with him, his wife and son, visiting
from Holland and finding the museum wonderful.
