FRENCH RENAISSANCE TILES

By: Masseot Abaquesne (active 1526 - 1564)

Framed dimensions: 18 1/4 in x 18 1/2 (46.4 x 47 cm)

The 16 tiles are painted to create a pattern of fists in gauntlets holding broadswords that enclose the initials AM.  Surrounding curling ribbons bear the letters A P L A N O S

The initials are those of Anne de Montmorency and his wife, Madeleine de Savoie, for whom the chateau of ƒcouen was constructed.  APLANOS (Greek for straightforward) was the Montmorency motto.

The tiles comprise one of the four motives whose repeats made up the floor of the Galerie de PsychŽ at the Chateau of ƒcouen.  A tile from another example of this motive (in the MusŽe de la CŽramique, Rouen) is dated 1542 documenting this floor as the earliest of three provided by the hugely successful Rouen potter Masseot Abaquesne to his most important client, Anne de Montmorency, for chateau of Ecouen.   The Galerie de Psych   floor was dismantled during the Revolution and many of its tiles were dispersed finding their way into various French and foreign museums (including the Victoria and Albert, London).  A long-term project at the Musee National de la Renaissance, Ecouen, has resulted in the assembly, study and re-installation of a large number of the tiles in their original configuration.   There are twenty-one examples of this motive presently at Ecouen.