MASTERS of the Fontainebleau School
French painters (second half of the 16th century)

Fontainebleau is a royal palace of Francis I. It was begun in 1528 and added to for the next 200 years. The Galerie François I (1533-40) introduces the so-called "Fontainebleau style" of interior decoration, a combination of sculpture, metalwork, painting, stucco and woodwork. It was evolved by Italian artists Niccolò dell'Abbate, Primaticcio and Rosso, who worked for Francis I from 1530 to 1560. The first School of Fontainebleau introduced Mannerism to France.

Henry IV devoted considerable energy to the decoration of the royal palaces, but unfortunately few of the paintings which he commissioned survive, and we are therefore badly informed about the so-called Second School of Fontainebleau, which was responsible for them. The name is generally applied to three painters: Ambroise Dubois, Toussaint Dubreuil and Martin Fréminet, who may be said to have revived the function of their predecessors at Fontainebleau after the Wars of Religion interrupted large-scale painting in France. However, the second School of Fontainebleau was less important.

Preview Picture Data File Info Comment
Mythological Allegory
c. 1580
Oil on canvas, 130 x 96 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

877*1200
True Color
160 Kb



Mythological Allegory (detail)
c. 1580
Oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre, Paris

1226*790
True Color
154 Kb



Charity
c. 1560
Oil on canvas,147 x 97 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

700*1113
True Color
110 Kb



Allegory of the Birth of the Dauphin
c. 1560
Oil on panel, 91 x 125 cm
Staatliche Museen, Berlin

1400*978
True Color
145 Kb



Diana at the Bath
c. 1590
Oil on wood, 105 x 76 cm
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon

907*1200
True Color
135 Kb



The Diana of Anet
1550-54
Marble, 211 x 258 x 135 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

1059*1400
True Color
146 Kb



The Diana of Anet
1550-54
Marble, 211 x 258 x 135 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

1221*1600
True Color
236 Kb



The Diana of Anet
1550-54
Marble, 211 x 258 x 135 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

1500*1116
True Color
155 Kb



Diane de Poitiers
c. 1590
Tempera on wood, 115 x 98,5 cm
Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel

740*840
True Color
80 Kb



Portrait of Gabrielle d'Estrées with her Sister
1590s
Oil on wood, 129 x 97 cm
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

1000*1331
True Color
131 Kb



Gabrielle d'Estrées and one of her Sisters
c. 1595
Oil on canvas, 96 x 125 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

1034*785
True Color
92 Kb



Diana Huntress
1550-60
Oil on canvas, 192 x 133 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

1169*1700
True Color
249 Kb



The Lovers
-
Oil on canvas, 90 x 82 cm
Private collection

772*850
True Color
110 Kb



Joseph and Potiphar's Wife
1556
Oil on panel, 70 x 89 cm
Private collection

1298*1010
True Color
168 Kb



Angels supporting coat of arms
c. 1615
Stucco
Chapel of the Trinité, Fontainebleau

1200*1044
True Color
242 Kb



Angels supporting coat of arms
c. 1615
Stucco
Chapel of the Trinité, Fontainebleau

1000*564
True Color
139 Kb



Venus at Her Toilet
c. 1550
Oil on canvas, 97 x 126 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

1400*1070
True Color
160 Kb