Quoted in Lee, 43. After the dance was over, Catherine invited the spectators to join with the performers in a social dance. The Ballet Comique de la Reine, from an engraving of 1582 Over the years, Catherine increased the element of dance in her festive entertainments, and it became the norm for a major ballet to climax each series of magnificences. The Ballet Comique de la Reine, devised under Catherine's influence, by Queen Louise for the Joyeuse Magnificences of 1581, is regarded by historians as the moment when the ballet de cour assumed the character of a new art form.
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A highly talented and artistic woman, Catherine took the lead in devising and planning her own musical-mythological shows and is regarded as their creator as well as their sponsor. Historian Frances Yates has called her "a great creative artist in festivals".Yates, 68. Though they were ephemeral, Catherine's "magnificences" are studied by modern scholars as works of art.
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Strong, 116–19. Another of the Joyeuse magnificences was the Ballet Comique de la Reine, devised and presented by Queen Louise, who directed her own team of writers and musicians. The text was by Nicolas de La Chesnaye, the music by the Sieur de Beaulieu, the sets by Jacques Patin, and the overall director was Balthasar de Beaujoyeulx.Strong, 119.
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In the tradition of sixteenth-century royal festivals, Catherine de' Medici's magnificences took place over several days, with a different entertainment each day. Often individual nobles or members of the royal family were responsible for preparing one particular entertainment. Spectators and participants, including those involved in martial sports, would dress up in costumes representing mythological or romantic themes. Catherine gradually introduced changes to the traditional form of these entertainments.
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The Valois Tapestries are a series of eight tapestries depicting festivities or "magnificences"Strong, Roy, Splendor at Court, pp. 121–167. held by Catherine de' Medici's Royal Courts in the second half of the 16th century. The tapestries were primarily modeled on drawings done by Antoine CaronYates, "The Valois Tapestries", p. xx. and assembled by teams of weavers in the Burgundian Netherlands, probably in Brussels or Antwerp,Jardine and Brotten, p. 130.
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Though they were ephemeral, her "magnificences"—as the contemporary commentator Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de Brantôme, called them—are studied by modern scholars as works of art. Historian Frances Yates has called Catherine "a great creative artist in festivals".Yates, 68. She employed the leading artists and architects of the day to create the necessary dramas, music, and scenic effects for these events, which were usually dedicated to the ideal of peace and based on mythological themes.
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Strong, 117. The chief artist employed to design the magnificences was Antoine Caron, who was aided by the sculptor Germain Pilon. Among the writers were Dorat, Ronsard, and Philippe Desportes; and the music was written by Claude Le Jeune and the Sieur de Beaulieu, among others. The Ballet Comique de la Reine, from an engraving of 1582 by Jacques Patin A programme for an entertainment with a sun–moon theme announced that "twelve torch bearers will be men and women disguised as trees ... the golden fruits of which will carry lamps and torches".
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Claude Le Jeune, the leading composer of the day, wrote music for Catherine de' Medici's entertainments and for court ceremonies and religious occasions The well-documented Joyeuse magnificences of 1581 provide the clearest evidence of the influence of this artistic movement on Catherine de' Medici's entertainments. The chief composer of music for the performances was Claude Le Jeune (1528–1600). His musique mesurée was played at the wedding itself, and his song "La Guerre" was sung during a foot-combat in the Louvre. He also wrote the music for an elaborate show on a sun-moon theme, once again setting vers mesurés to musique mesurée.
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Another French spectator recorded, "Strangers of all nations were now forced to recognise that in these things France had surpassed, with these parades, bravado, glories and magnificences, all other nations and even herself". Catherine believed she had showed Spain that the French monarchy, far from being financially ruined and at war with its nobles, remained a glorious force to be reckoned with, capable of financing displays on a stunning scale, backed by a unified court. The point was lost on the grim Duke of Alba, however. His letters reveal his frustration that Catherine’s spectacles kept interrupting the serious business of discussing how to make war on the Protestants.
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Frieda, 225. Catherine employed the leading writers, artists, and architects of the day, including Antoine Caron, Germain Pilon, and Pierre Ronsard, to create the dramas, music, scenic effects, and decorative works required to animate the themes of the festivals, which were usually mythological and dedicated to the ideal of peace in the realm. It is difficult for scholars to reconstruct the exact form of Catherine's entertainments, but research into the written accounts, scripts, artworks, and tapestries that derived from these famous occasions has provided evidence of their richness and scale. In the tradition of 16th-century royal festivals, Catherine de' Medici's magnificences took place over several days, with a different entertainment on each day.
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Henri III (detail), Franco-Flemish school, c. 1582. Catherine de' Medici's court festivals were a series of lavish and spectacular entertainments, sometimes called magnificences, laid on by Catherine de' Medici, the queen consort of France from 1547 to 1559 and queen mother from 1559 until her death in 1589. As queen consort of Henry II of France, Catherine showed interest in the arts and theatre, but it was not until she attained real political and financial power as queen mother that she began the series of tournaments and entertainments that dazzled her contemporaries and continue to fascinate scholars. Biographer Leonie Frieda suggests that "Catherine, more than anyone, inaugurated the fantastic entertainments for which later French monarchs also became renowned".
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Missing from the inventory drawn up after Catherine's death were the eight huge tapestries, known as the Valois tapestries, now held at the Uffizi gallery in Florence, which depict "magnificences" such as those at Bayonne in 1565 during the summit meeting between the French and Spanish courts and the ball laid on at the Tuileries palace in 1573 by Catherine for the Polish envoys who offered the crown of their country to her son Henry of Anjou.Knecht, 242–43. These magnificent hangings, originally designed during the reign of King Charles IX by Antoine Caron in the early 1570s,Dimier, 190. Caron was also responsible for a series of cartoons for tapestries on the theme of Artemisia, in honour of Catherine de' Medici.
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As queen consort of France, Catherine patronised the arts and the theatre, but not until she attained real political and financial power as queen mother did she begin the series of tournaments and entertainments, sometimes called "magnificences", that dazzled her contemporaries and continue to fascinate scholars. The most famous of these were the court festivals mounted at Fontainebleau and at Bayonne during Charles IX's royal progress of 1564–65; the entertainments for the Polish ambassadors at the Tuileries in 1573; and the celebrations following the marriages of Catherine's daughter Marguerite to Henry of Navarre in 1572 and of her daughter-in-law's sister, Marguerite of Lorraine, to Anne, Duke of Joyeuse, in 1581. On all these occasions, Catherine organised sequences of lavish and spectacular entertainments. Biographer Leonie Frieda suggests that "Catherine, more than anyone, inaugurated the fantastic entertainments for which later French monarchs also became renowned".
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