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The Bishop's Palace at Mirepoix (Ariege) and French Renaissance Oak Panelling in a Scottish House

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2011

Extract

The palace at Mirepoix (Ariege), erected by Bishop Philippe de Lévis in the 1520s, still stands today at the west end of the cathedral, its two-storey chapel and offices intact. With its original room layout still easily discernible, it is a unique survivor for its period, offering more information about the domestic arrangements of a bishop than can be deduced from the palaces at either Rouen or AIM. This paper proposes that a set of carved panelling, which for the past 150 years has found shelter in a Scottish baronial mansion, was almost certainly made for the gallery of the Mirepoix palace. A closely reasoned physical argument for this claim is adduced. The work is analysed and discussed in terms of its subject matter, function and style. An attempt is made to put it into the context of early Renaissance art in south-west France, the Loire valley and northern Italy. Its unique significance for the study of the early French Renaissance will become apparent. Finally, the monument's intriguing post-Revolutionary afterlife contributes important new information about the mechanisms of European and British nineteenth-century antiquarianism.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 2005

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