In the 16th century, the Château de Fontainebleau was an essential venue for courtly celebrations. Presented in the Salle de la Belle Cheminée, this exhibition brings together a hundred works created to prepare or evoke these festivities. Paintings, tapestries, parade armor, costume drawings, and commemorative booklets open a window onto the backstage of 16th-century pageantry.

This exhibition also highlights the central role played by Catherine de’ Medici in establishing a true diplomacy of entertainment. The greatest artists of the Renaissance—Rosso Fiorentino, Francesco Primaticcio, Philibert Delorme, Antoine Caron, as well as Pierre de Ronsard—worked to design decors, programs, and costumes, ranging from the most solemn to the most extravagant: this is the Art of Festivity.

Our objective is to allow visitors to immerse themselves in the objects through the experience of the venue, giving them the feeling of strolling through a celebration hosted by Queen Catherine de’ Medici and dancing alongside the future King Henry III.