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The Bulletin du Centre de recherche du château de Versailles is a peer-reviewed online journal produced by the Centre de Recherche du Château de Versailles (CRCV). It publishes articles and studies relating to European court societies, mainly from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. The Bulletin welcomes contributions from researchers in all languages and from any discipline or institution.

Latest issue
27 | 2025
Le stuc dans les grands décors en France et en Europe, de la Renaissance à 1850

Actes du colloque, 11-13 décembre 2023, Versailles, Paris et Fontainebleau
Stucco in Grand Decors in France and Europe, from the Renaissance to 1850. Symposium proceedings, 11-13 December 2023. Versailles, Paris and Fontainebleau
Edited by Lionel Arsac , Oriane Beaufils , Anne Bouquillon , Ann Bourgès , Valérie Carpentier-Vanhaverbeke , Stéphanie Deschamps-Tan , Jean Ducasse-Lapeyrusse , Étienne Guibert and Léon Lock

The use of stucco in Antiquity and the Middle Ages has long attracted the interest of French art historians and heritage scientists. However, apart from the Provençal and Languedoc regions – where the academic community is particularly active in the study of decorative arts – stucco remains a relatively underexplored field in France for the period spanning the Renaissance to the nineteenth century.

Yet, the topic of stucco has recently gained momentum across Europe, as evidenced by the Centro Studi per la Storia dello Stucco in Età Moderna e Contemporanea, the publications of the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed in the Netherlands, and the conferences organized by the Low Countries Sculpture Society and the University of Pardubice in the Czech Republic.

This issue stems from an international symposium held from 11 to 13 December 2023, at the Château de Versailles, the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France and the Château de Fontainebleau. The aim of this publication is to take stock of ongoing research, recent advances in the fields of restoration and scientific analysis, and discoveries made during recent restoration projects, and to define new multidisciplinary research perspectives. The Mazarin Gallery at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the chamber of the Duchess of Étampes, the François Ier Gallery and the Porte Dorée at Fontainebleau, the Apollo Gallery and Anne of Austria’s summer apartments at the Louvre, as well as the Hall of Mirrors and the Salon of Diana at Versailles, are all examples of recent or ongoing restoration campaigns involving stucco. These projects provide an opportunity to shed new light on the role of stucco in major French decorative ensembles from the Renaissance to the nineteenth century.

This symposium was the first event organized by a new research group devoted to stucco decoration in major residences in France and Europe from the Renaissance to 1850. Founded in 2023 by Lionel Arsac, curator at the Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon – where he is in charge of sculpture and preventive conservation of collections – the group brings together several museums and heritage and scientific institutions: the Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon (Lionel Arsac and Pierre-Hippolyte Pénet), the Musée National du Château de Compiègne (Étienne Guibert), the Musée National du Château de Fontainebleau (Anaïs Dorey and Thomas Morel), the Musée du Louvre (Valérie Carpentier-Vanhaverbeke and Stéphanie Deschamps-Tan), the Villa et Jardins Ephrussi de Rothschild (Oriane Beaufils), the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France (Anne Bouquillon and Ann Bourgès), the Laboratoire de Recherche des Monuments Historiques (Mathilde Tiennot) and the Low Countries Sculpture Society (Léon Lock).

Presentation of the symposium on the Centre de Recherche du Château de Versailles website
– Symposium programme (PDF)
– Broadcasts of the three days of the symposium are available on the ‘Groupe Stucs’ YouTube channel.

Editor’s notes

Cette publication a reçu le soutien financier du château de Versailles.

Correcteurs : Jean-Claude Baillieul (textes en français), Leah Morin (textes en anglais)

Nous remercions Léon Lock pour sa relecture des textes en anglais, ainsi que Valentine Karrer.

Date de mise en ligne : 15 décembre 2025
 

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