Miroirs de Charles IX: images, imaginaires, symbolique

Abstract

"Violent and extravagant". This is what historiography has retained from Charles IX (1550-1574). Became king when he was only a child, he disappeared before his quarter century. From his fourteen years of reign, one remembers his passion for hunting, his angry temperament and ... the blood of St. Bartholomew. If history has often made him a puppet in the hands of his mother Catherine de Medici, the history of art has little attached to his reign. And yet, between 1560 and 1574, visual arts, literature and music flourished in France. "Of a quick and lively spirit, between soft and anger" (Ronsard) the young king, informed music lover, was writer and poet at his hours. The superb portraits of Clouet keep the memory of his face and allow to follow the metamorphoses of his features over his short life. At the same time, a whole symbolic arsenal is deployed by the courtiers of the court to shape the image of the kingship it is supposed to embody. His opponents will do the same to destroy or distract her.