It was during these years of leisure necessitated by ill-health, that the Bailly of Troyes rebuilt the Château of Polisy from the ground. The construction of the new house brings us to an interesting episode in his career, namely, his relations with the Italian artists employed by the King of France. The great architectural movement which marked the era of Francis I. could hardly have been lost on so keen an observer as Jean de Dinteville. One by one many of the palaces of the French Renaissance had risen before his eyes. His boyhood had witnessed the completion of Blois and Chenonceaux; later years had seen the growth of Chambord, Azay-le-Rideau, Fontainebleau, the curiously-named Château of Madrid, near Paris, and other important constructions. Ecouen, too, the magnificent abode of his cousin, the Connétable, was now rising from the ground. On all sides the spirit of the age was expressing itself in dwellings of surpassing beauty and luxury. Great men and small men built, each according to his means. Those who could not afford palaces contented themselves with houses of smaller dimensions indeed, but pervaded by the same sense of harmonious proportion, emphasized by graceful ornament.

From about the year 1530, when Il Rosso settled in France, a number of distinguished Italians were engaged in the royal service, especially at Madrid and Fontainebleau. The well-known predilections of the king for Italian work set the stamp of fashion on the employment of these artists, and for many years the Italians occupied on the royal buildings were largely in request beyond the precincts of the Court. On the death of Il Rosso, in 1541, the Bolognese, Francesco Primaticcio, succeeded him as head of the works at Fontainebleau. He had already been employed by the king, after a first visit to France, to collect statues and other works of art for him in Italy. Enjoying a high reputation in his own country as the pupil of Bagnacavallo and Giulio Romano, the latter of whom he had assisted in the decorations of the Palazzo del Te at Mantua, Primaticcio soon rose to the first place among his fellow-countrymen in France. He was ultimately appointed director of all the royal works, including painting, architecture, and sculpture, and continued to fill this post until his death, which occurred in 1570.

Associated with Primaticcio in the decorations of Fontainebleau was his assistant, Niccolò da Modena, called Niccolò dell’ Abate. Both these men undertook many private commissions in addition to their work at Court. They were employed, for instance, by Montmorency to decorate his house in Paris.⁠[280]

Another Italian, Girolamo della Robbia, brought to France the famous secret of his family for the manufacture of glazed tiles. He executed extensive works at the Château of Madrid, and probably also at Ecouen.⁠[281]

With all these individuals Dinteville must have come into frequent contact before his retirement from Court.⁠[282] With another of the Italian artists in France, Domenico del Barbier, or, as he is commonly called, Domenico Fiorentino, he stood in more immediate relations; for this man had early married and settled at Troyes, where he now occupied the leading position as architect, painter, engraver, and sculptor. For some time Domenico divided his attention between that city and Fontainebleau, where he worked successively under Il Rosso and Primaticcio. To illustrate the reputation he ultimately enjoyed, it suffices to add that many years later he was employed to execute the pedestal and vase of the famous group of the Three Graces by Germain Pilon, which formed part of Primaticcio’s design for the tomb of Henri II.

Situated between Burgundy and the Netherlands, the city of Troyes had early been subject to Flemish influences. These had doubtless had their effect in forming the taste of the family at Polisy. Their own Burgundian antecedents must not be forgotten. Gradually the permeating sway of the French Renaissance recast local traditions in a new mould; and when the Italian artists imported by Francis I. gave a further impetus to contemporary design, Troyes was found well prepared to receive it. How far the presence of Domenico Fiorentino contributed to produce this result, it is impossible to determine. But it is certain that a large number of the French assistants employed at Fontainebleau were natives of the city in Champagne.⁠[283]

Such being the state of things artistic in France, it is interesting to note that at the very time when Dinteville began to build his new house, Primaticcio and Domenico Fiorentino were his guests at Polisy.

The foundation-stone of the new Château was laid in 1544. On the massive central pillar of the great cellar of the castle, the inscription, in Gothic letters, may still be read:

Lan de grace MDXLIIII Jehan de Dinteville bailly de Troies apres avoir achever la basse court feit comencer.

Just at this time the King of France bestowed on Primaticcio the Abbey of St. Martin-ès-Aires, at Troyes. The artist had, however, no thought of going in person to take possession of his benefice. He consequently issued a “procuration” dated from Polisy, and there witnessed by Domenico Fiorentino and Hubert Julyot (one of a well-known family of sculptors at Troyes), on the 15th December, 1544.⁠[284]

The new house was something more of a stronghold in the old style than the majority of dwellings now in fashion. The proximity of the Imperial frontier rendered it in fact necessary that the place should be capable of defence. War had again broken out between Francis I. and Charles V., and at the very moment when Dinteville set to work, the town of St. Dizier, not very far away, had been besieged and taken by the Imperial forces.

At some period in the history of Polisy the waters of the small river Laigne, which flow into the Seine almost beneath the windows of the Château, had been diverted from their course to form a complete moat round its walls.⁠[285] A variety of towers contributed to the protection no less than to the picturesqueness of the place, while a substantial keep and drawbridge fortified the main entrance. Possibly some portion of these defences were a heritage from older times which the Bailly repaired and added to; completing them with the slender and graceful towers seen in the illustration.⁠[286] But the new dwelling which now arose within this circle of walls was entirely his own work, if certain details, due to his brother François, be excepted. Severely simple in aspect where the external wall formed one link of the chain of defence, it was probably on the inner façade, overlooking the court, that the Bailly lavished those decorative effects for which the presence of Primaticcio and his fellow-labourers appears to vouch. What was the extent of their co-operation there are no means of judging, since that façade has been utterly swept away. The coat-of-arms which once adorned it, and a stone pediment which perhaps surmounted the principal entrance, are now built into a wall in the stable yard. The shield, bearing the arms of the Bailly of Troyes, still shows traces of colour. On a scroll beneath it are inscribed the words: “Jo. de Dinteville condebat.”

These objects were removed to their present position in this century, when the Château was completely modernized. Nearly all traces of former splendour, to say nothing of archæological interest, were at the same time blotted out. Much may have been previously destroyed by time and sieges; for Polisy seems to have borne a full share of the country’s misfortunes. The towers and machicolations which we know to have existed, the delicate Renaissance ornament which we surmise, have alike perished. The featureless modernity which has replaced them offers hardly a suggestion of the edifice once raised by the Bailly of Troyes.

The main walls towards the river are, however, still those of his construction,⁠[287] as well as several details of the interior. The immense thickness of those walls is shown in the deep bay-windows which look eastwards over the Laigne. A long series of apartments on the ground floor is surmounted by a corresponding suite above, from which a pleasant view is obtained over the green undulations of the surrounding country.

One of these rooms on the upper floor contains the chief remaining glory of Polisy, the famous carrelage, or tesselated pavement, placed there in 1545 by the Bishop of Auxerre, who owned a share of the estate.

This beautiful piece of Italian work, justly famed as one of the finest pavements in France, was probably executed under the supervision of Girolamo della Robbia, whether designed by him or by Primaticcio. The symmetrical pattern in variously coloured tiles, shows a series of allegorical figures of the cardinal and theological virtues, inclosed in octagonal medallions, grouped round a central cross. These figures are connected by arabesque patterns, interwoven with smaller medallions containing emblems of war and of the chase. But the most interesting of the series, because it bears directly on the history of the Dinteville, who commemorated in the symbolism of this floor the Bishop’s return to favour, are the two medallions above and below the central cross. The first of these contains the figure of Fortune in her most smiling mood. On the white frame which surrounds the goddess may be read the motto of the house of Dinteville: ἡ τύχη ἀκολούθος ἔστι τῆς ἀρετῆς, Fortune the Companion of Merit. The second more important medallion displays the arms of the Bishop of Auxerre, round which the Dinteville motto again appears, this time in its more familiar Latin garb, Virtuti Fortuna Comes, accompanied by the date 1545.

The bishop seems indeed to have appropriated the family motto just now to his special use; for these were not his only allusions to Fortune. In the garden of Polisy, just beyond the spot formerly bounded by the moat, a curiously-designed building catches the eye. This house, in close proximity to the church, still goes by the name of the “Maison de l’Aûmonier.”⁠[288]

The upper floor is finished by a dormer window, flanked by two thick columns. These are connected midway by a horizontal mullion, which divides the window in such a way as to form the letter H. The large columns are surmounted by two smaller ones, finishing in blunt points, to resemble miniature towers. The apex of the gable between these mock turrets is crowned by a third small column of similar design; and this last and most conspicuous turret springs from a pair of Hermes’ wings divided by a sphere. In the centre of the upper pane of stained glass is the date 1545.

What is the significance of this elaborate pile of symbolism? The printer’s device of a little book published at Lyons in 1542 by Sébastien Gryphe, or Gryphius, gives us the solution of at least a portion of it.

The sixteenth century repeated its favourite symbols over and over again. Alciati had made famous that form of emblem in which words and picture combine to form a single device. But in so doing he had merely given classical shape to a general taste. The better-known symbols were so familiar that they were readily understood without the explanatory text. Such was that adopted by the Bishop of Auxerre in the window of the Maison de l’Aûmonier.

The sphere with the wings of Hermes is an emblem appropriated by Fortune. Sometimes a youth, sometimes a maiden, with winged feet lightly poised on an ever-rolling globe, or wheel,⁠[289] the figure of the deity was well known and popular in the sixteenth century. Derived from the antique, it had quickly leaped into favour on the revival of learning. There were many variations of the familiar allegory. Machiavelli had devoted a sonnet to it; Alciati had placed it among his emblems; it had been painted and carved, and all were acquainted with the symbols that gave it pictorial expression. When, therefore, the winged globe was abstracted from the whole subject and used as a separate emblem it was readily interpreted. But to guard against all possibility of misunderstanding, the printer Gryphius has added to the symbol the motto, Virtute Duce, Comite Fortuna. The meaning is identical with that of the Dinteville motto and conclusively proves the point.⁠[290]

This explanation exhausts, however, but a small portion of the symbolism of the window, and the rest is less easy to unravel. What is the meaning of the letter H?

The more obvious interpretation is that it stands for “Henri.” The Dauphin was the special protector of the Dinteville brothers, and to him, probably, the return of the smiles of Fortune was in large measure due. But this explanation omits the three columns which are too curiously original to be mere accidents of design. Some such symbols occur in various works dealing with the occult sciences. They suggest a relationship with Hermeticism, and an alternate interpretation of the letter H. The Hermes’ wings would gain additional point from this explanation, which seems likely to be the true one.

Beyond the Maison de l’Aûmonier is the Basse-Cour, which we know from Dinteville’s inscription in the castle cellar to have been completed before the new dwelling was begun. Entering one of the unpromising-looking doors which give access to the stable, the visitor is surprised by a beautiful vaulted undercroft of considerable dimensions. It is now used for lumber. Most likely it once supported upper apartments, perhaps occupied by the Dinteville family during the building of the house. If so, those rooms have entirely disappeared, and have given place to lofts of the commonest modern type. The Basse-Cour, it may be added, was once of far greater extent than it is at present.

On a slope by the road-side, about half a mile from the Château, is a high and slender cross of sixteenth-century workmanship. The origin of this interesting monument is veiled in darkness, but an old engraving shows more than one cross dotting the landscape around Polisy.

It is known that Jean de Dinteville built a chapel to serve as a sepulchre for himself and his family, and that he placed in it the epitaphs of those who had gone before him.⁠[291] He was himself laid to rest in it when his time came. But no similar monument was in turn erected to preserve his memory. Not even the site of the chapel, which has wholly disappeared, can now be identified with precision. Possibly it is represented in the illustration of Polisy by the building to the left pierced by three windows.

About the year 1547, a young relation, Jean de Mergey, came to Polisy to be brought up, or “nourished” as the phrase was, in the house of the Bailly of Troyes. Fortunately Mergey has left a short memoir of his life,⁠[292] which gives us a passing glimpse of Polisy during the four or five years of his stay there. Catherine de Mergey, née Dinteville, the mother of this boy, was cousin and governess to the daughters of Guillaume, Seigneur Deschenetz; and these relations, as well as François, Bishop of Auxerre, seem to have spent much of their time at Polisy. Madame de Polisy, widow of Gaucher the elder, lived there until her death, which took place in 1545; and the sisters of the Bailly found a home there whenever they required one.

The picture drawn by Mergey is a pleasant one, and shall be given in his own words. He had begun his education early, having been placed at the College of Troyes at the age of eight years. Thence his mother transferred him to the Abbey of Montierender; but, says Mergey,

⁠[293]“... ne voulant estre Moyne, elle me mist avec Mr. de Polizy, Bailli de Troyes, chef de la maison de Dinteville, personnage accomply et orné de toutes vertus et sciences autant que homme de son temps et qualité; aiant esté Gouverneur de Monsieur d’Orleans et Ambassadeur pour le Roy en Angleterre. Mais estant devenu Paralitique et impotent de tous ses membres, et ne pouvant plus a cette occasion demeurer à la Cour, et s’estant retiré chez soy, se mist pour son plaisir et exercice à bastir cette belle maison de Polizy. Lequel me prist en telle amitié, qu’il prenoit bien la peine luy mesme de m’instruire en toutes les sciences desquelles mon jeune age pouvoit estre capable; et aiant demeuré avec luy jusques en l’aage de quatorze ou quinze ans, et me voulant mieux former par la fréquentation du monde et exercice des armes, me donna a Mr. Deschenetz son frère, Chevalier de l’Ordre du Roy,⁠[294] et Capitaine de cinquante hommes d’Armes, avec lequel je fis plusieurs voyages....”

A letter of 1552 (it is dated February, 1551, old style) shows us the master of Polisy for the last time. It is written by his uncle, Du Plessis Savonnières, the father of Vanlay’s bitter enemy. The cordiality of tone speaks well for both writer and recipient.

⁠[295]“Monsr. mon nepveu,” so it runs, “j’ay receu deux lettres de vous, l’une dattée du IIIJᵉ. jour d’Octobre, et l’autre du XXIIIᵉ. jour de janvier derniers passés. Vous m’escripvez qu’avez receu lettres de ma soeur de Lyencourt⁠[296] et qu’il vous semble qu’elle est bien contente de l’affaire de Monstier la Scelle; elle en a bien raison; elle est bien tenue et obligée à prier Dieu pour monseigneur d’Auxerre, et nous tous, du grand bien qu’il luy plaist faire à Banjamyn.⁠[297] Ma niepce de Lyencourt qui est avec Madame la connestable⁠[298] m’a escript que mondit seigneur d’Auxerre et monsr. des Chenetz estoient à Fontainebleau. Et depuys Nicolas de la Croix m’a escript que mondit seigneur d’Auxerre debvoit arriver à Paris. J’avois pieça entendu la prinse que les gens de l’empereur avoient faicte d’Aspremont. Ledict Nicolas de la Croix m’escript que le bled a vallu à Paris cent dix sept solz tournois le septier, et l’avoyne quarente huit, qui est bien cher.... Il me deplaist de la malladie de ma dame de la Mothe⁠[299] et de sa fille, mademoiselle de Esmon; mais puys qu’elles sont en amandant j’espere que ce ne sera rien. Ceulx qui viennent de la court dient qu’il est grand bruict que le Roy⁠[300] doibt aller en Allemaigne; que le duc Maurice de Sax et autres princes dudict Allemaigne, en grand nombre, sont en armes contre l’empereur et qu’ilz doibvent tenir le party du Roy et estre en son service; que la Royne sera regente en France et qu’elle sera à Reyms; que monsr. l’admiral doibt demourer avecques elle; que monsr. le Cardinal de Tournon doibt estre lieutenant du Roy a Lyon; que le Grand Seigneur faict grands preparatifz pour faire la guerre la presente année, tant par terre que par mer. Je fais mon compte que entendez mieulx toutes ses nouvelles la que l’on ne faict par deça, car en pouvez estre advisé par Messrs. d’Auxerre et des Chenetz qui sont à la court. J’estime que au commancement de ce mois de mars pourray partir de ce pais pour aller à Lyon, passant toutesfois par Grenoble. Quant je seray à Lyon, vous feray scavoir de mes nouvelles et vous envoieray des graynnes pour vostre nouveau jardin.

“Monsieur mon nepveu, je me recommande humblement à vostre bonne grace et prie Dieu vous donner en santé tres bonne et longue vie—De Montpellier, ce XXJeme. jour de fevrier, 1551.

“Vostre oncle et amy

“Duplessys.”

“Monsr. mon nepveu, Monsr. de Pollisy, bailly de Troyes.”⁠[301]

Thus the last years of Dinteville’s life glided away.

Notwithstanding his ill-health, he survived all his brothers except Guillaume, Seigneur Deschenetz, whom he made his heir. Not one of the family attained the age of sixty.

Gaucher, Seigneur of Vanlay, died in 1550, and was buried at Thennelières, where he had resided.

The Bishop of Auxerre departed from the stage of this world in September, 1554. His death took place at the Château of Régennes, his favourite place of abode. It is said that he decorated this house, and others belonging to the see, with paintings executed by his own hand; art and mechanics being his most cherished recreations.⁠[302]

All the brothers had recovered their former prestige before the end came, and were honoured servants of the king.

The Bailly, obliged by the paralysis which had overtaken him to pass his days in retirement at Polisy, found solace in the occupations he could cultivate at home: his building, his garden, his home circle, the education of his little cousin in the sciences that had been dear to him in his most prosperous days. In these tranquil surroundings we take leave of him. Of the last scene, beyond the barest record, we know nothing. How keenly he felt the death of the Bishop of Auxerre may perhaps be inferred from the silent fact that he survived his brother but a few months.

Jean de Dinteville died at Polisy, in 1555, in the fifty-first year of his age. Probably the event took place before the summer, as early in the same year Guillaume, Seigneur Deschenetz, was appointed Bailly of Troyes.

Thus ends the story of a typical Frenchman of the reign of Francis I. The varied incidents of his career, public and private, are vivid with the local colour of his date and nationality. The very contrasts are those of the age. Life marched with such a swing that there is hardly a pause between the heights of success and the depths of ignominy. No time for discussion as to deserved or undeserved: the king’s will is everything. Another turn of the wheel, and the branded fugitive is recalled to favour. The past is wiped out; and Life resumes her dancing gait as though no voice of the night had croaked of banishment and disgrace.

The intellectual aspect is marked by the same extremes. Old and new, mediæval and modern, were wrestling for supremacy. While, on the one hand, the revival of letters, the progress of science, the discoveries of the great navigators, had opened fresh horizons to the understanding, the paths of mystery that led back to the middle ages were still freely trodden. Astrology, alchemy, and kindred pursuits yet maintained their hold on minds permeated by the new learning. There was no proportion, no power of differentiation. All subjects were pursued with equal eagerness. All were illuminated by the same glow of the imagination, which flung its halo over past and present alike. It is this transforming quality which fuses into unity the strangely heterogeneous elements of the time, and gilds its mistakes no less than its successes.

In the joyous vitality of the age, the love of magnificence, the social bravura, the spirit of adventure, the same influence of the imaginative faculties is apparent. But it is in the passion for art that the distinctive note is sounded. Soldier and scholar, statesman and priest, all came beneath that sway, which was enhanced and intensified by influences derived through a thousand channels from Italy.

It is to be regretted that so little is known of the private friendships of the Bailly of Troyes. Some indications of the cordial feelings of which he was the object are indeed to be found, here and there, in the letters that have been noticed. But the most striking instance of the esteem in which he was held has been handed down to posterity by the genius of Hans Holbein. For the very fact of Dinteville’s friendship with the learned and saintly Bishop of Lavaur is a sufficient testimony to his own worth.

No second portrait is known for certain to exist of Jean de Dinteville. There is, however, an unnamed drawing by Holbein in the Windsor collection, the features of which show such considerable resemblance to those of the Bailly of Troyes that it has been thought to represent him at a later date. A reproduction of this drawing is here inserted⁠[303] that the reader may make the comparison for himself.

The chief difficulty in accepting this theory seems, at first sight, to lie in the marked difference of age between the two presentments.⁠[304] Dinteville was, as we know, in the twenty-ninth year of his age when painted by Holbein in 1533. His last visit to England took place in 1537, when he was in his thirty-third year. But there appears to be more than four years’ interval between these two portraits, if they be held to represent the same man.

Yet, in spite of this objection, the mould of the rather peculiar type of countenance is so similar in both cases, that this drawing does, in all probability, represent Jean de Dinteville as a somewhat older man.

No one who, when visiting Dresden, has compared the original drawing of Morette by Holbein, with his splendid portrait of that envoy,⁠[305] can have failed to observe the happy knack by which, in the finished painting, the artist has slightly rejuvenated and refined the features of his sitter, without losing either likeness or character. Did we possess the original drawing of Dinteville, made for the picture of the “Ambassadors,” it might, in all likelihood, show less discrepancy with the Windsor drawing than is exhibited by the painting itself, where the same tendency to emphasize the more favourable aspect of the sitter has probably come into play.

Both these drawings—of Morette and of the supposed later Dinteville—once formed part of the Arundel collection, and were engraved at that time, in the shape of two small rounds, by Wenzel Hollar. One of these is inscribed “Mr. Morett”; the other is unnamed. But the fact of their having been engraved as pendants suggests the idea that the individuals portrayed were connected by tradition as members of the same nation and profession, thus further confirming the belief that the unnamed portrait represents the Bailly of Troyes.⁠[306]