florida state university college of visual arts, theatre and dance ...

Like Saint-Joseph-des-Carmes the remaining churches supported by Maria de’ Medici
during the regency were also built for religious orders promoting the reforms of the Church.
Similarly they too lack any visual signs connecting them to their royal patron. As with the
Discalced Carmelites, my contention is that the queen intentionally prevented the communities
from using her personal imagery in an attempt to avoid an open association with the
promulgation of the decrees of the Council of Trent. A brief survey of the remaining two
churches will establish the manner in which Maria de’ Medici provided support and will confirm
the absence of royal signs.
Récollets
In 1603 a Parisian merchant named Jacques Cottard established the religious order of
Récollets at a house in the faubourg Saint-Martin, located to the north of Paris, outside the city
walls. 39 A reformed order of Franciscans, the Récollets had originated in Spain and first came to
France in 1592. Within a year of its establishment in the capital, the reformed order began to
benefit from royal support. Henri IV quickly authorized the community with letters patent and in
1606 gave it a large piece of land adjacent to its garden; Maria de’ Medici declared herself
founder of the Parisian monastery and protector of its reform.
Although the Récollets built a chapel from 1604 to 1606, it soon proved too small,
forcing them to begin construction on a larger one in 1614. 40 As founder of the monastery,
Maria de’ Medici supported the Récollets’ new construction, placing the first stone of the new
church dedicated to the Annunciation of the Holy Virgin. As depicted on Jaillot’s Plan du
Quartier Saint-Martin, the building was located with its flank parallel to the rue des Récollets
and consisted of a narthex followed by a longitudinal nave with the high altar at the far end (fig.
66). Along the right side of the nave were four chapels of various sizes and different orientations
while beyond the high altar was a large rectangular choir with numerous stalls. As described in
eighteenth-century guidebooks, the interior was nearly entirely covered with woodwork and
adorned with a number of paintings by a member of the community, known only as brother
Luc. 41 Little is known of the exterior, which is depicted on Turgot’s Plan de Paris, except that
the façade had a large arched window above the porch while a small bell tower rose from the
peaked roof about halfway along its length (fig. 67).
Despite the prominent support given to the monastery by Henri IV and Maria de’ Medici,
contemporary descriptions fail to mention the use of any royal imagery as part of the decorations
132