The Pope's Palace | THE TOUR : The Stag room





	THE TOUR Cour d'Honneur Consistoire Cloître Benoît XII Grand Tinel Chambre du Parement Chambre du Pape Salle de Jésus Chambre du Cerf Sacristie nord Sacristie sud Grande Chapelle Loggia Grand escalier Grande Audience Pope's palace Place Terrasse des Grands Dignitaires	The Stag Room The Stag Room, which marks the passage from the old to the new palace, is situated on the 4th of the Wardrobe Tower’s five storeys.. On the ground floor, are the « ovens », in fact the room where the pope bathed. The two following stories correspond to the wardrobes. Above the Stag Room is the Pope’s personal chapel, dedicated to St. Michael. The Stag Room was Pope Clement VI’s study. The Pope had a bed and his own personal library set up here ; the room also contained two chests lined with watered silk. The Pontiff’s lavish tastes doubtless explain the room’s rather original decor. The room derived its name from frescoes of staghunting, most of which disappeared when the room was remodelled during the 18th century. The 14th century ceiling is richly decorated. The secular subjects of the frescoes depict the seignorial pleasures of the day, hunting and fishing. Buried under several coats of military paint, the frescoes of the Stag Room were miraculously preserved. As in the Pope’s chamber, the tiles are a reconstruction effected on the basis of the floor discovered in the Studium of the Study Tower.
		Beneath a narrow strip of sky, an entire forest is painted on the walls ; tall trees of various species, bushes laden with fruit and flowers, and a parterre of tall-growing herbaceous plants and flowers. In this luxuriant natural setting, birds and animals are prey to hawkers, catching them with bird calls or decoys. A hunter lets his ferret loose on rabbit, which looks round and takes flight. Four people, fishing by different means, gather around a pool in which pike and other freshwater fish are swimming. A number of painters worked on these frescoes. This is seen in for the changes in style in which some of the characters are depicted, for example, betwen those ferreting and the children. The panoramic scene is painted in perspective. In the pool scene, a third demension is suggested in the contours of most of the faces, which are, without doubt, the work of Italian artists. Perhaps they were supervised by Matteo Giovanetti ? Secular subjects of this type were used in French and Italian tapestries from the 13th century on, but were dealt with in a more conventional manner, placing the emphasis on decorative effect. In the Stag Room, the bucolic theme is interpreted in a more naturalistic and descriptive fashion. Here, Italian artistic concepts serve the French courtly ideal.

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