Château d’Azay-le-Rideau

Built between 1518 and 1527 for Gilles Berthelot, treasurer to François I, the château of Azay-le-Rideau sits on an island in the Indre. It is one of the first French châteaux in which Italian ornament moves from decoration into structure: the straight staircase with superimposed flights, opening onto the courtyard through loggias, replaces the medieval spiral. Confiscated by the king before it was even finished, the building has belonged to the State since 1905.

The installation lights the Renaissance château and stages its reflection in the Indre. The façades are lit in soft values, turrets and dormers picked out in small touches, so that the water mirror remains the second subject of the picture.

Here the water governs the whole project. It doubles the façade, and so doubles any error of level: too strong a value would have appeared twice in the image, and the reflection would have stopped being a reflection to become a second façade. The values are therefore held low, with a narrow gap between the lit planes and the recesses; the slate roofs, which return almost nothing, close the composition at the top. The surroundings are deliberately left dark, so that the château and its double assert themselves alone against the park.

Also in Indre-et-Loire: the royal fortress of Chinon.