The Colloque Autour d'Henri IV held in Paris and Versailles, 17-20 November, 2010, brought together unprecedented collaboration between:

• the Sorbonne and its Institut de l'Histoire de l'Art (INHA)
• the centre de recherches at Versailles
• and the Louvre

Organised by Luisa Capodieci and Colette Nativel.

Experts from diverse disciplines came to commemorate the death of Henri IV, establishing first representations of the monarch (always larger than life), then studying the afterlife of his portraits;  how images were used to project royal strategies, and how the king was himself involved in their production.   He collected books and manuscripts;  collected and commissioned medals and bronze sculptures;  ordered antiquities in the royal collection to be publicly available and to be exhibited in new work on royal residences.  We were shown how carefully he made extensions to Fontainebleau, to Saint Germain en Laye and to the Louvre in order to reflect his notions of King and Nation;  while the "prince du peuple" enjoyed a quiet family existence (after the traumas and triumphs of war), he never lost an opportunity to offer an imposing show on diplomatic and ceremonial occasions - receptions of ambassadors and his own many royal entries into the cities of his realm.   The enduring image of Henri IV is heroic, astride his horse on the Pont Neuf, or captured in the heart of battle sporting on his helm the white pannache which became his emblem.

Margaret M. McGowan

Programme - click an image to view full size.