Maison de Juste de Juste
MonumentHidden Treasure
Demeure Renaissance de Juste de Juste à Tours : une porte sculptée de rinceaux florentins et un blason ciselé témoignent du génie d'une famille de sculpteurs italiens qui conquit la cour de France.
© Wikimedia Commons
History
In the heart of old Tours, in a district where the tufa stone still sings of the splendours of the Renaissance, the house of Juste de Juste is one of the rare private residences to bear so directly the signature of a line of artists. Built in the 16th century by the son of Antoine Juste - one of the Florentine sculptors who accompanied the Italianisation of the French court - it is an exceptional testimony to the establishment of Italian artistic culture in Touraine. What makes this house unique is its close relationship with art history. This is not a royal commission or the residence of a nobleman, but the home of a craftsman-artist, heir to Florentine skills handed down from father to son. The entrance door, decorated with remarkably delicate foliage and stamped with the family coat of arms of the Juste family, is in itself a small masterpiece of Renaissance decorative sculpture. It invites visitors to slow down, to stop and decipher the language of an era. From the street, the eye catches the first-floor window, framed by fine pilasters and topped with an elegant Renaissance décor. Behind the sober facade, you can make out a subtle layout organised perpendicularly to the road, revealing the Italianate logic of the courtyard house. The entrance corridor, with its door leading to the spiral staircase, provides a gentle transition between the public and domestic spaces. For lovers of Renaissance architecture and ornamental sculpture, or simply for those interested in the way Italy shaped French taste in the 16th century, this house is an essential stop-off on the heritage walk around old Tours. The ideal way to visit the house is to stroll from Saint-Gatien Cathedral or Place Plumereau, in an area where every façade holds a surprise.
Architecture
Juste de Juste's house follows a plan typical of the urban architecture of the Touraine Renaissance: the main building develops its main axis perpendicular to the street, freeing up an inner courtyard accessible from the public thoroughfare via a covered corridor. This layout, directly inspired by Florentine and Lombard houses, makes it possible to reconcile discretion on the street with the true scale of the residence. The street façade is the focus of all the decorative attention. The carefully proportioned entrance door is surmounted by a lintel sculpted with foliage scrolls and stylised stems borrowed from Antiquity, and stamped with the Juste family coat of arms in Italian heraldic style. This armorial cartouche is a rare marker of identity on a non-aristocratic middle-class house of the period. On the first floor, a mullioned window is framed by fluted pilasters and surmounted by an entablature decorated with beautifully crafted Renaissance motifs, probably created by or under the direction of Juste de Juste himself. Inside, the entrance corridor leads on one side to the spiral staircase serving the upper floors - a technical solution typical of the early French Renaissance, inherited from medieval architecture but integrated into a classicist decorative ensemble - and on the other to the courtyard. The first floor originally comprised two large rooms, a layout that testifies to a high-quality residential programme, probably vaulted or with woodwork ceilings in accordance with the customs of Renaissance Touraine.
Related Figures
Antoine Juste (Antonio Giusti) — sculpteur florentin, père de Juste de Juste, auteur du tombeau de Louis XII à Saint-DenisJuste de Juste — sculpteur et médailleur, constructeur de la maison, fils d'Antoine, diffuseur des grotesques maniéristes en FranceGiovanni Juste — oncle de Juste de Juste, co-auteur avec Antoine du gisant de Louis XII et Anne de BretagneLouis XII — roi de France dont le tombeau fut réalisé par les frères Juste, illustrant le lien de la famille avec la monarchieFrançois Ier — souverain sous le règne duquel les Juste s'épanouissent en Touraine, au cœur de la Renaissance française
