The Fontainebleau Gogottes: History of a Natural Work of Art
The world of mounting leads us to discover truly unusual objects. We introduced you to the Coco fesse, the national symbol of the Seychelles, and African Kotas. Today, we present to you the Gogottes of Fontainebleau.
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The Fontainebleau Forest: Between Art, History, and Nature
The Fontainebleau forest tells over 800 years of French history. Let's go back to the Middle Ages to see the first accounts of the Fontainebleau forest. At that time, this place was perceived as very unsettling. People believed that the forest was the refuge of witches and elves. The steep rocks and endless trees that we admire today gave this place a magical quality.
Very early on, kings were attracted to this exceptional hunting ground, located just an hour from the capital, where lush vegetation welcomed abundant wildlife. A hunting lodge was quickly built to host stag hunting activities, among others. The 12th century saw the birth of the first Château de Fontainebleau, a typical medieval fortified castle, of which a keep and the oval courtyard still remain.
But it was, of course, François I, who literally fell in love with the place, who had the castle built as we know it today. He brought all the Italian artists he adored, even the most famous of them, Leonardo da Vinci. A great patron, François I quickly laid the foundations for what would be the French Renaissance, but that is another fascinating story.
Fontainebleau is undeniably a city with artistic heritage, but the Fontainebleau forest preserves within it an exceptional natural heritage. And that's what we're going to explore.
Fontainebleau: An exceptional natural heritage
The enchantment and beauty of these places have been known since the Middle Ages.
Why is this forest so different?
Firstly, thanks to its abundant forest landscapes alternating with heathland landscapes, as in the southwest.
Moreover, geology reigns supreme in the Fontainebleau forest. Fine sand, sandstone chaos, and limestone plateaus form a mineral panorama unique in the world.
📣 Did You Know?
What is a boulder or rock chaos?
It is a landscape formed by the erosion of blocks or rocks.
This photo perfectly illustrates the enchanting and mineral aspect of the place.
And if you dig into the fine sand soil of the forest, you'll find truly incredible geological curiosities. They are called gogottes.
2. What is a gogotte?
The soil of the Fontainebleau forest is rich in minerals of all kinds. Their formation would not be possible without the presence of water. The water flowing through the soil of the Fontainebleau forest has always been renowned for its great purity.
Moreover, according to various sources, the name Fontainebleau would come from a semantic distortion of the words "fontaine" (fountain) and "belle eau" (beautiful water). A contraction that would give Fontainebleau.
Water thus flows freely into the soil, and when it meets pure white sand, it all agglomerates to form what is called a sandstone concretion.
To learn more about the formation of gogottes, I invite you to consult very detailed scientific articles on the subject.
- https://www.geopolis.fr/actualites/dossiers-thematiques/en-savoir-plus-sur-les-gogottes.html.
- ❤ https://planet-terre.ens-lyon.fr/ressource/Img695-2020-12-07.xml
- https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gogotte
Named siliceous sandstone or multilobed concretions by scientists, the name gogottes comes from a Babar album, Zephir's Holidays, published by Jean de Brunhoff in 1936. It tells of an encounter between Zephir and the Gogottes.
Legend has it that the use of the word gogotte goes back to geologist Claude Guillemin (1923-1994), scientific director of the National Geological Survey, then inspector general at the BRGM. It was while reading this story to his grandchildren that he associated the name of these large objects with the sandstone concretions he must have known well and perhaps even had at home.
Gogottes: A natural work of art
Gogottes or sandstone in English quickly became geological curiosities that attracted a wide audience.
Their immaculate white color, the unique round shapes of each gogotte, and the diversity of sizes quickly attracted art lovers.
As with the Coco fesse, Mother Nature is the artist, and collectors were not mistaken, as some gogottes now reach several thousands of euros at Sotheby's.
Note that Louis XIV had already used gogottes to decorate the Enceladus basin in the gardens of the Palace of Versailles in the 17th century.
In 2020, the Palace of Versailles announced the renovation of this grove. The famous Giant Enceladus, buried by Zeus under rocks, is clearly visible. The gogottes are used to represent the rocks.
The place of gogottes in our mounting work
This geological curiosity quickly found its way into auction rooms worldwide. Unable to stand alone, the intervention of a mounter is essential. This is how gogottes entered our workshop.
Specifics of gogotte mounting
Initially, the difficulty in mounting a gogotte is to find the most aesthetic direction.
Tastes vary. So, with the client, we find the most aesthetic position possible, the one that suits best. Sometimes the direction is obvious; other times, it's more difficult.
Once the direction is found, we need to find the gogotte's balance. Indeed, if the direction is good but the gogotte's weight is poorly distributed, then mounting will not be possible. The gogotte will not stay on its axis.
Once found, we must ensure that the orientation and balance of the piece are not near a fragile part. Because we will have to drill into the gogotte to insert a support rod.
Drilling technique
To summarize gogotte drilling:
- Find the direction that suits you best
- Find the gogotte's balance
- Pay attention to fragile areas
- Drill and insert the rod
We strongly advise you to call on a professional to perform this type of manipulation.
And if you don't want to or can't drill your gogotte, no problem. Other solutions exist.
The support technique
It can happen that the drilling technique is not ideal for presenting the gogotte. Either because it is too small or because it is too fragile.
In this case, we use the support technique. This means we will create a steel or brass structure that will support the gogotte.
We will place the gogotte on it.
For these gogottes, the drilling technique was impossible. Due to the small size of the gogotte and the desired position. This slight inclination was not possible with drilling.
We created custom steel bases with small support arms that conform to the shape of the gogotte.
In this new example, we created a steel base with a small overhang at the bottom. The patina was completely customized.
A mounter often asks themselves whether or not they can drill a work of art. This issue is quite recurrent, as shown on our "La Bulle solutions" page dedicated to "how to present a sculpted head?"
It is clear that this technique alters the integrity of the artwork, but in some cases, especially when the sculpture is heavy, we sometimes have no choice.
NB: This solution is always taken with the client's consent.
In our workshop, we have mounted all sorts of gogottes, large and small, some of which seemed to show a face, others the breath of the wind.
In all cases, the gogotte, with its purity, beauty, and elegance, leaves no one indifferent.
And then one day, contemporary art took hold of the subject, as seen in the works of Miguel Chevalier, a pioneer of digital art.
In his studio, with his teams, he created digital concretions as part of the Digital Abysses exhibition in 2018 at the Bordeaux submarine base.
We had also done the mounting of these concretions.
In conclusion of this article, keep your eyes open the next time you walk through the Fontainebleau forest; you might just spot some gogottes. And if you do, we'd be happy to mount them for you.
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