Editing Palace of Fontainebleau (section)

=== Francis I and The first School of Fontainbleau (1528–1547) ===
The modest medieval castle remained  until the reign of [[Francis I of France]] (1494–1547). The King commissioned the architect [[Gilles Le Breton]] to build a new palace in the Renaissance style. Le Breton created the Cour Ovale, or oval courtyard, He preserved the original medieval keep on one side, but added a monumental new building, the Porte Dorée or Golden Gate, in the Italian Renaissance style, as the main entry of the palace. On the north side he built another building with a Renaissance stairway, the Portique de Serlio, which gave access the royal apartments.<ref>Salmon, Xavier, "Fountainebleau, True Abode of Kings and Palace of the Ages", p. 7</ref>

Beginning in about 1528, Francis constructed the {{lang|fr|italic=unset|Galerie François I}}, which allowed him to pass directly from his apartments to the chapel of the Trinitarians. He brought the architect [[Sebastiano Serlio]] from Italy, and the Florentine painter Giovanni Battista di Jacopo, known as [[Rosso Fiorentino]], to decorate the new gallery. Between 1533 and 1539 Rosso Fiorentino filled the gallery with murals glorifying the king, framed in [[stucco]] ornament in high relief, and ''lambris'' sculpted by the furniture maker [[Francesco Scibec da Carpi]]. Another Italian painter, [[Francesco Primaticcio]] from Bologna ("Primatice" to the French), joined later in the decoration of the gallery. Their elaborate mixture of painting and sculpture  became known as the first [[School of Fontainebleau]], which helped launch the [[French Renaissance]].{{sfn|Salmon|2011|p=8}} The emblem of Francis I, a [[salamander]] surrounded by flames, is found alongside each painting he commissioned in the Grand Gallery.<ref>Hebert and Sarmant p. 43</ref>

In about 1540, Francis began another major addition to the château. Using land on the east side of the château purchased from the order of the Trinitarians, he began to build a new square of buildings around a large courtyard. It was enclosed on the north by the wing of the Ministers, on the east by the wing of Ferrare, and on the south by a wing containing the new gallery of Ulysses. The château was surrounded by a new park in the style of the [[Italian Renaissance garden]], with pavilions and the first [[grotto]] in France. [[Francesco Primaticcio]] created more monumental murals for the gallery of Ulysses.{{sfn|Salmon|2011|p=8}}