It contains important collections of paintings, sculptures, ceramics, stained glass, furniture, textiles and other arts of the French Renaissance.

[4] It was set on a terrace overlooking the countryside below, encircled by a false moat with a fortified wall surrounded with bastions, probably symbolizing the Constable's role as commander of the army.

[3] Records of the construction have been lost, so the name of the building's original architect is uncertain, but it is known that the royal architect Jean Bullant, who later designed the Grand Constable's tomb,[3] participated in decoration of the château, particularly in the design of the north wing's ornate neo-classical peristyles employing the colossal order, that face both the inner courtyard and the exterior north gardens.

[9] However, panels of grisaille stained glass in the gallery of the west wing are dated 1542 and 1544, and engravings of Écouen were included in Jacques Androuet du Cerceau's Les Plus excellents bastiments de France, 1576.

He left it to Sophie Dawes, Baronne de Feuchères, on condition that she used it to establish an orphanage for the descendants of soldiers in his army, with his residuary heir, Henri d'Orléans, Duke of Aumale, to pay for the running costs.

[11] Little use was made of the property until 1850, ten years after the death of Dawes, when Louis Napoléon Bonaparte decided to reestablish the school of the Legion d'Honneur there, and it continued to serve this purpose until 1962.

[10] The present neoclassical entrance wing is a late addition, constructed after Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé, decided in 1787 to demolish the original gateway, which was surmounted by a statue of Montmorency, in order to have a better view of the garden.

These new peristyles were early examples of French Renaissance architecture, influenced by the Italian work of Bramante, and decorated with classical orders of columns and niches for statuary.

The entrance to the stairway to the King's apartments was originally flanked by two statues by Michelangelo, The Slaves, which were gifts to Montmorency from Henry II.

[14] Much of the original decoration has disappeared, but some striking examples remain in the state rooms on the first floor, particularly the cabinet of the apartments of the King in the north wing and the library of the Constable, located over the chapel.

These decorations include painted fireplaces that date to the reign of Henri II, featuring Biblical or historic scenes surrounded by mythical characters and animals, and cascades of fruit and vegetables.

These heraldic designs, in color, highlight the more sober grisaille patterns of the stained glass windows, which are also from the reign of Henri II.

The chapel retains the ceiling of arched rib vaults decorated with the painted coats-of-arms of Montmorency and his wife, Madeleine of Savoy.

Under the supervision of the museum's new curator, Edmond Du Sommerard, Alexandre's son, many other objects were donated or purchased, until the collection was much too large to display adequately.

[18] The Cluny Museum re-opened after the German occupation in World War II, and a long debate began on where to put the Renaissance Art.

They depict the Biblical story, but the costumes and settings are of the 16th century, and the tapestries give a detailed view of court life at the time.

Other notable tapestries include Fructus Belli (Fruits of War), from the workshop of Jehan Baudouin in Brussels, after a design by Giulio Romano.

It was commissioned in 1544 by Ferrante Gonzaga, the Duke of Guastalla and chief of the armies of the Emperor Charles V of Austria, and depicts soldiers being paid.

Italian tapestries are also represented, including "The life of a man" by Benedetto Squilli of Florence, after a painting by Jan Van der Straet.

[22] The collection of paintings includes work by Toussaint Dubreuil (c. 1561—22 November 1602) a French Mannerist painter associated (from 1594) with the second School of Fontainebleau (together with the artists Martin Fréminet and Ambroise Dubois) and Italianism, a transitional art style.

Painted on a wood panel, it was originally attached to a large chest, and was intended to be placed in the bedroom of newlyweds, to remind the bride about the virtue of faithfulness.

The painting, based on the Odyssey of Homer, depicts Ulysses' wife, Penelope, faithfully waiting for her husband's return from his twenty years of voyaging.

The collection presents especially works from the regions of Ile-de-France, Lorraine, Champagne and Burgundy, which were heavily forested and had the workshops of numerous skilled artisans making both religious and civil furniture.

[27] Another important French enamel painter from Limoges was Pierre Courteys, who made a series of portraits of mythological figures of unusually large size.

One notable example is the statuette of Daphne by Wenzel Jamnitzer, a German craftsman from Nuremberg, goldsmith to the Holy Roman Emperors.

[29] The Museum has an exceptional collection of arms and armor, including the gilded ceremonial spurs of Francis I of France, decorated with his emblem, the salamander.

[30] The museum houses one of the most important European collections of Renaissance scientific instruments, including examples of the astrolabe, clocks, globes, the solar cadran and automatons.

One of the most famous items is the mechanical model ship, called the Nef of Charles V, made in about 1590 and attributed to Hans Schlottheim, which originally was in the cabinet of curiosities of the Elector of Saxe in Dresden.

Other objects include a cone-shaped cup that functions as a sundial and an enigmatic mechanical device with rows of small turning wheels, placed inside what appeared to be a book.