Hôtel Thomas de Montval

[1] These Renaissance arcades featuring portrait medallions were commissioned by the merchant Jean de Nolet in 1542 and executed by the sculptor Nicolas Bachelier.

Their framework, featuring a floral wreath (referred to as a 'triumphal garland' in the surviving documents), draws on Roman triumphs (laurel), as well as the arms of the sixteenth-century merchant: "On azure two palms or in saltire, surmounted by a wreath of roses proper on a fesse, ribboned argent and between three stars same, two borne in chief and one in point".

This iconography draws its inspiration from the coins minted under various Roman emperors, gravestones and the decorative elements of classical shields.

The six original profiles still extant on Hôtel Thomas de Montval depict the faces of a Moor, a king, a wreathed emperor, a man in sixteenth century fashion and two characters in Roman garb.

[1] In the early twentieth century Paul-Marius Thomas had six other medallions sculpted to give symmetry to the ornamentationof courtyard arcades.