Ask the dust

THE ROOMS OF A DÉPENDANCE OF THE CASTLE, SUSPENDED IN IMMOBILITY, CONVEY THE IMPRESSION OF A FASCINATING THEATER INHABITED BY PHANTOM PRESENCES.

Even now, filled with rubble and empty vitrines waiting to be filled with museum-grade wonders, these rooms have an undeniable charm of days gone by, a romantic atmosphere of dust and ruin. But that is truly a passing fancy, given the fact that the spaces of this annex of Château de Dampierre will be returned to their original splendor, though narrating a completely new story, reinvented by the flair and fantasy of Pierre Peyrolle, an outstandierre-en-Yvelines, ing artist and peerless decorator with a taste for the Baroque. The owner of this part of the Dampierre complex is the same one who bought another mansion in the French countryside some years ago, where Peyrolle has reinvented the spaces in his inimitable style (see AD Style no. 4, November 2018). Now Peyrolle has been called in to apply his talents to Dampierre. At the moment all the rooms are in poor condition, but this was once a house of wonders. «From the late 1700s to the early 1800s the dukes who lived in the castle displayed over a thousand minerals here, hundreds of taxidermied birds, bronzes, pottery, prehistoric weapons, mummies. Almost nothing remains in those neglected rooms», Peyrolle explains. «The new owner will bring part of the collections housed in the other castle, but before thinking about the displays we have to begin the restoration, which will take a long time». Today it is hard to imagine the new face of these rooms after the transformation Peyrolle already has in mind, which will be very theatrical and erudite. Crossing the abandoned rooms feels like being in a ghostly edifice, inevitably ruled by time and dust. «For the restoration, I want to draw inspiration from the Grand Siècle», Peyrolle continues, whose art will be in the spotlight in September in Rome, at Galleria Benucci, in a solo show of about 20 pieces. «I would like to pay homage to French taste, with a Baroque spirit. Every room will have its own story. There will definitely be a big picture gallery, a cabinet for ivory, another for silver». The main idea remains that of the Wunderkammer, right in tune with the poetics of Peyrolle. «We plan to create a large cabinet de curiosités, a Kunstkammer». The new actors in on this theatrical stage, lost in the mist of passing time, will be hundreds of precious, extraordinary objects.

THE LAVISH RECEPTION ROOM CONTRASTS WITH THE RIGOR OF SPACES BASED ON A VERY ESSENTIAL IDEA OF DECOR