Francesco Scibec, called Scibec da Carpi, was a 16th-century Italian furniture maker from Carpi near

Modena Modena (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It has 184,739 inhabitants as of 2025. A town, and seat of an archbis ...

. He worked for the French royal court amongst a group of artists now called the first school of Fontainebleau. Francesco arrived at the building of

Fontainebleau Fontainebleau ( , , ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Functional area (France), metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the Kilometre zero#France, centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a Subprefectures in Franc ...

for

Francis I of France Francis I (; ; 12 September 1494 – 31 March 1547) was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin once removed and father-in-law Louis&nbs ...

at the same time as his compatriot,

Rosso Fiorentino Giovanni Battista di Jacopo (8 March 1495 – 14 November 1540), known as Rosso Fiorentino (meaning "Florentine Redhead" in Italian) or Il Rosso ("The Redhead"), was an Italian Mannerist painter who worked in oil and fresco Fresco ( or ...

in 1530. There he completed the panelling of the Gallerie François Ier. One of his contracts for the renewed furnishing in oak and walnut of the great gallery and pavilion near the lake at Fontainebleau was made according to the king's personal instructions in February 1541. He also worked at the Château d'Anet for Diane de Poitiers. In 1549 he was contracted to decorate boats for a pageant on the

Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...

for the entry of

Henry II of France Henry II (; 31 March 1519 – 10 July 1559) was List of French monarchs#House of Valois-Angoulême (1515–1589), King of France from 1547 until his death in 1559. The second son of Francis I of France, Francis I and Claude of France, Claude, Du ...

to Paris. Francesco also made furniture and panelling for private and ecclesiastical clients. In July 1552 he accepted as apprentice Bartholomew, the son of another Italian painter colleague at Fontainebleau, Francesco Pellegrini. In the two years from 1557 to 1559 he made furniture for the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

, for the Château and the Chapel in the woods of Vincennes, and for the Château of Saint Germain-en-Laye. For Fontainebleau, he made a special picture frame for a map of Italy and other carved frames for the portraits of two ladies. In March 1537, he married Marguerite Samson, daughter of a French painter, Pierre Samson.Grodecki, Catherine, ''Documents du Minutier Central de Paris'', vol. 1 (1985), 265-269.

References

Léon Laborde, ed., ''Les comptes des bâtiments du roi (1528-1571): suivis de documents inédits sur les châteaux royaux et les beaux-arts au XVIe siècle'', vol. 1 (1877)
Internet archive, for the 1530s Fontainebleau building records {{DEFAULTSORT:Scibec, Francesco Businesspeople from Modena Italian woodworkers 16th-century Italian businesspeople People from Carpi, Emilia-Romagna French Renaissance Renaissance architecture in France Furniture makers Italian artisans