ART RESTORATION AND CONSERVATION. Cont'd.
Versailles Having A Face Lift.
Official Residence: In
May 6, 1682, Versailles became the official residence of the Court of France,
supplanting the palaces at the Louvre and Saint-Germain-en-Laye. From 1678 to
1684, meanwhile, the terrace of the new chateau was transformed into the Hall
of Mirrors, symbolizing the power of the
absolute monarch. Feverish building activity then gave birth to the North and
South Wings, the Orangery, Stables, and Grand Lodgings; the vast construction
site was headed by royal architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart. The last major
feature built during the reign of Louis XIV, the Chapel Royal, was completed
in 1710 by Robert de Cotte.
The Grand Reconstruction Project:
Toward the end of the reign
of Louis XIV, around 1770, Jacques-Ange Gabriel
built the Opera and began reworking all the facades on the chateau's town
side. Only the right wing, which threatened to crumble, was executed. It
strictly obeyed the rules of French classical architecture, as seen in its
colonnaded pavilion. Inside, the grand staircase known as Grand Degré was
begun in 1772, but only recently completed in 1985. A symmetrical pavilion on
the other side of the courtyard, planned by Napoleon Ier, was finally erected
in 1820.
SOME MASTERPIECES
Louis XIV marble
sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1665
Italian artist
Gianlorenzo Bernini was the most famous sculptor and architect of his day,
having designed the colonnade in front of Saint Peter?s in Rome. Louis XIV
summoned Bernini to Paris in 1665 in order to ask him re-build the Louvre, and
it was during this time that Bernini sculpted this bust of the king. This is
one of the few portraits for which Louis XIV agreed to pose, and it shows the
27-year-old man as young, handsome, and majestic. The monarch is depicted at
the start of his climb to glory, just a few years after having decided to
govern alone, fully exercising what he called "a king's craft".
Aged 62, Louis XIV is here wearing royal garb (ermine-lined blue cape with fleur-de-lis pattern, sword at his side) and shown with royal regalia (sceptre, crown, hand of justice).
The portrait was commissioned in 1700 from Hyacinthe Rigaud, who excelled in this kind of state portraiture. The king intended to give the painting to his grandson, the duc d'Anjou, who had just been proclaimed king of Spain. Yet when Louis XIV saw the portrait, he found it so fine that the he immediately asked the artist to do another one for himself. As it turned out, neither painting ever left France. The first remained in the Apollo Salon until the Revolution and is now in the Louvre, while the second is now at Versailles.
The battle of Arcole (November 15-17, 1796) was a
key event in the first Italian campaign and marked the start of Napoleon
Bonaparte's meteoric rise. At the beginning of the clash, Bonaparte seized
a flag and attempted to cross the bridge separating the two armies, but he
was driven back by Austrian fire. Victory only came two days later.
Back in Milan, Bonaparte commissioned this
painting from Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, a student of David, to serve as
propaganda for himself.
Photo: Napoleon
Bonaparte, 1796
End of the article.