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Anish Patel 9/1/2018 LSTD:3133 Unit 1 Essay Chateau de Versailles Looking through the book and seeing images of the Chateau de Versailles and the beautiful landscape, you can’t help but wonder how this was created into a wonderful piece of architect and when was this created. Every bit of the palace and its features represent something. Because of its landscape architecture, this shows the French Baroque artistic expression. The interior design that creates a dramatic effect with the arts and the sizes you can see everywhere, and the ornamentation is a direct sign that the baroque style is used. Taking 21 years to build, this definitely needed all the help it could get. The White House in Washington D.C. has some resemblance to the palace itself and the front bushes due to its use of the symmetry and columns. The structure of the palace itself has a basic structure. This meaning a symmetrical format, very repetitive around, and has many distinct similarities that resemble Greek temples (Khan). The French Baroque style was known for its use of lavish furnishings, the glam of shiny things, decorated walls and ceilings, and everything big. Showing the power of Louis XIV, Versailles was there to show what he can do without any hesitation. He called himself the Sun King or Sun God knowing that everything revolves around him, not the other way around. With Versailles, he took away the power that was established by the biased upper class of the country to where everything was going to be at one location in the middle of nowhere to where the power will be. Using the baroque style to decorate his property, he used sculptures, paintings,

fountains, a lot of gold pieces here and there inside and out, lavish chandeliers, marble, and many ornament decorated pieces all over the walls and mirrors. Let’s not forget the 700 rooms and the and the Hall of Mirrors that contain “357 mirrors to catch the rising sun’s rays inside the palace and remind us yet again of Louis XIV’s power” (Khan). The making of the whole palace took nearly 21 years to create. Using Louis Le Vau for the whole layout of what this masterpiece will look like from the beginning to the end, addition by Judes Hardonin-Mansart, Claude Perrault’s design, and the magnificent garden by Andre Le Notre (Fiero). They were the main artists that put the pieces together to create this estate. Louis Le Vau was smart to use the principles that combined for a great “taste for spatial grandeur, dramatic contrast, and theatrical display” that were the needs to create the Classical Baroque Style (Fiero). He created the central building with the help of Judes Hardonin-Mansart to add the two wings to the central building. Having three levels added definition to the concept. Corinthian columns, statues that almost touched the ceiling, and the entrance to the palace itself was like no other. Le Vau did many things that built this place together with the help of many other artists. With the presence of the palace has to have a garden to mimic the glory of the palace. This is where Le Notre came in. He designed the gardens that was created to match the architecture used by Louis Le Vau. This spanned over 2000 acres in the French formal gadebn style. The parked “featured an array of hedges clipped into geometric shapes, sparkling fountains, artificial lakes, grottoes, a zoo, theaters, and outdoor rooms for gatherings and meetings” (pg. 65, Fiero). When in season, the flowers that were brought from all over to be planted with the garden made a

spectacular view to see from above and walking around inside. Statues were used for some areas, the pathways in the garden were axial that are headed towards the horizon, many terraces and stairways to wonder upon including pavilions to rest. The Grande Commande is a series of 24 statues that Louis XIV used to decorate the garden with. They were in sets of 4 to commemorate the Four Humors, the Four Parts of the Day, the Four Parts of the World, the Four Parts of the Poetry, the Four Elements, and the Four Seasons. With the lakes, this added in a more effective way to see the palace in the reflection to show power. There is another feature in the garden called The Grande Canal. This was a piece of the garden that showed resemblance of a somewhat “Little Venice” that contained housing for yachts and received gondoliers from Venice for the gondolas. One fountain in particular was the Bassin de Latone that was also designed by Le Notre. This fountain resembles part of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Another fountain was the Bassin d’Apollon which showed the Sun God himself driving his chariot to the sky. Outside of the walls focused on the royalty shadow while the interior should do just the same. Being of France means lavish anything. Carpets imported from Turkey and Persia, wood art of Italy, tapestry art and furniture by a factory at Gobelins in Paris and bronze sculptures including clocks, silver, porcelain and fine glass. Being that everything needs to be big, there were huge mirrors, moldings, chandeliers, and frescoes that showed the differences between the peasants and the wealthy. The furniture and furnishings were top of the line materials. All 700 rooms had their own distinct look yet all looked similar with all the pieces used inside. One room the palace had was the Royal Opera of Versailles that was designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel.

This place could sit up to 1200 people. Other rooms that were important to the land were the Salons of Hercules, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Apollo and Diane. As you can tell these rooms were named after the Roman Gods and Goddesses. Le Brun created mural paintings for these rooms. Le Brun also painted the ceilings of the halls. All of the paintings that were approved by Louis XIV were modified versions of the Italian Baroque style. When looking at everything the Chateau de Versailles has to show, you can see where all the big things and smalls things mattered the most. Every detail showed perfection, like a saying, that was well established using the Baroque style of Art and Architect. The power distilled in this Estate told the story of how one man can do so much to ensure everything was about him.

Works Cited

Fiero, Gloria. Humanistic Tradition: the Early Modern World to the Present. Mcgraw-Hill Education, 2015. Jarus, Owen. “Palace of Versailles: Facts & History.” LiveScience, Purch, 4 Oct. 2017, www.livescience.com/38903-palace-of-versailles-facts-history.html. “Château De Versailles.” Khan Academy, Khan Academy, 2014, www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/early-europe-and-colonialamericas/reformation-counter-reformation/a/chteau-de-versailles. “Palace of Versailles, France (C.1624-98).” Genesis Fresco, Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo: Interpretation, Analysis, 2011, www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-ofart/versailles-palace.htm....