The Versailles Effect: Objects, Lives, and Afterlives of the Domaine

The Versailles Effect: Objects, Lives, and Afterlives of the Domaine
ISBN-10
150135776X
ISBN-13
9781501357763
Category
Architecture
Pages
320
Language
English
Published
2020-12-10
Publisher
Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Authors
Robert Wellington, Mark Ledbury

Description

The essays in this volume show that Versailles was not the static creation of one man, but a hugely complex cultural space; a centre of power, but also of life, love, anxiety, creation, and an enduring palimpsest of aspirations, desires, and ruptures. The splendour of the Château and the masterpieces of art and design that it contains mask a more complex and sometimes more sordid history of human struggle and achievement. The case studies presented by the contributors to this book cannot provide a comprehensive account of the Palace of Versailles and its domains, the life within its walls, its visitors, and the art and architecture that it has inspired from the seventeenth century to the present day: from the palace of the Sun King to the Penthouse of Donald Trump. However, this innovative collection will reshape-or even radically redefine-our understanding of the palace of Versailles and its posterity.

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