Versailles - Features of The Palace of Versailles - Grands Appartements - Grand Appartement Du Roi

Grand Appartement Du Roi

Le Vau’s plan called for an enfilade of seven rooms, each dedicated to one of the then known planets and their associated titular Roman deity. Le Vau’s plan was bold as he designed a heliocentric system that centred on the Salon of Apollo. The salon d’Apollon originally was designed as the king’s bedchamber, but served as a throne room. During the reign of Louis XIV (until 1689), a solid silver throne stood on a Persian carpet covered dais on the south wall of this room (Berger, 1986; Dangeau, 1854–1860; Josephson, 1926; 1930; Verlet, 1985).

The original arrangement of the enfilade of rooms was:

• Salon de Diane (Diana, Roman goddess of the hunt; associated with the Moon)
• Salon de Mars (Mars, Roman god of war; associated with the planet Mars)
• Salon de Mercure (Mercury, Roman god of trade, commerce, and the Liberal Arts; associated with the planet Mercury)
• Salon d’Apollon (Apollo, Roman god of the Fine Arts; associated with the Sun)
• Salon de Jupiter (Jupiter, Roman god of law and order; associated with the planet Jupiter)
• Salon de Saturne (Saturn, Roman god of agriculture and harvest; associated with the planet Saturn)
• Salon de Vénus (Venus, Roman goddess of love and beauty; associated with the planet Venus)

The configuration of the grand appartement du roi conformed to contemporary conventions in palace design (Baillie, 1967). However, owing to Louis XIV’s personal taste and with the apartment’s northern exposure, Louis XIV found the rooms too cold and opted to live in the rooms previously occupied by his father. The grand appartement du roi was reserved for court functions – such as the thrice-weekly appartement evenings given by Louis XIV for members of the court (Berger, 1986; La Varende, 1959; Marie, 1968, 1972; Nolhac, 1911; Verlet, 1985).

The rooms were decorated by Le Brun and demonstrated Italian influences, particularly that of Pietro da Cortona, with whom Le Brun studied while he was in Florence. Le Brun was influenced by the decorative style da Cortona devised for the decoration of the Pitti Palace in Florence, which influenced his style Louis XIV at Versailles. The quadratura style of the ceilings evoke Pietro Cortona’s Sale dei Planeti at the Pitti, but Le Brun’s decorative schema is more complex (Blunt, 1980; Campbell, 1977). In his 1674 publication about the grand appartement du roi, André Félibien described the scenes depicted in the coves of the ceilings of the rooms as allegories depicting the “heroic actions of the king” (Félibien, 1674). Accordingly, one finds scenes of the exploits of Augustus, Alexander the Great, and Cyrus alluding to the deeds of Louis XIV (Lighthart, 1997; Sabatier, 1999). For example, in the salon d’Apollon, the cove painting “Augustus building the port of Misenum” alludes to the construction of the port at La Rochelle; or, depicted in the south cove of the salon de Mercure is “Ptolemy II Philadelphus in his Library”, which alludes to Ptolemy’s construction of the Great Library of Alexandria and which accordingly serves as an allegory to Louis XIV’s expansion of the Bibliothèque du roi. Complementing the rooms’ decors were pieces of massive silver furniture. Regrettably, owing to the War of the League of Augsburg, in 1689 Louis XIV ordered all of this silver furniture to be sent to the mint, to be melted down to help defray the cost of the war (Berger, 1986; Dangeau, 1854–1860; Josephson, 1926; 1930; Marie, 1968, 1972, 1976; Nolhac, 1911; Verlet, 1985).

Le Vau’s original plan for the grand appartement du roi was short-lived. With the inauguration of the third building campaign, which suppressed the terrace linking the apartments of the king and queen, the salon de Jupiter, the salon de Saturne, and the salon de Vénus for the construction of the Hall of Mirrors, the configuration of the grand appartement du roi was altered. The decorative elements of the salon de Jupiter was removed and reused in the decoration of the salle des gardes de la reine; and elements of the decoration of the first salon de Vénus, which opened onto the terrace, were reused in the salon de Vénus that we see today (Marie, 1972, 1976; Nolhac, 1925; Verlet, 1985).

From 1678 to the end of Louis XIV’s reign, the grand appartement du roi served as the venue for the king’s thrice-weekly evening receptions, known as les soirées de l’appartement. For these parties, the rooms assumed specific functions:

• Salon de Vénus: buffet tables were arranged to display food and drink for the king’s guests.
• Salon de Diane: served as a billiard room.
• Salon de Mars: served as a ballroom.
• Salon de Mercure: served as a gaming (cards) room.
• Salon d’Apollon: served as a concert or music room.

In the 18th century during the reign of Louis XV, the grand appartement du roi was expanded to include the salon de l’Abondance (Hall of Plenty) – formerly the entry vestibule of the petit appartement du roi – and the salon d'Hercule – occupying the tribune level of the former chapel of the palace (Verlet, 1985).