Arriving at the National Gallery in Canberra (NGA) to visit the exhibition of Treasures from the Palace of Versailles, I was greeted by the heavenly scent of orange blossom. The delicious fragrance was no accident, but rather specially created by master perfumer Francis Kurkdjian to enhance the exhibition foyer.
Orange trees were a favourite of Louis 14th (1638-1715), the creator of Versailles palace and gardens, and he had them in all his rooms in silver tubs.
“Treasures from the Palace” features furniture, tapestries, carpets, drawings, paintings and many other magnificent objets d’art.
There’s also an impressive section on gardens, including an imitation labyrinth and a gigantic marble statue of Latona and her children from one of Versailles’ biggest fountains.
'Treasures from the Palace' features furniture, tapestries, carpets, drawings, paintings and many other magnificent objets d’art.
Louis inherited Versailles, originally a modest hunting lodge, from his father Louis 13th and was inspired to enlarge the establishment by the example of the chateau at Vaux-le-Vicomte built by his finance minister, Nicolas Fouquet.
Wishing to impress his monarch, Fouquet invited 6000 guests to a vast party to celebrate the completion of the chateau and gardens in August 1661.
The results were disastrous: the young king was enraged by the opulence of Vaux, not least because he was encouraged to believe it had been built illegally with government – ie. his own – money.
He imprisoned Fouquet for life and sequestered Vaux and its contents.
He must have been particularly delighted to find more than 1000 orange trees among the latter.
He then employed Fouquet’s architect Louis le Vau, his landscape gardener Andre le Notre and his painter/decorator Charles le Brun to transform Versailles into the greatest palace surrounded by the most extensive and lavish gardens the western world has ever seen.
Versailles was purposely designed to display the absolute power of the French throne. Louis was a fanatical gardener and the huge (750 hectare) formal gardens embellished with lakes, canals and over 2,400 fountains at Versailles were to be an in-your-face demonstration of how the rule of law could overcome nature.
Water features ultimately absorbed one third of Versailles’ cost, but ironically it was water that proved even a king can’t control nature. Although Versailles is built on a swamp, there was never enough of it to meet Louis and Le Notre’s ambitions.
The NGA exhibition tells the fascinating story of various costly efforts to bring it in, including uphill from the River Seine over a distance of nine kilometres, and a later disastrous attempt to transport it via aqueduct from the River Eure, 160 kilometres distant but 26 metres above the garden reservoirs.
For most of the French population during these years, clean drinking water was precious and hard to come by. Yet the fountains at Versailles continued to splash it around during the 17th and 18th centuries, using as much water in a day as the nearby city of Paris. No wonder there was a revolution.
- Versailles: Treasures from the Palace can be seen at the NGA until April 17, daily from 10am to 5pm. Adult entry from $27. www.nga.gov.au/Versailles/