Versailles and Antiquity
dal 12/11/2012 al 16/3/2013
Segnalato da
12/11/2012
Versailles and Antiquity
Chateau de Versailles, Versailles
The exhibition will bring back to Versailles about fifty antiques that it possessed during the Ancien Regime. The interpretation of Antiquity and its mythology will be evoked through about two hundred works from the principal French collections: sculptures, paintings, drawings, engravings, tapestries, objets d'art.
curated by Alexandre Maral and Nicolas Milovanovic, curators of the palace of Versailles and Geneviève Besc and Jean-Luc Martinez, curator at the Musée du Louvre
Versailles was a new Rome in several ways: in its grandiose size, in its ambition to endure through the centuries, and in the many references to the great models of Antiquity. In the 17th century, Antiquity was an incomparable absolute, which the most ambitious sovereigns wished to rival: Louis XIV created Versailles as the seat of power to bring back the grandeur of Antiquity.
More than all the other European sovereigns, Louis XIV sought to acquire the most prestigious antique pieces or to have copies made of them. Versailles was their sanctuary: statues and busts in the Grand Apartments and gardens, cameos and medals and small bronzes in the King’s cabinet. This collection assembled in Versailles and Marly offered the vision of Antiquity restored for the glory of the King.
The exhibition will bring back to Versailles about fifty antiques that it possessed during the Ancien Régime. The interpretation of Antiquity and its mythology will be evoked through about two hundred works from the principal French collections (Louvre, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Musée ddes Beaux-Arts de Rouen, le Musée des Augustins de Toulouse, etc.): sculptures, paintings, drawings, engravings, tapestries, objets d’art.
Chateau de Versailles
Place d'Armes - Versailles
9 - 18,30, closed monday