The Basilica da Estrela with its elegant white façade is my favourite church in Lisbon — no small compliment in a city that fancies itself a second Rome.
The façade of the Basilica da Estrela in western Lisbon with tram #28 at bottom right.
If you’re starting from central Lisbon, it’s quite easy to find. Just get on the famous #28 tram, heading westwards. The terminal stop is right in front of the Basilica, as you can see in the photo above.
The Chapel was the last major component of the Château to be completed.
Louis XIV had been planning a grand new chapel in the late 1680s when the War of the League of Augsburg (1688-1697), also known as the Nine Years’ War, broke out. The plans for the Chapel were then shelved.
The Chapel of the Château de Versailles as seen from a street in the town.
When the planning resumed after the end of the war, the King had changed his mind about a crucial point of the design: instead of marble, the white stone known as banc royal would be used for the interior.
Jean Baptiste Claude Séné (1748-1803) was a master chair maker in Paris who was active from the later years of Louis XV’s reign through to the Revolution.
I photographed these chairs of his in the museum of the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon last year.
Pair of fauteuils by J.B.C. Séné in the Gulbenkian Foundation museum in Lisbon.
Lisbon is a surprisingly good place to see French fine and decorative arts of the Versailles Century (1682-1789) period. Apart from the Gulbenkian Foundation, there’s also the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (MNAA) and various palace museums. The Portuguese elite were such francophiles that many high quality pieces make their home in the city by the Tagus. Apart from the chairs pictured above, there are many other items of French furniture in the Gulbenkian’s collection that I’ll share in future posts.
Madame Adélaïde (1732-1800) was one of Louis XV’s children. As such, she was a “Daughter of France,” and was accorded a truly royal apartment in the main block of the Château.
Portrait of Mme Adélaïde in 1787 by Adélaïde Labille-Guiard. It hangs in her sister’s apartment at Versailles.
Her apartment adjoins that of her younger sister, Mme Victoire (1733-1799). I previously described Mme Victoire’s apartment in an early post on this blog: http://versaillescentury.com/2016/09/22/versailles-mme-victoires-apartment/#more-304
The 2 sisters were the last of Louis XV’s offspring still alive and living in the Château towards the end of the reign of their nephew, Louis XVI. The latter also gave them the Château de Bellevue, and, unprecedentedly, the joint dukedom of Lauzun. The layout of the rooms today is as it was arranged for the sisters in the 1780s.
The Rue du Bac is a narrow but fascinating street in Paris to wander along. Lined with antique shops, boutiques, restaurants, and cafes, it stretches from the quai opposite the Louvre deep into the heart of the Left Bank.
Rue du Bac in Paris.
It’s also home to the Paris Foreign Missions Society, usually abbreviated as MEP using the French initials (Missions Étrangères de Paris). The unassuming street entrance to the MEP complex is shown below.
The entrance to the MEP complex at 128 Rue du Bac.
This venerable organization, still active today, was responsible for the Catholic evangelization of North America and much of East and Southeast Asia.
The Cour de Marbre is part of the footprint of Louis XIII’s original chateau, which was intended to be nothing more than a hunting lodge and a place of quiet refuge from court life.
The Cour de Marbre facade of the Chateau de Versailles.
Louis XIV, of course, had very different ideas for his father’s hunting lodge. Still, he respected his father’s memory to such an extent that he planned his expansion of the Chateau around the original building instead of knocking it down and starting fresh. Thus was born the Enveloppe, literally the “envelope” of new construction that enclosed Louis XIII’s hunting lodge.
The work of Francesco Guardi, the last of the great Venetian view painters, is well represented in Lisbon’s Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian.
The foundation actually has 2 museums on its campus, as well as extensive gardens. One of the museums is dedicated to modern art. It’s in the other one, the larger and older of the two, that you’ll find Guardi’s works. In fact, there’s a whole room dedicated to them, with a number of paintings hung on each of the 4 walls.
One wall in the Guardi room at the Gulbenkian.
Another wall in the Guardi room at the Gulbenkian.
A third wall in the Guardi room at the Gulbenkian.
The final wall of the Guardi room in the Gulbenkian.
Tiepolo was the last great Venetian master, apart from the view painters Canaletto, Bellotto, and Guardi. I was delighted to find 3 of Tiepolo’s smaller works in the collection of the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (MNAA) in Lisbon when I visited there last April (2016).
Born in 1696, Giambattista Tiepolo trained in the studio of Lazzarini before being accepted into the Venetian painters guild in 1717. He was also influenced by his study of the great Venetian masters of the past, such as Veronese and Tintoretto. His success seems to have been almost immediate. Eventually, his renown spread across Europe and he accepted commissions in Germany, notably in the Residenz at Würzburg, and later in Spain. He died in Madrid in 1770.
Here is a view of the Tiepolo wall at the MNAA.
A trio of small Tiepolo works in the MNAA.
On this day, 24 January, occurred the birth of the future Frederick II, called the Great, King of Prussia from 1740 to 1786. The year was 1712, the last full year of the reign of his grandfather, Frederick I, the first king not only of his name, but of the kingdom of Prussia, which until a decade before had been only a duchy.
Two baby princes had already been born to Frederick I’s heir, Frederick William, and his consort, Sophia Dorothea of Hannover, whose own father would soon become king of England. Both of the little princes had been sickly and died in infancy. Only baby Frederick’s elder sister, Wilhelmina, had survived of the the crown princely couple’s early brood. This pair of children would be close for their rest of their lives.
The newly born Frederick was puny, but proved to be quite hardy. In the end, he lived to be 74, which was a very respectable age in the Versailles Century.
Frederick the Great in old age. Credit: Wikipedia.
In maturity, he would be a statesman, general, writer, philosopher, art collector, composer, dog lover, devoted friend, doting brother and uncle, and neglectful husband. Here at Versailles Century, we consider him fascinating and he’s one of our favourite historical characters.
The King’s State Bedroom was the ceremonial heart of the Château, but the Cabinet du conseil (Council Chamber) next door was its political heart.
The King’s Council Chamber at Versailles.
All three kings who lived at Versailles spent many hours in this room. It was the venue for meetings of the Conseil d’Etat, the Council of State, which was effectively the cabinet. The King also chaired the meetings of the Conseil des Dépêches (Foreign Affairs) and the Conseil des Finances (Finance) here. Furthermore, foreign ambassadors presented their credentials in this room. Last but not least, all those who wished to join the court had to be presented to the King here by a sponsor. In 1745, Madame de Pompadour was presented, for instance.
