It was on this day in 1830 that Louis-Philippe, Duc d’Orléans, took power in the wake of the so-called July Revolution that toppled his cousin, Charles X, who had abdicated in favour of his grandson.  Charles had intended for Louis-Philippe to rule as regent for the little boy, but the latter had other ideas and raised no objection when the National Assembly offered to make him king in his own right.  Departing from tradition, he proclaimed himself Louis-Philippe, King of the French, rather than Louis XIX (or XX, depending on your point of view), King of France.

Louis-Philippe as photographed in 1842. Credit: By Lerebours et Claudet – page, image, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8462011

Here at Versailles Century we take a dim view of this wily monarch, mainly because of his ham-handed interventions at Versailles.  Three years into his reign, Louis-Philippe decided to undertake a partial restoration of the Château de Versailles and also to create a museum of French history in it.  We’ve previously touched on one of his modifications, namely the eponymous staircase in the King’s private apartments.

The Louis-Philippe Staircase in March, 2017.

I actually like this staircase, which brings some much-needed light into this part of the Château.

Following on from last week’s post about the house, today we visit the beautiful gardens of the Palacio Fronteira in Lisbon.

The most famous part of the gardens is undoubtedly the tile-lined water tank.

The water tank at the Palacio Fronteira, Lisbon, in April, 2016.

The upper walk is known as the Gallery of Kings, after the busts of Portugal’s monarchs set in the niches of the blue-tiled wall.

The Palacio Fronteira is perhaps my favourite stately home anywhere.

The Palace of the Marquises of Fronteira, seen from the famous water tank in April, 2016.

I like stately homes a lot, so that’s a big statement.  I prefer occupied stately homes, and if they’re still occupied by the descendants of the builder, so much the better.  It’s very much in the Palacio Fronteira’s favour that the 13th Marquis of Fronteira, the direct descendant of the 1st Marquis who built the place, lives in it with his family.

Our friends at the official Château de Versailles website have published this stunning rooftop view from the centre block (I assume) down the central axis of the gardens to the Tapis Vert and the Grand Canal beyond.

View from the roof of the Château de Versailles towards the Grand Canal. Credit: http://www.chateaudeversailles.com

Looking at this view makes me feel quite kingly.  Why?  Because Louis XV is known to have enjoyed spending time on the roof of the Château.

The French furniture in the Gulbenkian Museum is impressive.  The collection includes pieces by two great masters: Séné and van Risen Burgh (also spelled van Risamburgh).

In a previous post, we looked at a set of Beauvais-upholstered chairs by Séné.

Pair of fauteuils by J.B.C. Séné in the Gulbenkian Foundation museum in Lisbon.

Today we’ll examine four pieces by van Risen Burgh/van Risamburgh.

When you visit the gardens of Versailles today, the plantings you see are not those of Louis XIV and Le Nôtre.

The Sun King and his great gardener together oversaw the design and planting of the gardens in a series of campaigns that was largely completed by the late 1680s, though the King continued to tinker with various elements until the end of his life.  The only major alteration in the reign of Louis XV was the construction of the Bassin de Neptune in the northeastern corner of the gardens.  Le Bien Aimé otherwise concentrated his gardening efforts on the Petit Trianon.

The Bassin de Neptune on a rainy day in late March, 2016.

The layout of the gardens as we see them today, then, is still more or less as it was at the death of Louis XIV in 1715.  Plants are living things, however, and though some live long, none are eternal.  According to ‘The Gardens’ page on the Château’s official website, it was understood from the start that the gardens would have to be replanted once every hundred years or so.

The staircases of the King’s private apartments (le Petit appartement du roi) have a complicated history.

The original staircase was the famous Ambassador’s Staircase.  It was so grand that Louis XIV used to receive ambassador’s and foreign dignitaries on it.  Later, in the reign of Louis XV, it was also the venue for Mme de Pompadour’s theatre, which was made of wood and could be assembled and dis-assembled on demand.

Engraving of the Ambassadors’ Staircase. Credit: Wikipedia.

In 1754, wishing to create a suite of rooms for his daughter Mme Adélaïde, Louis ordered this grand staircase to be demolished.

I had never heard of Cristobal de Villalpando (1649-1714) before stepping through the doors of the Palacio de Iturbide in Mexico City’s Centro Historico in May, 2017.

The Palacio (see the previous post for details of this building: http://versaillescentury.com/2017/06/20/versailles-century-building-palacio-de-iturbide/#more-1068) now belongs to the Banamex Cultural Foundation, which happened to be running an exhibition dedicated to Villalpando.

Sign for the Villalpando exhibition at the Banamex Cultural Foundation, May, 2017.

Walking through the exhibition, I was thunderstruck by Villallpando’s canvases and amazed that I had never heard of him.

The Palacio de Iturbide in Mexico City has a double distinction: it’s one of the great surviving baroque mansions of New Spain AND it was home to independent Mexico’s first emperor.

It was built between 1779 and 1785 for Miguel de Berrio y Saldívar, Count of San Mateo Valparaíso and Marquis of Jaral de Berrio, a creole aristocrat whose fortune was based on mining.  He commissioned it as a wedding gift for his daughter, allegedly spending the exact amount of the dowry for fear that his new Italian son-in-law, one Marquis of Moncada, would otherwise squander the money.

He certainly got his money’s worth.

The facade of the Palacio de Iturbide on Madero Street in Mexico City.

The palace was designed in the Mexican Baroque style then still prevalent in New Spain, but architects  Francisco Antonio Guerrero y Torres and Agustín Duran purportedly modelled it on the royal palace in Palermo, perhaps in honour of their employer’s son-in-law.  It has 3 floors and the inner courtyard is surrounded by an 18-arch arcade.

The Metropolitan Museum has just made a stunning announcement: 375,000 images from its collections will be made available for free use.

That’s right: free use.  As in, you can use the images freely for both commercial and non-commercial purposes.  You can even adapt, modify or build on them.  This initiative has come about through the Met’s Open Access policy and is being operationalized via Creative Commons.  You can read all about it in this post from the Met’s Facebook page: http://mymodernmet.com/metropolitan-museum-of-art-open-access/

For us, here at Versailles Century, this obviously means worry-free, user-friendly access to hundreds of images of the Château, its contents, and its surroundings.  As a foretaste, here are some images of Versailles from the Met’s collections.

A view of the Château from the courtyard by Sylvestre:

“Château de Versailles seen from the forecourt, from Chalcographie du Louvre, Vol. 22” by Israel Silvestre (French, Nancy 1621–1691 Paris) via The Metropolitan Museum of Art is licensed under CC0 1.0