Tea at Trianon: The Restoration of Madame du Barry's Apartment

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, October 12, 2021

The Restoration of Madame du Barry's Apartment

From Axa:

The restoration of Madame du Barry's apartment began in February 2021 under the close supervision of Frédéric Didier. The master's eye is uncompromising when it comes to recovering the original aspect of a particular architectural element: "The worst sin for the architect is the sin of ignorance. Each construction site is a new investigation. You have to be on the lookout for the slightest clue as to why something is like this and not like that. It is necessary to find the authenticity, the historical and archeological richness and depth of the place that will then provide aesthetic pleasure".
With its fourteen rooms, and its surface of more than 350 square meters along with its unobstructed view on the marble courtyard for the reception rooms, the apartment of Madame du Barry is a testimony of 18th century art de vivre. (Read more.)