Marly : Art de vivre et pouvoir de Louis XIV à Louis XVI

The chateau of Marly, unofficial residence of the French monarchs, was a place of experimentation in both architecture and furniture. Since it was intended as a hunting lodge and pleasure pavilion, the architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart was allowed a degree of freedom in his new building, for which he adopted a design featuring a Royal Pavilion, with twelve more separate pavilions for members of the court. Considered as an architectural wonder from the outset, the chateau owed its exceptional character as much to the originality of its architecture as to its use as an instrument of political power by Louis XIV, who made it a symbol of royal favour at court. Stéphane Castelluccio here traces the history of Marly, from the start of building work in 1679 to the Revolution. A leading specialist in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French interiors and furniture, he examines the legacy of each of the different monarchs who enjoyed the delights of the chateau and its gardens.