The Versailles Effect: Objects, Lives, and Afterlives of the Domaine

The essays in this volume show that Versailles was not the static creation of one man, but a hugely complex cultural space, a centre of power, but also of life, love, anxiety, creation, and an enduring palimpsest of aspirations, desires and ruptures. The splendour of the chateau and the masterpieces of art and design that it contains masks a more complex and sometimes more sordid history of human struggle and achievement. The case studies presented by the contributors to this book cannot hope to provide a comprehensive account of the Palace of Versailles and its domains, the life within its walls, its visitors and the art and architecture that it has inspired from the seventeenth century to now: From the palace of the Sun King to the Penthouse of Donald Trump. This innovative collection of essays will reshape, even radically redefine our understanding of the palace of Versailles and its posterity.