The Vaux-le-Vicomte Palace is an architectural masterpiece that inspired Louis XIV to build Versailles (23)

 The Vaux-le-Vicomte Palace is an architectural masterpiece that inspired Louis XIV to build Versailles.

🖌️🎨Nicolas Fouquet, Marquis de Belle-Isle, Viscount de Melun et Vaux (1615-1680) - Superintendent of Finance in France from 1653 to 1661 under King Louis XIV.

 He made a brilliant career and acquired enormous wealth. He fell out of favor, accused of embezzlement (mismanagement of public funds) and lese majeste (actions detrimental to the well-being of the monarch).

The king imprisoned him from 1661 until his death in 1680.

Nicolas Fouquet took life lightly and was sure that everything around him existed only for his pleasure. Born into the family of an influential French politician, he early gained access to power and the state treasury, and in 1650 bought for himself the position of prosecutor general at the Paris Parliament. Fouquet used the turbulent times of riots - the Frondes, which brought ruin and misfortune to someone, to his advantage.

In 1641, Fouquet invested funds from his wife's dowry into the purchase of the small estate of Vaux-le-Vicomte, not far from the road connecting Vincennes Castle and Fontainebleau, two royal residences. At that time, Vaud was surrounded by forest and included a farm and a small chapel from the 14th century. Two rivers flowed through the estate - this will have a beneficial effect on the irrigation of gardens in the future.

The best, real geniuses of their craft, were invited to build the castle and the regular park: architect Louis Leveau, designer Andre Le Nôtre and artist Charles Lebrun.

Fouquet created his palace on a truly royal scale - in fact, he expected to soon take the place of the dying Mazarin and stand at the helm of the French state under a fairly young king. But the Italian, with whom the enterprising superintendent’s relationship seriously deteriorated over time, recommended Louis XIV to rely on Jean-Baptiste Colbert, indifferent to the luxury and conventions of social life.

Fouquet more than once spoke satirically about Collier's pragmatism and even stinginess. Later he took terrible revenge. After all, revenge is a dish best served cold.

At a time when, engrossed in the construction of his castle, Fouche no longer distinguished his money from the treasury’s funds, forged bills, took out loans at high interest rates to close the hole in the budget, and did not even realize that Colbert was carefully watching him.

Having learned about the waste, deception and encroachment on his favorite Louise de'Lavalliere, the king was ready to immediately arrest the insolent man, but Colbert persuaded him to wait. The position of Prosecutor General, which Fouquet held, interfered. Then Colbert convinced Fouquet to sell the position of prosecutor and transfer the proceeds to His Majesty in order to gain his favor. He agreed.

And then Collier decided to laugh at the greed of both. He informed Louis XIV that Fouquet intended to give him, his sovereign, this masterpiece of architecture - Vaux-le-Vicomte. And Fouquet - that the king will be at the first reception and wants to get acquainted with the results of the implemented Fouquet project.

The last holiday in the palace was given by Vaux-le-Viscount Fouquet on August 17, 1661 - it was an evening dedicated to the king. More than six hundred guests were present, among them artists, Moliere read his new play. At night there were fireworks displays in the park. Unbridled extravagance struck Louis XIV. But the last straw of his anger was the fact that during dinner Fouquet presented the king with only... a sword strewn with jewels.

At night, enraged with rage, the king and his retinue leave Vaux-le-Vicomte. As if in mockery, his back was illuminated by flashes of fireworks.

On September 5, after three weeks, which the king could barely endure for the sake of decency, Fouquet was arrested during the royal council in Nantes - the arrest was made by Lieutenant d'Artagnan. He also became his watchman. He carried out this most important assignment of the king with honor. And all this time the noble musketeer tried not to offend his noble prisoner in any way.

Vaux-le-Vicomte was confiscated, his wealth was gradually exported. The king used elements of the decoration of the castle and garden to create Versailles - his own pearl of palace and park art.

Orange trees and chestnut bushes, carp from the ponds of Vaud, sculptures went to the royal residence.

But Louis’s main acquisition was the team that Fouquet assembled: Louis Leveau, Andre Le Nôtre and Charles Lebrun now worked on the architecture, landscape and interior decoration of the Palace of Versailles, developing the very “Louis XIV style” that arose when creating the estate of the disgraced minister.

Fouquet's trial took place three years later and the verdict was life imprisonment. Fouquet was sent to the castle of Pignerol, where he died fifteen years later. The conditions of imprisonment were extremely strict: it was forbidden to correspond, walk or communicate with people in any way; only a year before Fouquet's death was he allowed to see his wife and children.

Soon after her husband's death, in 1680, Madame Fouquet gave the palace of Vaux-le-Vicomte, which had been graciously returned to her by the king, to her eldest son. In 1705 he died without leaving any offspring, and the palace was sold.

The estate belonged to Marshal Villars and his family, also to Choiseul-Pralin.

Having survived the Great Revolution thanks to the cunning of the owners, the castle and park later became the property of Alfred Saumier (1875), a wealthy industrialist who was ready to invest very serious sums in the restoration of the residence, which was then in disrepair.

Currently, Vaux-le-Vicomte, located 55 kilometers from Paris, belongs to the descendants of that same Saumier. The castle and garden are open to tourists - up to three hundred thousand guests visit each year.

Film producers do not ignore the luxurious residence: dozens of films were filmed in Vaux-le-Vicomte, including the films “Angelique and the King” (1966), “James Bond: Moonraker” (1979), “D’Artagnan’s Daughter” (1994) , “The Man in the Iron Mask” (1997), “Marie Antoinette” (2006).

🌐Source: wikipedia; kulturologia; marquis-paris.com.

🎨Edouard Lacretel
🖼️"Portrait of Nicolas Fouquet"
Around 1888
Castle of Versailles

🎨Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683) - French statesman, one of the most important dignitaries of the reign of Louis XIV.
 A supporter of the policy of mercantilism, he contributed to the development of the national fleet, trade and industry.

🎨Charles Lebrun (1619–1690)
🖼️"Portrait of Louis XIV" (1638-1715)
Around 1661-1662
Museum of French History
Versailles

The main building was surrounded on four sides by a moat with water.

Garden of Vaux-le-Vicomte

Garden plants were also planted - in fact, the very phenomenon of the French, or regular garden, originates from the Vaux-le-Vicomte estate.

Castle interior

🎨André Le Nôtre (French: André Le Nôtre; 1613-1700) - French landscape architect, son of the Tuileries chief gardener Jean Le Nôtre, general controller of royal buildings.

 First of all, he is known as the author of the project for the creation and subsequent reconstruction of the royal gardens and park at Versailles.

Landscape architect Andre Le Nôtre was invited to create the park, because the architecture and interior decoration of the castle were in perfect harmony with the landscape.

Garden of Vaux-le-Vicomte

Garden plants were also planted - in fact, the very phenomenon of the French, or regular garden, originates from the Vaux-le-Vicomte estate.

🎨Pierre Rabon
🖼️"Portrait of Louis Le Vau" (Wau) (1612-1670) - a French architect in the Baroque style, created a residence based on old French traditions and introducing new ideas into his work that will become a guide for future generations of architects.

🎨Marshal Villar

Legend has it that one of his descendants killed his wife in the castle, but this did not happen in Vaux-le-Vicomte, but in Villars’ Parisian apartment.

 After this, the husband, who fell into despair, committed suicide, and the estate was once again left without an owner.

Vaux-le-Vicomte Castle is an example of French palace and park architecture and the object of the fierce envy of King Louis XIV.

Perspective view from the window

Current owners of Vaux-le-Vicomte: fifth generation Saumier.

French (regular) park of the Vaux-le-Vicomte estate

The area of the park area was 33 hectares, and a total of 20 kilometers of water pipes were installed.

Thanks to the efforts of the head gardener, the forest retreated. Fountains, a waterfall, grottoes were built in the garden...

The architect Le Nôtre realized an amazing idea; when looking at the park, the observer was in the grip of an optical illusion: objects located far from the castle were larger than those nearby, the perspective was distorted and it seemed that the elements of the garden were closer than they were in reality.

Castle interior

Fragment of the Oval Living Room

The main building housed one hundred rooms with an area of two and a half thousand square meters. The Oval Drawing Room became unique for the 17th century - previously there were no rooms of this type in French residences.

Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1661-1683)

Alfred Saumier (1835-1908) - French industrialist, oil refiner, owner
Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte, Alfred Saumier Hotel.

Carefully engaged in the restoration of the palace and garden and trying to preserve the atmosphere of the 17th century, he refused electricity for a long time - however, in 1900 it was still installed in the castle.

Grotto with sculpture of Neptune in Vaux-le-Vicomte

🖌️🎨Nicolas de Largilliere
🖼️"Portrait of Charles Lebrun, painter of King Louis XIV" (1619-1690)
Around 1683–1686
Louvre

Vaux-le-Vicomte's decorator was Charles Lebrun, an artist and art theorist; his turn to continue creating an architectural masterpiece came in 1658.

The palace was constantly replenished with new works of art - antique statues, paintings by the best artists of France and Italy, tapestries, marble, gilding, mirrors - later generations of connoisseurs were not surprised by this luxury, because after the castle of Vaux-le-Vicomte, Versailles was created in the same traditions .

Louise-Françoise de La Baume Le Blanc (French: Louise-Françoise de La Baume Le Blanc, duchesse de la Vallière et de Vaujours; 1644 -1710) - Duchess de La Vallière et de Vaugours, the first official mistress of Louis XIV.

At the age of 29, she entered a monastery, where she lived for 36 years, amazing the nuns with her tolerance and endurance.

🎨 Unknown artist

🖼️"Portrait of the man formerly known as Nicolas Fouquet" (1615–1680)

Around 1660

🎨Charles Le Brun (French Charles Le Brun; 1619, Paris -1690)
🖼️"Portrait of Nicolas Fouquet"
XVII century
Vaux-le-Vicomte