Balloon Dogs and Bunnies at Versailles
October 27th, 2008 by PaulThere really isn’t a good way to introduce or describe the Palace of Versailles. You’ve probably seen it either in person or in pictures, and if not, there aren’t very many words that can be used to describe the place. It was originally built by Louis XIII as a hunting lodge. When Louis XIV wanted somewhere to escape the rabble of the Paris mobs, he turned the modest château into a palace of fantastically colossal scale. It’s hardly believable to walk around the place, to imagine the wealth, the power, and the hubris of the person who conceived it, the same hubris that would eventually bring down the entire monarchy.
Today the rabble of tourist mobs flock to Versailles to see what life was like for the Sun King. We went to see another spectacle of fantastically colossal scale:
I missed the Jeff Koons exhibit at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, so I was excited to see his work at Versailles.
The reflections of Moon (Light Blue) in the Hall of Mirrors was reminiscent of Cloud Gate in Chicago (”the Bean”):
I would have had more pictures, but once again I was hindered by my phone (this is the last time I will consider my camera phone to be an adequate substitute for an actual camera).
After squeezing ourselves through the immense Château, we ventured over to the Petit Trianon, a “small” château across the gardens that was given to Marie-Antoinette by her husband, King Louis XVI. Marie-Antoinette also constructed a faux hamlet, on the same grounds, a place where she could escape the deteriorating state of her country and pretend she was a farmer with crops to raise and cows to milk. This personal Disneyland did little to help her image, of course.
Today it’s a quiet place to see the trees, the farm, and the chickens, horses, goats, and donkeys that still live there. We tried to talk to some of them, with little success.
We also saw a group of rabbits, sitting in a small patch of fenced-off trees with some geese and chickens milling about. I wish we were able to get pictures, because these were some very cute rabbits. They were most definitely pet rabbits: some were lops, and some had tufts of fur on the top of their heads like our Bess. We watched them frolic, clean, or otherwise just sit around for a quite a while.
It’s the story of our lives, I suppose. We go to a immensely splendorous palace, filled with portraiture and tapestries and gilded everything, and what we most enjoy are the modern sculpture and the cute bunnies.
October 28th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
What was the reaction to the balloon animals?
October 29th, 2008 at 3:43 am
It was hard to tell what people’s reactions were — some were taking pictures, but it’s a mix of languages there and it’s hard to tell what people are saying.
There was a French tour guide who was conducting an English language tour. In each room she would go through explain the significance of the room, then describe the paintings and the decorations — and then finish by pointing at whatever Koons work was in the room and saying “and then there’s *that* thing.”
October 29th, 2008 at 11:55 am
But did YOU guys like that balloon animals? They look stunning in the picutres.
October 29th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
I like Jeff Koons, he’s fun. They are definitely better when complemented by grand backgrounds: for instance, when I saw Balloon Dog (Yellow) on the rooftop garden of the Met in NY.
They *are* very stunning, and a bit indescribable, which makes them a perfect fit for Versailles.