Model of the Ambassadors’ Staircase
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.A triple entrance in the brick and stone palace facade offered exterior access to the ceremonial Ambassadors' Staircase. On the day of their formal audience, overseas diplomats would have been escorted from the Ambassadors’ Salon across the marble courtyard to enter the imposing vestibule and climb the stairs leading up to the King’s State Apartment. Designed by the architect Louis Le Vau, the staircase was decorated between 1674 and 1679 with polychrome marbles and an elaborate program of illusionistic paintings by Charles Le Brun, all lit by a glass roof. Visiting dignitaries were duly impressed by the spectacle that unfolded before them while climbing the stairs that led to the King’s State Apartment. The staircase was destroyed in 1752.
Artwork Details
- Title: Model of the Ambassadors’ Staircase
- Modeler: Maquette by Charles Arquinet (French)
- Date: 1958
- Medium: Wood, cardboard, plaster, plastic
- Dimensions: Escalier: 41 5/16 × 86 5/8 × 37 13/16 in. (105 × 220 × 96 cm)
Vestibule: 41 5/16 × 86 5/8 × 37 13/16 in. (105 × 220 × 96 cm) - Classification: Sculpture-Architectural
- Credit Line: Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon (V.6251-2)
- Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts