One would not believe one had changed location when one passes from Versailles to Lunéville Voltaire.
Un peu d'histoire......
For 18th-century Lorraine, the dawn of the 18th-century truly marked a new beginning since. After years of French occupation, the duchies of Lorraine and Bar were restored to independence by the Treaty of Ryswick. On 10th November 1698 the young Duke Leopold and his French bride, Élisabeth-Charlotte d’Orléans, made their solemn entry into Nancy. Despite limited financial means, Leopold was determined to assert to his place on the European stage as a independent sovereign. Fundamental to this, was the establishment of his Court in a suitably splendid formal setting. As the American historian Jonathan Spangler notes, "Printed books, pamphlets, and portraits, and even a grand palace and gardens loaded with political symbolism, were still considerably cheaper than a standing army, and were effective weapons of "cultural capital" (Spangler, 2022, p.133).
In January-February 1700, at Leopold's request, Louis XIV dispatched his chief architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart to Lorraine to advise. He produced a series of splendid plans for the ducal palace in Nancy and for the country residence at La Malgrange - "Il va nous loger partout à merveille", wrote the Duchess to her uncle the King (Baumont, p.249). In the event, projects were rapidly shelved when the town was again unceremoniously occupied by French troops during the War of Spanish Succession. In December 1702 a smarting Leopold was obliged to flee his capital and retreat to the ducal château at Lunéville, thirty kilometres away, which now became his official seat of power. For a while, the Court spent the winter months in Nancy but after 1723 Leopold took up permanent residence at Lunéville. Over the reign an ambitious reconstruction of the château was undertaken by Germain Boffrand, the pupil of Hardouin-Mansart, who became first architect to the Duke in 1711.
As symbol of the duke's pretensions to European power Lunéville "was intended to compare favourably with, but not to outshine or threaten, the newly completed palace of the Sun King at Versailles." (Spangler, 2014).
The Building of a Royal Residence
The painstaking research of Thierry Franz and others, confirmed by "preventive" archaeological digs carried out by INRAP in 2002 and 2009-10, has enabled us to identify the various phases of building work. An illustrative video, "Metamorphoses" was added to the Château's YouTube channel in February 2023:
Leopold began renovation as early as 1698, adding new corps de logis for the guards. In 1700 Jules Hardouin-Mansart is known to have paid a brief visit. In the following years, the galeries of the predominantly early 17th-century fortress, were converted into apartments where the Duke could receive his Court for the belle saison and the facades were embellished in classical style.
The main transformation took place between 1701 and 1734, in three stages:
1. 1701-06: Initial work took place under the direction or Pierre Bourdict (or Bourdier). The basic plan of the palace was established, based on an east-west axis of symmetry. An inner courtyard, corresponding to the modern cour d'honneur, was constructed on the foundations of the existing Renaissance château. To the west two symmetrical wings, the "communs", were added to provide stables and offices. Work was also begun on terracing for the formal gardens
2. 1708-19: In July 1709 Boffrand presented plans to the Royal Academy of Architecture for the château which the duke of Lorraine "has begun to have built". Over the next decade the project proceeded gradually, according to the availability of funds. A new wing to the south-east, extending the château in the direction of the gardens. contained the new ducal apartments. This completed by 1718.
3. Following a major fire in January 1719, Boffrand recast his plans and embarked upon a more thoroughgoing reconstruction. The state apartments were extended and the central part of château opened up to give a grand perspective onto the gardens beyond.The chapel, at the west end of the south wing, was consecrated in its present form in 1729. The flat terraced roofs were replaced by sloped slate roofs between 1730 and 1732. The final work was the construction of a salle de spectacle begun by the Duchess in 1733.No major structural alterations were during the reign of Stanislas, after 1737, and in 1745 Boffrand was able to show off the plan for the completed palace in his Livre d'Architecture.
INTERIORS
Decor and furnishings
The "Versailles lorrain" was once sumptuously decorated and furnished, with grand tapestries, formal portraits and allegorical ceilings in the grand royal style of the time. As an astute patron Leopold attached artists and craftsmen of repute to the Court. He employed French painters like Gobert, but also encouraged native talent. In February 1702, in imitation of the Sun King, he founded a Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Nancy and established a system of pensions which permitted artists to train in Rome.
Recovering the lost interiors has proved a difficult task. Although a few decorative elements - mostly plasterwork - do still survive, the interior was long ago stripped of its furniture and fittings. Certain objects have found their way into European museum collections, notably the major tapestries and canvases taken by Duke Francis to the Hapsburg lands, which are now in Vienna or the Hofburg in Innsbruck. Even in these cases, however original locations are generally not known. Leopold's archives are abundant, but challenging to exploit since they consist mainly of day-to-day financial accounts. One major coup - a "holy grail" says Thierry Franz, the Museum Director - is the recent discovery of an inventory of the ducal collections drawn up for Francis in 1732. The document, which was miscatalogued was found purely by chance in the Tuscan Archives in Florence by Isabelle Briand, Professor of Modern History at the University of Lorraine. Another valuable new resource is the collection of architectural drawings by Boffrand, acquired by the Bibliothèque Stanislas in Nancy in 2021, which includes detailed designs for the interior of La Malgrange (1711).
The restored spaces
Boffrand's palace was initially conceived on an H-plan, with two wings projecting into the garden to accommodate the public reception rooms on the north side and the ducal apartments to the south. Only the South Wing was ever built, hence the startling asymmetry of the present building. The central section, with its colonnaded vista, was purely a circulation area; at each end two monumental staircases gave access to the rest of the building. To the west the outer courtyard, flanked by the "communs", opened towards the the town and the road to Nancy and Piedmont. The apartments overlooking the interior courtyard were reserved, on one side for the filles d'honneur, on the other for various dignitaries and visiting princes. The chapel and public reception rooms were situated near the South Staircase. In the South Wing, facing the garden, the Duke and Duchess's state apartments occupied the ground floor, with the Princes and Princesses of the Blood on the first floor. At the end were Leopold's Council Room and the private apartments of the ducal couple.
Today, a small part of the restored interior is open to visitors: An entrance to the south of the peristyle, gives access via a vestibule to the Guard Room. At the time of Stanislas, twenty-six couches were arranged around the walls for the two brigadiers and their men. Adjoining is the Livery Room, with its black and white tiled floor and red walls (originally red leather), where oaken cupboards once contained the costumes for the liveried servants. This room served as a waiting room for visitors to the Duke's apartments and also, because of its public nature and its size, was used for festivities, such as balls and banquets.
Opposite can be glimpsed the Trophy Room ("Salle des trophies"), Leopold's grand reception room, which is currently still undergoing reconstruction. Say something about the plasterwork (Despite the martial theme of the plaster work, the name dates only from the time of the barracks in the 19th century.)
The southern staircase of honour adjoins the entrance to the chapel on the ground floor and gives access on the first floor to the apartments of the royal children, now an exhibition space.
The Chapel: The present chapel, designed by Boffrand, is a simple oblong in form, surrounded by a gallery supported by ionic columns. It is finished in pink granite and white stucco. The bays to the south provide natural light. François Dumont's decorative cherubs have been recreated, but these are virtually the only adornment.
The rawness of the newly restored space is a little startling though, in fairness, to judge from the photos of presentations and concerts, the atmosphere can be made to appear surprising warm and intimate.
Some idea of the original sumptuous interior is provided by a painting by Claude Jacquard's which shows the wedding of Marie-Anne-Louise de Lunati-Visconti and the Prince Antoine Esterházy in the chapel in 1735 ( the hook from which the lamp once hung is still visible today).
Claude Jacquard, Wedding of Marie-Anne-Louise de Lunati-Visconti and Prince Antoine Esterházy, 1735. From the collections of the Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt. (Reproduction currently on view at the chapel in Lunéville)
A further glimpse of this Baroque splendour is provided by an inventory of the chapel's furnishings from the time of Stanislas, reproduced on the Wikipedia page for the Château.
The vaulted cellar under the chapel, now used as an exhibition space, was originally the "cupbearer's room", where wine was received and bottled.
The Ducal Apartments - Ceremony and privacy
The concession of the South Wing by the Ministry of Defence in 2017, meant that the state rooms and private apartments of the Duke and Duchess, though not yet restored, can for the first time be properly studied and integrated into the presentation of the palace.
According to Thierry Franz, director of the Château's museum, the various building projects of Leopold's reign can usefully be conceptualised as "a series of experiments to establish a suitable setting for the activities of the court". A balance was sought between the requirements of formal Court etiquette and the need for private space. The routines of the Court centred around a series of personal appearances by the Duke and Duchess - public levers, attendance at mass, midday meals - which had to be accommodated. As an article of 2016 by Éric Hassler shows, Leopold himself had a hand in establishing the protocols. These were based on the practice of Versailles but in an abridged form which reflected the more informal practice of the Hapsburg courts where Leopold had grown up. For instance a Bourbon-style lever was held in the morning, but no formal coucher, and the ducal couple dined in public only at midday. One imagines that Leopold, who comes across as an exuberant and approachable man, had little personal taste for stiff ceremonial.
Boffrand as architect was conversant with "le style palatine". His approach is illustrated by a provisional plan for the rebuilding of 1719 (presented by Thierry Franzat his 2022 talk Lunéville au miroir de Versailles; see References below). Typical of the central European Baroque is the prominence given to public reception rooms. The left wing (in red) is entirely occupied by an "appartement de parade". In the right wing are the separate suites of the couple (the Duke's in yellow; the Duchess's in blue). They are accorded a similar amount of space. Thierry Franz points out that, although these two enfilades seem French in inspiration, they are in fact hybrid arrangement incorporating elements of the Hapsburg tradition of greater royal privacy. The two bedchambers adjoin, with a communicating door and the two suites end in a substantial communal apartment (in green), where family life can take place outside gaze of the courtiers.
A second plan, taken from Boffrand's Livre d’Architecture, shows the south wing of the château as actually constructed in about 1720, again with the Duke's appartement in yellow and the Duchess's in blue. This layout is much as it is today: 14 rooms have now been identified in the new area.
Since the corresponding wing was never built, formal receptions had to be accommodated within this space. The architectural plans for both Lunéville and the ducal palace in Nancy mention a throne room with a dais. In reality, the grand cabinet of the Duke (III on the plan) or of that of the Duchess (6) was used ad hoc. The baron de Pfütschner (the tutor to the Duke's sons) recalled the newly widowed Élisabeth-Charlotte receiving her court in her grand cabinet in May 1729. Under Stanislas Leszczyński this was refitted as a permanent "throne room" with a dais of crimson velvet.
A magnificent "baldaquin du trône", originally made for Duke Charles III of Lorraine in the 16th century is preserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It is known to have been used in January 1730 when Francis III made his formal entry into Nancy to receive the homage of the corporations.
The Duke's lever took place in his bedchamber (II) whilst the duchess conducted a daily formal toilette in her antechamber (4). Room 5, the Duchess's state bedchamber, was in reality shared by the couple; the small communicating passage is indicated by an arrow on the plan. It was here that Leopold died on 27th March 1729. The family also had a private dining room, with the famous "flying table", and a bathroom in the basement area overlooking the garden.
During Francis III's brief time at Lunéville, Court ceremonial was further simplified, in accordance with the Imperial model. On his return from Vienna, the new duke had a private apartment configured in the south wing, centring on his bedroom and a small concert room. The French emissary, Jean-Baptiste d'Audiffret, complained that his public appearances were confined to a brief dinner, "fort court et fort froid". Only the chamberlain and first gentleman of the bedchamber attended the lever, for which the duke appeared fully dressed.
Francis's private bedchamber, the so-called "chambre verte", was subject of a virtual reconstruction in 2017.
Musician Anthony Laguerre performing in the Salle des Généraux. L'Est Républicain, 19.07.2021
[I on the above plan] At the time of Leopold, this room, the vacated "Salle des généraux", was a principal reception room, designed to present the glory of the House of Lorraine. Recent discoveries have proved the location here of three huge paintings of the victories of Charles V by the Parisian painter Jean-Baptiste Martin, conserved today at the Hofburg in Innsbruck.
Screen shot from the 2018 video
Martin, who had provided the models for the tapestries of the Conquests of Louis XIV woven at Beauvais, was enticed to Lunéville in 1710. His series originally comprised eighteen pictures, all of which were recreated as tapestries by the Nancy manufacturer Charles Mité.
As this video made in 2018 explains, his father's part in the victory over the Turks was a major theme in Leopold's bid to assert his sovereign status:
L'antichambre du Duc ou la gloire militaire de la maison de Lorraine [VIDEO 2018]
As part of future plans for a "château-musée", three state rooms have been chosen for full restoration. The enfilade (shown in red on the plan left) will form part of an extended tourist circuit between the two monumental staircases. These three rooms, together with the "chambre verte" (in green), have been singled out as they retain some original decorative features - chimneypieces or plasterwork.
As a preliminary step, a new set of 3D virtual reconstructions has been commissioned from the agency Super Idée. The film, which is currently on display to visitors at the Château, recreates the "appartement de parade" as it appeared around 1730, which represents the best documented phase of the château. At the moment only a few stills are available on the internet.
For more information, see: Thierry Franz's lecture of 24th October (available on YouTube).
1. The antechamber of the Duchess [Room No.4 on the previous plan]
This was in this room that Élisabeth-Charlotte held her formal toilette, a key component of court ceremonial. Careful examination of inventories and accounts identified the crimson silk wall hangings, whilst comparison with samples from the V & A helped verify the shade. This decor represented the summer appearance of the rooms; in winter the silks would be replaced by tapestries. Boffrand's plans for La Malgrange suggested the inclusion of picture frames above the doors. The portraits emphasise the Duchess's status (over the door to the left, Philip V of Spain and his consort, Élisabeth-Charlotte's niece and, over the door to the right, the Duke of Savoy, who was married to her half-sister).
The Duchess's bronze gilt mirror, acquired by the Château in 2021, can be seen in situ. The museum also owns a single example of a "tabouret", one of the ceremonial stools, the right to which played a central role in 18th-century court etiquette.
Left: Toilette mirror in gilded bronze with the alerion and closed crown of Lorraine, presumed to be used in the toilette
The mirror is one of the few pieces from Lunéville which can be documented securely. It is mentioned in the ducal accounts for Spring 1718 under the signature of Pierre Dufour, a merchant in the rue de la Monnaie in Paris, who furnished "une toilette" - an ensemble of toilet articles. This was one of many luxury objects acquired by the Duke and Duchess during their sojourn in Paris in 1718. The mirror is also listed in 1732 inventory.
Fondation du patrimoine, "Le miroir de toilette de la duchesse Élisabeth-Charlotte de retour au château de Lunéville!", video of 16th December 2021.
This room, in reality shared by the Duke and Duchess, is one one of the best documented spaces in the Château. An earlier 3D film, made by the digital production company Cent-Millions- de-Pixels, shows the same chamber with its contrasting winter furnishings ("meuble d'hiver"). The bed and 16 matching chairs, were covered in a blue velvet fabric decorated with sumptuous embroidery, originally a present from Louis XIV to Monsieur, the Duchess's father. The textile panels were subsequently dismantled and re-employed for altar cloths and a chasuble, today in the Musée du château. This video reconstruction was exhibited as part of the 2014 exhibition at Château,"Éclat et scintillement, le décor de la chambre de la duchesse".
3. The Duchess's Grand Cabinet / Audience Room [No. 6]
This room was not significantly damaged in 2003 - the sculptures, woodwork, chimneys and dessus-de-portes all survive. In the new virtual recreation, it is shown fitted out as an audience chamber.
See:
"Interior decor of the grand cabinet de madame", and related entries (Base Palissy).
If lost interiors are difficult to reimagine, it is still more challenging to conjure up the myriad of courtiers and servants which once populated them. Like their counterparts at Versailles, the nobility of Lorraine abandoned their manors and followed the Court to the new seat of power. The Château at Lunéville welcomed some 400-500 courtiers, 150 of whom had dining rights. Like the Sun King in miniature, Leopold maintained a substantial household of officers and servants.
Henri Baumont, in a study published in 1894, gives us a snapshot based on an inventory for 1702. Leopold's total civil household at this time comprised 350 servants of all ranks, a number which rose to 500 by his death in 1729. The principal officers were as follows:
Grand maître de l'hôtel: M. de Carlingford, Leopold's Irish-born former governor and first minister; Grand Chamberlain: the comte de Couvonges; Maréchals of Lorraine and Bar: the comte de Tornielle and the marquis de Lambertye; Chief Constable (Grand Écuyer): the marquis de Lenoncourt: First Gentlemen of Bedchamber: the marquis de Blainville and marquis de Rorté; Grand Master of the Wardrobe: the comte de Brionne: Chamberlains: MM. de Custine, de Craon, de Ludres, de Ligniville de Tumejus, de Martigny etc; Maître d'hôtel: M. du Hoffelize de Valfrocourt; Masters of the Hunt: M. de Raigecourt and M. de Curel.
Henri Baumont also gives a breakdown of the civil household according to function:
In the immediate personal attendance on the Duke were: 15 cabinet officials (treasurers, controllers, secretaries); 33 officers of the bedchamber (chamberlains, gentlemen, valets, personal guards); 4 doctors and apothecaries; 8 chaplains and preachers; 19 trumpet-players and instrumentalists.
In addition some 40-50 men were engaged in ceremonial duties - officials, footmen, runners, porters, the Duke's Hungarian Hajduk guard. 38 staffed the kitchens as chefs, rôtisseurs, kitchen-boys, wood carriers, cellarmen. 94 men were needed in the stables as grooms, coachmen, postilions, plus equerries and squires; the French ambassador d'Audiffret complained, "The Duke of Lorraine has the finest horses of any prince in Europe; but his stable is overstaffed; he could manage with half the number and save himself considerable expense." In addition, a further 47 men were employed for the hunt, as captains, beaters, huntsmen, dog handlers and the like.
Other members of the Duke's entourage commanded additional staff: even the twenty-four pages had a governor, a tutor, masters of dancing, languages and mathematics, and writing; plus four valets to wait on them. The Duchess's household comprised 32 ladies-in-waiting, attendants and officials. Nine more were in the service of the little two-year-old princess and fifteen attached to Leopold's youngest brother, the prince François.
There was also a military household, a ceremonial presence consisting of two companies of bodyguards, each of 60 men, plus two companies of Light Cavalry and Leopold's Swiss Guards. Barracks were built for them in Lunéville in 1707 and 1711. The army of Lorraine consisted only of these troops, plus a guard regiment of sixteen companies of 45 men, three of which were based in Lunéville. Baumont notes that Leopold strived to convey the illusion of military capacity by creating a plethora of important-sounding officer posts and founding a military Academy. His military expenditure increased throughout the reign.
Henri Baumont, Études sur le règne de Léopold, duc de Lorraine et de Bar,1697-1729 (1894), p.251-58.
The small town of Lunéville, like Versailles itself, flourished on the back of the service industries generated by the Court. Leopold awarded privileges and incentives to encourage luxury industries, built roads and rationalised customs barriers. The population expanded from 2,700 inhabitants in 1708 to almost 12,000 by 1753, excluding the Ducal Household.
A traveller who crossed Lunéville in 1741 described its as "fort gracieuse", with well-built houses. The most remarkable 18th-century buildings were the hôtel de Craon, backing onto the south wall of the palace gardens and, to the south-west, the Château de la Favorite of Prince Charles-Alexandre, which still survives though in a dilapidated state; a new parish church was begun in 1730 and finished in 1740, with the towers added by Stanislas's architect Héré.
Léopold authorised the construction of private hôtels in the vicinity of the Château, tax-free on condition that they conformed to the style "Boffrand". These houses, can still be seen in the Grande rue, today the Rue de la République (above). They are characterised by their arched windows and the lintels between the ground floor and first floor; we are told that the austere facades conceal inner courtyards which are often warm and attractive.
[to be continued]
References
Château de Lunéville - Visitors' guide pdf. (English)
Sébastien Jeandemange et al. “Les fouilles archéologiques du château de Lunéville (Lorraine) : de la forteresse médiévale au ‘Versailles lorrain’”, Revue archéologique de l’Est, tome 66 | 2017, 263-318.
Thierry Franz, L’art de cour lorrain face au jeu des modèles européens : l’exemple des résidences ducales sous le règne de Léopold in ed.. Échanges, passages et transferts à la cour du duc Léopold (1698-1729). Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2017, p.209-232 [Open Access text].
_____, "Lunéville au miroir de Versailles; Le mythe de Versailles et l'Europe des cours [27-29 January 2022]" Conference organised by the Centre de recherche du château de Versailles
https://youtu.be/BTC-Oe9h6Pc _____, Lunéville au miroir de Versailles : reflets d’un regard distancié (1698-1737), Bulletin du Centre de recherche du château de Versailles, 2023[Open Access]
Atrid Mallick and Thierry Franz, "Nouvelle acquisition: un recueil de dessins d'architecture du xviii siècle", Histoire et collections de la Bibliothèque de Nancy, 16.06.2021
Éric Hassler, "Définir et élaborer l’étiquette. Les réflexions du duc Léopold de Lorraine (1679-1729) sur la mise en place d’un nouveau cérémonial de cour au début du xviiie siècle", Bulletin du Centre de recherche du château de Versailles, 2016.
Jonathan Spangler, "A Palace for Dreams: Lunéville and the Royal Aspirations of the Dukes of Lorraine, from Léopold to Stanislas Leszczyński" Manchester Metropolitan University, October 2014
____," Seeing is Believing: The Ducal House of Lorraine and Visual Displays in the Projection of Royal Status". Royal Studies Journal, 2022, 9 (2). pp. 131-161.
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