Excellent overview of the many structures of Louis XIV!

books:


	• Palaces of the Sun King: Versailles, Trianon, Marly--The Chateaux of Louis XIV Rizzoli International Publications, 2002 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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ONLY THE SUN KING COULD AFFORD THIS BOOK

This book is a huge disappointment. When i picked it up at border's i assumed at that price it would be spectacular..it is not..it's an odd book with usual images and hard to follow text. I had wanted to see the book because you rarely hear anything about Marly, the kings favorite palace, if Louis liked you, he would invite you to Marly, it was spectacular and you do get a feel for it in this book, but not enough to pay this staggering price. It's a mediocre book, with a shocking sticker price...just buy the Montclos book on Versailles, now that's a GREAT book and well worth it's price.

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Excellent overview of the many structures of Louis XIV!

This book covers many structures, commissioned by Louis XIV, that were either built or were designed but not executed. The pictures that the authors did themselves are spetacular! The text is also above average. I however must warn you it is not worth $135.00 which is the book's retail price. The book's length was a huge dissapointment. It is only 208 pages (not 224 as they say in the book description) which includes the table of contents, index, bibliography, etc. The authors did not fill the pages with as many illustrations and text as I would've liked.If I had it to do over again would not pay the retail price for this book. I would buy a used one instead. Overall though, despite its length, the book does provide the reader with an in-depth look at the exquisite architecture of the Sun King.

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This comprehensive volume documents for the first time twenty-one châteaux and pavilions commissioned by Louis XIV, France's great builder-king. These royal buildings, and over forty architectural ornaments enriching their gardens, are illustrated in breathtaking watercolors by authors Andrew Zega and Bernd H. Dams. Depicted are several of the most influential structures in all of Western architecture, such as the palace of Versailles and the magnificent lost complex at Marly, which contemporaries deemed a veritable "Paradise on Earth." The authors give full attention to unrealized projects and depict completed structures not as they stand today, if indeed they stand at all, but as they were originally designed by the leading architects of the day.

Meticulously prepared over many years, Palaces of the Sun King presents a wealth of historically accurate watercolor illustrations, complemented by a sophisticated narrative, that together offer a fundamental reappraisal of the architecture of the reign of Louis XIV. Modern academics have clarified the function of the political and social construct of the Sun King, but the nature and extent of the parallel architectural revolution which Louis XIV engendered have remained largely unquestioned out of veneration for a national treasure. Time, too, has seen the disappearance or destruction of many of the châteaux and architectural designs commissioned by the king, and in deciding to recreate lost buildings and unexecuted designs, the authors open new realms of discovery for a subject heretofore deemed thoroughly understood. Here, then, the Sun King's masterworks are reconsidered and deconstructed, providing a work of groundbreaking investigation that will both fascinate and inform.

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