He moved his bedroom into the following room, which at the time was just a salon. Frustrated by the small size of these rooms, which could barely contain all the courtiers in attendance when he got up and when he went to bed, Louis XIV decided to knock down the wall in 1701 and combine the two rooms into one. This room was originally divided into two by a partition wall and was composed of the antechamber and the King’s Chamber, in which the bed was placed in the left-hand corner next to the current fireplace.
The second antechamber in the royal apartment, the Bull’s Eye Antechamber, is named after the circular window which brings light into the room on the southern side. The room is decorated with a series of 11 battle paintings by Joseph Parrocel, and a 12th depicting the Battle of Arbela, by Guillaume Courtois. Every evening a table was laid in front of the fireplace, and the king sat with his back to the hearth. The Antechamber of the Great Dining was where Louis XIV used to dine in public from 1690, after the death of the Queen and the Dauphine. The little sculpted decoration there is contains references to fighting, in tribute to the room’s role. A painting by Parrocel that hangs over the fireplace, Battle featuring the king's guards (1684), honours the guards.Īs visitors continue through the apartment, the decoration becomes more elaborate.
During the day their camp beds were folded up and stowed away behind screens. The king’s guards were stationed here to ensure the sovereign’s protection and were changed over every 24 hours. Its decoration is deliberately understated. Like in all royal residences, the Guard Room marks the entrance to the King’s Apartment.
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