Versailles Mirrored

Fascinating. * Vanity Fair *A fascinating exploration of Versailles’ influence on present-day taste and culture, and of the imitations it has spawned, from Ludwig II’s palaces to Mar-a-Lago. It employs Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital to offer a stimulating new interpretation of these extraordinary buildings. * Munro Price, Emeritus Professor, University of Bradford, UK; author of The Road from Versailles (2004) *A fascinating survey of seven individuals, from the 18th to the 21st centuries, whose palatial homes have referenced Versailles to various symbolic ends. In lucid and compulsively readable style, this book traces the ways that the literal citation of design features, as well as the more abstract evocations of Versailles style, have accrued cultural capital. * Claire Goldstein, Professor of French, University of California, Davis, USA *An erudite, entertaining account of the enduring obsession with Versailles and its Sun King. Wellington challenges the common view of Versailles as a static monument, exploring how a colourful cast of patrons have appropriated and altered its aesthetic for their own ends. * Meredith Martin, Professor of Art History, New York University, USA *An engaging and timely romp through five centuries’ worth of architectural usurpation, grounded in detailed histories of successive elites’ cloaking of their own power in the glitz and glamour of French absolutism. * Amy Freund, Associate Professor of Art History, Southern Methodist University, USA *

Robert Wellington is Associate Professor of Art History at the Centre for Art History and Art Theory, Australian National University, Australia. He is co-editor of The Versailles Effect: Objects, Lives, and Afterlives of the Domaine (2021) and author of Antiquarianism and the Visual Histories of Louis XIV (2015).