This was published 7 years ago
Leading lights: Why Sydney's NYE fireworks pale in comparison to the pyrotechnics of Versailles
By Gerard Vaughan
With a regiment of soldiers to light 15,000 lanterns in three minutes and 20,000 sky rockets shooting into the sky, the Palace of Versailles was a leading light when it came to celebrating with fireworks.
As New Year approaches, with the spectacular fireworks displays in Sydney and Melbourne, it is interesting to reflect upon the primacy of fireworks in the artistic life of Versailles, the subject of the NGA's summer blockbuster in Canberra.
Fireworks were an essential part of the entertainment staged by French kings to celebrate special occasions such as royal births, or marriages, or the celebration of military victories.Credit: Thomas Garnier
When Louis XIV made his decision to build a palace complex at Versailles, surrounded by the greatest gardens and waterworks the world had ever seen, fireworks (feux d'artifices), were an essential part of the grand entertainments which the king put on for the French court and the thousands of visitors who assembled to celebrate special occasions, such as royal births, or marriages, or the celebration of military victories.
For more than 100 years, enormous sums of money were spent on fireworks and illuminations for the festivities presented at Versailles. While fireworks had been imported from China at a very early stage, and are recorded in Italy as early as the 14th-century, they became an essential part of the visual repertoire and splendour of the Baroque courts of Europe from the mid-17th century.
An engraving by Cochin of fireworks staged at the Palace of Versailles in the 18th century.Credit: Thomas Garnier
Rome had its tradition of astonishing fireworks, more often than not with rockets launched from the roof of the Castel Sant'Angelo above the River Tiber, at Easter, and on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul; these were must-see events and people came from all over Europe to experience them. This taste was reflected throughout Europe, but the greatest, most extravagant pyrotechnic performances of all took place at the Palace of Versailles.
One of the driving forces behind Louis XIV's decision to build Versailles – even before he decided to make it the seat of power and to move the court and government from Paris to his new palace and estate – was to provide a spectacular stage set for his entertainments, known as Les divertissements du Roi, and the greatest composers, playwrights and choreographers were employed at Versailles to create entirely new kinds of performances on a vast scale. In the summer, many of these were staged outdoors, most particularly because of the opportunities allowed for the use of fireworks and illuminations.
In August 1770, when the young Austrian Archduchess Marie-Antoinette, aged only 14, arrived at Versailles to marry the heir to the French throne, Louis XV gave one of the greatest entertainments ever seen. The festivities lasted for more than 10 days, with more than 5,000 people attending the major events.
By this time the art of making fireworks had reached new heights in France, with a series of major publications appearing in the 1740s and 50s, and scientific research on how the Chinese made fireworks and rockets presented to the French Academy of Science.
French kings were displaying their power and prestige with fireworks long before Sydney lit up New Year's Eve.Credit: Janie Barrett
There was an entire department of the royal bureaucracy at Versailles dedicated to planning the king's entertainments (known as the office of Menus-plaisirs) and once the negotiations for the future marriage of the Austrian Archduchess to the French Dauphin were concluded in Vienna, there followed two years of planning to deliver the lavish entertainments for Marie-Antoinette's arrival at Versailles.
At an agreed moment, a cluster of 20,000 skyrockets shot into the sky. There was then a general illumination of the gardens, particularly centred around the ponds and fountains and the great canal that stretched for 1500 metres in a westerly direction.
An entire regiment of soldiers was required to simultaneously light 15,000 lanterns and lamps within the space of just three minutes. You can see from the engraving made by Cochin to record the event that the whole of Paris was there, with lines of coaches carrying members of the aristocracy.
It is worth remembering that in the 17th century the concept of light was central to Louis XIV's sense of monarchical grandeur and power, and the use of fireworks by the Sun King acquired legendary status. As the wealthiest monarch in Europe, money was no object.
The exhibition at the NGA in Canberra contains many engravings of the use of fireworks in the grounds of Versailles in the 17th and 18th centuries, and we have descriptions of the king himself wearing clothes encrusted with jewels and reflective surfaces, so that he shone and sparkled like the sun. A measure of the king's power and magnificence was his ability to conjure up the effect of daylight in the middle of the night.
So when we see the global succession of spectacular fireworks on New Year's Eve, beginning in Sydney with crowds seated around the edge of the harbour, we can also reflect upon the vast crowds which flocked to Versailles, where they gathered to see the most advanced pyrotechnics that the world could then produce reflected in the palace's ponds, fountains and canals.
Versailles: Treasures from the Palace is at the National Gallery of Australia until April 17, 2017.
Gerard Vaughan is the director of the NGA.