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Château De Vaux-le-Vicomte
The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte () or simply Vaux-le-Vicomte is a Baroque French château located in Maincy, near Melun, southeast of Paris in the Seine-et-Marne department of Île-de-France. Built between 1658 and 1661 for Nicolas Fouquet, Marquis de Belle Île, Viscount of Melun and Vaux, the Superintendent of Finances of Louis XIV, the château was an influential work of architecture in mid-17th-century Europe. At Vaux-le-Vicomte, the architect Louis Le Vau, the landscape architect André Le Nôtre and the painter-decorator Charles Le Brun worked together on a large-scale project for the first time. Their collaboration marked the beginning of the Louis XIV style combining architecture, interior design and landscape design. The garden's pronounced visual axis is an example of this style. History Once a small château between the royal residences of Vincennes and Fontainebleau, the estate of Vaux-le-Vicomte was purchased in 1641 by Nicolas Fouquet, an ambitious 26-year-old ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
André Le Nôtre
André Le Nôtre (; 12 March 1613 – 15 September 1700), originally rendered as André Le Nostre, was a French landscape architect and the principal gardener of King Louis XIV of France. He was the landscape architect who designed Gardens of Versailles, the gardens of the Palace of Versailles; his work represents the height of the French formal garden style, or ''French formal garden, jardin à la française''. Prior to working on Versailles, Le Nôtre collaborated with Louis Le Vau and Charles Le Brun on the park at Vaux-le-Vicomte. His other works include the design of gardens and parks at Bicton, Devon, Bicton Park Botanical Gardens, Château de Chantilly, Chantilly, Palace of Fontainebleau, Fontainebleau, Château de Saint-Cloud, Saint-Cloud and Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain. His contribution to Urban planning, planning was also significant: at the Tuileries Palace, Tuileries in Paris he extended the westward vista, which later became the Champs-Élys ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean-Baptiste Colbert - Nanteuil 01
Jean-Baptiste () is a male French name, originating with Saint John the Baptist, and sometimes shortened to Baptiste. The name may refer to any of the following: Persons * Charles XIV John of Sweden, born Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, was King of Sweden and King of Norway * Charles-Jean-Baptiste Bouc, businessman and political figure in Lower Canada * Felix-Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Nève, orientalist and philologist * Gui-Jean-Baptiste Target, French lawyer and politician * Hippolyte Jean-Baptiste Garneray, French painter * Jean-Baptiste (songwriter), American music record producer, singer-songwriter * Jean Baptiste (grave robber) – A 19th-century gravedigger in Utah, United States, notorious for robbing hundreds of graves, leading to his exile and mysterious disappearance. * Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, French critic, journalist, and novelist * Jean-Baptiste Bagaza, chairman of Supreme Revolutionary Council in Burundi until 1976 and president of Burundi (1976-1987) * Jean-B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
François Vatel
François Vatel (; 1631 – 24 April 1671) was the majordomo (in French, ) of Nicolas Fouquet and prince Louis, Grand Condé. Biography Vatel was born either in Switzerland or in Paris in 1625, 1631, or 1635. He is widely, but incorrectly, credited with creating ''crème Chantilly'' ( Chantilly cream), a sweet, vanilla-flavored whipped cream. Vatel worked for Louis XIV's superintendent Nicolas Fouquet, and supervised the construction of the Vaux-le-Vicomte, a job that required financial management of large sums of money as well as the design of the menus and the supervision of staff. He was known for "the meticulous care with which he reviewed every minute detail". Vatel was responsible for an extravagant banquet for 2,000 people on 24 April 1671 at the Château de Chantilly, on the occasion of Louis XIV's first visit to the Grand Condé. Vatel was so distraught about the lateness of the seafood delivery that he ran himself through with his sword (as the seafood was arriving ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world literature. His extant works include comedies, farces, Tragicomedy, tragicomedies, comédie-ballets, and more. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed at the Comédie-Française more often than those of any other playwright today. His influence is such that the French language is often referred to as the "language of Molière". Born into a prosperous family and having studied at the Collège de Clermont (now Lycée Louis-le-Grand), Molière was well suited to begin a life in the theatre. Thirteen years as an itinerant actor helped him polish his comedic abilities while he began writing, combining Commedia dell'arte elements with the more refined French comedy. Through the patronage of aristocrats inclu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean De La Fontaine
Jean de La Fontaine (, ; ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French Fable, fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''La Fontaine's Fables, Fables'', which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Europe and numerous alternative versions in France, as well as in French regional languages. After a long period of royal suspicion, he was admitted to the ''Académie Française'' and his reputation in France has never faded since. Evidence of this is found in the many pictures and statues of the writer, later depictions on medals, coins and postage stamps. Life Early years La Fontaine was born at Château-Thierry close to the present-day north-eastern edge of Île-de-France (Greater Paris) in France. His father was Charles de La Fontaine, :fr:Tables de marbre, maître des eaux et forêts (a kind of deputy-ranger) of the Duchy of Château-Thierry. Both his father and his mother, Françoise (née Pidoux) were of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fabulist
Fable is a literary genre defined as a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular moral lesson (a "moral"), which may at the end be added explicitly as a concise maxim or saying. A fable differs from a parable in that the latter ''excludes'' animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as actors that assume speech or other powers of humankind. Conversely, an animal tale specifically includes talking animals as characters. Usage has not always been so clearly distinguished. In the King James Version of the New Testament, "" ("''mythos''") was rendered by the translators as "fable" in the First Epistle to Timothy, the Second Epistle to Timothy, the Epistle to Titus and the First Epistle of Peter. A person who writes fables is referred to as a fabulist. Global history The fable is one of the most end ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Livre
The livre (abbreviation: Pound sign, £ or Livre tournois, ₶., French language, French for (pound)) was the currency of Kingdom of France and its predecessor states of Francia and West Francia from 781 to 1794. Several different livres existed, some concurrently. The livre was the name of coins and of units of account. History Origin and etymology The livre was established by Charlemagne as a unit of account equal to one Pound (mass), pound of silver. It was subdivided into 20 ''French sol, sous'' (also ''sols''), each sou equalling 12 ''French denier, deniers''. The word ''livre'' came from the Latin word ''Ancient Roman units of measurement#Weight, libra'', a Roman unit of weight and still the name of a Pound (mass), pound in modern French, and the denier comes from the Roman denarius. This system and the denier itself served as the model for many of Europe's currencies, including the British pound, Italian lira, Spanish dinero and the Portuguese dinheiro. This first l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Superintendent Of Finances
The Superintendent of Finances () was the name of the minister in charge of finances in France from 1561 to 1661. The position was abolished in 1661 with the downfall of Nicolas Fouquet, and a new position was created, the Controller-General of Finances. History Before 1561 Prior to the creation of the position "Surintendant des finances", France's royal financial administration had been run—from the time of Charles VII—by two financial boards which worked in a collegial manner: the four ''Généraux des finances'' oversaw the collection of taxes (taille, etc.) and the four ''Trésoriers de France'' (Treasurers) oversaw revenues from royal lands (the "domaine"). Together they were often referred to as "Messieurs des finances". The four members of each board were divided by geographical circumscriptions ("recettes générales" or "généralités"; the areas were named Languedoïl, Languedoc, Normandy, and Outre-Seine and Yonne), with the directors of the "Languedoïl" region ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parlement Of Paris
The ''Parlement'' of Paris () was the oldest ''parlement'' in the Kingdom of France, formed in the 14th century. Parlements were judicial, rather than legislative, bodies and were composed of magistrates. Though not representative bodies in the present sense of the word, they had procedures and authorities that could delay the otherwise unchecked power of the King. Because of its location and history, the Parlement of Paris was the most significant. The Parlement of Paris was established under Philip IV of France in 1302. The Parlement of Paris would hold sessions inside the medieval royal palace on the Île de la Cité, which today is the site of the Paris Hall of Justice. History In 1589, Paris was effectively in the hands of the Catholic League. To escape, Henry IV of France summoned the parlement of Paris to meet at Tours, but only a small faction of its parliamentarians accepted the summons. (Henry also held a parliament at Châlons, a town remaining faithful to the king ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Château De Fontainebleau
Palace of Fontainebleau ( , ; ), located southeast of the center of Paris, in the commune of Fontainebleau, is one of the largest French royal châteaux. It served as a hunting lodge and summer residence for many of the French monarchs, including Louis VII, Francis I, Henry II, Louis-Philippe, Napoleon I, and Napoleon III. Though the monarchs only resided there for a few months of the year, they gradually transformed it into a genuine palace, filled with art and decoration. It became a national museum in 1927 and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 for its unique architecture and historical importance. History Name "Fontainebleau" took its name from the "Fontaine Belle-Eau", a natural fresh water spring located in the English garden not far from the château. The name means "Spring of beautiful water". In the 19th century the spring was rebuilt with an octagonal stone basin, as it appears today. Hunting Lodge and castle (12th century) The earliest refer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Château De Vincennes
The Château de Vincennes () is a former fortress and royal residence next to the town of Vincennes, on the eastern edge of Paris, alongside the Bois de Vincennes. It was largely built between 1361 and 1369, and was a preferred residence, after the Palais de la Cité, of French kings in the 14th to 16th century. It is particularly known for its "donjon" or keep, a fortified central tower, the tallest in Europe, built in the 14th century, and for the chapel, Sainte-Chapelle de Vincennes, begun in 1379 but not completed until 1552, which is an exceptional example of Flamboyant Gothic architecture. Because of its fortifications, the château was often used as a royal sanctuary in times of trouble, and later as a prison and military headquarters. The chapel was listed as an historic monument in 1853, and the keep was listed in 1913. Most of the building is now open to the public. History 12th–14th century – Louis VII to Saint Louis The first royal residence was created by an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
