Menus-Plaisirs du Roi

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Menus-Plaisirs du Roi (French pronunciation:

Ancien Régime, the department of the Maison du Roi
responsible for the "lesser pleasures of the King", which meant in practice that it was in charge of all the preparations for ceremonies, events and festivities, down to the last detail of design and order.

The controller of the Menus-Plaisirs

At the king's

Papillon de la Ferté, whose journal (published in 1887) throws a great deal of light on the organization of court ceremony.[5]

Design

Many designers were required at the Menus-Plaisirs. From the sixteenth century on, a main responsibility of court architects in Europe was the occasional design of lavish ephemeral settings for processional entries, for

Slodtz brothers.[7] and François-Joseph Bélanger
began his career in 1767 working at the Menus-Plaisirs, both designing ephemeral decorations for court entertainments.

In the later reign of

Louis XIV, the architect in charge of the Bâtiments was Jules Hardouin-Mansart, but the wholly independent artistic force at the menus-plaisirs until his death in 1711 was Jean Bérain, whose brevet in 1674 covered his responsibilities "for all sorts of designs, perspectives, figures and costumes that it would be required to make for plays, ballets, chases at the ring, carousels..."[8] The purview of the Menus-Plaisirs did not normally extend to furniture, but among its expenses in 1692 were "the furniture and the silversmiths' work for the apartments of the King"[9]

Personnel

Within the Menus-Plaisirs, a hierarchical structure prevailed, with an Intendant

Michel-Ange Challe in 1764 marked a turning point: through his designs for the Menus-Plaisirs, neoclassicism was introduced at the French court.[12]

Expenses

In addition to these extraordinary expenses, which interest the historian of taste, the journal of the last Intendant of the Menus-Plaisirs, Denis-Pierre-Jean Papillon de la Ferté (1727-1794) describes as well the ordinary expenses, for the Menus-Plaisirs dispensed the salaries of the Premiers Gentilshommes de la Chambre, the Grand Maître de la Garde-Robe, the king's doctor, the médecin de la Chambre, the personnel of the Menus-Plaisirs and the king's musicians. Ordinary expenses entailed the constant renewal of the King's wardrobe and that of the Dauphin, religious ceremonies of all kinds, the king's carriages, small royal gifts like snuffboxes, tents and pavilions for outdoor events.

Limits

The Menus-Plaisirs were not in charge of the essential furniture of the royal palaces, which were the province of the

Belanger in 1769, well in advance of the wedding. It was delivered on 1 May 1770.[13]

Music division on the rue Bergère

Plan and long section of the Hôtel des Menus-Plaisirs on the rue Bergère (c. 1780)

The music required for these entertainments was also a concern of the Menus-Plaisirs du Roi. Beginning in 1762 the music section was established on a large site extending north from the rue Bergère and west of the

Saint-Laurent Fair.[14]
The site was soon expanded until it reached the rue Richer on the north.

In 1784

Théâtre des Menus-Plaisirs was constructed at 14 Boulevard de Strasbourg in Paris.[15][16]

Hôtel des Menus-Plaisirs du Roi in Versailles

The meeting of the Estates General, in the Salle des États, 5 May 1789

Under Louis XV a structure was erected in the town of

Estates-General of 1789, at which the opening moves of the French Revolution were played out. A provisionally fitted-out space was arranged in the building to seat the Assembly of Notables in 1787, and again in 1788. Then, to accommodate the press of representatives of the three estates, in the Estates-General, a grander but still temporary Salle des États designed by Pierre-Adrien Pâris was set up in one of the two courtyards of the Hôtel des Menus-Plaisirs. The old Hôtel des Menus-Plaisirs is now the home of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles
.

Menus-Plaisirs at the court of Russia

In Moscow, near the Kremlin's walls, between the Komendantskaïa Tower and the Troïtskaïa Tower, stands the Palais des Menus Plaisirs (Потёшный Дворец or Потёшный Двор), built in 1652 for the father-in-law of

Tsar Alexis, the boyar Ilya Miloslavsky, who lived in it for sixteen years. After his death, the structure was enlarged and converted into a site for spectacles and concerts, taking its new name, and served to house members of the imperial family: here the future Peter the Great received his elementary education.[17]

Notes

  1. ^ Eriksen 1974
  2. ^ Eriksen 1974 notes that though the catafalque for the king and queen of Spain, at the funeral in Notre-Dame, 15 January 1760, marked the first appearance in court circles of neoclassical design, it is not clear whether the duc de Durfort de Duras played any role in its design.
  3. ^ At the sale of his collection after his death, in 1782, purchases were made on behalf of Marie-Antoinette.
  4. ^ Eriksen 1974:148-49
  5. ^ Alain-Charles Gruber, Les Grandes Fêtes et leurs Décors à l'Époque de Louis XVI (Geneva: Droz) 1972.
  6. ^ In addition, extensive descriptions were published after each notable event in the Mercure de France.
  7. ^ Carter E. Foster, "Charles-Nicolas Cochin and Festival Design for the Menus-Plaisirs" Master Drawings 39.3 (Autumn 2001), pp. 260-278; p. 276 note 3 gives a bibliography concerning Cochin's work for the Menus-Plaisirs.
  8. ^ "pour toutes sortes de desseins, perspectives, Figures et habits qu'il conviendrait Faire pour les Comedies, Balets Courses de bagues et Carousels..." (Fiske Kimball, The Creation of the Rococo [Philadelphia] 1943, p. 40.)
  9. ^ "les Meubles et l'argenterie pour les appartements du Roi" (Kimball 1943:40).
  10. ^ Until 1762 there was also a Contrôleur; the post of Intendant (held by Papillon de la Ferté at the time) was exchanged for a Commissaire in 1780. (Boysse 1887:5
  11. ^ The Cabinet du Roi as a publishing venture was examined by C. Ferraton, "Les fêtes de Louis XIV et le cabinet de planches gravées fondé par Colbert" Bulletin des Musées de France 12.5 (September–October 1947), pp 26-28.
  12. ^ Gruber 1972.
  13. ^ Eriksen 1974:plate 448.
  14. ^ Wild 1989, p. 258; Gourret 1985, pp. 81–84
  15. ^ Wild 1989, pp. 258–262.
  16. ^ Anne Bongrain and Yves Gérard, Le Conservatoire de Paris, des Menus-Plaisirs à la Cité de la musique, 1795-1995 (Paris:Buchet-Chastel) 1999.
  17. ^ (French Wikipedia)"Palais des Menus Plaisirs"

References

  • Eriksen, Svend (1974). Early Neo-Classicism in France. London: Faber & Faber.
  • Gourret, Jean (1985). Histoire des salles de l'Opéra de Paris, p. 83. Paris: Guy Trédaniel.
    ISBN 978-2-85707-180-8
    .
  • Gruber, Alain-Charles (1972). Les Grandes Fêtes et leurs Décors à l'Époque de Louis XVI. Geneva: Droz.
  • Souchal, Françoise (1967). Les Slodtz. Paris: É. de Boccard.
    OCLC 2007226
    . The Menus-Plaisirs during the tenure of the successive brothers Slodtz as Dessinateurs.
  • Wild, Nicole (1989). Dictionnaire des théâtres parisiens au XIXe siècle: les théâtres et la musique. Paris: Aux Amateurs de livres.
    ISBN 978-2-905053-80-0 (paperback). View formats and editions at WorldCat
    .

External links
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