The Galerie des Batailles (Gallery of Battles) is a 120 metre long and 13 metre wide (390 ft. x 43 ft.) gallery occupying the first floor of the aile du midi of the Palace of Versailles, joining onto the grand and petit 'appartements de la reine'. It is an epigone of the Grande galerie of the Louvre and was intended to glorify French military history from the Battle of Tolbiac (traditionally dated 495) to the Battle of Wagram (5–6 July 1809).
History
Its creation was the idea of Louis-Philippe I, King of the French and it replaced apartments which had been occupied in the 17th and 18th centuries by
- Louis XIV's brother Philippe I, Duke of Orléans and his second wife, Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate
- Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (regent during Louis XV's minority) and his wife
- the regent's son Louis d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans
- Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony (1731–1767) as dauphine
- Charles X of France, whilst comte d’Artois
- Princess Élisabeth of France
The architects Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine and Frédéric Nepveu created a solemn decorative scheme for it, with a wide cornice supporting a coffered painted ceiling with entablatures supported by Corinthian columns along the length of the gallery. 13 bronze tablets on the wall are inscribed with the names of princes, admirals, constables, marshals and warriors killed or wounded whilst fighting for France. There are also busts placed on supports against the columns and between the paintings.
The main contents of the rooms, however, were envisaged as the vast paintings showing major military events in French history, some already in existence but mostly specially commissioned for the Galerie. While a number of them were of questionable quality, a few masterpieces, such as the Battle of Taillebourg by Eugène Delacroix, were displayed here.
See: Wikipedia -