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The Luxembourg Palace (, ) is located at 15 rue de Vaugirard in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It was originally built (1615–1645) to the designs of the French architect Salomon de Brosse to be the royal residence of the regent Marie de Médicis, mother of Louis XIII of France. After the Revolution it was refashioned (1799–1805) by Jean Chalgrin into a legislative building and subsequently greatly enlarged and remodeled (1835–1856) by Alphonse de Gisors. Since 1958 it has been the seat of the French Senate of the Fifth Republic.〔Ayers 2004, pp. 129–131.〕 Immediately west of the palace on the rue de Vaugirard is the Petit Luxembourg, now the residence of the Senate President; and slightly further west, the Musée du Luxembourg, in the former orangery. On the south side of the palace, the formal Luxembourg Garden presents a 25-hectare green parterre of gravel and lawn populated with statues and large basins of water where children sail model boats. ==Early history== After the death of Henry IV in 1610, his widow, Marie de Médicis, became regent to her son, Louis XIII. Having acceded to a much more powerful position, she decided to erect a new palace for herself, adjacent to an old ''hôtel particulier'' owned by François de Luxembourg, Duc de Piney, which is now called the Petit Luxembourg and is the residence of the president of the French Senate. Marie de Médicis desired to make a building similar to her native Florence's Palazzo Pitti, and to this effect had the architect Métezeau (either Louis Métezeau or his brother, Clément Métezeau) sent to Florence to make detailed drawings of the building.〔Collins 2004, (p. 166 ) says that the building's architect, Salomon de Brosse sent Clément Métezeau. Other sources (Benevolo 1978, p. 706, and Ayers 2004, (p. 130 )) state that Marie de Medicis probably sent Clément's brother, Louis Métezeau, to Florence to make detailed drawings.〕 Marie de Médicis bought the Hôtel de Luxembourg and its fairly extensive domain in 1612 and commissioned the new building, which she referred to as her ''Palais Médicis'',〔Remarked upon in correspondence of the Florentine resident Giovanni Battista Gondi, in Deborah Marrow, "Maria de' Medici and the Decoration of the Luxembourg Palace" ''The Burlington Magazine'' 121 No. 921 (December 1979), pp. 783–788, 791.〕 in 1615. Its construction and furnishing formed her major artistic project, though nothing remains today of the interiors as they were created for her, save some architectural fragments reassembled in the ''Salle du Livre d'Or''.〔Marrow 1979.791.〕 The suites of paintings she commissioned, in the subjects of which she expressed her requirements through her agents and advisors, are scattered among museums. Marie de Médicis installed her household in 1625, while work on interiors continued. The apartments in the right wing on the western side were reserved for the Queen and the matching suite to the east, for her son, Louis XIII, when he was visiting (''floor plan''). The twenty-four Marie de' Medici cycle canvases, a series commissioned from Peter Paul Rubens, were installed in the ''Galerie de Rubens'' on the main floor of the western wing.〔They are conserved in the Louvre.〕 A series of paintings executed for her ''Cabinet doré'' ("gilded study") was identified by Anthony Blunt in 1967.〔Blunt, "A series of paintings illustrating the History of the Medici Family executed for Marie de Médicis", ''The Burlington Magazine'' 109 (1967), pp. 492–98, 562–66, and Marrow 1979.〕 The gallery in the east wing had been intended for the display of paintings celebrating Henri IV, and buildings housing stables and services were planned to either side of the pavilions flanking the entrance on the street, but these projects remained unfinished in 1631, when the Queen Mother was forced from court,〔Ayers 2004, p. 131.〕 following the "Day of the Dupes" in November. Louis XIII commissioned further decorations for the Palace from Nicolas Poussin and Philippe de Champaigne. In 1642, Marie bequeathed the Luxembourg to her second and favourite son, Gaston, duc d'Orléans, who called it the Palais d'Orléans, but by popular will it was still known by its original name.〔''Dicken's Dictionary of Paris, 1882'', (p. 143 ).〕 Upon Gaston's death, the palace passed to his widow, Marguerite de Lorraine, then to his elder daughter by his first marriage, Anne, duchesse de Montpensier, ''La Grande Mademoiselle''. In 1660, Anne de Montpensier sold the Luxembourg to her younger half-sister, Élisabeth Marguerite d'Orléans, duchesse de Guise who, in turn, gave it to her cousin, king Louis XIV, in 1694. In 1715, the palace became the residence of Marie Louise Elisabeth d'Orleans, Duchess of Berry (1695-1719). The widowed Duchess was notoriously promiscuous, having the reputation of a French Messalina, relentlessly driven by her unquenchable thirst for all pleasures of the flesh. The Luxembourg palace and its gardens thus became stages where the radiantly beautiful princess acted out her ambitions, enthroned like a queen surrounded by her court. In some of her more exclusive parties, Madame de Berry also played the leading part in elaborate "tableaux-vivants" that represented mythological scenes and in which she displayed her appetizing young person impersonating Venus or Diana. According to various satirical songs which scurrilously evoked her amours "the Lady of the Luxembourg" hid several pregnancies, shutting herself up from society when about to give birth. Her taste for strong liquors and her sheer gluttony also scandalised the court.〔Carré, Henri. ''Mademoiselle. Fille du Régent. Duchesse de Berry 1695-1719'', Paris, Hachette, 1936.〕 On 21 May 1717, Madame de Berry received Peter the Great at the Luxembourg. She welcomed the visiting Tsar splendidly dressed in a magnificent sack-back gown which showcased her voluptuous bosom as well as her mischievous face but also helped conceal her growing corpulence for she was then in an "interesting condition".〔E. de Barthélémy (ed.), ''Gazette de la Régence. Janvier 1715-1719'', Paris, 1887, p.180. The Duchess of Berry was heavily pregnant at the time of Peter the Great's visit. She secretly gave birth a few weeks later in her castle at La Muette where she had secluded herself until the time of delivery. In spite of all efforts to conceal it, Madame de Berry's maternity was well known. It inspired the satirists who lampooned Berry's penchant for lovers writing up a long list of all possible fathers for her secret baby〕 On 28 February 1718, the Duchess of Berry threw a magnificent party for her visiting aunt, the Duchess of Lorraine. The entire palace and its gardens were elaborately illuminated. The lavish banquet was followed by a masked ball. Madame de Berry made a dazzling appearance before her guests. She was then in the full splendor of her youthful beauty and pride and acted as if she were the very incarnation of the goddess of love, mirth, beauty and sensual pleasures.〔''Mémoires complets et authentiques du Duc de Saint-Simon sur le siècle de Louis XIV et la régence'', Volume 15, Paris, 1829, pp.404-405.〕 However, just over one year after this magnificent moment of festive glory, the Luxembourg palace became the stage of a shameful tragicomedy which ended in the harrowing demise of the haughty princess. The tempestuous life of Madame de Berry, the "Venus of the Luxembourg Palace", soon met a premature end. On 2 April 1719, after a grueling four-day labour, shut up in a small room of her palace, the young widow was delivered of a stillborn baby-girl, supposedly fathered by her lieutenant of the guards, the Count of Riom. Ill-prepared by her debauchery and raucous behavior, Berry's delivery was extremely troublesome and almost killed her. The Church refused her the Sacraments thus adding moral infamy to the physical tortures of the labouring woman. Saint-Simon wrote a very sarcastic description of this scandalous childbirth. Hoping to regain her health and undeceive the public that she had been confined, Madame de Berry left Paris and the Luxembourg palace. She died in her castle at La Muette on 21 July 1719 and, according to Saint-Simon, was found to be again pregnant.〔Pevitt, Christine, Philippe, Duc d'Orléans: Regent of France Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1997〕 In 1750, the palace became a museum, the forerunner of the Louvre, and was open two days a week until 1779.〔Andrew L. McClellan, "The Musée du Louvre as Revolutionary Metaphor During the Terror", ''The Art Bulletin'', vol. 70 (June, 1988), pp. 300–313 (300).〕 In 1778, the palace was given to the comte de Provence by his brother Louis XVI. During the French Revolution, it was briefly a prison, then the seat of the French Directory, and in 1799, the home of the ''Sénat conservateur'' and the first residence of Napoleon Bonaparte, as First Consul of the French Republic. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Luxembourg Palace」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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