Brilliant, flamboyant!
Apollon is back at the Palace of Versailles, after a year of restoration at the Saint-Jacques workshops at the Coubertin foundation in Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse (Yvelines).
This Thursday, February 15, consolidated, cleaned, re-gilded, it arrived by air before delicately landing, despite its 6.5 tons, in its setting of water and splashes that it has animated for nearly 400 years.
The twelve other monumental sculptures which accompany it, four horses, four newts and four dolphins should be installed by Monday evening.
The public will thus be able to rediscover the group which is located in the Grande Perspective between the green carpet and the Grand Canal.
The pool, certainly the most famous of the castle gardens, should come to life from March 29 for the first large musical waters, after meticulous work by fountain designers to restore the water effects.
“It was a very strong challenge to tackle a restoration in the main axis of the perspective (dear to Le Nôtre), but we had no choice,” explains Laurent Salomé, director of the national museum of the Château de Versailles, in the absence of Catherine Pgard, the future former director of the public establishment traveling to Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates).
“The chance to discover an original sculpture”
“Beneath the bird noise, everyone thought that these sculptures had been remade in the 19th century.
These works were suspect, explains Jacques Moulin, chief architect of historical monuments.
However, we had the extraordinary chance to discover an original sculpture.
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Versailles, February 15, 2024. The twelve other sculptures, signed Jean-Baptiste Tuby, should be installed by Monday.
The whole thing weighs more than 30 tonnes.
LP/Véronique Beaugrand
Cast in lead between 1668 and 1670 by the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Tuby, a bit like "the French Michelangelo" to respond to the impatience of Louis sun, showed signs of aging, significant disorders.
“The lead was too soft.
All the crinolines that held the sculptures had collapsed.
We had tears, tears.
Horses’ necks had bent…”, lists the chief architect.
The restoration entirely financed by a patron
A year of restoration was necessary to consolidate the quadriga of the Sun god and restore its splendor.
The work, entirely financed by the French sponsor CMA CGM, a world reference in transport and logistics, consisted of restoring the metal structure, correcting the defects and folds, using 3D in particular, and refinishing it.
“Under the onslaught of the jets, certain sculptures were purple or red.
Initially, the group was not golden, but tan.
We are going to ensure that the gilding is patinated, toned down,” specifies the architect.
This restoration is part of a larger plan in the run-up to the Olympic Games, the equestrian competitions of which (and the modern pentathlon) will take place at the royal domain.
“It marks a series of other campaigns until June, that of the main gate of the castle, the antechamber of the oeil-de-bœuf, the parterre du Midi and the creation of an ephemeral parterre with little horses at the Grand Trianon,” underlines Louis-Samuel Berger, general administrator.
Versailles will therefore be ready for these Olympics.
“It’s going to gallop a lot.
No one can control Apollo's horses, we'll see if the competitors can control theirs.
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