| Summary: | Amongst the historicist architectural and decorative projects of King Ludwig II of Bavaria, the apartments in his Munich residence and the palaces of Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee are influenced, respectively, by French-style baroque and then by rococo. In these palaces, five bedrooms were created in all, largely inspired by Ludwig’s admiration for Louis XIV’s state bedroom at Versailles and the literary descriptions of its bed. The largest and most sumptuous of these bedrooms is the state bedroom of the Herrenchiemsee palace, with its bed. This room was projected and designed from 1869 and executed between 1876 and 1883. The bed of the first bedroom at the Linderhof palace was planned from 1871 and completed in 1873. It was then abandoned and replaced in 1884 and the first bed was given to the Bavarian National Museum in 1887. In its original design, this bed shows several similarities with the one at the Herrenchiemsee palace, although the two beds have different stylistic references: the Herrenchiemsee one is influenced by the ornamental forms of the age of Louis XIV, whilst the Linderhof bed is of rococo inspiration. Another similarity between the two beds is to be seen in the main figures in their iconographic programmes. An important source for the ornamental details of the Linderhof bed can be identified: the works of Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier (1695-1750), which often inspired Ludwig II. Significant details such as the spring and horsehair mattress or the counterpane on a frame suspended high above the bed characterize it as work of the nineteenth century.
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