Page "Blenheim Palace" Paragraph 32

This view of the Duke as an omnipotent being is also reflected in the interior design of the palace, and indeed its axis to certain features in the park.

It was planned that when the Duke dined in state in his place of honour in the great saloon, he would be the climax of a great procession of architectural mass aggrandising him rather like a proscenium.

The pediment over the south portico is a complete break from the convention.

The flat top is decorated by a trophy bearing the marble bust of Louis XIV looted by John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough | Marlborough from Tournai in 1709, weighing 30 tons.

The positioning of the bust was an innovative new design in the decoration of a pediment.

The line of celebration and honour of his victorious life began with the great column of victory surmounted by his statue and detailing his triumphs, and the next point on the great axis, planted with trees in the position of troops, was the epic Roman style bridge.

The approach continues through the great portico into the hall, its ceiling painted by James Thornhill with the Duke's apotheosis, then on under a great triumphal arch, through the huge marble door-case with the Duke's marble effigy above it ( bearing the ducal plaudit " Nor could Augustus better calm mankind "), and into the painted saloon, the most highly decorated room in the palace, where the Duke was to have sat enthroned.