Louis XV commissioned architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel, marbrier Claude-Félix Tarlé, and sculptors Jacques Verberckt and François-Antoine Vassé to complete the room (Verlet, 321).

Above the fireplace is the artist’s Rebecca at the Well; on the opposite wall forming a pendant is the famed Feast in the House of Simon (Verlet, 322).

The inaugural ball held in the salon d’Hercule was on 26 January 1739 to celebrate the marriage of Louis XV’s eldest daughter Marie Louise-Élisabeth with Infante Philip of Spain;[2] and the wedding dinner au grand courvert of the Duke of Chartres on 5 January 1769 (Verlet, 323).

After the destruction of the escalier des ambassadeurs in 1752, Louis XV planned for the salon d’Hercule to be the landing for a new staircase for the château.

[3] During the reign of Louis XVI the salon d’Hercule served for diplomatic functions such as the embassy sent by Ali II ibn Hussein of Tunis (January 1777); the receptions of the representatives of the Three Estates of the Estates General (May 1789); and, the reception of the embassy of Sultan Hyder Ali of Mysore (September 1778) (Verlet, 555).