Lecture 37: Louis XIV and Versailles

Louis XIV and Versailles .................................................................

Lecture 37

The birth of Versailles is what I want to talk to you about now and

share with you, because it is the creation of Versailles that is such a

fascinating story art-historically.

I

n this lecture, we look at the architecture and gardens of the Palace of

Versailles and discuss how the palace reÀ ected Louis XIV’s notion of

himself as the Sun King, the center of the universe and the source of

absolute, divine power, and simultaneously impressed the rest of Europe.

Louis died after reigning for nearly 75 years, and the mood in France

shifted. We will look at the work of Watteau to illustrate the pervading

sense of nostalgia seen for a brief time in the transition from the Baroque

to the Rococo.

We begin this lecture with some background on the political situation in

France leading up to the construction of the great palace of Versailles. Paris

had been the seat of the French government since the 10th century. After the

death of Louis XIII in 1643, his widow, Anne of Austria, became regent for

her 4-year-old son, Louis XIV. In May 1648, in response to widespread anti-

taxation riots, the parliament in Paris revolted and passed a law limiting the

royal prerogatives. This parliament was known as the Fronde Parliament

(fronde meaning “revolt”). The queen and her son À ed Paris. The indignity

of the restrictive law and the forced À ight had a powerful inÀ uence on Louis’

subsequent actions as king.

In 1651, when he was 13, Louis ascended the throne, concluding his mother’s

regency. Ten years later, not long after his marriage to a daughter of Philip

IV of Spain, Louis’ personal reign began in earnest. Louis XIII, who detested

society, had built a small hunting lodge near the village of Versailles, 11

miles from Paris. He expanded the lodge into a more substantial chateau,

completed by 1636. At least by the mid-1660s, Louis XIV had determined to

move the seat of government from Paris to Versailles, to escape the inherent

danger of urban mobs, but the court could not move until 1682. Most of

the important nobles of France were compelled to move to Versailles by the