A History of European Art

Lecture 37: Louis XIV and Versailles

aligned. This arrangement is called en¿ lade and, in the winter, resulted in

cold winds blowing through the corridors.

We see a modern aerial view of the central section of the garden façade,

designed by Le Vau, who adopted Bernini’s suggestion that the sloping

roofs be hidden behind the cornice. The palace was ¿ nished by Jules

Hardouin Mansart, who also enlarged it by extending the wings. Note the

long horizontal line broken by the projecting central section, which contains

the Throne Room (the Hall of Mirrors), the Salon of War, and the Salon of

Peace. The proportions dictated by the Classical

order are stretched to the limit by the length of

this enormous façade. The traditional French

pavilion composition—tall pavilions alternating

with segments of wall—had been abandoned.

The Fountain of Latona is not far from the garden

façade. A myth from Ovid’s Metamorphoses

relates that Latona, mother of Apollo and

Diana, became thirsty while wandering with

her children to avoid Juno’s wrath and stopped

at a lake in Lycia to drink. She was prevented from drinking by peasants

who were collecting reeds there. Angered, she turned them into frogs. This

unpleasant story was not casually chosen simply because it involved a lake

and was suitable for a fountain sculpture. The subject, with Louis as Apollo

and his mother, Anne, as Latona, was dictated by the king as a reminder of

the ultimate failure of the Fronde. The nobles who were now in enforced

residence at Versailles could contemplate this mythological warning every

day. Finally on the exterior, we see also the Apollo Fountain, by François

Girardon (1628–1715), situated on the central axis of the park as seen from

the palace. Apollo (the sun god) in his chariot, accompanied by tritons, is

rising from the water.

Our next examples are from the interior of the palace. Approaching the king,

as every foreign ambassador must, was a considerable effort, involving a

long march through the aligned doors of innumerable rooms toward the

Throne Room. Before arrival at the Hall of Mirrors, ambassadors would ¿ nd

themselves in the Salon of War. Here they would see a relief of Louis XIV

The Hall of Mirrors

was begun in 1678;

it was designed

by J. H. Mansart

and decorated by

Charles Lebrun.