A History of European Art

(Steven Felgate) #1

on Horseback by Antoine Coysevox (1640–1720). This relief depicts Louis
XIV as himself, not in the guise of Alexander the Great, for example. We see
another view of the relief looking toward the doorway to the Throne Room
and the Hall of Mirrors.


The Hall of Mirrors was begun in 1678; it was designed by J. H. Mansart and
decorated by Charles Lebrun. Foreign delegations to the king were recorded
in paintings, such as Reparations Made by the Doge of Genoa to Louis XIV
in 1685 (by Claude-Guy Halle, c. 1710), which suggests the abasement to
which they were subjected. Looking up they would have seen Louis XIV
Governing Alone by Charles Lebrun (1619–1690), a ceiling painting above
the throne. This subject commemorates the coming-of-age of Louis and the
defeat of those who would have limited royal power. Like the relief of Louis
trampling his enemies beneath his horse’s hooves, this painting shows Louis
as Louis, not represented by a symbol.


One must understand Versailles—the palace and the rigid court etiquette—as
a willed achievement by the king, one that came at great personal cost. In
pursuit of absolute control, Louis enforced equally strict discipline upon
himself. His private life was under the constant scrutiny of the “privileged”
courtiers who were chosen to share it. Louis himself tired of all this attention
and built two pavilions in the park as retreats from the crowd in the main
palace, but he was followed even there. When he died in 1715, he had been
king for nearly 75 years. Louis’ grandson succeeded him as Louis XV.
Because the new king was only 5 years old, the nation was under the guidance
of a regent, the boy’s uncle, Philip of Orleans. The regency continued until
the majority of Louis XV in 1723. This brief period was marked by an
aura—at least in hindsight—of melancholy and uncertainty.


Antoine Watteau (1684–1721) brieÀ y emerged to record the twilight mood
of the time, the nostalgia, the shift from absolute power to a time of less
strictness and greater indulgence in hedonism. Watteau was born in
Valenciennes, a Flemish town that had recently become French. The main
inÀ uence on his style was Rubens, but modulated into the pictorial language
of the 18th century. Our ¿ rst example from Watteau shows Pierrot (Gilles)
(c. 1718–1719). The commedia dell’arte had been imported into France from
Italy in the 16th century and was immensely popular. The ¿ gure of Gilles

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