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Reading Preview: Staging Absolutism
WTL 3
1. What was the theoretical basis for absolute royal authority? 2. What was the traditional and what was new in the justification of royal power as expressed in late sixteenth‐ and seventeenth century France? 3. How did such early modern kings as Louis XIV communicate their absolute power in the various ceremonies and symbols of royal authority presented in the evidence? L. M. Stallbaumer‐Beishline copyright 2016
Interpreting images and symbols
• Make note of people and their clothing.
• Make note of the objects that you see. What sort of symbolic value do they have?
• What action, if any, is occurring?
• What details in the images support the choice of these for the chapter?
• What is the “author’s” background? i.e. what do we know about the motives of the artist or architect? 1
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House of Bourbon with
Fleur de Lys in center of shield
Charles Le Brun (1619‐1690)
• Ennobled in 1663
• “First Painter”
• Founded Royal Academy of Painting
• Example of symbols discussed: • http://www.charleslebrun.com/site_anglais/album
_symboles_english.htm
• http://www.vinci.com/icons/mecenat/flash/loupe‐
fr.htm
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Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659‐1743)
• Arrived in Paris in 1681
• Inspired by Dutch and Italian Renassaince painters
• Studied with Charles Le Brun
among others
• Works are useful in understanding the clothing styles of the age
• Known for portraits
Louis XIV, King of France and Navarre, 1701
Louis XIV, Mask of Apollo, God of Light, Seventeenth Century
“The symbol that I have adopted and that you see all around you represents the duties of a prince and inspire me always to fulfill them. I chose for an emblem the Sun which, according to the rules of this art [heraldry], is the noblest of all, and which by the light it lends to the other stars that constitute, after a fashion, its court, by the universal good it does, endlessly promoting life, joy, and growth, by its perpetual and regular movement, by its constant and invariable course, is assuredly the most dazzling and most beautiful image of the monarch.” Discovering the Western Past, 7th edition, 55.
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Gilles Rousselet (1610‐1686)
The Carousel of 1662
The Carousel of 1662 was not held at Versailles but between the Louvre and the courtyard of the Tuileries now called the Place de Carousel - on 5, 6 and 7 June. The event celebrated was the birth of the Dauphin
and the 25-year old Louis XIV wanted to make the most of it. The news of the grand spectacle had spread
like wildfire through Paris and 10-15.000 people were gathered to watch. Temporary stands had been
erected for the people to sit on which made up an amphitheatre in the Roman style designed by Vigarani.
Louis XIV as “Roman Emperor” Engraving from the Carousel, 1662
Source: http://thisisversaillesmadame.blogspot.com/20
15/03/the‐carousel‐of‐1662.html
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