preview

Palace Of Versailles Essay

Good Essays

12/12/2016
Gabrielle Okun
Versailles: Louis XIV’s Political Masterpiece

The Palace of Versailles is an architectural masterpiece due to the Baroque influences that give it a larger than life theatrical flair. Versailles is intriguing due to the complex history into the building of it and the multidimensional designs of the palace, gardens, and town. Louis XIV’s building of Versailles Palace utilizes Baroque aesthetics to legitimize the absolute power of royalty. While the central style of Versailles originates from Louis XIV, there were many people that collaborated on the construction. One can examine the difference in personalities of the royal family the Bourbons. Louis XIV’s father Louis XIII used Versailles as a small getaway where he could hunt peacefully outside of Paris. His son used Versailles as a way to reflect his character, power, and wealth. However, others believe that the true reason he left Paris was to have time away and out of the public eye with his mistresses.1 Regardless of the rationale, in 1661 he ordered the reconstruction of the exterior and interior of Versailles.2 The palace of Versailles simply originated from an old hunting lodge belonging to his father, in the small village of Versailles. Marin writes that, …show more content…

Le Brun depicted both the wars that Louis XIV had fought and won by this date.”21 One of the most provocative paintings is “The tableau of Louis leading the French crossing of the 1672 sums up the bombastic approach. Hair streaming, dressed in Roman style and holding a thunderbolt like a projectile, Louis sits godlike on a silver chariot pushed by Hercules while riding roughshod over female personifications of nearby enemy towns.22 This painting emphasizes how Louis wanted to be remembered as a deistic force. While the painting alludes to classicism, Louis XIV wanted the captions to be written in french so that he could communicate with

Get Access