ART 263 / MAN 263
The Business of Art

The reign of Louis XIV is perhaps the most extravagant example of art being patronized in the service of a political agenda.

Louis XIV ruled France from 1643 - 1715. He had the longest reign in European history as an absolute monarch. During his reign France was the most populous and wealthy country in Europe.

The classicizing taste of Louis XIV dominated French art of the seventeenth century. The arts were organized in the service of the King by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV’s Minister of Finance. He was also chief advisor on matters artistic, political, naval and religious.

Art was strictly controlled by the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, which was founded in 1648. Colbert’s "executive manager" was Charles Le Brun (1619 - 90), who became director of the Royal Academy in 1663, and first painter to the King and Director of the Gobelins tapestry factory. He codified the rules and practices of art, and became "team manager" for collaborative projects, such as construction of the Louvre and Versailles.

 It was during Louis XIV’s reign that the new palace of the Louvre was built as royal apartments. (Louis Le Vau, Claude Perrault, and Charles Le Brun, east front, Palais du Louvre, Paris, 1667 - 70) (The Louvre  pictured at the right is now one of the world’s greatest museums. See their home page to see their collection.)

The most magnificent work commissioned by Louis XIV was the palace and gardens at Versailles.  In 1668 the king decided to enlarge the royal hunting lodge in Versailles, near Paris, a location to which the royal court eventually moved. (Note the illustration of the front of Versailles).

  Andre Le Notre designed the gardens, more than 2000 acres of which are very geometric and controlled. ( Note the illustration at the left of the bird’s eye view of the palace and park at Versailles, by Pierre Patel, 1668).  The gardens include grottoes with statuary, (Note the illustration to the right by Francois Girardon, called Apollo Attended by the Nymphs, c. 1666-72) many fountains, flowers, and a mile long canal.

The palace was built in two phases between 1668 and 1685 around the old chateau of Louis XIII. The architects were Louis Le Vau, Charles Le Brun and Jules Hardouin Mansart. The Palace has magnificent views of the gardens.

 The so-called Hall of Mirrors, within the palace (note the illustration to the left) has one wall covered with mirrors which face west, and reflect the sun and glorify the reign of Louis XIV. Louis identified himself with the sun-god Apollo, and called himself the Sun King. The Hall of Mirrors is over two hundred feet long and thirty feet wide.

Louis XIV’s first Superintendent of Buildings was Jean-Baptiste ColbertHe once supposedly said, "Why use one architect when the best ideas of five responding to the same problems would obviously produce a better solution?" The lead architects on the project became administrator-coordinators. The work was done by committee, something common in our time, but which was an important innovation of Louis’ reign. Colbert worked together with the architects and administrators, so that there was a meshing of aesthetics, and administrative needs (such as finances).

The French treasury funded the project. Colbert was minister of Finance - responsible for tax collection and the national economy. Colbert’s policy was "mercantilism" and is seen as an early experiment in controlling the economy.

In times of war, expenditures on Versailles were less than during years of peace (such as 1664-67). Note the amount spent in each year depicted in the table below.

Versailles became a showplace for French luxury items made in government workshops, such as the Gobelins tapestry and furniture works.

When a country is wealthy, patronage of the arts usually peaks. Louis XIV’s reign may have been the last blast of a strong monarchy, however. New governmental forms, and patterns of patronage emerged in the era of revolution.

    Naopleon (shown to the left in a 1805 Jacques-Louis David Coronation of Napoleon and Josephine) tried to resurrect the idea of absolute monarchy in his reign, but it was by then, a moribund tradition. The artists working for him were essentially myth-makers, evoking a past, heroic era, as we see for example with David’s Napoleon Crossing the Saint-Bernard, in which Napoleon is compared to the great ancient warrior, Hannibal.

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