• What type of art ranks high according to the French Academy? What type of art ranks low?

• What is the purpose of the academy? Describe its purpose, its main contributors, and 1 aspect of their philosophy.

The Age of Versailles

Introduction to Rococo

• Henry IV (1553-1610) – Huguenot fightin the wars of

religion

– Converts to catholicism and enacts the Edict of Nantes (Religious tolerance)

• Louis XIII (1601-1643) – 8 when made king

– Mother was Marie de Medici

– Defeats the Hapsburg Empire and foreshadows French Dominance

• Louis XIV (1638-1715) – The “Sun King”

– Reigns for 73 years

– Franco-Dutch, War with Augsburg and Spanish Succession

Georges de La Tour . Joseph the Carpenter. ñ. 1645. Oil on canvas, 130 x 100 cm. Musee du Louvre, Paris

Louts Le Nain. Peasant Family, . 1640. Oil on canvas, 113 x 158.7 cm. Musee du Louvre, Paris

• 1594-1665 French Painter and of “French Classical” style – Does not have traditional

apprenticeship – Travels to Rome and is influenced by

Bernini, Boromini, and Titian – 2 early Papal commissions gains him

public noteriety

• Style: – Veiled eroticism in classical

forms – Emphasis on “disegno” over

“colore” – Predecessor of the “art salon”

or Academia

• Lasting Influence: – David, Cezzanne, Picasso

• “The purpose of art is delectation”

Nicola Poussin. Cephalus and Aurora, ñ. 1630. Oil on canvas, 96.7 x 129.7 cm. The National Gallery, London.

• Jean-Baptiste Colbert, built the administrative apparatus to support the power Louis XIV

• Transition from apprentice, to guilds, to “academies”, to the formalized institutions

• Grading and marks, as well as hierarchy of importance is standarized

• The French academy created a strict format for instruction with Colbert at the top. – Art could be “taught” as a rational process

• However, the style produced in the visual arts represented a compromise.

– Baroque art appealed to Louis XIV for its richness and grand scale. But baroque art had been developed Religion

– France wanted a more secular style

• Tempered with le bon gout (good taste)

• The dictatorship of Colbert and Lebrun imposed this style all over France. Among the many results of this dictatorship was the fact that Paris began to supersede Rome as the artistic capital of Europe.

Nicola Poussin. The Rape of the Sabine Women, ñ. 1636-37. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

David, The Intervention of the Sabine Women, 1799

• Louis XIV proclaimed Versailles to be the seat of the government on May 6, 1682.

• The court consisted of 20,000 persons that included 9,000 soldiers, 5,000 servants, 1,000 great lords and members of the nobility, 1,000 lesser aristocrats

• The great lords and members of the nobility were required to live at Versailles--in the palace--so that the king could keep track of them. – They could beg permission to return to

their lands periodically in order to regroup financially!

First stage of the enlargement of the hunting lodge of Louis XIII (built in 1624) into the Palace at Versailles under Louis XIV (1668-9) by Louis LeVau; the black portions of the plan represent this stage.

Court of Honor

Garden Façade in the scheme of 1669 by Louis LeVau

In 1678, Jules-Hardouin Mansart filled in the center section of west side to create the Hall of Mirrors (Galerie des Glaces) as part of a major expansion of the palace.

The Mansart expansion of Versailles brought the total length of the garden façade to about one-third of a mile.

Main pavilion with south wing, viewed from the south

The garden façade seen from the “Tapis vert” (green carpet) of the Versailles Park

The palace situated between the village of Versailles and the park with grand avenues radiating from the Court of Honor

The garden in detail reflects the geometry of the plan at the urban and regional scale.

The principal approach connected with the Champs Elysees in Paris.

Naval battles were staged on the lagoon to the west of the sloping grass terrace

The fountains with the main e-w axis in view.

The fountains from a bird’s eye view of Versailles Park

The Ambassadors’ Staircase

The queen’s apartments

The bedroom of Louis XIV, site of the rituals called “Le Grand Lever” and “Le Grand Coucher.”

La Salon de Guerre (Salon of War) was the prelude to the Hall of Mirrors. The relief portrait by Coysevox is based on…

The Hall of Mirrors: the axis between war and peace crosses the axis of absolute power.