Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
Rigaud’s portrait of Louis XIV in his coronation robes is the definitive image of the Sun King and of absolute monarchy in Europe. Painted in 1701, when Louis was sixty-two, it shows him standing in the great state robes of the Order of the Holy Spirit, lined with ermine, with the fleur-de-lis mantle, the sceptre, the hand of justice and the crown resting on a cushion behind him. His legs are displayed in white silk stockings - a deliberate reference to the ballet-loving king’s famous calves.
The painting is nearly three metres tall and was designed to be seen from below, hung high on a wall. Rigaud’s handling of fabric is extraordinary: the ermine, the velvet, the gold embroidery and the marble column are all rendered with a precision that makes the king look less like a man than like an institution. Louis was so pleased with it that he kept the original for himself, and Rigaud’s workshop produced dozens of copies for foreign courts and royal residences.
The portrait became the template for royal portraiture across Europe for a century. It was moved to the Louvre after the Revolution, and it remains the image most people have in mind when they think of the French monarchy.
Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659-1743) was born in Perpignan and became the most successful portrait painter in France. He painted five generations of the Bourbon court, from Louis XIV to Louis XV, and his workshop was so productive that he kept a register of every copy it produced. He was a master of the ceremonial portrait, and his sitters included bishops, marshals, financiers and the entire royal family.
By 1701 Louis XIV had been on the throne for nearly sixty years and France was exhausted by war. The portrait was commissioned by the king’s grandson, the Duke of Anjou, who had just become Philip V of Spain, and it was intended to project dynastic continuity. Its combination of physical realism and institutional grandeur became the visual language of the ancien regime.
Sully Wing · Level 2 · French Paintings, 17th Century
The Louvre is divided into three wings — Denon, Sully and Richelieu — reached from the hall beneath the glass pyramid.
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