Bust of Louis XIV;

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Title	Bust of Louis XIV;
File Name	civ metadata CID; Civ Archive 036 correct picture; 99100277.jpg
Copyright Status/Owner	Public Domain; Actively Pursuing
Rights (Patron Usage Instructions)	http://www.lib.byu.edu/genericnote_copyright.html
Course	HUM 202
Lecture Number	9
Professor	Green, Jon D., 1940-
Description	Working as an architect, painter, and sculptor, Gianlorenzo Bernini was one of the most influential and ingenious artists of the Italian Baroque period. His Bust of Louis XIV is an excellent example of his novel experimentation in various sculptural genres. This statue was produced during Bernini’s five-month visit to Paris in 1665, which was made in response to the many invitations that he had received from King Louis XIV. The purpose of the trip was to present his design for a new French royal residence at the Louvre. Although his design was rejected (probably in some degree as a result of his offensive comments about the superiority of Italian art and architecture that made him unpopular at the French court), Bernini sculpted this magnificent bust of the king. The French king recognized the power that art could have in cultivating his public persona and throughout his reign he commissioned numerous artistic and architectural projects that both declared and demonstrated his absolute, divinely bestowed power. This vertical portrait of superhuman authority reflected perfectly the ideals of Louis XIV's reign and reveals the artist’s ability to create convincing textures that result in a dramatic realism. The statue’s luxuriant curls, sensual lips and dignified expression capture the king’s noble and elegant beauty extolled by his contemporaries. Bernini’s dynamic, vigorous representation influenced royal portraiture for the next one hundred years.; Louis XIV epitomized the system of government known as absolute monarchy by centralizing all legislative, judicial and financial powers in his own person. Fashioning himself the “le Roi Soleil” (“The Sun King”), he insisted that he was the center of the universe and claimed to be a divine monarch whose unqualified authority resulted from godly approval. A prolific patron of art and literature, he founded the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1648 and commissioned many propagandistic works that were meant to glorify his reign and person.
Creator	Bernini, Gianlorenzo, 1598-1680
Country	France
Geographic Region	Europe
Type	Slide
Platform	Cross-Platform
File Size	145.608 KB
Genre	Sculpture
Category	Architecture
Keywords	Bernini, Gianlorenzo; Louis XIV; Baroque Art; Absolute Monarchy;
Time Period	Baroque Period
Date Range	1620 AD: 1680 AD
Date Original	1665 AD
Date Digital	2005-03-29
Metadata Entry Date	2009-08-11
Quality	High
Contributors	Brigham Young University
Edition	Electronic reproduction;
Format	JPEG
Owning Institution	Musée National de Versailles
Physical Description	approx 31 ½ in. high
Publisher Digital	Brigham Young University
Source	Ann Sutherland Harris, Seventeenth-Century Art and Architecture (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005), 86; Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia, 2003, “Bernini, Gianlorenzo”; Encyclopædia Britannica, 2006 Online ed., s.v. ""Bernini, Gian Lorenzo”, available from Internet <http://search.eb.com.erl.lib.byu.edu/eb/article-8222>, accessed 28 April 2007; Christopher Hibbert and the Editors of the Newsweek Book Division, Versailles (New York: Newsweek, 1972), 36.
Use Time	0:00:00

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