261. VERSAILLES: PANEL OVER DOOR IN SALON DE L'ABONDANCE (1683): 

 SCULPTURE IN GILT LEAD. 



CHAPTER V 



STYLE OF LOUIS XIV. (1640-1710) 



QUEEN. 



MARIA THERESA OF SPAIN. 

 gram MT. 



Mono- 



KING. 



Louis XIV. (1643-1715). Initial L. 

 Emblem Sun. Motto " Nee pluri- 

 bus impart" 



CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH SOVEREIGNS. 



CHARLES I. (1625-49) ; Commonwealth (1649-60) ; CHARLES II. (1660-85) > JAMES II. 

 (1685-7) ; WILLIAM III. (1687-1702) ; ANNE (1702-14). 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



THE " GRAND SIECLE." The reign of Louis XIV., who, at the age 

 of five, succeeded his father in 1643, was to be the longest in history 

 and to bring the French monarchy to its culminating point. The 

 personality of the sovereign and the ideals for which he stood 

 give this period of seventy-two years a unity which is reflected in 

 contemporary art. When the style of Louis XIV. is stigmatised as 

 bombastic and artificial, fit setting for the periwigged Court of a cruel 

 and pompous libertine, the description contains a little truth and much 

 exaggeration. The "Style Louis Quatorze," in its glories and in its 



10 z6 7 



