THE 17TH CENTURY
It is often
a really difficult matter to decide the exact boundary lines between one period
and another, for the new style shows its beginnings before the old one is passed,
and the old style still appears during the early years of the new one. It is
an overlapping process and the years of transition are ones of great interest.
As one period follows another it usually shows a reaction from the previous
one; a somber period is followed by a gay one; the excess of ornament in one
is followed by restraint in the next. It is the same law that makes us want
cake when we have had too much bread and butter.
The world has changed so much since the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
that it seems almost impossible that we should ever again have great periods
of decoration like those of Louis
XIV,
Louis
XV
and Louis
XVI.
Then the monarch was supreme. " L'etat c'est moi," said Louis XIV, and it was
true. He established the great Gobelin works on a basis that made France the
authority of the world and firmly imposed his taste and his will on the country.
Now that this absolute power of one man is a thing of the past, we have the
influence of many men forming and molding something that may turn into a beautiful
epoch of decoration, one that will have in it some of the feeling that brought
the French Renaissance to its height, though not like it, for we have the same
respect for individuality working within the laws of beauty that they had.
The style that takes its name from Louis XIV was one of great magnificence and
beauty with dignity and a certain solidity in its splendor. It was really the
foundation of the styles that followed, and a great many people look upon the
periods of Louis XIV, the Regency, Louis XV and Louis XVI as one great period
with variations, or ups and downs — the complete swing and return of the pendulum.
LOUIS
XIV
Louis XIV was a man with a will of iron and made it absolute law during his
long reign of seventy-two years. His ideal was splendor, and he encouraged great
men in the intellectual and artistic world to do their work, and shed their
glory on the time. Conde, Turenne, Colbert, Moliere, Corneille, La Fontaine,
Racine, Fenelon, Boulle, Le Brun, are a few among the long and wonderful list.
He was in-deed Louis the Magnificent, the Sun King.
During his youth, Louis was content to leave the government in Mazarin's hands,
but when the latter died in 1661, the twenty-two-year-old king declared that
henceforth he would be his own prime minister. From that day until his death
over a half century later, he directed the affairs of state and dispensed the
crown's patronage to ensure that power rested with him personally and not with
a chief minister. Louis' character changed as he matured from a youthful, untried
king to Europe's most powerful ruler. At first, he was a pleasure-loving monarch
whose many mistresses caused comment in an age not readily surprised by such
activities. As he grew older, he became more devout, his court became more moral,
and he even married his lat mistress, although secretly. One aspect of Louis'
character, however, never changed-his love of glory. Magnificence, generosity,
and military conquests had long been considered the true marks of greatness.
The seventeenth century added another criterion-the passion for system and order.
Louis sought to achieve each of these attributes of greatness.
Louis was only of medium height and could scarcely have been called handsome,
but he possessed a natural dignity and a commanding appearance that left no
one in doubt that he was every inch a king. He was not well educated and possessed
little imagination, but he had both the determination to master the details
of government and the ability to direct the administration of the kingdom. He
was unfailingly courteous and usually honest and straightforward, although he
was a master of dissimulation when there was need. Had it not been for his desire
for glory, he could have been a great king by modern standards rather than by
the standards of his day.
I t was the desire for system and order, for unity and obedience, that first
claimed Louis' attention. He believed with a political theorist of his day "that
the king alone is sovereign in his kingdom and that sovereignty is no more divisible
than the point in geometry." all power had to be gathered in his hands. he denied
the great nobles a significant role in the government, but to win their loyalty
he brought them to court and treated them to a series of entertainments. He
heaped on them titles, honorary positions, and pensions. To their younger sons
went the richest ecclesiastical benefices. When court life became dull, there
was usually a war on which king and noble could embark in search of honor and
glory. No noble could hope for advancement without winning favor at court, and
royal generosity was a heavy financial drain on France. Louis finally tamed
the French nobility, but in doing so he became their captive. From the time
of his reign, the fortunes of king and great noble were so closely bound together
that they could not be separated. Their alliance led to their mutual destruction
in the Revolution.
By enticing the great nobles to court, Louis broke their tie with the lesser
nobles who remained in the provinces. They became to all intents two separate
classes, and the duke or prince could no longer count on a host of clients ready
to revolt at his call. Louis curbed the authority of the local royal officials
who purchased or inherited their offices and of the elected town officials by
expanding the duties of the intendant. The old bureaucracy was left its offices,
the towns kept their officials, and the nobles retained their privileges, but
the administration of the provinces was actually carried on largely by the intendants,
and the chief royal advisers were drawn from the lesser nobility and the middle
class. As long as the crown could prevent the intendants from escaping its control,
its directives were certain to carry weight throughout the kingdom.
To prevent the army from rebelling under the lead of its commanders, Louis saw
to it that, for every colonel drawn from a great noble family, there was an
experienced lieutenant-colonel drawn from one of the lesser noble families who
owed his advancement to royal favor. Troops were raised and paid in the name
of their king, not their captain. Uniforms came into frequent use for the first
time, and some barracks were built to house the troops. Inspectors were sent
out from the royal council to make certain that regulations were complied with.
These measures made for obedient officers and disciplined soldiers. No longer
would an army follow its commander into revolt against the king, and the crown
had an effective force that would be used for military conquest and the suppression
of rebellions.
To celebrate the glories of his reign, Louis became a patron of arts and letters.
His taste was not always good, and the controls he established limited the development
of the artists' individuality; but his palaces were decorated in a magnificent
manner with paintings celebrating the conquests of Alexander, Caesar, and Louis.
Historians were not above drawing similar parallels, though in his youth Louis
had insulted their profession by having Mézeray's History of France read at
night to ut him to sleep. The censor was not neglected. His task was to see
to it that unfavorable comments were not published in France. Louis became the
most admired and emulated monarch in Europe. French culture spread everywhere.
The finest example of Louis' desire for magnificence may be found in the palace
at Versailles. It was large, so large that it took 35,000 people more than three
decades to build it. The interior was magnificently furnished with mosaics,
paintings, and mirrors. surrounding the palace were acres of gardens, lakes,
and fountains. The cost in lives and money was staggering, but Louis pushed
the work to completion, for here was a palace suitable for the greatest of kings.
Louis insisted on the most elaborate court etiquette. From the time he arose
in the morning until the time he went to bed at night, he was attended by the
leading nobles of the realm. A prince might be permitted to hand him his shirt,
but a mere count could hope to do no more than watch the royal toilette. The
elaborate etiquette would have bored all but the most devotet adherent of the
cult of kings, but Louis manfully followed the pattern of life which he thought
led to greatness. Indeed, the palace did not have the most elementary comforts
by modern standards. It was totally lacking in plumbing; perfume was the accepted
substitute fort he bath. Nevertheless, the splendor of Versailles did much to
impress the Europeans of the day, and before long even the petty German princes
were imitating the ways of the "Grand Monarch."
To support so much magnificence a sound fiscal system and a good economy were
necessary. In this respect, Louis' minister, Colbert, was invaluable. Colbert
cut the cost of collecting taxes, reduced graft and corruption, and adopted
an accurate system of bookkeeping. He tried with slight success to equalize
taxation between the various provinces. Industry and agriculture were encouraged,
and efforts were made to create free trade between the interior provinces of
the kingdom.
Colbert's fiscal measures were wise and some of his economic measures were helpful,
but in the long run Louis' policies destroyed any beneficial effects of Colbert's.
In 1685, Louis revoked the Edict of Nantes because his growing interest in religion
made tolerating impossible. The Huguenots were compelled to choose between conversion
to Catholicism, persecution, and flight form the country. About 200,000 chose
the last course, and France lost some of its most valuable workers, although
this loss was less serious than has sometimes been supposed.
Far more harmful were Louis' wars. He fought many, and before his death he realized
that they had cost too much in money, in blood, and in reforms postponed. He
was further saddened by the death of his son and heir and two grandsons. His
throne was to pass to his great-grandson, and in 1715 the dying monarch called
this sickly led to him and said, "My child, you will soon be the king of great
realm. Never forget your obligations towards God; remember that you owe him
all that you are. Try to preserve peace with your neighbors. i have been too
fond of war. Do not imitate me in that, nor in the too great expenditures I
have made. Lighten the burdens of your people as soon as you can, and do that
which I have had the misfortune not to accomplish myself." A few days later,
Louis XIV, the Grand Monarch, died after a reign of seventy-two years. He, Richelieu,
and Mazarin had broken the power of Spain. They had expanded France a long way
towards its present boundaries, but they had bankrupted their people. They had
created an absolute monarchy, but they had failed to make the type of reforms
necessary to ensure loyalty to the crown.
DECORATION
& DESIGN UNDER LOUIS XIV
One of the great elements toward achieving the stupendous results of this reign
was the establishment of the " Manufacture des Meubles de la Couronne," or,
as it is usually called, " Manufacture des Gobelins." Artists of all kinds were
gathered together and given apartments in the Louvre and the wonderfully gifted
and versatile Le Brun was put at the head. Tapestry, goldsmiths' work, furniture,
jewelry, etc., were made, and with the royal protection and interest France
rose to the position of world-wide supremacy in the arts. Le Brun had the same
taste and love of magnificence as Louis, and had also extraordinary executive
ability and an almost unlimited capacity for work, combined with the power of
gathering about him the most eminent artists of the time. Andre Charles Boulle
was one, and his beautiful cabinets, commodes, tables, clocks, etc., are now
almost priceless. He carried the inlay of metals, tortoise-shell, ivory and
beautiful woods to its highest expression, and the mingling of colors with the
exquisite workmanship gave most wonderful effects. Sheets of white metal or
brass were glued together and the pattern was then cut out. When taken apart
the brass scrolls could be fitted exactly into the shell background, and the
shell scrolls into the brass background, thus making two decorations. The shell
background was the more highly prized. The designs usually had a Renaissance
feeling. The metal was softened in outline by engraving, and then ormolu mounts
were added. Ormolu or gilt bronze mounts, formed one of the great decorations
of furniture. The most exquisite workmanship was lavished on them, and after
they had been cast they were cut and carved and polished until they became worthy
ornaments for beautiful inlaid tables and cabinets. The taste for elaborately
carved and gilded frames to chairs, tables, mirrors,
etc., developed rapidly. Mirrors were made by the Gobelins works and were much
less ex-pensive than the Venetian ones of the previous reign. Walls were painted
and covered with gold with a lavish hand. Tapestries were truly magnificent
with gold and silver threads adding richness to their beauty of color, and were
used purely as a decoration as well as in the old utilitarian way of keeping
out the cold. The Gobelins works made at this time some of the most beautiful
tapestries the world has known. The massive chimney-pieces were superseded by
the "petite-cheminee," and had great mirrors over them or elaborate over-mantels.
The whole air of furnishing and decoration changed to one of greater lightness
and brilliancy. The ideal was that everything, no matter how small, must be
beautiful, and we find the most exquisite workmanship lavished on window-locks
and door-knobs.
In the early style of Louis XIV, we find many trophies of war and mythological
subjects used in the decorative schemes. The second style of this period was
a softening and refining of the earlier one, becoming more and more delicate
until it merged into the time of the Regency. It was during the reign of Louis
XIV that the craze for Chinese decoration first appeared. La Chinoiserie
it was called, and it has daintiness and a curious fascination about it, but
many inappropriate things were done in its name. The furniture of the time was
firmly placed upon the ground, the arm-chairs had strong straining-rails, square
or curved backs, scroll arms carved and partly upholstered and stuffed seats
and backs. The legs of chairs were usually tapering in form and ornamented with
gilding, or marquetry, or richly carved, and later the feet ended in a carved
leaf de-sign. Some of the straining-rails were in the shape of the letter X,
with an ornament at the intersection, and often there was a wooden molding below
the seat in place of fringe. Many carved and gilded chairs had gold fringe and
braid and were covered with velvet, tapestry or damask.
There were many new and elaborate styles of beds that came into fashion at this
time. There was the lit d'ange, which had a canopy that did not extend over
the entire bed, and had no pillars at the foot, the curtains were drawn back
at the head and the counterpane went over the foot of the bed. There was the
lit d'alcove, the lit de bout, lit dos, lit de glace, with a mirror framed in
the ceiling, and many others. A lit de parade was like the great bed of Louis
XIV at Versailles.
Both the tall and bracket clocks
showed this same love of ornament and they were carved and gilded and enriched
with chased brass and wonderful inlay by Boulle. The dials also were beautifully
designed. Consoles, tables, cabinets, etc., were all treated in this elaborate
way. Many of the ceilings were painted by great artists, and those at Versailles,
painted by Le Brun and others, are good examples. There was always a combination
of the straight line and the curve, a strong feeling of balance, and a profusion
of ornament in the way of scrolls, garlands, shells, the acanthus, anthemion,
etc. The moldings were wide and sometimes a torus of laurel leaves was used,
but in spite of the great amount of ornament lavished on everything, there is
the feeling of balance and symmetry and strength that gives dignity and beauty.
Louis was indeed fortunate in having the great Colbert for one of his ministers.
He was a man of gigantic intellect, capable of originating and executing vast
schemes. It was to his policy of state patronage, wisely directed, and energetically
and lavishly carried out, that we owe the magnificent achievements of this period.
Everywhere the impression is given of brilliancy and splendor — gold on the
walls, gold on the furniture, rich velvets and damasks and tapestries, marbles
and marquetry and painting, furniture worth a king's ransom. It all formed a
beautiful and fitting background for the proud king, who could do no wrong,
and the dazzling, care-free people who played their brilliant, selfish parts
in the midst of its splendor. They never gave a thought to the great mass of
the common people who were over-burdened with taxation; they never heard the
first faint mutterings of discontent which were to grow, ever louder and louder,
until the Revolution paid the debt.
Read more about it
Louis XIV by Anthony Levi - published by Carroll & Graf Publishers