>
Louis’ greatest artistic patronage was architecture. He rightly viewed buildings to be the strongest testament of greatness, and the commissions Louis funded are great. Louis’ pride, and fear, prompted his desire to move away from Paris. He seemingly never overcame childhood fears that the Fronde impressed upon him. Also, Louis had other ulterior motives for wanting to flee Paris, which include his immoral, sensual, and controlling lifestyle.
Louis XIV hired Louis Le Vau, Charles Le Brun, Andre Le Notre as his chief architects in 1661, rather soon after the King’s embarrassment at Nicolas Fouquet’s mansion. Le Vau was to renovate a hunting lodge used by Louis XIII fourteen miles south of Paris at Versailles. Charles Le Brun, Louis’ favorite painter, was to decorate the palace walls with his own paintings. Andre Le Notre was to plan and plant Versailles expansive gardens. With Nicolas Fouquet imprisoned, Louis began to use the “embezzled” money for his own purposes, as the French Government footed Louis’ extravagant bill.
Work on Louis’ palace fully began in 1664, and would endure four phases. The First phase lasted four years, and ended in 1668. During this phase, Andre Le Notre re-planned the existing gardens along geometric patterns. Exotic plants (Exotic for Europe that is) were shipped to Versailles. Le Notre shaped bushes, trees, flowers, and shrubs into more geometric shapes to accent the garden’s layout. Statues from precious metals and stone were placed throughout the garden’s paths. After this First Phase, Louis XIV held a party, the Plaisirs de l’Ile Enchantee, which was in name an occasion to honor the French Queens – Louis’ mother Anne of Austria and his wife Marie Therese. In reality, the party was more dedicated to Louis’ adulterous affair with Louise de la Valliere. 600 guests attended the soiree, as Louis was planning one of his many wars, the War of Devolution against Spain.
With war complete and the Treaty of Aix-La-Chapelle signed, Louis funded Versailles second building campaign beginning in 1669. Louis Le Vau added an envelopment to the existing hunting lodge. He created wings that surrounded the lodge on the northern, western, and southern facades. These new wings created living quarters for the king’s family. On the main floor of the Chateau Neuf Le Vau created two royal apartments, one for Louis and one for Marie Therese. Both apartments were linked by a terrace, which was later rebuilt as the famous, or infamous if you’re German, Galerie des Glaces, Hall of Mirrors. Le Vau added children’s quarters on the second floor, as well as additional private rooms for Louis – mostly for adulterous rendezvouses, secondarily for governmental purposes. Louis wanted the main royal apartments to be the same dimension and shape. His focused desire for such a plan was that he hoped to conquer and rule Spain as a dual monarchy. Louis would be the French Monarch, and his wife, daughter of Spain’s King Philip IV, was to govern Spain. Le Brun decorated both apartments with stunning depictions from antiquity. His paintings reflected victorious leaders from the past including Cyrus the Great and Alexander the Great. War and domination as well as “greatness” occupied Louis’ mind, no doubt even at this early stage. The second phase was complete by 1672, but Louis had more plans for his expanding palace.
A Third building campaign began around another war, that with the Dutch, which ended in 1678. Louis hired a new architect, Jules Hardouin-Mansart (Mansart). Mansart is responsible for today’s overall appearance of Versaille. He added North and South wings, which Louis forced French Nobility to occupy. Mansart also installed the Hall of Mirrors where Louis Le Vau’s terrace used to link the Royal Apartments. Also, the Orangerie was installed under Mansart’s direction. Le Brun and Le Notre combined individual plans to landscape further palace gardens along classical themes. Once these plans were complete, Louis moved his court from Paris to Versailles in 1682. His untrusting feelings toward French Nobility were for now relaxed. Louis’ plan further stripped aristocratic French society of power. Nobility, at first, did not realize Louis’ scheme, because Versailles overwhelmed with awe-inspiring beauty. Nobility believed that Louis was honoring them with such grandiose living quarters. Soon, however, Louis’ all-controlling court etiquette firmly illustrated who was in power. Louis did operate under the false-pretense that Nobility had work to do. Nobles were given desk jobs with inflated titles that amounted to nothing. These Bureaucrats, French for desk workers, soon lent their name to future government waste.
Louis commissioned one other building plan for Versaille after losing the War of the League of Augsburg in 1697. This campaign lasted longer than the previous three undertakings beginning in 1697 and ending in 1710. Louis, influenced by his secret wife Madame de Maintenon – secret because she was not of Louis’ royal class. Madame de Maintenon was a deeply religious woman. She desired a chapel to be built on Versailles’ grounds, which Mansart began in 1699 and Robert de Cotte completed in 1710. A few minor details were also updated, but by 1710 Louis’ Versailles was finished. No further construction would be done during Louis’ lifetime.
Louis undertook many other building campaigns, such as the Canal du Midi and the Institute de Saint-Louis. The Canal du Midi was an immense undertaking that greatly enhanced the lucrative Bordeaux wine region. The canal stretches 150 miles, and links the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean. A real engineering marvel, the canal was engineered by Pierre-Paul Riquet. He wanted to solve navigation and logistical problems that French merchants encountered due to the Barbary Pirates. His plan was accepted by Colbert in 1666, and completed with royal approval in 1681.
The Institute de Saint-Louis was built because Madame de Maintenon wanted a school for underprivileged girls. Schools existed for these girls, but they were all in convents. Madame de Maintenon wanted a secular school, which The Institute became upon completion. Madame de Maintenon loved this school immensely. As a testament to her passionate devotion for her cause, Madame de Maintenon was buried at this school upon her death.
This list is in no way an exhaustive account detailing the many military, educational, governmental, and artistic buildings Louis commissioned. Louis may have a dubious record, but his buildings witness grandeur fit for a king. In his mind, THE king.
armchaircapitalist 