In today’s class we focused on the Baroque in France, beginning with a primary focus on the entire Palace of Versailles and the works inside it. Having been to Versailles before, it is absolutely fascinating to see the scale that Versailles was built on, and the lengths that Louis went to show his absolute power over the nobility. The Hall of Mirrors is especially impressive due to the massive cost that was undertaken in order to import the expensive mirrors for the room. We then moved briefly to a discussion of some baroque painters, such as Poussin and Lorrain. The works of Poussin, especially The Abduction of the Sabine Women, struck me as strange, given that it portrays a chaotic scene yet seems to show little action regardless of that fact.