Today we talked about Baroque art in France. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A central figure in today\u2019s lecture was Louis XIV, who is the pinnacle example of the concept of absolute monarchy. In France, the monarchy displayed its power in a similar way to the Catholic Church: By lavish displays of artistic value and luxury. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We discussed the progression of the Palace of Versailles and his reasons for create such a building. The premises cannot be looked at all at once, and that overwhelming sense of power made the visitor of Versailles overwhelmed by the king\u2019s power and glory. The aspect I thought was most interesting about Versailles was the influence of the sun in its architectural and decorative composition. The axis of the building goes west to east, making the sun cross the building as it rises and sets. I think that to take such a magnificent and essential thing as the sun, and in a way control it, or appear to control it by equating the King to it is a very clever way of instilling fear and displaying grandeur. I think this is what absolute monarchy was all about, the assertion that the King was as omnipresent as the sun. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We also talked about the Portrait of Louis XIV by Rigaud. As opulent as the decoration in this painting appears to me today, it is evident that at the time, this opulence was not only intentional and carefully curated, but essential to the Grand Portrait of the Sun King. The blue with gold Fleur de Lis, the expensive Ermin fur, the monumental column and the red fabric, it all says: this is something no one else has. Professor Plesch also pointed out how the pose he is standing in not only makes one feel powerful, but that the diagonals created, imitate the rays of the sun. She also pointed out a connection to Apollo. This reminded me of Nitszche\u2019s the birth of tragedy, and the Apollonian aspect of art. I think it would be a good exercise to apply this dichotomy to other artworks we study, and see if I can distinguish similarities or differences between them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today we talked about Baroque art in France. A central figure in today\u2019s lecture was Louis XIV, who is the pinnacle example of the concept of absolute monarchy. In France, the monarchy displayed its power in a similar way to the Catholic Church: By lavish displays of artistic value and luxury. We discussed the progression […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17782,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17782"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2216"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2220,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216\/revisions\/2220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/ar112-spring2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}