Age of Absolutism

16th –18th centuries

Absolutism

• Definition: “a political theory asserting that unlimited power be vested in one or more rulers” (531)

• In Europe, the center of absolutism was France, under Louis XIV, who reigned 72 years

Significance of Absolutism

• Defined the nation-state as a coherent personality, supported by ceremony—this basic idea would persist even in democratic nation-states

• French court set standards in the arts, architecture, dance, and cuisine that would persist into the 20th century

Louis XIV

• Called himself le roi soleil

• Supposedly said, “L’etat, c’est moi.”

• Never once called the Estates General into session

How did Louis do it?

• Beginning in 1682, relocated to Versailles, his palace outside of Paris; kept nobility busy:– Regular rituals for dressing, eating, etc.– Louis staged spectacles of music, theater, dance

• Jean Baptiste Lully: head of Versailles orchestra, Europe’s first permanent orchestra

• Louis was himself a great dancer and even performed in the Versailles ballet

Bernini, Louis XIV (1665)

Girardon, Apollo Attended by Nymphs, c.1666-72

Architecture of Versailles

• Classical Baroque: rational and noble theatricality rather than exuberant and mystical theatricality of Italian Baroque

• French architect Louis Le Vau• Spatial expansiveness, order, and regularity

express the image of the absolutist ruler– Road ran from king’s bedroom to the Avenue

de Paris, following path of the sun

Gardens of Versailles

• 7 square miles, designed by Andre Le Notre

• Geometric and rational form

• Artificial content: fountains, artificial lakes, orangery, tulip bulbs imported from Holland

“Venetian” Canal, Versailles

Washington, D.C.

Pierre L’Enfant, Plan of Washington, D.C.

Poussin, Arcadian Shepherds (1638-39)

Claude, The Marriage of Isaac and Rebekah (1648)

Claude, Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba, 1648

Velazquez,

Las

Meninas

(1656)

Rubens,Rape of theDaughters ofLeucippus(c. 1618)

Context: Double Royal Marriage

• Louis XIII of France to Spanish princess

• Philip IV of Spain to French princess

Moliere, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (1670)

• Commedie-ballet performed at Versailles

• The play had wide appeal– Aristocrats liked it because it mocks the

bourgeoisie who tried to imitate them– The bourgeoisie liked it because they saw

themselves as different from the aristocracy (and so laughed at M. Jourdain, who tries to be aristocratic)