Louis XIV: Art and Culture

This room shows a slightly older Louis XIV. The red stockings he wears were central to men's fashion of the era: expensive materials like silk or fine wool, dyed with a scarce and costly red pigment, signaled wealth and status at a glance. Louis XIV, trained rigorously in classical ballet since childhood, had firm, well-proportioned legs, and his fitted stockings were a deliberate fashion choice meant to visually amplify the king's strength and vigor.

Beside it hangs a circular portrait of Louis XIV surrounded by emblems of art and science. The instruments on the left represent the musical flourishing the crown sponsored, while the celestial globe, books, and compass on the right stand for scientific achievement. A helmet and shield evoke Athena, goddess of wisdom and war, signaling the king's wise rule, and the fruit at the bottom suggests the abundance his subjects would enjoy under him.

On the opposite wall hang portraits of numerous women. One reason Louis XIV built Versailles was to draw the nobility here and keep them under his control, and a splendid setting alone wasn't enough to do that — he wanted the space filled with beautiful young women to make it even more alluring. The women in these portraits are exactly that. Drawn in this way, Versailles grew into the center of court society, and eventually into the space that dominated the nation's politics, economy, and culture.