The Abundance Salon

This is the smallest room in the King's State Apartment, yet it bears the name "Abundance Salon." At the center of the ceiling are two goddesses: Abundance, draped in pink, pours gold and jewels down to the human world below, while beside her Generosity, in blue, sits in a gesture of magnanimity. Together they symbolize a king who shares his wealth freely.

The first thing Louis XIV would point out to guests here was the vessel painted above the facing wall. It depicts his actual gold vessel, which weighed some 27 kilograms in gold alone — an object so laden with symbolic power that people reportedly had to bow to it. It was placed on the table at grand banquets to hold the king's napkin, and kept the rest of the time in the Cabinet of Curiosities, the room behind the door beneath this painting. True to its name, the Cabinet of Curiosities stoked outsiders' curiosity about what lay within, and only a select few were ever admitted. Inside were treasures: jewels, medals, vessels, and sculptures. Whenever affairs of state wore him down, the king would retreat there and find calm simply by looking at them.