Die verzaubernde Kunstwelt Ludwigs XIV. – Versailles als Gesamtkunstwerk

The blazing sun of Versailles and its designers – together these were the absolute ruler who arranged the world as a stage set, and the artists who orbited him like planets and created the dazzling surroundings which enchanted guests from near and far. At extravagantly beautiful festivities the Palace of Versailles formed a Gesamtkunstwerk in which poets, musicians, visual artists, architects and garden designers, choreographers, festival organisers and many others staged the King’s “grands plaisirs”. In 1662 the “Sun King” declared that the sun was the “most vivid and beautiful emblem of a great prince”; therefore the artistic infrastructure had no goal other than to stylise the king as the bringer of light and to legitimise his power – throughout Europe – in symbolic form. The 300th anniversary of Louis XIV’s death offers an opportunity to examine the fascination and dangers which arise from such a conception of sovereignty.