French Renaissance Art Under Loius Xiv

In early Renaissance art, the French really weren't attracted to the Italian Baroque Artistic Styles. The French had a conservative nature and they preferred to display elegance with a limit to the amount of emotions they displayed. Their art was restrained and less dramatic. Despite these feelings, leading French painters of the period traveled to Rome, where they spent most of theirs lives, influenced by contemporary Italian artists and classical antiquity.

French painter Nicolas Poussin was the greatest in the 17th century. He detested the work of Caravaggio, an Italian Baroque style artist who explored the darker side of life and death in his paintings. Poussin rejected Caravaggio's work and saw his own paintings as a protest against the excesses of Baroque style of art. Poussin's style eventually changed as he developed in his career but the elegance in his earlier work was replaced with stiffness and no signs of emotion.

In 1667, while under the ruling of Louis XIV, the foundation of the Academie des Beaux Ð'- Arts held its first special exhibition which changed the nature of French art. The foundation members believed they were the defense of traditional standards and values. Their way of thinking affected the art selected for the exhibitions and the selections that were awarded prizes. This caused much tension between these self-appointed guardians and those artists who revolted against their ideals and way of thinking. This tension went on into the nineteenth century. The country changed drastically from savage mediaeval ways to a more refined, exquisite living.

Louis XIV reigned from 1643 Ð'- 1715. Although he was fairly young he held the longest reign in European history. He thought of himself as a politician and a judge of human psychology. He believed that the aristocratic attendants surrounding him would turn on him if he hesitated or displayed any sign of weakness. During this time he brought back absolute monarch to its heights. His greatest achievement was the new center for the court, the Palace of Versailles, in which he could portray the role of Grand Monarch and keep his control over the aristocracy. He displayed himself as a supreme ruler and conceived the palace in political terms. He wanted to appear to be the most autocratic and magnificent of monarchs. He wanted to create a symbolic concept of himself as The Sun King and wanted to create a building that