Louis XIII style

Louis XIII style

Style of the visual arts produced in France during the reign of Louis XIII, including the regency of his mother, Marie de Médicis, who introduced much of the art of her native Italy. The Mannerism of Italy and Flanders was so influential that a true French style did not develop until the mid-17th century, when the influence of Caravaggio was assimilated by Georges de La Tour and the Le Nain brothers, and the influence of the Carracci brothers was extended by Simon Vouet, who trained the academic painters of the next generation. The sculpture of the period was undistinguished. The most prolific area of the arts was architecture. Here, too, the Italian influence is seen, as in the Palais de Justice at Rennes and the Luxembourg Palace in Paris, both designed by Salomon de Brosse, and the chapel of the Sorbonne in Paris, designed by Jacques Lemercier. The furniture of the period is typically massive and solidly built and commonly decorated with cherubs, ornate scrollwork, fruit-and-flower swags, and grotesque masks.