Louis XIV style

Louis XIV style

Style of the visual arts produced in France during the reign of Louis XIV. In 1648 Charles Le Brun founded the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, which rigidly dictated styles for the rest of the reign. The most influential painter was Nicolas Poussin, who forged the way for French Classicism (see Classicism and Neoclassicism). Sculpture reached a new zenith with the works of François Girardon and Pierre Puget. A national style in the decorative arts evolved through the Gobelin factory (see Gobelin family). Furniture was veneered, inlaid, heavily gilded, and commonly decorated with shells, satyrs, garlands, mythological heroes, and dolphins; the style is particularly associated with André-Charles Boulle. In architecture, Jean-Baptiste Colbert rigidly controlled the renovation of the Palace of Versailles, with landscaping by André Le Nôtre.