The Death Of King Louis XIV: A Comparative Analysis

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Following this era, theemergence of Rococo was largely emanated from changes in the political structure of France during the years directly surrounding the death of King Louis XIV. These changes, although possibly not the sole influence was, in the least, a trigger for the era’s emergence.
This process slowly unfolded over the years, starting in the late 1600s. The French monarchy, which had been the envy of many nations, had converted to an absolutist monarchy – a political governing system where the king or ruler holds full sovereign power and who’s actions are bound by no restrictions – by the doings of King Louis XIV. He did thisby integrating the nobles into the government,in an effort to establish control over the nobility and prevent …show more content…

Most important of these can be seen in the shape of the upper and lower edges of the bowl. The serrations in the edges resemble the edge of a shell – known as ‘rocaille,’ this pebble- and shell-resembling style is one of the most recognizable elements of Rococo design and is likely where the word Rococo originated. (Hawley, 54;1961). Rocaille motives are also visible on the legs of the pier-table (Fig.6)
It is valuable at this point to relate the use of the rocaille with a key philosophical aspect of Rococo. How the rocaille, as many other elements of Rococo design, can symbolize the link between Rococo and the political (and cultural) circumstances leading up to and directly following the death of King Louis XIV is clearly embodied in the words of Cecil Barrett:
The spirit of playful, carefree elegancy, so perfectly symbolized by the rocaille, animated every aspect of life and informed it with an air of unreality, fantasy and make-believe. The world became, indeed, a stage, a pleasure-garden. The boundaries between nature and art were broken down, or rather society and nature met in a dream-world. (Barrett, 163;1960)
In the same way that the lifestyle of nobles progressed from restricted impersonal lives to lives of indulgence in enjoyment after the death of Louis XIV, design philosophy shifted to that of fantastical, dream-like

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