Louis XIV Overcoming the Fronde
Gilles Guerin (1606-1678) · 1653
A young Louis the Fourteenth, still only a teenager, stands in the guise of a Roman general and tramples a writhing figure beneath his feet. The fallen figure is the Fronde, the series of revolts by parliament and nobles that had driven the boy king out of Paris between 1648 and 1653. The statuette is barely half a metre tall and made of terracotta, but it is the sculptor's model for a full-size marble, and the clay keeps the freshness of his fingers: look at the quick modelling of the drapery and the confident swagger of the pose.
The city of Paris, anxious to prove its loyalty once the rebellion collapsed, commissioned the marble from Gilles Guerin in 1653 for its town hall. It stood there until 1689, when it was replaced by a bronze by Antoine Coysevox, now in the Musee Carnavalet, and Guerin's marble is today in the courtyard of the small chateau at Chantilly. The Louvre bought this preparatory model in 2005. It is an early piece of the political imagery that would define the reign, the king as invincible hero.
Did You Know? The city that had rebelled against the king paid for a statue showing him crushing the rebellion.
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