Piety and politics
Subtitle: imaging divine kingship in Louis XIV's chapel at Versailles
By: Martha Mel Stumberg Edmunds.
Series: University of Delaware Press studies in 17th- and 18th- century art and culture
Publisher: University of Delaware Press; Associated University Presses; Univ of Delaware Pr
Published: 2002
Place of publication: Newark, DE; London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 318
Subjects: Louis XIV, King of France, 1638-1715 -- Religion.; Château de Versailles (Versailles, France); Chapels royal -- France -- Versailles.; Decoration and ornament, Architectural -- France -- Versailles.
Description: "This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of Louis XIV's magnificent final chapel at Versailles, completed in 1710 near the end of his long reign (1643-1715). Construction, begun in 1699 on foundations of 1689, spanned the offices of two premiers architects du roi, Jules Hardouin-Mansart and Robert de Cotte. Eight painters and over 100 sculptors participated in the monumental undertaking, which remains almost unchanged today.

An unusually large number of archival documents, drawings, and early texts about the chapel allow a detailed reconstruction of its history and meaning. Given Louis XIV's renown as one of the great kings and art patrons of all history and the universal definitions of his power in terms of divine kingship, the story of his palace chapel interests all historians of the ancien regime."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 305-312) and index.