ART SHOWS AN ACTIVE KINGSHIP

DOMINATING EXPANDING ECONOMIES STRENGTHENS KINGS 

From the turn of the 15th century they are shown as active and they spend infinitely more; the change coincides with the use of mythology.

Their images become dynamic instead of static:

•  Kings no longer sit or stand but are on horseback. 

 François I on horseback by Jean Clouet, no date / zoom

The king is on horseback but mount and rider are stationary: The work is transitional.

François I charges the Swiss mercenaries at the battle of Marignan, attributed to Noel Bellemare, 1539-1530 / zoom

Notice the elaborate dress. As so often, the king rides a white horse.

• Immobile deities become expressive figures surrounded by multitudes who rush toward the light:

God the Father Blessing between Two Angles by Gérard David, Flanders, 1506 / zoom

 For more, please click back.

• By the end of the century God is not portrayed because he is light, but all the human or heavenly figures are active:

Glorification of Saint Ignatius, trompe l'oeil in church of Sant'Ignazio, Rome, 1691-1694 / Video

By Andrea Pozzo, 1691-94 / Video

Saint Ignatius, founder of the Jesuit order, is received in Heaven.

Avenging angel

Jesus 

The spectacular architecture and painting

reinforce secular power 

while spending surplus wealth. 
 

# # #

• They disperse wealth:
French rulers finance...

 ° Fontainebleau, the Tuileries palace, 

the chateaux of the Loire Valley, 

balls, banquets, favorites,

the 300 young noblewomen who live at the court,
where they are educated by the queen
and dressed and bejewelled by the king

Fontainebleau  (Internet)

Ball at the wedding of the Duke de Joyeuse, anonymous, Louvre, c. 1570

Portrait of a lady at her toilette, workshop of François Clouet 

° Royal households' enormous expenses

Each king, sibling or cousin, their wives and their children from babyhood, have households of hundreds of people, hierarchically organized. Louis XIV's brother, for example, has nine doctors, three medical consultants, an apothecary and his aide, seven other aides, a dentist, five barbers... 27 people in his medical service alone.

-- Henrietta of England, Duchess of Orleans by Jacqueline Duchêne, 1995 (in French).
An example of an important fact slipping without comment into the text.

Louis XV has eight daughers. He has the three youngest brought up in a convent, to save the cost of their households.  

° Catherine de Medici and 10-year-old Charles IX

visit the entire kingdom,

to unite the population behind him 

(in 1664-66)   

Kings and court had always moved from palace to palace (to clean them, restore provisions and let game recuperate) or gone on politically-useful excursions, but the Queen Mother takes the prince to visit the whole kingdom. The royal family, their households, the Council, the court, ambassadors, ecclesiastics, craftspeople, cooks, dwarfs, minstrels -- 15,000 people, plus thousands of horses and pack animals to carry clothing, tapestries, tents, wine, provisions, furniture, books -- make up the cortege. 

Since the towns finance the honor of receiving the king, the expedition siphons off the new wealth of the provincial middle classes.

The extraordinary parade takes a full day to pass by. Spectators come from great distances, to break the routine and share in the rulers' show.

Such flamboyance is expected of kings:
They cover its cost by expedients and loans,
which they may pay back with honors...
or not at all.  

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Next,
Detour: The French monarchy's lasting éclat