Versal'.Zolotoi vek +s/o - Zhake N.

Louis XIV is the brilliant King of the Sun, embodied by the greatness of the boundless power of the monarch, the man-state... Created under his leadership architectural-park ensemble Versailles was destined for centuries to become a monument of absolutism, the object of admiration and envy of the rulers of other European powers, the impeccable standard of the ideal royal residence. All the more fascinating behind the glittering splendor of the Mirror Gallery is to try to see another Versailles, a more intimate, imprinting true personality of the brilliant "Sun King." To this day, many images and written testimonies of contemporaries have been preserved, which give us a unique opportunity to see Louis XIV in a different way. Like a celestial luminary, steadily moving from sunrise to zenith, and then to the sunset, the story of his life, so bizarrely intertwined with the story of Versailles, unfolded as an ancient tragedy in three acts up to a sad epilogue - death, devoid of cover of intimacy, amid the pompous luxury of radiant gold. In numerous reproductions we see an unusual, long-gone Versailles, changed to please the new hobbies of his August patron, and gradually formed in that grandiose Versailles, which the "sun king" bequeathed to descendants.