Equestrian Monument to King Louis XIV

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Equestrian Monument to King Louis XIV

Artist After Martin Desjardins (French, 1637-1694)

Place of OriginFrance

Datemodeled about 1688-1691, this cast about 1700

DimensionsH: 39 in. (99 cm); base H: 36 1/2 in. (92.7 cm)

Mediumbronze with gilding

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott

Object number

1980.1330

Not on View

DescriptionBronze with gilding and rosewood veneer; gilded bronze pedestal.

Label TextBold, innovative, and supremely self-confident, King Louis XIV (ruled 1643–1715) was the most powerful monarch in French history. Since ancient Rome, portraits of rulers on horseback were seen as the ultimate image of power. Here Louis wears Roman military armor and the imperial cloak and holds a commander’s baton. On his breastplate is the Gallic rooster, symbolic of France. The rooster is overcoming a lion, emblematic of Holland or Spain, which were two adversaries of France. The horse treads upon a sword and a barbarian shield bearing an Amazon’s head to symbolize enemies defeated. A concession to contemporary French fashion is Louis’s flowing wig. In 1688 the city of Lyon, France commissioned the sculptor Martin Desjardins to make an over-life-size bronze equestrian statue of the king. Destroyed during the French Revolution as a symbol of tyranny—as were all public royal images—it is now known by several small-scale versions, the largest and finest of which is Toledo’s bronze.Published ReferencesCamins, Laura, "The Equestrian Portrait," in Glorious Horseman, Springfield, MA, 1981, p. 36, repr., fig. 22, p. 37.

"Acquisitions," Antiques World, vol. 4, no. 2, December 1981, p. 94, repr.

Augarde, Jean Dominique, "1749 - Joseph Baumhauer, ebeniste privilegie du roi," L'Estampille, no. 204, June 1987, pp. 37, 38.

Martin, Michel, Les monuments equestres de Louis XIV, Paris, 1986, pp. 150, 204, fig. 122, p. 229, no. 333.

Seelig, Lorenz, "Eine Reiterstatuette Kurfurst Max Emanuels von Bayern aus dem Jahr 1699," Anzeiger des Germanischen Nationalmuseums, 1986, pp. 67-69, fig. 13.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Treasures, Toledo, 1995, p. 101 repr. (col.).

Putney, Richard H. and Paula Reich, Glass in Glass: Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 2007, repr. (col.) p. 18.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 185, repr. (col.).

Exhibition HistoryParis, Hotel Georges V, Antiquaires a Paris, VIe Exposition, 1979.

London, Somerset House, Art Treasures Exhibition, 1979, no. F77.

Toledo, The Toledo Museum of Art, The Museum Collects: Treasures by Sculptors and Craftsmen, 1980, pp. 20-22, repr. (also on cover).