Equestrian Statue of Louis XIV (1638-1715)

The sculptor Martin Desjardins was trained in Antwerp, but spent most of his career in Paris, where he received a number of important commissions. This is a reduction of his life-size bronze equestrian statue, which was erected in Lyon in 1713 and destroyed during the French Revolution. Desjardins captures the horse’s movement through the sensitive modeling of its mane and musculature and the evocation of snapping reins. Depicting the French monarch in laced sandals, ornamented armor, and a regal cloak, Desjardins presents Louis XIV as heir to the splendors of Roman antiquity. The portrait is suffused with mythologizing motifs, including the two faces of Apollo encircled by sunrays on the saddlecloth, which identified Louis XIV as the Sun King. The gilded reliefs adorning the ebony base point to his European triumphs, notably his many victories in the battles of the Franco-Dutch War (1672–78).