Louis XIV on Horseback at The Kiev Museum of Western and Oriental Art, Ukraine

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In 1685, Louis XIV's war minister, the Marquis de Louvois, adopted a proposal from a group of speculators to build a new square in Paris. The square was designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart and centered around a massive bronze equestrian statue of Louis XIV, crafted by Girardon, which stood an impressive seven meters high (around seventeen meters including the pedestal). This square would eventually become known as the Place Vendôme. By 1792, Girardon's masterpiece had been destroyed, leaving only the reduced version now housed in the Louvre Museum. To please Louis XIV, the Duc de La Feuillade suggested erecting a monumental statue of the king, commissioned from Martin Desjardins. To provide a suitable backdrop for this grand work, he renovated the Place des Victoires, which celebrated Louis XIV's victories in the Dutch war that ended with the peace treaty of Nijmegen (1679). This initiative was followed by the Marquis de Louvois, who convinced Louis XIV to create a "Place des Conquêtes" on the site of the Hôtel de Vendôme. Jules Hardouin-Mansart, the architect behind the Place des Victoires and designer of the Château and Orangerie at Versailles, was responsible for designing this square. To surpass the rival square in grandeur, an equestrian statue was commissioned from François Girardon, a sculptor even more renowned than Desjardins. Girardon worked on the model from 1685 to 1687, depicting Louis XIV as a Roman emperor with a voluminous contemporary curly wig. The king sits astride his mount without saddle or stirrups, while the horse is shown in the passant position with its right foreleg raised. Girardon drew inspiration from the ancient statue of Marcus Aurelius at the Capitol in Rome but made his version much larger (seven meters high, compared to four). Louis XIV wears the cloak of a Roman commander but no royal emblem; only the saddlecloth bears fleurs-de-lis. Louis XIV personifies sovereign authority: with straight back, gaze directed far ahead, and disdainful expression, he points with his index finger in an imperial gesture. The horse tramples the sword and shield of a defeated enemy. This effigy is imposing in its classical majesty worthy of Antiquity, exuding soberness, calmness, and monumentality. Transposing the statue into bronze was a daunting task due to France's lack of mastery over large equestrian statues like those found in Italy since the Renaissance. The statue of Henri IV of France on the Pont-Neuf, the first equestrian statue erected in Paris, was crafted in Florence. The representation of Louis XIII on the Place Royale was an assembly of a horse cast for Henri II and an effigy of the king that was too large for the mount. The lost-wax cast was finally made by Balthazar Keller, a Swiss caster living in France, in December 1692. This single cast of a statue of this size was a technical feat requiring the metal to be fed into every recess of the gigantic mold. The cast, which consumed eighty thousand pounds of bronze, was a total success and universally admired. The statue was not set on its pedestal until 1699, on the square that would eventually bear Louis XIV's name, the Place Vendôme. Considered a symbol of absolutism, it was toppled in August 1792 during the Revolution. Several reduced versions of the work were created, some on Girardon's initiative. The Louvre statue, perfectly chiseled and standing over a meter high, is the only signed copy. This object forms part of "Scan The World", a non-profit initiative introduced by MyMiniFactory to create a digital archive of fully 3D printable sculptures, artworks, and landmarks from around the globe for public access. Scan The World is an open-source community effort; if you have interesting items nearby and would like to contribute, email stw@myminifactory.com to learn how you can assist. Scanned: Photogrammetry (Processed using Agisoft PhotoScan)