In 1671 the Academy of Architecture was founded. With the arrival of Louis IV, all the arts are under the absolute control of the King.

The Baroque style is relegated to the background at this time, and « classicism » officially becomes the leading style of all art. Classicism is based on the traditions of Renaissance and ancient art. It is the last great style in architecture, sculpture and painting. Art was to exalt the heroic, the high-citizen, it was to instruct, to extol human dignity, and to condemn vices.

It is significant that during this period in order to build architectural structures began to invite not the famous Baroque masters, such as Bernini, but the French architects, little known by that time.

For example, the French architect Perrault was chosen to build the Louvre’s eastern facade. The Colonnade by Claude Perrault is a striking example of Classicism: the architecture is simple and rational, with a mathematical balance of masses, creating a sense of calm and grandeur that was more in keeping with the prevailing ideal of the era.

Gradually classicism penetrates in the construction of churches and cathedrals (Cathedral of Invalides in Paris by Arduin Mansard).

But most of all architects are concerned with the problem of the relationship between the ensemble of the palace and the park. The architects Louis Lévaux and André Le Nôtre were the first to try to solve this problem in the Vaux le Vicomte palace and park at Melun (1657-1661).

The Palais de Vaux is rightly considered the prototype of the main creation of the second half of the 17th century, the Palace and Park of Versailles. In a rather deserted area, 18 km from Paris, rose a fabulous palace (1668 – 1669), in a waterless place hammered fountains, grew a giant park.

The royal palace of Versailles was built by the architects Leveau (1661 – 1668), F. Orbé (1670 – 1674), and in the latter stages Ardouin Mansard (1678 – 1689) took part in its construction.

From the giant square in front of the palace depart three avenues, three roads – to Paris, Saint-Cloud and So (also the residence of the king).

The palace, the facade of which stretches for half a kilometer, has three floors: the first – the base, heavy, masonry, the second – the main, ceremonial and therefore the highest, and the third, crowning the building and light. The exterior of the building is classically strict, the alternation of windows, pilasters, columns creates a clear, calm rhythm.

All this does not exclude lush decorative furnishings of the interior. The interiors of the palace consist of a suite of rooms, the peak of the luxurious decoration of which should be the bedroom of the king, where his day begins and ends and where audiences take place. The Mirror Gallery (73 m long and 10 m wide, built in 1678-1680) between the War Room and the Peace Room was also striking with its splendor, with windows overlooking the garden on the one hand, and mirrors in which reflection of the elegant court crowd multiplied in the evening by candlelight – on the other.

The Versailles Park is, like the entire ensemble, a program work. It is a regular park, which had its origin in Vaud, i.e. the park, in which everything is adjusted, which is lined up in alleys and where there are fountains and sculptures, where everything is reflected in the will and intellect of man. The total length of the park is about three kilometers; its creator was the architect Le Nôtre.

Decorative work in Versailles was headed by « the first painter of the King », director of the Academy of Painting and Sculpture, director of the tapestry manufacturer Charles Lebrun. Lebrun’s « language » is a mixture of classicist orderliness and majesty with baroque pathetics and flamboyance.

Undoubtedly, Lebrun had a great decorative gift. He executed cartons for trellises, drawings for furniture and altarpieces. To a large extent it is to Lebrun French art owes the creation of a unified decorative style, from monumental paintings and pictures to carpets and furniture.

From the 2nd half of the 17th century France had a strong and long leading place in the artistic life of Europe. But at the end of the reign of Louis IV, new trends and new features appear in art, and the art of the 18th century will have to develop in a different direction.

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