Narcissus

Although a final verdict may never be forthcoming on the political acumen with which Louis XIV directed the affairs of France during his long and often turbulent reign, few can doubt that he had a particular genius for making a spectacle of himself. Louis was, in his self-representation, the most “theoretical” of monarchs: his persona was both a theory and a theater of kingship. Having perceived that the essence of political power resided in the images and imaginary of majesty, he proceeded to project these images into the world in a way that had never been seen before. Whereas his reign is most often associated, in the works of literary historians, with a turning away from the excesses of the Baroque, certainly his insistence on living his persona as a royal “role” squarely situates him at the pinnacle of an entire Weltanschauung, where, if all the world was a stage, Louis knew that his was the leading part. In this he seems to have understood the enormous power inherent in the manipulation of representations, to have grasped what every great political actor has perceived: his force comes from his ability to orchestrate reality around spectacular scenarios.