Alexanders Einzug in Babylon

When Le Brun painted Alexander's triumphant entry into Babylon around 1664, he had a living king in mind. Louis XIV was in his mid-twenties, just taking sole power in France, and the series of vast Alexander canvases Le Brun made for him invited the flattering comparison of France's young ruler as the new world-conqueror. The picture is enormous, over seven metres wide, and it treats the entry as pure pageant: elephants in rich trappings, banners, captives, and horsemen filing past while Alexander rides in by chariot. Louis was pleased enough that Le Brun became his first painter and effectively ran the royal art workshops for a generation, shaping the official look of the reign from tapestries to the ceilings of Versailles.