Ritratto di Luigi XIV

Rigaud painted this in 1701, when Louis the Fourteenth was 63 and had been king of France for more than half a century. It began almost by accident. The king's grandson had just gone to rule Spain and wanted a portrait of his grandfather, so this was meant to travel south. Louis liked it too much to part with it and kept it in Paris. Look at how it's built. The face is aged and honest enough, but the great ermine-lined robe is swept back off one leg to show the calf and the high red heel, because Louis had trained as a dancer in his youth and was proud of his legs into old age. So the most powerful man in Europe is presented, at 63, standing like a dancer holding a pose.