Louis XIV as the conqueror of the Fronde, about sixteen years of age. This reproduction is cropped, but I chose it because it has the best colors. The original painting is about square, and at the bottom the following two lines are written:
Iupiter applaudens Lodoico fulmina cessit,
Iamque novum Mundus sensit adesse Iovem.
This direct association of a Christian king with the highest pagan god, under the regency of a queen who grew up in the devout Spanish court, at a time when a cardinal (Mazarin) was Chief Minister, is quite remarkable but not without tradition: Fifty years earlier, Henri IV had already been portrayed as Mars.
