#painter and sebastian are my roman empire

[sxmplychxrry]

how do we feel about this chat

p.AI.nter from Pressure as a pony ,,

[thegreenwallrabbit-blog]

Explaining One of VTMB Paintings (part 16)

Louis XIV en Empereur Romain [Louis XIV depicted as Alexander the Great] (second half of 17th century)  by Unknown artist.

So this piece is difficult as the artist and any info on this one piece is very sparse online.

The painting depicts Louis XIV [Louis the 14th also known as Louis the Great] (September 5 1638 – September 1 1715) who was the king of France from 1643 until his death in 1715 which makes him still currently (as of 2023) the longest (verifiable) reign of reign of 72 years and 110 days which is the most of ANY sovereign whose reign we can verify.

The description of his reign as monarch given on the Versailles official website is:

"As sovereign by divine right, the King was God’s representative on earth. It is in this respect that his power was “absolute”, which in Latin means literally ‘free of all restraints’: the king was answerable to no one but God. During his coronation, Louis XIV swore to defend the Catholic faith. To honour this pledge and preserve the religious unity of his kingdom, he cracked down on the Jansenists of Port-Royal and ordered the persecution of Protestants. The previous policy of religious tolerance was abandoned with the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Protestants were forced to convert, and over two hundred thousand fled the country. From his base in Versailles, Louis XIV ruled over a centralised, absolutist state which revolved entirely around him. The King lived in the main wing of the palace, on the first floor, in a suite of three apartments reserved for his use. He applied a strict etiquette at court, a set of rules and protocols by which his noble courtiers were obliged to abide. With the help of Colbert, he oversaw the administrative and financial reorganisation of his realm, and also set up manufactures and worked to boost trade. With Louvois he reformed the army and enjoyed a string of military victories. "[1]

It is most likely a replica based of a lost portirt of Louis XIV as a Roman Emperor painted by the well know Frencch court painter Pierre Mignard. This is due to the many compositional similarities to a copy of this work painted after Pierre Mignard death shown below.

Louis XIV as a Roman Emperor (Copy of lost painting by Pierre Mignard)

Whats note worthy is that in both paintings Louis XIV is not being depicted as himself leading his army in contemporary(for his time) battles but instead being depicted as Alexander the Great.

"Alexander the Great, also known as Alexander III or Alexander of Macedonia, (born 356 BCE, Pella, Macedonia [northwest of Thessaloníki, Greece]—died June 13, 323 BCE, Babylon [near Al-Ḥillah, Iraq]), king of Macedonia (336–323 BCE), who overthrew the Persian empire, carried Macedonian arms to India, and laid the foundations for the Hellenistic world of territorial kingdoms. Alexander the Great was one of the greatest military strategists and leaders in world history. He was also ruthless, dictatorial, and ambitious to the point of regarding himself as divine. His conquests of the Mediterranean states, the Persian empire, and parts of India spread Hellenistic culture across these regions"- Summery from Encyclopedia Britannica. [2]

So by depicting Louis XIV as Alexander the Great the artists are associating Louis XIV's reign and his accomplishments with being on the same scale and impact as Alexander the Great. In terms of the pairings place in VTMB this is especially important because the only place this painting appears is in Sebastian LaCroix's office. Specifically it hangs over the entrance way which makes it one of the two paintings LaCroix faces from his desk. The other painting being Pierre Séguier, Chancelier de France (translated Pierre Séguier, Chancellor of France) oil on canvas  2nd quarter of the 17th century (1660 - 1661) by Charles Le Brun (See part 5). And as I pointed out in my explainting of Pierre Séguier, Chancelier de France, LaCroix's is someone who claimed to be “an officer in Napoleons army” yet has a lot of French Royalists paintings. It is also of note as the only other large paintings of this scale that he has in his office are three different painting of Cain slaying his brother Able by different artist yet it is the paintings of  King Louis XIV (whose reign of 72 years and 110 days is the longest of any sovereign in history whose date is verifiable.) and his chancellor of France, Pierre Séguier that he looks directly at from his desk in his Versailles style office. Indicating that these mere HUMAN men*[as far as I know nether were embraced in VTM canon but don’t quote me] are more significant role models to LaCroix then Cane father of all vampires. It also tells us that just how Louis XIV is being depicted as Alexander the Great was used by the artist order to elevate him and his reign as King of France to the same historical significance and prestige as Alexander the Great, LaCroix aspires to elevate his rule as the Prince of LA in Kindred society/history to the same level as both of these human rules have in mortal history if not beyond that. And again despite having three paintings of Cain, all of them at the same height and size yet are to the side rather then across from LaCroix's desk, almost as if they are peripheral. Almost as if Cain's reign as Father of all Vampires and Ruler of the First City of Enoch is below the level of importance/significants of Louis XIV, Alexander the Great and even Pierre Séguier (who wasn't even a reigning Sovereign, just Chancellor of France). The accomplishments and legacy's of all three of these men who were only ever human (again as far as I can tell none of them were ever embraced) are seemingly above that of Cain in LaCroix's mind based on how he's chosen to arrange the paintings in his office, and he may be attempting to hide this fact and would explain why he chose to have having 3 different painting all depicting the Cain slaying his brother Able hanging at the same level as the two painting depicting the legacies of three mortal men.

[1]“Louis XIV .” Palace of Versailles, 17 Feb. 2023, en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/history/great-characters/louis-xiv#the-royal-family.

[2] Walbank, Frank. “Alexander the Great.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 5 Oct. 2023, www.britannica.com/biography/Alexander-the-Great.

[sxmplychxrry]

rainbowfish [sebpaint] sickfic but painter just has 578 computer viruses and his CPU is overheating horribly so Sebastian has to fix it all

[sxmplychxrry]

how do we feel about rainbow fish [not the book] for seb x painter. do we like this idea chat? do we fw this idea chat or is it a nay ,, hm