Le Roi Est Mort : Louis Xiv, 1715

Exhibition at the Château de Versailles, 27 October 2015-21 February 2016

This catalogue of the exhibition presented at the Château de Versailles for the tercentenary of the death of Louis XIV provides an insight into a little-known ritual: that of the great king's funeral, from his viewing in his mortuary chamber on 1 September 1715 to his burial in the Abbey of Saint-Denis on the following 23 October. This funeral marked the culmination, as well as the profound renewal, of a centuries-old ceremony that was to become one of the most dazzling manifestations of courtly civilisation.

The ceremonial paintings and engravings, medallions and medals, archival documents such as the king's will, copper plates affixed to the coffin or heart reliquaries, and reconstructions of the ephemeral decorations allow us to move from one stage to the next towards the apotheosis of the great service at Saint-Denis, a veritable funeral opera in Baroque Europe.