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HENRI GISSEY (C. 1621-73)
Louis XIV in the guise of Apollo
?RCIN 913071
The French king Louis XIV, the 'Sun King', adopted the sun as his official emblem in 1661. An earlier association can be seen in this study of a costume designed for the fifteen-year-old king to perform in a ballet as the sun god Apollo. Gold paint has been applied to the smooth sheet of vellum to pick out many of the costume's details.
