D’une mythologie l’autre. Troubles dans le genre allégorique louis-quatorzien

Abstract

Show politics are an integral part of Louis XIV’s reign. The monarchy managed to enslave the arts and create a continuity from court ballet through comedy-ballet and machine tragedy, to tragedy in music. This paper will explore the limits of propagandist drama at the Sun King’s court and the porosity between official and unofficial art (mazarinades, songs) by focusing on two emblematic productions: Benserade's Ballet royal de la Nuit (1653), performed in the early years of Louis XIV’s reign, and Armide (1686), Lully and Quinault’s last work. It will analyse how spectacle can resist the univocity of political agendas, how the well-oiled machine of propaganda occasionally stops or stumbles, how discrepancies arise between political agenda, allegorical reading and performance. This mismatch between intended allegory and actual reception is rooted in multiple and complex causes, which may be internal or external and relate to the general context (historical, political, religious) or to specific power struggles that the king had to take into account.

Keywords

• Louis XIV
• allegory
• court ballet
• mazarinades
• tragedy in music
• Lully