1906
Paper on cardboard, gouache, water-colour, bronze paint, silver paint, graphite pencil, pen, brush
48 õ 62
When thinking back to the time of Louis XIV, Benua wrote: "I had no particular admiration for the person of Louis XIV… But the senile tiredness of the age… the onset of decline of taste, which came to replace youthful arrogance, carelessness and the feeling of grand beauty made this world mine all of a sudden."
We have before us a vision of the past, where familiar relations of real-life world and its reflections are turned upside down. The progress of ceremonious procession is turned into a flat grotesque ornamental pattern. It is difficult to find the king amongst the courtiers, who resemble, wearing as they do cumbersome wigs and clothing weird insects.
The sculptural group of the fountain in the form of frolicking Cupids seems to be more live and dynamic than the Versailles inhabitants themselves. The figures of Cupids are painted with bronze paint; they are look solid and prominent. The mirror surface of the water reflects their fantastically grandiose shadow. Art as a "reflected" world seems to have more presence than the historically true images of times gone by.
