Calliope articles from April 2002

Calliope archives from April 2002

There are times when it is important not to allow events to escape. (Musings).(King Louis XIV of France)
April 1, 2002... There are times when it is important not to allow events to escape. --Louis XIV, in a letter to Philippe V of Spain in 1711 Louis XIV CONSIDERED HIMSELF BOTH THE REPRESENTATIVE AND THE SYMBOL OF FRANCE. At age 17, according to some...

Time line.(life of King Louis XIV of France)
April 1, 2002... 1638 Louis XIV is born. 1643 Louis's father dies. Louis XIV ascends the French throne. His mother acts as regent. 1648 The civil war known as the Fronde begins, 1648-1652. 1651...

The Sun King.(Louis XIV of France)
April 1, 2002... LOUIS XIV UNDERSTOOD VERY WELL THAT HE WAS RULING A COUNTRY WHERE CERTAIN POWERFUL PEOPLE HAD VAST INFLUENCE IN EVERY PROVINCE. HE KNEW, FOR EXAMPLE, THAT THE WEALTHY NOBLES WHO OWN LARGE ESTATES AND CLAIMED SPECIAL RIGHTS BY BIRTH WOULD have...

Life at court.(court of King Louis XIV of France)
April 1, 2002... Life at Louis XIV's court was elegant, but it could also be oppressive and boring. The residents had nothing to do except follow the king and entertain themselves. The unhappy wife of Louis XIV's brother described her day as follows: ...

A king at four: not long after Anne of Austria posed with her son Louis, Louis XIII died and the young dauphin became king of France.(Louis XIV)
April 1, 2002... Louis XIV WAS ONE OF EUROPE'S GRANDEST and most powerful rulers. During his 72-year rule, France became the leading power in Europe and set the tone for all the other monarchies. The country's future, however, did not look so rosy in 1643 when...

A king's power.(monarchy in France; King XIV of France)
April 1, 2002... With about 20 million people, France was the largest and most densely populated country in 1 7th-century Europe. England had only six million, while Spain, with eight million, was in decline. Italy was divided into a number of separate states....

A turn of events.(experiences that formed goals of King Louis XIV of France)
April 1, 2002... Louis XIV grew up in Paris, in a palace built by Cardinal Richelieu. A bright boy and a good athlete, he never took much to reading or school. By age 12, he had learned to speak elegant French and Spanish. He also learned to ride, fence, and...

Master of his own house.(King Louis XIV of France)
April 1, 2002... By playing one faction against another, Anne of Austria and Cardinal Mazarin eventually pacified the various rebellious groups of the Fronde. Then, on September 7,1651, Louis took advantage of the French law that granted a king the power to...

A marriage for peace.(King Louis XIV of France marries Princess Marie-Therese of Spain)
April 1, 2002... Twenty-one-year-old Louis was in love with Mazarin's niece, Marie Mancini a clever, headstrong young woman who enjoyed reading. But a king could not marry for love. He had to marry, as Mazarin told him, "for glory, honor, God, and country."...

Why so many wars?(in France)
April 1, 2002... In 1677, the army of Louis XIV took a siege position near the fortified town of Cambrai, north of Paris. For days, French cannon hundred, and their heavy iron shot smashed into the town's walls. Slowly and steadily, Louis's soldiers pushed the...

Louis XIV and religion.(king of France)
April 1, 2002... LOUIS XIV'S PARENTS HAD TRIED FOR MANY YEARS TO HAVE A BABY. THEN, IN 1637, IN desperation, they asked the public to pray to the Virgin Mary for an heir to the throne. The following year, a son was born and given the nickname "Louis the...

A public private life.(attitude toward family of King Louis XIV of France)
April 1, 2002... A king lacks for nothing, except the sweetness of a private life. -- La Bruyere A CONTEMPORARY OF LOUIS XIV, LA BRUYERE WAS AN EYEWITNESS TO THE TRUTH OF THIS statement. While he knew that Louis loved his family very much, he was well...

The school at Saint-Cyr.(school founded by second wife of King Louis XIV of France)
April 1, 2002... SOMETIME AFTER QUEEN MARIE-THERESE DIED IN the summer of 1683, Louis XIV married a second time, in secret. His new wife had served as a governess to some of his children and was descended from a minor noble family in western France. Her name...

The sun king's mirror. (Activity).(King Louis XIV of France)
April 1, 2002... AMONG THE DECORATIVE MOTIFS FOUND THROUGHOUT the palace at Versailles, especially in the Hall of Mirrors, are the dazzling face of Apollo, fleurs-de-lis, and sprays of laurel leaves. Try making your own "Sun King" mirror using the directions...

Glory restrained.(wars in which King Louis XIV was involved)
April 1, 2002... FRENCH ARMIES WON GREAT VICTORIES IN THE WAR OF DEVOLUTION AND CONTINUED TO impress Europeans even when such success did not follow in the Dutch War. For a while, most French men and women admired their king's pursuit of glory and his military...

Lacrosse. (Word Stories).
April 1, 2002... A popular sports game, lacrosse involves two teams of 10 men or 12 women each. Using long-handled, pouched rackets for throwing and catching, each team tries to advance a small, hard rubber ball across the field into the opponents' goal. The...

Expressions. (Fun With Words).(what R.S.V.P. means in French)
April 1, 2002... Ever notice these four initials at the bottom of an invitation? Wonder what they represent? Each represents the initial letter of a word in the French phrase repondez, s'il vous plait, which translates as "answer, if you please." So, the next...

Learn some French. (Fun With Words).
April 1, 2002... Many French expressions and words have come directly into English. In fact, they are used so often that we sometimes forget they are actually French terms. Here are just a few: FRENCH TERM (TRANSLATION) MEANING Apropos...

Letters and memoirs: Louis XIV Instituted the first modern postal system. Every week, riders left Paris on fixed days at and at fixed times, bound for destinations throughout France.
April 1, 2002... This meant that, for the first time, everyone knew exactly when they could send a letter and just about when it would arrive. From this moment on, France produced a series of writers who became internationally famous for the quality of their...

The legacy of Louis XIV. (From Past to Present).(king of France)
April 1, 2002... When Louis XIV died in 1715, judgment on his long reign were quick to follow. Not surprisingly, there were both positive and negative views. France's population at the time was 20 million, far surpassin9 that of any other state in Europe. Louis...

Leonanardo da Vinci. (Calliope's World).
April 1, 2002... Leonardo da Vinci invented a lot of things that we use today, like the parachute. He was a painter, sculptor, musician, engineer, scientist, inventor, and astronomer. He painted the picture of the Last Supper and painted the Mona Lisa. He was a...

Louis XIV. (Calliope's World).
April 1, 2002... Louis, a great ruler of France. Overdid his time in war. Used his brain wisely. Industry took his helpers for a loop. Sun king is what he was. He was king when he was four. A chandelier hung in the Hall of Mirrors. Lived in...

Leonardo da Vinci. (Calliope's World).
April 1, 2002... Leonardo did a great self-portrait. He was a fantastic artist, musician, inventor, and architect. He lived up to sixty-something years old. He invented a flying machine. It must have been fun to build a flying machine. He did a great picture...

Books. (Off the Shelf).(about France and King Louis XIV of France)(Bibliography)
April 1, 2002... Cultural Atlas of France by John Ardagh with Colin Jones (Facts On File, 1991) presents an excellent review of French history and culture, accompanied by a wealth of well-chosen maps, diagrams, and illustrations. Louis XIV's Army by Rene...

Reference. (Off the Shelf).(book about King Louis XIV is recommended)
April 1, 2002... Louis XIV by John B. Wolf (Norton & Company, 1968) is considered one of the best biographies of the king.

On the net. (Off the Shelf).(Louis XIV information)
April 1, 2002... For historical information about Louis, plus images and links to related sites, try: www.chateauversailles.fr/en/210.asp For images of two well-known paintings of Louis XIV, go to: www. assumption.edu/HTML/Faculty/Gallo/Louis.html...

Setting the style; this section represents a joint effort by CALLIOPE magazine and the departments of Art of Europe and Conservation and Collections Management at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston, Massachusetts. For more information about the MFA, check out its Web site at: www.mfa.org.(King Louis XIV's influence on art and fashion)
April 1, 2002... Throughout Europe in the 1600s and 1700s, a king set the fashion for his country and his people, and Louis XIV dominated the arts in France to a far greater degree than any other European king. According to the duke of Saint-Simon, a...

On site at the MFA with.(Tracey Albainy, curator at Museum of Fine Arts)(Interview)
April 1, 2002... Tracey Albainy, the Russell B. and Andree Beauchamp Stearns Curator of Decorative Arts and Sculpture in the Art of Europe Department at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gordon Hanlon, the head of Furniture and Frame Conservation in the...

Marquetry made simple! (Testing A Technique).(18th century art technique)
April 1, 2002... Marquetry was highly valued among the upper classes in 18th-century France. With a bit of creativity and a careful hand, you can imitate the skilled artisans who worked with pewter, tortoiseshell, and brass to make their designs. Then, instead...

The art of gilding. (Testing A Technique).(18th century art technique)
April 1, 2002... BOTH METAL AND SURFACES CAN BE GILDEDI but the gilding process is very different for each material. Artisans in Louis XIV's time applied a mixture of gold powder and mercury to the metal mounts intended for the corners of furniture. When the...

Applying gold leaf: the complicated art of leaf gilding is practiced around the world. Here, Gordon Hanlon demonstrates the various steps. (At Work With the Conservator).
April 1, 2002... 1 Gold leaf is available in several different purities and contains, in addition to the gold, small amounts of silver and copper. The redder shades of gold have more copper; the greener, more silver. The leaf comes in booklets as small...