Emmanuel Macron’s decision to open up Louis XIV’s palace in Versailles for Russia’s Vladimir Putin at the end of May made perfect sense for the newly elected French leader who once defined his future presidential style as “Jupiterian”.
As a matter of fact, the Hall of Mirrors features a painting by Charles Le Brun depicting Louis the Great holding thunder, the symbol of the king of the Roman gods, French historian Joël Cornette tells me. There are further similarities. It looks very much, Mr Cornette observes, as though the president — who has hailed Charles de Gaulle and François Mitterrand as model “republican monarchs” — has carefully studied the Sun King.
“President Macron seems keen to look impenetrable, distant, sovereign — the trademark of Louis XIV,” he says. Like the absolute monarch, who was the first king to take communication seriously (with Jean-Baptiste Colbert as France’s first communication, or propaganda, adviser), Mr Macron appears intent on carefully crafting his image.