Louis XIV on horseback by Lorta

3D model of the large medallion depicting Louis XIV on horseback in the War room.
In all probability based on a design by Le Brun, before the end of 1682 Coysevox made the stucco of the fireplace in the War Room and the big medallion that crowns it. The fireplace opening was decorated with a relief representing History writing about the king’s great deeds. The big medallion shows Louis XIV on horseback, trampling his vanquished enemies and crowned by the allegory of Victory. Around the frame, in Sainte-Baume marble, two captives chained by garlands of flowers and a head of Hercules crowned with the body of the Nemean lion symbolise the invincible strength of the king, the new Hercules, while two antique trophies of arms and the two allegories of Victory and Immortality – which originally held a trumpet and not a laurel wreath – complete the arrangement and in some ways represent extensions to the iconography of the medallion.