End of seventeenth century, French
Louis XV is the most beautiful model ship but it has never been a real vessel.
Louis XV has never been a vessel. She is a model ship on show at the Marine Museum in Paris. She is undoubtedly the most beautiful of the kind with sumptuous ...
End of seventeenth century, French
Louis XV is the most beautiful model ship but it has never been a real vessel.
Louis XV has never been a vessel. She is a model ship on show at the Marine Museum in Paris. She is undoubtedly the most beautiful of the kind with sumptuous decoration and is talked about in many writing concerning the naval art of the Great Century. Historians don’t all agree on the reason for her making. From her general design it is assumed that the model dates from the end of the seventeenth century and according to trusted sources, it could have been used by the Dauphin (grand-son of Louis XIV) for his tutoring on naval subjects and who died aged thirty in 1712.
The model is a 112-gun, three-decker vessel with 15 port-holes for lower gun-batteries (maximum number of apertures that could be found on a three-decker of that period). Only the “Royal Louis” launched in 1692 had as many. The Louis XV is the only model concerning Louis XIV’s navy and built under his reign.
This model is famous amongst historical vessels enthusiasts mostly due to the extraordinary decoration of its stern identical to those of high ranking vessels of the French Navy during the last decade of the seventeenth century. The scene decorating the stern represents the king Louis XV as a Roman general amongt military trophies. He moves forward, a sword in his hand stepping over defeated enemies. Above, Neptune (on starboard) and Thetys (on port side) watch over the monarch. The figure head uses also the theme of the Roman general.
Such sumptuous sterns took a long time to build and were very costly. The directors of the arsenal used to complain that very often deadlines were not kept due to the constraints of sculpting such designs. The architects of the Louis XV knew that their work would never become a real vessel which is why they let their talent and imagination fly for this spectacular design.