In the context of this artwork, explain the Reception of the History.
On 14 November 1685, Louis XIV saw the statue for the first time in the orangerie, Marquis de Dangeau recorded that the king had resolved to remove the statue from the grounds and to destroy it. The statue, however, was not destroyed, but moved to another location on the main axis of the Orangerie, south of the pool. In September 1686, Bernini’s statue was displaced by Domenico Guidi’s La Renommee de Louis XIV. The statue was moved to a location on the far side of the newly constructed Neptune Basin, the most northern point on the north-south axis of the Garden. It was placed on a high pedestal. This location was not one of obscurity, but of prominence.
In 1702, after the transformation from Louis XIV to Marcus Curtius, the Roman hero, the statue was moved to the end of the Lake of the Swiss Guards. The Statue was positioned near the pool, which symbolizes the abyss that Marcus Curtius throws himself into. Rather than being immediately rejected, the statue was placed in several areas of prominence over a 16-year period, before finally being placed on the far side of The Lake of the Swiss Guard at the opposite end of the palace grounds from the Basin of Neptune. Upon viewing the completed equestrian statue, Louis XIV had declared it to be an abomination and ordered it to be destroyed; however, he was later convinced by his courtiers to have it moved to a remote location within the palace grounds. As a result, it was placed at the end of the Lake of the Swiss Guards, completely separating the statue and the main palace grounds.In spite of Louis's public rejection of the equestrian statue, its form inspired future royal portraits of the king, including a marble creation by Antoine Coysevox depicting Louis XIV on horseback which sits in the Salon of War at Versailles, making corrections to facial characteristics created by Bernini which the French king interpreted as a slight against him, creating a more somber expression and raising the forehead to a more 'suitable' height.
Antoine Coysevox Marcus Curtius equestrian statue Louis XIV Versailles