Louis XIV In this period, Louis' minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert established royal control over artisanal production in France; henceforth France would no longer purchase luxury goods from abroad, but would, herself, set the standard for quality. This control was also seen in the creation of an academy of painting and sculpture, which maintained a hierarchy of genres in painting (the "noblest," according to André Félibien in 1667, being history painting), a strong use of pictorial rhetoric, and a strict sense of decorum in subject matter. Furnishings and interior designs from this period are referred to as "Louis XIV style"; the style is characterized by weighty brocades of red and gold, thickly gilded plaster molding, large sculpted sideboards, and heavy marbling. In 1682, Versailles was transformed into the official residence of the king; eventually the Hall of Mirrors was built; other smaller châteaux, like the Grand Trianon, were built on the grounds, and a huge canal featuring gondolas and gondoliers from Venice was created. Through his wars and the glory of Versailles, Louis became, to a certain degree, the arbiter of taste and power in Europe and both his château and the etiquette in Versailles were copied by the other European courts. Yet the difficult wars at the end of his long reign and the religious problems created by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes made his last years dark ones. See also French artists of the seventeenth century French Baroque architecture Baroque painting French Baroque music Classicism Louvre Colonnade Style Louis XIV Louis Quinze References and further reading Anthony Blunt: Art and Architecture in France 1500–1700 André Chastel. French Art Vol III: The Ancient Régime French Baroque Art Early Modern France French art French, 17th French, 17th Ancien Régime French architecture