text: **Image and depiction**
  
  Few rulers in world history have commemorated themselves in as grand a manner as Louis.[114] He cultivated his image as the 
  Sun King (*le Roi Soleil*), the centre of the universe "without equal". Louis used court ritual and the arts to validate and augment 
  his control over France. With his support, Colbert established from the beginning of Louis's personal reign a centralised and 
  institutionalised system for creating and perpetuating the royal image. The King was thus portrayed largely in majesty or at war, 
  notably against Spain. This portrayal of the monarch was to be found in numerous media of artistic expression, such as painting, 
  sculpture, theatre, dance, music, and the almanacs that diffused royal propaganda to the population at large. 