French school (XIX) - Luigi XVI di Borbone (1754-1793) Re di Francia - NO RESERVE

Louis XVI of Bourbon (Versailles, August 23, 1754 – Paris, January 21, 1793) was King of France from 1774 to 1792, having inherited the throne from his grandfather Louis XV; from October 1, 1791, he reigned under the title of 'King of the French' until August 10, 1792, the day of his deposition. In fact, he was the last true absolute sovereign by divine right; his powers became those of a constitutional monarch from 1791, although they de facto changed in October 1789.

Initially loved by the people, he supported the American War of Independence, but he was not able to fully understand the subsequent events in his homeland. In the early years of his reign, Louis was a reformist sovereign: he abolished serfdom, the corvée, torture, and the death penalty for desertion, along with other taxes imposed on the bourgeoisie and the people in favor of the nobility, who were hostile to these decisions. He also tried to improve France's finances and situation by appointing ministers such as Jacques Necker, the physiocrat Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Charles Alexandre de Calonne, and the Enlightenment jurist Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, ultimately calling the Estates-General.

The policy of emancipation of the Jews and the restoration of the religious rights of Protestants continued, effectively restoring the Edict of Nantes, with the issuance of the Edict of Tolerance of Versailles in 1787, assisted by Malesherbes, towards all non-Catholics; it revoked Louis XIV's edict against the Huguenots. Subsequently, it ratified the full citizenship measure for Jews in 1791, voted by the National Assembly.

Like most nobles of the time and many clergy members, Louis XVI was a Freemason, initiated in 1775 in a moderate lodge.

From his hesitant personality, he at least formally accepted the Constitution, although personally opposed as a staunch supporter of absolutism and the divine right of kings, and he attempted to leave France with his family in 1791 through the flight to Varennes, an act that earned him the disapproval of part of the people and probably cost him his life, as he was considered a traitor in favor of the counter-revolutionary emigrants and foreign states at war with France.

During the revolution, he was called Luigi Capeto because he was a descendant of Ugo Capeto, the founder of the dynasty, with the intention of desecrating his royal status, and was derisively nicknamed Louis le Dernier (Louis the Last; in reality, he would not be the last king of France, a distinction that would belong to Louis Philippe, son of his cousin Louis Philippe II of Bourbon-Orléans). After his deposition, arrest, and the establishment of the Republic (1792), he was judged guilty of high treason by the National Convention, sentenced to death, and guillotined on January 21, 1793, in Paris. His death marked the end of an era and regime. The very young son Louis XVII never reigned and died in captivity in 1795.

Louis XVI was legally rehabilitated, along with his consort Marie Antoinette, who was beheaded on October 16, 1793, by his brother Louis XVIII during the Restoration (1815) and with the enactment of the law against regicides, which punished with exile the members of the National Convention who voted for the death sentence (1816). The Catholic Church, since 1793, has commemorated the death of the royal family by celebrating requiem masses, mainly in France. Madame Elisabeth, servant of God, and Louis were compared to martyrs for hatred of the faith by Pope Pius VI.

Description

Elegant miniature from the second part of the 19th century depicting Louis XVI, King of France, with dimensions including an ivory-like frame measuring 14x12 cm; the painting alone on parchment measures 9x7 cm. The condition is excellent.