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In the second half of the 1600s the explosion of Baroque found its maximum expression  in Louis XIV‘s court.

With Roi Soleil, Versailles, the kingdom of sumptuousness, dancy and affectation, supplanted Madrid as the leading centre of European fashion, and France replaced Italy in textile production, with its light damasks and lacy designs.

Just like in Justinian’s Byzantium over a thousand years prior, Louis XIV’s Paris saw the emergence of a royal manufacturer, that of Gobelins, where architects, decorators, sculptors, painters, goldsmiths, glass-makers, potters and weavers worked side-by-side.