Personalities and historical events

Jean-Baptiste Lully, superintendent of the king's music

Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) was an Italian composer born in Florence, who participated in the renewal of Baroque music at the court of the Sun King. A skilled courtier, he was appointed composer of instrumental music at Versailles in 1653. Thinking of opera as a total work, concerned as much with costumes, sets as with choreography and interpretation, he reorganized the Music of Louis XIV accordingly; his successes led to his naturalization in France and his appointment as superintendent of the King's Music.
This portrait of Lully is the work of Jean-Louis Roullet (1645-1699), engraved after a drawing by Paul Mignard. Born in Arles, Jean-Louis Roullet was trained by the king's engravers, Jean Lenfant and François Poilly. After a stay in Italy from 1673 to 1683 where he engraved works after the Carracci brothers, he returned to Paris and turned to historical scenes and portraits; on June 28, 1698 he was accepted at the Royal Academy with his pleasure piece the portrait of Edouard Colbert de Villacerf. He died without having been accepted as an academician.