Question

In jean-antoine watteau's the signboard of gersaint, a portrait of louis xiv is shown being placed in a storage box, because louis

Answer 1

In Jean-Antoine Watteau's The Signboard of Gersaint, a portrait of LouisXIV is being placed in a storage box because Louis had recently had died.

 

Normally, the painting is interpreted as a commentary on the shift in aristocratic culture – or relief – that occurred during the government of the more licentious Régent Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (1715–1723), after the death of Louis XIV and before the accession to the throne of Louis XV.