It would be giving undue importance to these painters of the Louis XIV. period if we were to go beyond a mere enumeration of their leaders and their chief works at the Louvre. None of them possessed any marked individuality; and most of them were linked together, not only by similar aims and ambitions, but also by family ties. Four members of the Coypel family rose to great eminence among their fellow-artists, and to important official positions. Noël Coypel (1628-1707), the painter of the four historical compositions, _Solon defending his Laws before the Athenians_ (No. 157), _Ptolomy Philadelphus giving the Jews their Freedom_ (No. 158), _Trajan giving a Public Audience_ (No. 159), and the _Foresight of Septimus Severus_ (No. 160), all of which were originally executed for the Council Chamber at Versailles; his sons Antoine Coypel (1661-1722), whose best known pictures at the Louvre are the _Susannah and the Elders_ (No. 169) and the _Democritos_ (No. 174), which recalls Jordaens in its exuberant life, and Noël Nicolas Coypel (1692-1734), whose goddesses and nymphs already reflect the taste which dominated the eighteenth century; as well as Antoine’s son, Charles Antoine Coypel (1694-1752), whose uninspired art may best be studied in the _Perseus delivering Andromeda_ (No. 180). _The Triumph of Bacchus_ (No. 447) and _The Annunciation_ (No. 445), by Charles de La Fosse (1636-1716); _Hercules fighting the Centaurs_ (No. 53), by Bon Boulogne (1649-1717); and _The Marriage of St. Catherine_ (No. 55), by his brother Louis Boulogne (1654-1733), only serve to illustrate the mediocrity of their respective authors. The impersonality of Bon Boulogne’s art had at least the advantage that his teaching left free scope for personal expression to his many pupils. Even the still-life painting of the “_grand siècle_,” which found its chief exponent in Jean Baptiste Monnoyer (1634-1699), partakes of the love of pomp and display that characterises this period. Gold and silver vases, precious stuffs and furniture generally accompany his flowers, which are painted without real appreciation of their natural beauty, and in purely local tints without a hint of the effect of each colour upon its surroundings. The _Flowers_ (No. 648), in the La Caze Gallery, may be mentioned as a typical example. BATTLE PAINTERS The battle painter, Jacques Courtois (1621-1676), called Borgognone and Le Bourguignon, though born in France, was so completely under the spell of the art of Italy, the country where he spent almost his entire life, that he can scarcely be reckoned as belonging to the French school. His furious cavalry _mêlées_, though entirely imaginative (as such confused encounters of horsemen piercing each other’s ranks have never taken place in actual warfare), are painted, like the _Cavalry Fight_ (No. 151), with a touch as swift as it is sure and expressive, and full of exuberant vitality.