«LOUIS XIV, HIS «IRON MASK» BROTHER AND ENAMOURED EUROPE» 
2005, canvas, paganini score, mixed technique, acrylic, 150x175 cm, 60x70 in

Louis XIV and his supposed brother who was confined to Bastille with the iron mask on his face and then replaced the king - the plot of numerous novels, movies and plays from Dumas to the present days. Although now it does not really matters who was in prison and who was on the throne - the important thing is that the centre of the world culture moved from the Renaissance Italy to Paris, precisely to Versailles, Louis XIV court. For three centuries France became the capital of the world. And the enamoured Europe copied Versailles in thousands of mirror galleries, parterres, fashion, manners, language - in Sanssoui, Peterhof and Mon Plaisir. Isn’t it ironic - the Sun King, such a majestic figure in the eyes of his contemporaries, demonstrating womanly stockings with quite a strange gesture of the gown, here is jockingly parodied by the hips of a top model - Enamoured Europe... Did Europe in love with Versailles realized this irony (of a different kind of course) when it spoke French and created hundreds of Mon Plaisirs?