Improvements in the production of flat looking glasses between the fifteenth and the eighteenth centuries in Europe provided a material basis for the extensive use of mirrors during the interior renovations at the Royal Palace of Versailles. Starting in 1701, the use of mirrors on piers and overmantels became the characterizing feature of French-style apartments. Mirrors began to compete for space and status with hung or mural paintings. The flat images produced by these mirrors could be seen as tableaux vivants, which would justify analyzing them as historical paintings—one of the genres defined by the French Academy for ranking and classifying art. The use of mirrors in French interior architecture thus made them an instrument of social rules and relationships in a society ruled by hierarchical precedence. By capturing the reflection of French society, the mirror also becomes a visual document, albeit a virtual rather than a permanent document, of life at court.