Tea at Trianon: Marie-Antoinette and the Egyptian Revival

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Marie-Antoinette and the Egyptian Revival

What flourished under Napoleon began with Marie-Antoinette.

lara77 said...: Her Majesty had exquisite taste; all one has to do is look at her private appartments at Versailles. Napoleon's taste tended to the heavy and monumental; everything was so overblown. Which of course makes sense for Napoleon; he had to show the world how grand he was! We know however he was just the peasant who took power and tried to establish himself to compete with the Bourbons. Sorry little corporal; you never had 800 years of monarchy behind you like King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette.; February 14, 2011 at 8:19:00 AM EST
May said...: Napoleon was certainly an upstart compared to the Bourbons, but I don't think he can be called a peasant. Weren't his family minor nobility, in fact?; February 14, 2011 at 12:13:00 PM EST
lara77 said...: I guess it was wrong to automatically assume he was peasant; maybe he was from the minor nobilty of Corsica. Corsica may have become part of France under Louis XV but in its language and temperament it was always Italian. I am sure the French love to be told that an Italian was their Emperor!!; February 14, 2011 at 2:15:00 PM EST