Tea at Trianon: The Aristocratic Diana

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

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

The Aristocratic Diana

Marie-Joséphine-Louise de Savoie, comtesse de Provence as Diana by François-Hubert Drouais. 1773.

Many noble and royal ladies of the old regime had themselves painted as Diana or Artemis, the virgin goddess of the hunt. Anna Gibson says:

Allegorical portraits were a popular choice among the upper classes society for centuries. The 17th and 18th centuries saw a significant revival of interest in the ancient world, and portraits depicting their subjects as mythology-based allegorical portraits became widespread.

Diana, goddess of the moon and the hunt, was an especially popular choice for noble women. The portraits of these aristocratic "Dianas" usually depicted them at rest or in a traditional portrait style with the varied trappings (bow and arrow, a crescent moon headdress, hunting dogs, and so on) of their chosen goddess. Some women, such as the comtesse de Provence, even had themselves painted as Diana more than once! (Read more.)