Tea at Trianon: Young Maria Theresa as Queen of Hungary

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

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Young Maria Theresa as Queen of Hungary

From Tiny-Librarian. To quote:

In this painting, we see Maria Theresa as the queen of Hungary, although not in the Hungarian attire typical in such a depiction. Instead, she wears a white silk, royal gown decorated with embroidery. Draped around her in large billows and folds is a gold brocade cloak with ermine fur lining. Only the Hungarian crown on the pillow and the other regalia indicate she is the ruler of Hungary. This unusual representation can be explained, however, by the outlines of the archducal crown and its more finally executed details discovered under the Hungarian crown during restoration and cleaning. The first version of the portrait was intended to show Maria Theresa as the heir to the throne, with the archducal crown, and may have been made in the years before the coronation in 1741. Her coronation as queen of Hungary provided an opportunity to repaint the work. This magnificent painting by an unknown Viennese painter from the circle of Johann Gottfired Auerbach is not only a superb representative of the art form, but awes us with its natural elegance. (Read more.)