Tea at Trianon: Schönbrunn Palace Chapel

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

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Schönbrunn Palace Chapel

The chapel where Marie-Antoinette worshiped as a child. To quote:

The Schönbrunn Palace Chapel dates back to the beginning of the eighteenth century and was built by the architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. The chapel still has the original shape and architectural design but the main entrance to the chapel was transferred from the north to the west side.

The original decorations of the chapel were relatively simple.
The chapel was originally dedicated to Mary Magdalene and in 1745 it was re-dedicated to the Marriage of the Virgin Mary.
In the 1740s, the original residence which had served as a hunting lodge was adapted to an Imperial palace. The Imperial family was extremely religious and participated at services in the palace chapel which were regarded an important part of daily life in the court. In 1743, Maria Theresa commissioned Nikolaus Pacassi to restore the chapel. Maria Theresa also commissioned well known baroque artists with the restoration work of the chapel.
The marble high altar was most probably designed by Nikolaus Pacassi himself and is crowned by a gilded sculpture of the Holy Trinity by Franz Kohl who was a pupil of Georg Raphael Donner.
The well known artist Paul Troger painted the altar painting which shows the marriage of Mary. The altar with angels on either side is dominated by a large marble tabernacle in the form of a dome and a golden tabernacle-door which is decorated with a relief of the Virgin Mary mourning over the dead body of Christ. (Read more.)