Tea at Trianon: Portrait Bust of Princess Marie-Zéphyrine

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, July 11, 2015

Portrait Bust of Princess Marie-Zéphyrine

Via Tiny-Librarian. A beloved little girl who died young is depicted in the exquisite Dresden porcelain of her Mother's land of Saxony. Marie-Zéphyrine de France was the older sister of Louis XVI. It is sad to think that the dreadful Choiseul called Louis and his brothers and sisters the "Dresden knick-knacks." To quote:

Marie Zéphyrine, born in 1750, was the daughter of Louis, the dauphin of France, and Marie Josepha of Saxony and Poland; she died at five years old. Her mother’s grandfather, Augustus II, founded the porcelain factory where this bust was made.

Unknown said...: I seen this at the Philadelphia Museum of art last weekend. Since that day I have been trying to find out why there is a fly painted on the left side of her neck. Does anyone know?; February 22, 2018 at 3:37:00 PM EST
elena maria vidal said...: I don't know but I will tweet this post and maybe someone will answer.; February 22, 2018 at 3:41:00 PM EST