Tea at Trianon: Marie-Antoinette and Art, #BlogTalkRadio

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, June 14, 2016

Marie-Antoinette and Art, #BlogTalkRadio

Marie-Antoinette à la Rose by Vigée Le Brun, 1783

Tune in for my latest broadcast. In the twelfth broadcast, I discuss how Marie-Antoinette's portrayals in art influenced her image in the public mind. Pour yourself a cup of tea and relax as we journey into the past.

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, self-portrait

Marie-Antoinette by Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller, 1788

Dymphna said...: I am trying to find an alleged Marie Antoinette quote. Supposedly she said to a courtier who was trying to comfort her after the Bastille fell, "Be brave? Monsieur I have been brave all my life".; June 15, 2016 at 9:35:00 AM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: Hi, Dymphna, the exact quote is in my new book. It occurred on the way to the Queen's execution on Oct. 16, 1793, when the priest who had joined the Revolution said to her: “This is the moment, Madame, to arm yourself with courage.”
“Courage?” she replied. “I have so long served an apprenticeship in it that it is not likely to fail me today.”; June 15, 2016 at 6:13:00 PM EDT
Dymphna said...: Thank-you! I am going to have this quote done in calligraphy and framed for my desk at work; June 17, 2016 at 6:54:00 AM EDT