Tea at Trianon: The All-Seeing Eye

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, January 7, 2020

The All-Seeing Eye

Controversial but interesting. From Ancient Origins:

The depiction of the Eye of Providence on Pontormo’s Supper at Emmaus shows that it started off as a Christian symbol. Within this context, the word ‘providence’ refers to ‘divine guidance’, specifically to that provided by the God of Christianity. Thus, in a way, the Eye of Providence is meant to represent a form of spiritual guidance that pious Christians ought to follow. The Eye of Providence may also be meant to represent the omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience of God. In addition, the elements surrounding the eye take on a Christian meaning as well. For instance, the triangle is a clear reference to the Holy Trinity – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The burst of light and clouds are meant to symbolize divinity, holiness and God himself. As a matter of fact, these elements are also sometimes used when God is depicted in works of art, for instance, when He is represented by the tetragrammaton, i.e. the name of God in Hebrew transliterated in the four letters, YHWH. Such depictions may be found on stained glass windows in Christian churches, like the abbey church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, in Paris, where the Merovingian kings of Neustria were buried. (Read more.)