Tea at Trianon: Charles I and Henrietta Maria Departing for the Chase

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, August 28, 2021

Charles I and Henrietta Maria Departing for the Chase

From The Royal Collection Trust:

In this ambitious large scale double portrait by Daniel Mytens the King and Queen are depicted on a terrace as they prepare to depart on a hunting excursion. Surrounded by lively dogs, they are attended by the court dwarf, Jeffrey Hudson and an African servant who brings their horses. The unusual composition, in which the two main figures are set off to the left hand side serves to emphasise the informality of the image. The couple are depicted in fashionable dress rather than court regalia and the strength of their loving relationship is commemorated through their intimate pose - they are shown holding hands - while a winged cherub showers flowers upon them. (Read more.)