Tea at Trianon: Holbein and Tudor England’s Elite

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, October 26, 2021

Holbein and Tudor England’s Elite

From Smithsonian:

Co-organized with the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, where it will travel in February, the exhibition features 33 paintings and drawings by Holbein from the Getty’s collection and institutions around the globe. Those unable to visit the show in person can explore an online version through the Getty’s website.

Born in the German city of Augsburg around 1497, Holbein probably first learned his trade from his father, the religious painter Hans Holbein the Elder. After launching his career in Basel, Switzerland, Holbein the Younger fled the political turmoil of the Protestant Reformation for the relative refuge of England in 1526. (He briefly returned to Basel in 1528 but had settled in England permanently by 1532.)

Holbein’s big break came in the form of Desiderius Erasmus, a philosopher whose witty treatises made him “Europe’s first celebrity scholar,” per the Getty. The artist helped popularize Erasmus’ likeness across Europe; in return, the scholar introduced the painter to patrons in England’s royal court. Viewers at the Getty will see several Holbein representations of Erasmus, all of which feature his trademark profile: “long nose, deep-set eyes, strong jaw,” according to the exhibition website. (Read more.)