Tea at Trianon: Baroque Theatricality

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

Friday, August 4, 2023

Baroque Theatricality

Queen Henrietta Maria tried to bring the splendor of the Baroque to England in her magnificent chapels which sadly no longer exist. From Liturgical Arts Journal:

Within the Roman church of the Holy Name of Jesus (affectionately known simply as the "Gesù") is contained a spectacular sculpture of one of the founders of the Society of Jesus, St. Ignatius of Loyola -- the Spanish priest who lived from 1491 to 1556. If you've been to the Gesù and wondered why you missed this statue, while it is possible that you simply missed it amidst the baroque splendour that is the Gesù but it may also be because it -- along with St. Ignatius' mortal remains -- is actually concealed behind the painting that is found on the side altar of St. Ignatius, located in the transept that sits to the left side of the high altar as you face toward it:

This mechanism is actually dated to the baroque era and constitutes a bit of baroque theatre -- something that was only restored a few years ago. Each day, at around 5:30pm, the baroque machinery goes into action, the painting is lowered and thus is revealed the remains of St. Ignatius and the statue of St. Iganatius, entirely changing the look and feel of this altarpiece. The spectacular statue of St. Ignatius it reveals was originally designed by Pierre le Gros the Younger (1666-1719) in completed in the year 1699. I say "originally" because, regrettably, almost 100 years after its creation, in 1798, the arms, head and legs were taken off the status and melted down in order to pay war reparations to Napoleon. The missing pieces were re-created about 5 years after their removal. (Read more.)