Tea at Trianon: Lavinia Fontana

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, February 3, 2024

Lavinia Fontana

Women have always worked, outside the domestic sphere, that is. Mothers have always worked outside the domestic sphere. Women who had the luxury of focusing solely on their own home and their own children were seen as being privileged in most past eras. From Barron's:

A recently discovered painting by the 16th-century artist Lavinia Fontana being offered at a Sotheby’s Old Master sale on Thursday is thought to be a self-portrait of the artist painted while she was pregnant. Fontana, considered the first woman artist to work professionally outside a convent or court system, supported her husband and children through her work, and painted several self portraits during her career, according to Sotheby’s. Her paintings fetched prices comparable to her peers at the time, including Anthony van Dyck, who also painted numerous self-portraits, including one being sold at Sotheby’s this week.

Noblewomen at the time “desired nothing more than to be portrayed by her,” because of the “frills” that “she portrays better than any man in the world,” the 17th-century Italian art historian and scholar Carlo Cesare Malvasia once wrote, according to Sotheby’s catalog note about the sale.

Portrait of a Pregnant Woman, Possibly a Self-Portrait, is being offered with an estimated price beginning at US$100,000. It depicts an elegantly dressed noblewoman resting her left hand on her pregnant belly. According to Sotheby’s, Fontana gave birth to 11 children. (Read more.)