Tea at Trianon: The Fairhaven Panels

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, January 10, 2025

The Fairhaven Panels

From The Art Newspaper:

The UK government has placed an export bar on an important set of four highly ornate panels adorned with glass, pearls, shells, stones by the Flemish artist De Vély. The panels, created in the 17th century, are the only known surviving works by the artist according to the UK department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
The export bar, which allows time for a UK gallery or institution to acquire the painting, will expire on 17 March. Otherwise the work is at risk of leaving the UK unless a domestic buyer can be found to save it for the nation, adds the DCMS which says the panels have a recommended price of £1,620,000 (plus VAT of £54,000 which can be reclaimed by an eligible institution).
The panels were sold at Sotheby’s London for £1.6m with fees (est £200,000-£300,000) last July. They depict four different personifications or gods: Mars, Virtu Invincible, Minerva, and Magnificence and are believed to have taken around 20 years to complete.
“The panels are overall in outstanding condition, with minor dirt and wear to the surfaces. Some of the pearls, glass granules and shellwork has been reattached, and some lost. A few detached glass granules and small shells are in each cassette,” says a report by the reviewing committee on the export of works of art which adds that the works are a “tour de force and a brilliant display of technical virtuosity and patience”. (Read more.)