Tea at Trianon: On Display at Palazzo Barberini

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

Sunday, February 2, 2025

On Display at Palazzo Barberini

From Wanted in Rome:

An exhibition hailed as among the most important and ambitious showcases ever of Caravaggio's work will be held in Rome to coincide with the Vatican's Jubilee Year. Organisers say the exhibition at Palazzo Barberini will comprise an "exceptional number" of paintings by the Baroque master whose full name was Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. The exhibited works will include loans from prestigious national and international collections as well as two rediscovered masterpieces o n display for the first time together and some new discoveries. Organised especially for the 2025 Jubilee Year, the exhibition illustrates how Caravaggio (1571-1610) shaped the artistic, religious and social landscape of his era. (Read more.)