Tea at Trianon: Feast of the Assumption, or the Dormition of Mary?

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 15, 2025

Feast of the Assumption, or the Dormition of Mary?

From Hilary White at The Sacred Images Project:

Throughout the middle ages, the Assumption and coronation of the Virgin was one of the most popular subjects for sacred art. There are really a never-ending parade of depictions, in every style you can name, from the earliest possible Christian times. So, rather than just randomly choose a few from the heap, I thought I’d highlight one I’m personally rather fond of.
The great Narnian Ghirlandaio is a painting very difficult to photograph, in its dark room. They keep you some feet away from it with a platform built to resemble an altar, to give an idea what it might have looked like in place.
But other works are much easier to get up close to. I love this little panel of the Dormition and Coronation by a painter of the 14th century known to us only as “The Master of Narni”. It has such delicate charm and simplicity that I thought I’d love to do a set of miniature icons based on it, so I took a lot of close up photos of it one day. (Read more.)