Tea at Trianon: Long-Forgotten Painting of Crucifixion by Rubens

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, September 14, 2025

Long-Forgotten Painting of Crucifixion by Rubens

a gold framed painting of a man in a loin cloth nailed to a cross against a dramatic landscape

From ArtNet:

Peter Paul Rubens was a prolific painter, but it is not everyday that experts discover another masterpiece by the 17th-century Flemish master. Yet a magnificent, dramatized crucifixion scene made in around 1614-15 has been found among the possessions of a late Parisian homeowner and is set to go under the hammer at a local auction house on November 30.

“It was painted by Rubens at the height of his talent,” auctioneer Jean-Pierre Osenat told AFP. “It’s the very beginning of Baroque painting,” he said, noting also the work’s significance as “a true profession of faith and a favorite subject for Rubens, a Protestant to converted to Catholicism.”
Osenat has described his shock at coming across the painting during a routine visit to a mansion in Paris late last year. He was tasked with appraising the inventory for auction when the Baroque marvel stopped him in his tracks. His instincts told him he was looking at “an extremely rare and incredible discovery that will define my career as an auctioneer,” said Osenat. Best of all, the 400-year-old work has remained in great condition. (Read more.)