#maria antoinette de lorraine d'autriche

[killem-all-if-they-wont-eat-cake]

Fragment of fabric from a dress belonging to Marie Antoinette and an order of payment signed with the Queen's signature from the collection of my dear friend, the talented 18th century perfume maker Mattia Scavuzzo.

[emvidal]

Marie Antoinette on PBS: History or Fiction? with Elena Maria Vidal - Pl...

[ursgraf]

Impératrice Marie-Louise d’Autriche, Lithographie 1833

Marie-Louise Léopoldine Françoise Thérèse Josèphe Lucie de Habsbourg-Lorraine (Maria Ludovica Leopoldina Francisca Theresa Josepha Lucia de Habsbourg-Lorraine), archiduchesse d'Autriche, princesse de Hongrie et de Bohême, née le 12 décembre 1791 à Vienne (Autriche) et morte le 17 décembre 1847 à Parme (Parme), est impératrice des Français de 1810 à 1814, puis duchesse de Parme, Plaisance et Guastalla jusqu'en 1847. Fille aînée de l'empereur François Ier d'Autriche, elle est donnée en mariage en 1810 à l'empereur des Français et roi d'Italie Napoléon Ier pour sceller le traité de Schönbrunn entre la France et l'Autriche, après la défaite de celle-ci lors de la bataille de Wagram en 1809. Rejoignant à contrecœur la cour impériale des Tuileries, Marie-Louise commence rapidement à apprécier sa nouvelle position bien que les Français ne l'aiment pas et qu'elle ne se sente pas chez elle dans ce pays qui, vingt ans auparavant, a décapité une autre archiduchesse autrichienne, sa grand-tante Marie-Antoinette, épouse de Louis XVI.

[killem-all-if-they-wont-eat-cake]

Marie Antoinette and her children by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun

Photo taken by me @killem-all-if-they-wont-eat-cake

[killem-all-if-they-wont-eat-cake]

Marie Antoinette by Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller (1788)

[killem-all-if-they-wont-eat-cake]

Robe Parée à l'Anglaise that belonged to Marie Antoinette

[killem-all-if-they-wont-eat-cake]

“No, the French Revolution was not a good thing. It must also be pointed out that Louis XVI had made many reforms and the situation was improving. 

The Daily Signal

As revolutionaries concluded that their maximalist aims at leveling society could not be achieved through the slow process of deliberation, compromise, and genuine tolerance, they began destroying art, statues, and property—both public and private—in the iconoclastic desire to repudiate the social mores of their country’s past. The radicals did this as they turned to outright killing of their enemies of the present. Mass purges of art and symbols of religion turned to mass executions of the enemies of the revolution.

Tens of thousands were killed and executed throughout France as the revolution consumed itself. Even Maximilien Robespierre, dubbed “the incorruptible,” who led the Reign of Terror, saw its conclusion when he and a group of his Jacobin supporters went to the guillotine. Jefferson and many other American observers who initially supported the revolution eventually turned away in disgust.

As with most of history’s revolutions, the French version simply went full circle. One tyrannical regime was replaced by another one, one in many ways more ruthless and absolutist than the last. From the maelstrom of this anarchy and ruthless self-destruction came forth a dictator, Napoleon Bonaparte. Bonaparte restored order in France, but brought the revolution to a close after tearing a violent swath across Europe, then meeting utter defeat at the hands of the Russian winter and final at Waterloo.

Then, to cap it off, the hated monarchy was restored, barely a generation after the fateful storming of the Bastille. It’s noteworthy that the Constitution of the United States went into effect in 1789, the same year as the storming of the Bastille and launch of the French Revolution. (read more)” - Text by the wonderful @emvidal P.S.: here goes a podcast by Elena Maria Vidal on Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette & the Bastille day

[killem-all-if-they-wont-eat-cake]

"The letters portray a rebellious and independent queen who risked everything and broke all the rules to love the man who succeeded in conquering her heart." —  click here for a summary on Ms. Farr’s book.

First and foremost I would like to retract the statements I made on Evelyn Farr’s book “I love you, Madly”, by the time I’ve written it I had not read her book yet, only sensationalist reviews on it. I am aware it was hasty and foolish of me and for that I apologize to Ms. Farr.

After actually reading her book, I’ve realized it is an excellent account of MA and Fersen’s correspondence and historical context of the Revolution itself, not at all the novelesque opprobium portrayed in the reviews, which is indeed reminiscent of a piece by Monsieur Choderlos de Laclos.

If anything, this was merely a marketing strategy, and at worst, Ms. Farr is at fault in trying to promote her book at the cost of Marie Antoinette’s already far too slandered reputation. That is in fact reproachable coming from a historian!

Furthermore, I want to reiterate that it is still my opinion that Marie Antoinette’s love life remains private and therefore it is nobody’s business. The reason I say that it is because this is a woman who has had every aspect of her entire life scrutinized within and after her lifespan. And who has been and is still greatly demonized or idolized from an strictly sexual concept of morality. Though this was quite common by the time, we’re not in a Samuel Richardson’s novel and definitely not in the 18th century anymore.

Quoting myself: “Do not attempt to intrude into the painful secrets of the heart of this most unhappy princess. Remember this is the age of La Nouvelle Heloïse and the Sorrows of the Young Werther, not thirty years since Pamela and Clarissa. She was a sentimental person and she communicated in a sentimental language. There won’t be anything in their letters appointing to a physical consummation, but perhaps to the depth of their secret feelings for each other and the despair of an impossible and hopeless love.” — “He is more myself than I am, whatever souls are made of, his and mine are the same”; — befitting quote from Wuthering Heights by Charlotte Brontë.

“If you are an admirer of Marie Antoinette you should try to focus on her qualities as an individual and not attempt to define her value based on untarnished virtue or hypothetical sexual misconduct. She was a good mother and had a generous, forgiving nature. She was a very decent human being. Thus people should try to see her best and focus on how beautiful she was in all her features.. ”

Finally, to anyone who is intrigued but is not acquainted with MA, here goes a short video on her fascinating and tragic life from the official channel of the Château de Versailles.

[emvidal]

'The wedding took place at 6 o’clock in the evening at the Augustinian Church in Vienna. Imperial chamberlains led the procession to the church. The privy counsellors and conference members followed and after them, the Knights of the Golden Fleece in long medieval robes. The groom was clad in cloth of silver, a white hat and wearing the collar of the Golden Fleece. The bride wore a gown of silver-thread fabric studded with diamonds and pearls. She was flanked by her mother and Joseph I’s widow, Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg.'

[emvidal]

[emvidal]

[killem-all-if-they-wont-eat-cake]

‘13 June, the feast of her patron saint St Anthony, tended to be regarded as Marie Antoinette’s personal day of celebration, just as the feast of St Teresa of Avila on 15 October was the name-day of her mother.’ -  Marie Antoinette, the Journey by Antonia Fraser

Image Source: Autour de Marie Antoinette

[killem-all-if-they-wont-eat-cake]

Le Grand Appartement de La Reine - Château de Versailles

‘Antechamber of the Queen Maria Theresa, it was in this room that Marie Leszczinska granted her solemn audiences, seated under a canopy. She also held her circle there, as it was called the time of conversation settled with the ladies of the Court. Marie-Antoinette had the entire decoration changed, retaining only the paintings on the ceiling, and for her, the apple-green damask walls were lined with large gold strips. New furniture was delivered, both extremely modern and refined. Riesener, the queen's favorite ébeniste (cabinet-maker), indulged to the latest English fashion, abandoning his usual flowery marquetry for large mahogany à-plats, while the golden bronze and turqueoise blue marble pieces of this majestic clock were used to match the fireplace, which was also new.’

Text and Image can be found at: Château & Royautés; Château de Versailles

[killem-all-if-they-wont-eat-cake]

Marie Antoinette à la Rose (1783) - Élisabeth Vigée LeBrun

“ This portrait of the twenty-eight-year-old Marie Antoinette was painted in the same year as the famous portrait en chemise - in fact, it was painted in order to replace the chemise portrait with something less scandalous. (You may notice that she's standing in the same pose, holding the same ribboned rose, with the same hairstyle and same expression.) While this blue taffeta gown is more traditional than the chemise, it's nothing like a robe de cour or a robe parée - two outfits worn daily at court for formal occasions. This is still a very fashionable and casual ensemble.

Starting at the top: instead of the straw hat worn in the original, this version of Marie Antoinette is coiffed with a silk turban trimmed with ostrich plumes. The turban, made of a satin-striped sheer silk, was a fashionable bit of orientalism; a slightly later portrait of Madame Elisabeth shows a pouf cap in a very similar fabric, also trimmed with a white plume. Her hairstyle is an hérisson ("hedgehog"), with curls hanging down behind à la consellière (a style possibly named after Charles Alexandre de Calonne, a French statesman and counselor of Louis XVI).

On her wrists, she wears triple-stranded pearl bracelets, matching the double-stranded necklace seen above. Pearls were highly fashionable and very expensive; perhaps their connotation of purity was meant to counteract the scandal of the original portrait. So, the gown itself. I'm hesitant to put a name to it, because there was no exact science to gown-naming - Marie Antoinette's dressmaker Rose Bertin could have called it a polonaise, circassienne, or turque if she'd wanted. Why? Well, look at the queen's waist: the dress hangs away from the body, fastened only at the neckline with a parfait contentement (the technical term for a chest-bow). The looseness of the gown was, like the turban, a bit of Eastern influence as the traditional forms of women's dress (the gown and the sacque) were fully fitted to the torso, if only in the lining. All three of the gowns listed above were originally conceived as variations on the unfitted theme. In their original forms the polonaise and circassienne were cut with rounded skirts, pulled up in the back, while the original circassiennes and turques both had short oversleeves; circassiennes often had "exotic" trims, such as tassels or fur. Regardless of the proper term - each one has justification - this is neither a standard fitted gown nor a formal sacque. The queen could be wearing a very wide stomacher underneath the gown, or a back-lacing waistcoat, as both are attested in fashion plates - either way, there is a strip of white trim down the center, pinched at intervals with a darker material.”

The gown itself is trimmed around the neckline, down the front (possibly also around the bottom of the gown, if it really is a polonaise or circassienne), and on the sleeves with either a fine lace or a very clear, whiteworked muslin or gauze: trimming on all edges was a common fashion, as was white gauze. There's also an unembroidered white ruffle along the neckline that is probably a tucker or tour-de-gorge, sewn to the edge of the shift. The ruffle along the front edges of the gown is narrow along the torso and flares around waist level, behind the arm, to several inches wide; along the skirt, the ruffle is sewn down just above the center, creating a long "head". The sleeve ruffles are even less balanced, with a tiny head. There's an attached collar of the same blue silk as the gown, trimmed on both edges with a white ruffle. This collar appears to have a deep point in back, judging by the edge seen behind Marie Antoinette's right arm. Collars are sometimes seen on robes à la turque, circassiennes, and lévites (although this gown probably isn't a lévite, as they were generally sashed). It's highly likely that the petticoat had an embroidered volant ruffle that matches the one on the gown. Unfortunately, the portrait isn't full length - so it must be left a mystery, just like the name given to the gown.”

Text and image can be found at: A Most Beguiling Accomplishment