Wannabe Queens

Madame de Maintenon
portrait attributed to Claude-François Vignon (Paris 1633-id. 1703)
(auctionned in Paris on December 09 2009 for €20 000).

Madame de Maintenon is wearing the "grand habit", the ceremonial dress ladies of high lineage had to wear at the court on very codified occasions.

Some details are revealing :
- the cross around her neck. She had many reasons to claim her faith. She was born to a protestant family and her grandfather, Agrippa d'Aubigné, was the author of the most violent pamphlet ever written against the French monarchy. She had to make amend for that part of her history. The Catholic Church also played a major part in her raise and in her mariage to Louis XIV. The mariage being kept secret, wearing the cross on an official portrait was also sending the message that she was not living in sin.
- the blue velvet coat lined with ermine. The ermine coat was a privilege reserved for the royal family. The king, queen, dauphins and dauphines wore it with golden lilies embroided. Portrayed with that symbol, madame de Maintenon was announcing a huge change of status.
- the jewels, displayed on her dress (saphires and emeralds) and on the table reveal a now forgotten aspect of Maintenon's personality : she had been a fancy woman, loving jewels and beautiful things.

At this stage of her life, Madame Louis XIV was enjoying being powerful and wealthy. The ermine coat was a silent but effective way to tell she was the new queen and she had to be treated as such - a message easily deciphered by her contemporaries.

She kept on wearing the ermine on her official portraits, even on the painting by Mignard (ca. 1694) who portrayed her as Saint Francesca of Rome - a detail which evidences that her claimed modesty had some very precise and strong limits : those set by her need to show her social achievement. Even in a picture where she was supposed to identify with a saint, she could not resist the temptation of displaying the symbol of her earthly importance. That "deluxe" saint speaks volumes about the real woman.

The portraits reveal Maintenon's other face : a proud, ambitious and strong-minded woman, who was enjoying every bit of the position she had conquered. Someone very different from the selfless and humble devout she was shaping out, for the posterity, in her letters.

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Madame de Montespan and her Children

Here is another interesting portrait with the ermine coat. Madame de Montespan, who was Louis XIV's mistress, had, in theory, no right to the ermine. That is certainly why she had her reasons to wear it portrayed by her side : her children, legitimated by their royal father.

On Auction at Château de Lasserre

On auction, on May 16, lots of portraits from the 17th and 18th centuries, notably Louis XIV by Rigaud, Louis XVI attributed to Callet, and a lovely Louis XV as a child (ca 1720), all portrayed in their royal costumes.

And there is that beautiful anonymous lady, above, by Largillièrre.

Find all the information and pictures on the auction site : Stanislas Machoir Auction House

Portraits of Louis XIV & the Royal Family

Louis XIV at various ages

Found on Gallica, an artwork by Antoine Benoist (1632-1717), showing Louis XIV at the age of 5, 10, 16, 22, 28, 34, 40, 46, 54 & 59.

The Royal Family

Louis XIV (at the age of 64) ; Louis, dauphin (23) ; Maria Anna of Bavaria, Dauphine (24) ; Louis, duc de Bourgogne (22) ; Marie Adélaïde, duchesse de Bourgogne (19) ; Philippe, duc d'Anjou (19) ; Charles duc de Berry (18) ; Louis XIII (15?) ; Maria Teresa of Austria (22?) ; Anna of Austria (63).

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Gallica dated the works from the years 1690.

Tenducci -YSL Sale (2)

Thomas Gainsborough, Portrait of Giusto Ferdinando Tenducci reading a score
oil on canvas, ca. 1773-75
Sold for €2,193,000

This beautiful portrait of the sopranist castrato Tenducci is my second reason.
More about the painting and the castrato on Christie's

That's the auction ! You finally know where a painting was at the very moment it's about to disappear again for years !

Pietà

The 17th-century Pietà belongs to a small church in Bourgogne. As the painting was damaged they wanted to have it repaired and cleaned. The conservator noticed that on both sides some areas had been repainted. The X-rays revealed the hidden portrait of Anna of Austria and her two sons, Louis XIV and Monsieur. In spite of the bad state of the painting, they decided to restore the painting to its 17th-century state.