II.4.2. NOBLES, GODS AND HEROES

MENU: 2.4.2. Nobles. Gods. Heroes 

MYTHOLOGY AND ALLEGORY SUDDENLY DOMINATE THE ART OF KINGS AND NOBLES*

(FROM ABOUT 1500)

*Hereditary landowners, who occupied a privileged legal status and controlled the State until the French and 1830 Revolutions overthrew them.

The change coincides with the vibrant capitalism explorations and discoveries launch:   

     Discoveries in 1502 /zoom 

This earliest map of the Age of Discovery was kept secretly at the Portuguese court. A diplomat had it cut in pieces, stole it and gave it to the Duke of Ferrare.

Confronted by commoners whose growing wealth meant challenge, nobles turned to the gods of Antiquity, Old Testament figures and Rome...

       Diane de Poitiers as Diana, goddess of the hunt, toward 1550 / zoom

Nudity, the clothing of gods

Diane de Poitiers was a member of the top nobility and the favorite of Henri II (1547-59). Nudity underscores her power: "Take me for a goddess!" this work trumpets.

The Reconciliation of Jacob and Esau by Arnould De Vuez toward 1678, Baulme Fine Arts / zoom

Biblical figures are clothed,

but have the bodies of gods.  

In brief

• Background: All aspects of life buttress nobles' superiority 

• Supermen: the décor of châteaux and churches    

• A queen's apotheosis

• An plea for peace and a threat of revolt

• A tantrum changes the course of history... for awhile

*     *     *

Next,

Background: 

All aspects of life buttress nobles' superiority

BACKGROUND: ALL ASPECTS OF LIFE BUTTRESS BELIEF IN NOBLES' SUPERIORITY

ANTHROPOLOGISTS SAY THAT IN PRIMITIVE SOCIETIES ALL ASPECTS OF LIFE REINFORCE EACH OTHER, THAT IS, STABILITY AND AUTHORITY

The same applies to the Old Regime where every aspect of life so buttressed nobles that commoners too took their primacy for granted.

Philip of France, Duke of Anjou in Costume of Antiquity by Jean Nocret, toward 1650 / zoom

The prince relates to the Romans. 

Nobles held the top posts in the State and Church

and especially the army...

paid no taxes, had the right to particular taxes and tolls, could purchase luxuries reserved to them alone, were judged by a court of their peers and if convicted were ceremoniously beheaded instead of hanged or burned.

They owned gibets, the number of beams for hanging depending on their rank. 

So ingrained was belief in position that an insult among commoners was,"Your father was a valet!" 

The valet Figaro's question to his noble master,

 "What have you done for all that wealth?

 You took the trouble to be born!"  

signals change.

But the economy had evolved. 

Do our societies work in the same way?   

*    *   *

Next,

Supermen: the decor of châteaux and churches

SUPERMEN: THE DECOR OF CHATEAUX AND CHURCHES

THAT OF CHATEAUX EVOKES OWNERS' PRIVATE LIVES AS IF THEY WERE GODS THEMSELVES, AND LINKS THEM WITH KINGS

Take mantelpieces, the most prestigious sites of glacial halls:

• At Écouen* on the northern frontier Jacob sins, leaves, returns and is forgiven, like the owner** who offends Diane de Poitiers, leaves the court and eventually reconciles with the king.

*The Renaissance Museum 

**The Constable of Montmorency (1493-1567) 

Esau's Hunt / zoom 

Old Testament figures play the same role as the gods, but are clothed.

 

• At Condé en Brie in Champagne a god carries off a woman. It alludes to the owner * making a married woman his mistress as Louis XIV had done, and imitates a statue at Versailles.

* The Marquis de la Faye, private secretary to Louis XIV

Claude Abron

Château de Condé - Aymeri de Rochefort

     Pluto Carries off Prosperine by François Girardon, toward 1690, Versailles / zoom

That mistress, the marquise de Montespan — the one suspected of black masses — chose the story of Helen of Troy as decor for her chateau.

-- Athénaïs, the Real Queen of France by Lisa Hilton, 2002

# # #

That of churches, whose sponsors were the nobles of the upper clergy, gave the poor the bodies of gods. Compare... 

End 11th century / zoom

End 16th century / zoom

# # #

The most important secular decor 

to use mythology and allegory

is Rubens's celebration of queen Marie de Medici

for her palace.

The 24 life-size paintings are now at the Louvre.

They are where this visit begins.

*     *     * 

Next,
A queen's apotheosis

A QUEEN'S APOTHEOSIS

THE LOUVRE DEVOTES AN ENTIRE ROOM TO THE MOST EXUBERANT PROPAGANDA EVER IMAGINED

Marie de Medici returns to power* and as a true Medici, hires the time's leading painter to present her life as she wants it told.

(Made in 1624-26)

* In 1621-1630. For the start of her story, please click.

The first modern biography uses allegory and mythology to tell her tale:

The room is almost empty — most visitors head to the publicized works —  so you will have it almost to yourself.

       The Regent militant. The Victory at Julich / zoom

 A white horse, symbol of royalty

How Marie might have been remembered had she not lost her temper : Please continue.

# # #

Tell the children about the conflict between Marie and her son Louis XIII, who at age 15 took power through a plot and an assassination. 

Then have them look for...

• Louis XIII, the teen-age prince. In 24 paintings he appears only seven times, and never in a dominate way. Marie wants to keep on ruling: 

    The Consignment of the Regency to the Queen / zoom

Marie commands. As he grows older Louis pretends to be retarded and almost everyone ignores him... regretting that mistake for the rest of their lives, which might be very short.

• The 14-year-old French and Spanish princesses, exchanged at the border

          The Exchange of the Princesses / zoom 

 The girl in white is Anne, Louis's bride

If your little girl dreams of being a princess and marrying a prince, tell her she would never see her family again. Plus, as a foreign princess the court might think she was a spy (as Anne actually was). 

A queen's sole path to influence: becoming regent should the king die and leave a son too young to rule. That was how both Marie and Anne came to exert 17th-century Europe's most important regencies. 

• Dogs, a way to fill empty space 

    The Coronation of Marie de Medici at Saint-Denis on May 13, 1610 / zoom

• Monsters: Marie's enemies, neutralized or defeated

        Louis XIII Comes of Age / zoom

        The Queen Reconciles with her Son / zoom

For teens, mention what's left out: The servant Leonora, the hustler Concini, Marie's banishment... (click if you haven't yet).

   The Expulsion from Paris, Alte Ponakothek, Munich

The rejected sketch of her disgrace

The series is important for itself, for its influence...

• David studied The Coronation of Marie de Medici, above, before beginning his most famous work:

The Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon I and the Crowning of the Empress Josephine in Notre-Dame Cathedral on December 2, 1804 by Jacques-Louis David / zoom

• The series' color and action influenced Eugène Delacroix, leader of the Romantics and creator of the most famous painting produced in France (please read on):

        The Death of Sardanapolus by Eugène Delacroix, 1827 / zoom

...and as an example of "alternative facts."

*     *     *

Next,
A plea for peace and a threat of revolt

A PLEA FOR PEACE AND A THREAT OF REVOLT

NOBLES' ART GLORIFIES WAR, BUT THESE WORKS INSIST ON PEACE. UNLESS...

A caduceus (two serpents coiled around a baton) symbolizes the accord of opposites, so wisdom and harmony, and in paintings where every detail is politically charged Rubens associates it with Marie alone.

 

-- Heroic Deeds and Mystic Figures by R.F. Miflin and R.E. Wolf, 1989,

analyzes the series in depth.

In the first work Mercury points the caduceus toward the line that joins the right hands of Apollo, Minerva and Marie with the abdomens of the Three Graces: Marie unites wisdom, culture and fertility, characteristics that fit her policy of peace and ardent opposition to Richelieu's, of war.

 

The Education of the Princess / zoom

 

The children in a following work evoke central question of the time, war or peace:  

The Consommation of the Marriage in Lyons / zoom 

Louis carries his scepter like a musket and turns away from his mother, while his charming little brother, Gaston d'Orleans, looks up at her adoringly. Junior princes legitimized revolts by leading them, and when this work was painted, in 1626, Gaston had already rebelled once.

*He would again, four times.

The work implies that should Louis refuse Marie's demand for peace, she might join the troublemaker next time.  

Intrepid...

Marie escapes from Blois chateau (in 1619), by Maurice Leloir in Théodore Cahu's Richelieu, 1901

Marie had already led two revolts herself, so that was not an empty threat.

The king studied the series and left without a word. It may have contributed to her downfall. 

# # #

But a dramatic mistake

 was the main reason for the queen's eclipse.

*     *     *

Next,
 Detour:

A tantrum changes the course of history... for awhile

A TANTRUM CHANGES THE COURSE OF HISTORY... FOR AWHILE

WILL LOUIS HELP THE POOR WITH PEACE AND TAX REFORM, 

OR GRIND THEM DOWN STILL MORE WITH HIGHER TAXES DUE TO WAR?

Marie's tantrum against Prime Minister Richelieu in the king's presence bring two days of crisis called the "Day of Dupes" and  the choice for Richelieu and war.

(November 10-11, 1630)

  Basic account:

The recollections of the Duke of Saint-Simon, who was present immediately after the event, 

as told his son (the memoirist).

Presented with comments by Georges Mongrédian,

The Day of Dupes, 1961 (in French)

By Theodore Cabu, illustrated by Maurice Leloir, 1903

A hagiography

Bishop of a destitute commune of western France (Luçon), Richelieu believed that unless the poor were treated like mules they would not work.  He also confirmed Louis XIII's authoritarianism and helped found the centralized French State. Conservative historians admire him. 

 

# # #

• Richelieu comes to power by helping Marie return to favor after her fall, then takes her place as the king's main counselor. She hates him for that betrayal* and for his policies of violence.

*Which was felt still more strongly than it would be today: A subordinate's loyalty was considered automatic and the difference in rank made him her servant.

• She arranges a meeting with Louis to have him disgraced but leaves a door unlocked, and he suddenly appears. Stupefied, she insults him in a way that is "unimaginable," "out of the gutter"...

   Maurice Leloir

Richelieu throws himself at her feet, kisses the hem of her robe, bursts into tears and begs the king to let him return to his lands. When Louis says nothing, he leaves. A few minutes later the king passes before him and meets his bow with glacial silence. Fearing arrest and execution, recalling Concini's mutilated corpse and the rapidity with which one's fate can change, he prepares to flee.

At home, Louis "threw himself on his bed and tore off his doublet so furiously that the buttons flew off." But after reflection at his hunting lodge at Versailles, he sends for Richelieu to join him. Shocked by Marie's disrespect for monarchy shown by her language in his presence, he makes a decision that was almost unimaginable then, of choosing an underling over the queen of France, widow of Henri IV and mother of the queens of Spain and England, and Duchess of Savoy. As well, though deeply religious he transgresses the commandment "Honor thy father and thy mother," an act for which for the rest of his life he will feel guilty.

Marie has chosen Michel de Marillac, * the head of the Catholic pro-peace faction, as the new Prime Minister. Richelieu has him arrested; he will die in prison. He also warns adversaries that opposing him will strike their families too by having Marillac's brother, the Captain of the Royal Guard, decapitated on a trumped-up charge.

* Uncle of Saint Louise de Marillac. For more about her and the impressive Catholics of the time, please click.

# # #

Marie remains Richelieu's implacable opponent, and helps Gaston foment the revolts that follow. She says that her only regret is forgetting to bolt a door and dies in exile, almost without resources. 

(In 1642)

• Misogyny and nationalism lead to dismissing her as "without grace, heavy, with eyes that were round and inexpressive, brutal gestures and incurable vulgarity [...] silly, proud, short-tempered, opinionated, lazy."

-- Richelieu by Philippe Erlanger, 1996, p.77. 

More objective but still negative:

Marie de Médicis by Philippe Delorme, 1998, and

 The Queens of France under the Bourbons by Simone Bertière, 2003

 (All in French)

• She can also be seen as feisty and determined, and above all, be respected for trying to maintain peace.  

# # #

With her fall, France lurches into the frightful Thirty Years' War:

• Central Europe loses a third of its population and Burgundy, Lorraine and Picardy are devastated. Fifty years later Protestants fleeing France find a welcome from German princes wishing to replace slaughtered populations.

   The Pillaging of Wommelgen by Sebastian Vranx, 1625-30 / zoom

• Most of the kingdom is spared fighting on its soil, but taxes and requisitions bring revolt and repression:

     The Miseries of war: Hangings by Jacques Callot, 1632-1633 / zoom

# # #

The "Day of Dupes" is considered one of  "The days that made France "* ...

* Title of the series in which the study mentioned at the top of the page appears

...because, it is said, bringing the country into that struggle kept Spain from dismembering or conquering it. 

But in the 1630's...

• Spain had 8 240 000 residents, France 20 000 000 (please click).

• Spain's economy was archaic, France's one of emerging capitalism.

A Spanish victory was impossible

and French hegemony in the long term inevitable.  

# # #

Children can play the scene, thinking up insults  

("Your socks stink!")

They'll roll around laughing and love history.

They can question that anecdotal approach later. 

End of this section.

*      *      *

Next section,

II. 4. 3.
The gods' modernity