II.6. NOBLES, GODS AND HEROES

MENU: 2.6. Nobles gods & heroes 

TOWARD 1500, EXPLORERS' DISCOVERIES LEAD TO NEW SOURCES OF INCOME AND SO TO A BOOM THAT UNDERMINES THE SOCIAL SYSTEM 

Nascent capitalists gain the means to challenge the hereditary landowners, nobles who draw their wealth from peasant labor and define themselves as warriors.

          Discoveries in 1502 /zoom 

The earliest known map of the Age of Discovery

They wear armor: 

• For their portraits (as also shown here, here and here)... 

 Portrait of a Knight in Armor, end 16th century / zoom; Portrait of a Young General by Van Dyck, 1624 / zoom

The baton indicates command and the curtain underscores grandeur.

Being painted in armor or in armor mixed with other signs of luxury or in a martial way is usual, as shown here, here and here. 

• For their tombs...

        Design of the funeral monument to Henri II de Montmorency in Moulins by Michel Anguier, 17th century / zoom

For the costume of antiquity, please scroll on.

• Even when the subject of a painting has nothing to do with fighting, it may introduce an idealized soldier in Roman garb:

Saint Peter Preaches, Saint-Merri church toward 1600 / zoom

Their martial upbringing and values of personal honor and loyalty are irrelevant to commerce. As well, they lose their privileges should they engage in it, for which in any case all but the most powerful lack the capital. 

They cannot adapt to the budding capitalist society.*

*For a deeper discussion, please click and scroll down.

But for three centuries all classes

 take their innate superiority for granted

 because innumerable aspects of daily life

reinforce that belief.

In brief

• The primacy of hereditary rank 

• Everything aids the overclass 

• Allegory, nobles' reply to capitalists

• Detour: History — anecdotes or the economy?

• The gods' modernity

*    *    *

Next,

2.5.1.

The primacy of hereditary rank