11/27/2023 0 Comments Antoinette painting![]() ![]() The 1938 film Marie Antoinette, starring Norma Shearer and Robert Morley, is considered a classic of historical melodrama. And, like the 300 gowns the queen ordered each year, the story is a perfect fit for Hollywood. Even her hairdresser and her executioner published ghostwritten recollections. Marie Antoinette's fairy tale turned tragedy has spawned biographies, fictionalizations, operas, plays, ballets and memoirs. "Tribulation first makes one realize what one is," the queen wrote in August 1791, soon after the royal family's failed escape attempt from their detention in Paris. Thrust into a social and political hurricane, Marie Antoinette, biographer Stefan Zweig wrote in the 1930s, was "perhaps the most signal example in history of the way in which destiny will at times pluck a mediocre human being from obscurity and, with commanding hand, force the man or woman in question to overstep the bounds of mediocrity." Ultimately, even Marie Antoinette herself grasped how suffering gave her fortitude. Yet by the time of her execution 23 years later, she was reviled. The frivolous, high-spirited tomboy who arrived at Versailles at age 14 was quickly embraced by her subjects. With the possible exception of the Corsican-born Napoleon, another outsider who overstayed his welcome, no one haunts French history like the Hapsburg princess. Less than a decade after the theater's inauguration in 1780, the curtain would come crashing down on the French monarchy and its Austrian-born queen, who seemed to grow in moral stature as she approached the guillotine. But I had to admit that there is a poignancy about the playhouse and its fantasy world. I did not commune with Marie Antoinette's ghost, as some claim to have done. Marie condemned by the Revolutionary Tribunal It's a state of grace, an aura you sense-even after 40 years here." "You're thinking about other things, then all of a sudden, you're totally surprised. "From time to time, you have to visit a spot like the theater when there's no one else around to give the place a chance to trigger an emotional reaction," he said. On the way out, Baulez, who has worked at the former royal palace for four decades, locked the gate with a heavy iron key. Have a good, long look," said Christian Baulez, Versailles' chief conservator. The painted, original backdrop depicts a rustic farmhouse hearth, and I can just imagine the young queen reveling in her role as a shepherdess while her witty friends and dull husband, French king Louis XVI, applaud politely.Īt the time I was there, the theater was closed to most visitors (it is now open to the public from April 1 through October 31), and I wanted to take full advantage of my access. ![]() View Common FAQs about our Streaming Programs on Zoom.Late September sunlight filters onto the blue velvet furnishings of the jewel-box theater built for Marie Antoinette at Versailles.If you do not receive your Zoom link information 24 hours prior to the start of the program, please email Customer Service for assistance. Once registered, patrons should receive an automatic email confirmation from Separate Zoom link information will be emailed closer to the date of the program.Unless otherwise noted, registration for streaming programs typically closes two hours prior to the start time on the date of the program.Please note that if there is a change in program schedule or a cancellation, we will notify you via email, and it will be your responsibility to notify other registrants in your group. If you register multiple individuals, you will be asked to supply individual names and email addresses so they can receive a Zoom link email.Thirty portraits of Marie-Antoinette by her friend, the famous artist Elisabeth Vigé-Lebrun, still decorate the palace walls.ĭecorative arts historian Stefanie Walker appraises Marie-Antoinette’s cultural legacy-and why the myths about her are so enduring. Her innovative commissions at Versailles include furniture, decorative objects, paintings, and beautifully staged interior design. However, she was also a committed patron of artists and composers. But she famously sported towering hairdos and enjoyed spending lavishly on frippery. It’s questionable that she uttered “let them eat cake” when told peasants were starving. Austrian born, she was just 15 when she arrived in France in 1770, fated to become its last queen. Over the centuries, the dramatic life of Marie Antoinette has continued to fascinate.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |