Golden Days
Exhibit Home • Golden Days • At the Opera
Phamphlets For and Against • Pathos, Bathos, and Bibliophily
By birth and upbringing, Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) was meant for a charmed life. A princess of the Austrian imperial house (her mother was the Empress Maria Theresa), she was educated only minimally but marked for a royal marriage almost from birth. The life of such a royal was a succession of amusements punctuated by grand ceremonial occasions, all of it accomplished in a series of elegant and more elegant costumes. A flourishing publishing industry recorded what it could of all this grandeur.
Perhaps the most exquisite of the books that record this aspect of Marie Antoinette's life is the official coronation album, called Sacre et Couronnement de Louis XVI. Shown here is one of dozens of engravings that depict the costumes, ceremonies, and banquets of the weeklong coronation "event" in June of 1775.
Le Sacre et couronnement...
Wing ZP 739 .P 294
Marie and her court set a standard for extravagance in dress and grooming that is reflected in a 1778 book of hairdos. It pretends to be a history of royal coiffure since it shows styles from 1559 forward, but over half of the plates display styles of Marie Antoinette's day. The queen's reputation for extravagance was epitomized by the infamous Diamond Necklace Affair. The 647 diamonds in question were ordered on behalf of the queen by the Cardinal de Rohan, a courtier who wanted to regain her favor. De Rohan was in fact the victim of a swindler but the queen insisted that he face trial. Court proceedings went on for months before the final judgement in May of 1786, absolving the Cardinal. In the court of public opinion, it was Marie Antoinette who suffered.
Recueil Général de coeffures...
Case W 945.736
Even after the revolution, the notion that dress marked the ruler persisted, as shown in a 1796 book of costumes for the officers of the new republic. Neo-classical robes were just the thing for representatives of the Sovereign People.