Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/14629712.2023.2173408
Kristine Dyrmann
In the early modern period, country house areas developed on the outskirts of resident towns throughout Europe. During summertime when the royal court withdrew from the capital to its summer palace, higher-ranking members of court would also retire to the suburbs. For members of the diplomatic corps or high nobility, keeping up with the politics and sociability of court life was crucial, even in the warmer months. The countryside was a recreational space, and the political function of the suburban villa was therefore different from that of the town. The suburban villa was characterised by a relative simplicity and intimacy in appearance, yet it was a highly political arena. Court members and royals were free from their urban duties, having retired to the privacy of the countryside, but this article argues that the political sociability of court life continued, adapting to a different setting. Indeed, the suburban villa was a space where relationships could be deepened, or vital political matters discussed on more private terms. Court members went on carriage rides, held pique-niques or even balls during these stays in the suburbs, often employing for political purposes the connection between privacy and sociability that was intrinsic to countryside existence. The article discusses the experiences and agency of men and women, and the dynamics of court and countryside on the outskirts of the Danish capital of Copenhagen in the late eighteenth century.
{"title":"The Court in the Countryside: Privacy and Political Sociability in the Suburban Villas of Copenhagen’s Late Eighteenth-Century Court Elite","authors":"Kristine Dyrmann","doi":"10.1080/14629712.2023.2173408","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14629712.2023.2173408","url":null,"abstract":"In the early modern period, country house areas developed on the outskirts of resident towns throughout Europe. During summertime when the royal court withdrew from the capital to its summer palace, higher-ranking members of court would also retire to the suburbs. For members of the diplomatic corps or high nobility, keeping up with the politics and sociability of court life was crucial, even in the warmer months. The countryside was a recreational space, and the political function of the suburban villa was therefore different from that of the town. The suburban villa was characterised by a relative simplicity and intimacy in appearance, yet it was a highly political arena. Court members and royals were free from their urban duties, having retired to the privacy of the countryside, but this article argues that the political sociability of court life continued, adapting to a different setting. Indeed, the suburban villa was a space where relationships could be deepened, or vital political matters discussed on more private terms. Court members went on carriage rides, held pique-niques or even balls during these stays in the suburbs, often employing for political purposes the connection between privacy and sociability that was intrinsic to countryside existence. The article discusses the experiences and agency of men and women, and the dynamics of court and countryside on the outskirts of the Danish capital of Copenhagen in the late eighteenth century.","PeriodicalId":37034,"journal":{"name":"Court Historian","volume":"28 1","pages":"32 - 48"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43892928","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/14629712.2023.2173411
Anna Penkała-Jastrzębska
The aim of this article is to analyse the changes taking place in the marital policy of the nobility as followed by the court of Augustus II, king of Poland and grand duke of Lithuania. The election of a member of the Saxon Wettin family to the throne of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth radically changed the balance of power there. The representatives of new, but politically involved, circles started looking for career opportunities as state officials and the chance to join the royal court, both in Warsaw and in Dresden. The marital strategy of Polish magnates to ally with foreign families, notably those already associated with the court of Electoral Saxony in Dresden, was one of the methods of seeking advancement and influence. An analysis of the examples of careers developed at the royal court allows us to identify the mechanisms by which the King himself tried to build a loyal party in the Commonwealth using private, personal links to himself and to his family. The policy of intentional steering of marriage strategies, which has not been analysed so far, turned out to play a fundamental role in this goal. International marriages gave individuals and their families chances for preeminent advantages (as with transregional nobles all over Europe), but private links with the King were crucial for personal careers and were forged through marriage to members of his family, both legitimate and illegitimate.
{"title":"Noble Matrimonial Policy at the Royal Court in Dresden during the Reign of King Augustus the Strong (1697–1733): Public Affairs, Private Interests","authors":"Anna Penkała-Jastrzębska","doi":"10.1080/14629712.2023.2173411","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14629712.2023.2173411","url":null,"abstract":"The aim of this article is to analyse the changes taking place in the marital policy of the nobility as followed by the court of Augustus II, king of Poland and grand duke of Lithuania. The election of a member of the Saxon Wettin family to the throne of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth radically changed the balance of power there. The representatives of new, but politically involved, circles started looking for career opportunities as state officials and the chance to join the royal court, both in Warsaw and in Dresden. The marital strategy of Polish magnates to ally with foreign families, notably those already associated with the court of Electoral Saxony in Dresden, was one of the methods of seeking advancement and influence. An analysis of the examples of careers developed at the royal court allows us to identify the mechanisms by which the King himself tried to build a loyal party in the Commonwealth using private, personal links to himself and to his family. The policy of intentional steering of marriage strategies, which has not been analysed so far, turned out to play a fundamental role in this goal. International marriages gave individuals and their families chances for preeminent advantages (as with transregional nobles all over Europe), but private links with the King were crucial for personal careers and were forged through marriage to members of his family, both legitimate and illegitimate.","PeriodicalId":37034,"journal":{"name":"Court Historian","volume":"28 1","pages":"80 - 95"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42346602","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/14629712.2023.2173410
Dustin M. Neighbors
Hunting at the court of Elizabeth I of England was not a peripheral activity, nor was it a solely male pursuit. Hunting was an important social and cultural practice that was pivotal for communication, gathering information, social intercourse and politics. At the same time, hunting was an informal and ephemeral activity that was secluded and offered degrees of privacy. Yet the study of hunting as a contextually and culturally driven phenomenon that straddled the public/private divide, as an activity where elite women were active agents and skilled huntresses, and how these dimensions impacted early modern sociability, court culture, politics, and diplomacy remains underexplored. To begin addressing this gap, this article demonstrates how Elizabeth I not only regularly engaged in hunting, but also maintained a dedicated hunting staff and utilised hunting as a tool to facilitate private politics and shape courtly behaviour.
{"title":"Elizabeth I, Huntress of England: Private Politics, Diplomacy, and Courtly Relations Cultivated through Hunting","authors":"Dustin M. Neighbors","doi":"10.1080/14629712.2023.2173410","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14629712.2023.2173410","url":null,"abstract":"Hunting at the court of Elizabeth I of England was not a peripheral activity, nor was it a solely male pursuit. Hunting was an important social and cultural practice that was pivotal for communication, gathering information, social intercourse and politics. At the same time, hunting was an informal and ephemeral activity that was secluded and offered degrees of privacy. Yet the study of hunting as a contextually and culturally driven phenomenon that straddled the public/private divide, as an activity where elite women were active agents and skilled huntresses, and how these dimensions impacted early modern sociability, court culture, politics, and diplomacy remains underexplored. To begin addressing this gap, this article demonstrates how Elizabeth I not only regularly engaged in hunting, but also maintained a dedicated hunting staff and utilised hunting as a tool to facilitate private politics and shape courtly behaviour.","PeriodicalId":37034,"journal":{"name":"Court Historian","volume":"28 1","pages":"49 - 79"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46896996","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/14629712.2022.2137337
Carmen García-Frías Checa
The fame of Margaret of Austria-Styria (1584–1611) transcends her time not only as queen consort of Philip III of Spain, but also as a woman valued for all kinds of virtues. Her early death at the age of twenty-seven generated the development of an extensive laudatory literature, which elevated her as a model example for other queens of the House of Austria. Since her arrival in Spain in 1599, Margaret had a special interest in portraiture, using it as a means of maintaining contact with the various members of her family. This article presents a survey of her portrait repertoire, based on extant portraits, but also official chronicles, the descriptions of her portraits in royal inventories and the accounts of the chamber painters, which are fundamental to our knowledge of her portraits and the circumstances of her commissions. From her first images as Philip’s bride, through all her portraits as queen, to the portraits made after her death, these images highlight the originality of her representation. Margaret’s originality lies in her focus on the extreme ostentation of luxury in her clothing and jewellery, connected to the sophisticated fashion of the time. She also developed, in addition to the official portraits of the royal couple, a more private iconography, which is highly unusual in that it shows her pregnant, or in the guise of a sacred personage, with a clearly devotional character.
{"title":"The Pictorial Representation of Margaret of Austria, Queen of Spain: Between Luxury and Devotion","authors":"Carmen García-Frías Checa","doi":"10.1080/14629712.2022.2137337","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14629712.2022.2137337","url":null,"abstract":"The fame of Margaret of Austria-Styria (1584–1611) transcends her time not only as queen consort of Philip III of Spain, but also as a woman valued for all kinds of virtues. Her early death at the age of twenty-seven generated the development of an extensive laudatory literature, which elevated her as a model example for other queens of the House of Austria. Since her arrival in Spain in 1599, Margaret had a special interest in portraiture, using it as a means of maintaining contact with the various members of her family. This article presents a survey of her portrait repertoire, based on extant portraits, but also official chronicles, the descriptions of her portraits in royal inventories and the accounts of the chamber painters, which are fundamental to our knowledge of her portraits and the circumstances of her commissions. From her first images as Philip’s bride, through all her portraits as queen, to the portraits made after her death, these images highlight the originality of her representation. Margaret’s originality lies in her focus on the extreme ostentation of luxury in her clothing and jewellery, connected to the sophisticated fashion of the time. She also developed, in addition to the official portraits of the royal couple, a more private iconography, which is highly unusual in that it shows her pregnant, or in the guise of a sacred personage, with a clearly devotional character.","PeriodicalId":37034,"journal":{"name":"Court Historian","volume":"27 1","pages":"186 - 207"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44016333","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/14629712.2022.2137342
S. Flor
Some of the National Museums of Portugal keep in their collections representations of Catherine of Braganza (1638–1705), which are under the supervision of the Directorate General of Cultural Heritage (DGPC). By analysing the different types of support used, ranging from canvas to ceramics, paper and metal, we can outline the way in which the image of the queen of England was constructed from her early days to her maturity. In this article the aim is not only to trace the evolution of her iconography, but also to present the most recent developments in relation to the portrait of Catherine of Braganza on the basis of comparative analysis and original evidence from archival research.
{"title":"Representations of Catherine of Braganza in Portuguese National Collections: A Continuous Visual Construction?","authors":"S. Flor","doi":"10.1080/14629712.2022.2137342","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14629712.2022.2137342","url":null,"abstract":"Some of the National Museums of Portugal keep in their collections representations of Catherine of Braganza (1638–1705), which are under the supervision of the Directorate General of Cultural Heritage (DGPC). By analysing the different types of support used, ranging from canvas to ceramics, paper and metal, we can outline the way in which the image of the queen of England was constructed from her early days to her maturity. In this article the aim is not only to trace the evolution of her iconography, but also to present the most recent developments in relation to the portrait of Catherine of Braganza on the basis of comparative analysis and original evidence from archival research.","PeriodicalId":37034,"journal":{"name":"Court Historian","volume":"27 1","pages":"228 - 244"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47391986","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/14629712.2022.2137344
J. Spangler
O ne of the exciting developments in the growth of court studies as an academic discipline over the past decade has been a shift in focus away from monarchs and first ministers, or even from queen-consorts, towards more ancillary members of the court, notably royal siblings or cousins. There is still a long way to go before we develop a full picture of all of the working parts of the early modern monarchy in Europe, as many studies of such individuals remain within the silos of a national histories and therefore lack the comparative element. This is one of the key strengths of this volume about Renée de France (–), daughter of a king and sister of a queen, who then crossed borders to become an Italian duchess. The essays look at her life in both geographical spaces and are written by scholars of both France and Italy. Moreover, this group of scholars also crosses academic boundaries, in coming from the disciplines of history, art history, languages and literature. Preferred styles of writing scholarly articles differ between national groups and academic disciplines, so the two co-editors, Peebles and Scarlatta, are to be highly commended for pulling all of these chapters together into such a coherent and readable collection. The volume as a whole reveals a woman who early on adopted the wisdom and skills of her royal foremothers and used these tools to forge her identity as a consort in an Italian court famed for its cultural patronage, and to maintain this identity in the face of adversity. She did this even when confronted with a religious inquisition in Ferrara and later in life after she returned to France where she strove to provide a safe haven for Protestants in the turbulent early years of the Wars of Religion. Renée’s truly admirable achievement was the maintenance of two identities throughout much of this, acting as both an independent royal woman, daughter of a king, and loyal (most of the time) consort to a prince of relatively lower rank. Renée de France was the younger daughter of King Louis XII and Anne, duchess of Brittany. Her older sister Claude was married to King Francis I, leaving Renée as the potential heiress of a sovereign duchy of Brittany. Complex deals were done in the marriage contract of to ensure this did not happen and that Brittany was ultimately annexed to France, but even as late as , the French Crown worried that Renée, or her daughter Anne, duchess of Guise would revive the claims, so confirmed her possession of the lucrative duchy of
{"title":"Daughter of France, Italian Princess, Protector of Protestants","authors":"J. Spangler","doi":"10.1080/14629712.2022.2137344","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14629712.2022.2137344","url":null,"abstract":"O ne of the exciting developments in the growth of court studies as an academic discipline over the past decade has been a shift in focus away from monarchs and first ministers, or even from queen-consorts, towards more ancillary members of the court, notably royal siblings or cousins. There is still a long way to go before we develop a full picture of all of the working parts of the early modern monarchy in Europe, as many studies of such individuals remain within the silos of a national histories and therefore lack the comparative element. This is one of the key strengths of this volume about Renée de France (–), daughter of a king and sister of a queen, who then crossed borders to become an Italian duchess. The essays look at her life in both geographical spaces and are written by scholars of both France and Italy. Moreover, this group of scholars also crosses academic boundaries, in coming from the disciplines of history, art history, languages and literature. Preferred styles of writing scholarly articles differ between national groups and academic disciplines, so the two co-editors, Peebles and Scarlatta, are to be highly commended for pulling all of these chapters together into such a coherent and readable collection. The volume as a whole reveals a woman who early on adopted the wisdom and skills of her royal foremothers and used these tools to forge her identity as a consort in an Italian court famed for its cultural patronage, and to maintain this identity in the face of adversity. She did this even when confronted with a religious inquisition in Ferrara and later in life after she returned to France where she strove to provide a safe haven for Protestants in the turbulent early years of the Wars of Religion. Renée’s truly admirable achievement was the maintenance of two identities throughout much of this, acting as both an independent royal woman, daughter of a king, and loyal (most of the time) consort to a prince of relatively lower rank. Renée de France was the younger daughter of King Louis XII and Anne, duchess of Brittany. Her older sister Claude was married to King Francis I, leaving Renée as the potential heiress of a sovereign duchy of Brittany. Complex deals were done in the marriage contract of to ensure this did not happen and that Brittany was ultimately annexed to France, but even as late as , the French Crown worried that Renée, or her daughter Anne, duchess of Guise would revive the claims, so confirmed her possession of the lucrative duchy of","PeriodicalId":37034,"journal":{"name":"Court Historian","volume":"27 1","pages":"264 - 267"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42501238","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/14629712.2022.2137347
M. Gin
C onsumed by generations of children the world over, Disney’s animated retellings of classic fairy tales have had a unique and singular impact on popular perceptions of European court culture today. Borrowing from histories that stretch back to the Middle Ages and, increasingly, cultures far beyond Europe, Disney has created a potent visual culture of royalty that is all its own— replete with an ever-growing coterie of princesses, a global empire of theme parks each crowned by its own castle and an expansive array of collectible merchandise. The Walt Disney Company, founded in by its namesake (–) and his brother Roy (–), is indeed a Magic Kingdom. A act of the Florida Legislature even granted Disney immunity from local regulations (including taxation) and vested the company with unique legal privileges that allow it to exercise governmental authority over the lands in and around its Orlando-area theme parks. The Mouse is sovereign. Curated by Wolf Burchard of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts was organized jointly by the Met and the Wallace Collection where it will travel before being presented at the Huntington Library. This is not the first exhibition to consider the art of Disney or the various cultural influences that have shaped it. Such exhibits have a long history that dates back to and includes, most recently, the exhibition Once Upon a Time: Walt Disney (–), which travelled to venues on both sides of the Atlantic. What is unique about Inspiring Walt Disney, though, is how it traces back Disney’s aesthetic influences specifically to the courtly material cultures of early modern France while also using elite art objects from this period to animate the story of Disney’s global cultural ascendency. The exhibition brings together two hundred works. Drawn from the Met and various other museums is a rich selection of courtly decorative objects mostly of French origin that includes, among other things, Sèvres vases and Boulle clocks. These are joined by several pieces of Meissen porcelain. The vast majority () of the objects on display, though, are production artworks, like animation cells, supplied by Disney’s own institutional collections, most notably the company’s archives, the Disney Animation Research Library and Disney Imagineering. In terms of the exhibition’s historical scope, there are two chronologies that play out through these objects. On the one hand, there is the Disney timeline that leads from the company’s origins to a period of resurgence in the early s, driven by animated blockbusters like Beauty and the Beast () and The Lion King (). On the other there
{"title":"In the Court of Walt Disney","authors":"M. Gin","doi":"10.1080/14629712.2022.2137347","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14629712.2022.2137347","url":null,"abstract":"C onsumed by generations of children the world over, Disney’s animated retellings of classic fairy tales have had a unique and singular impact on popular perceptions of European court culture today. Borrowing from histories that stretch back to the Middle Ages and, increasingly, cultures far beyond Europe, Disney has created a potent visual culture of royalty that is all its own— replete with an ever-growing coterie of princesses, a global empire of theme parks each crowned by its own castle and an expansive array of collectible merchandise. The Walt Disney Company, founded in by its namesake (–) and his brother Roy (–), is indeed a Magic Kingdom. A act of the Florida Legislature even granted Disney immunity from local regulations (including taxation) and vested the company with unique legal privileges that allow it to exercise governmental authority over the lands in and around its Orlando-area theme parks. The Mouse is sovereign. Curated by Wolf Burchard of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts was organized jointly by the Met and the Wallace Collection where it will travel before being presented at the Huntington Library. This is not the first exhibition to consider the art of Disney or the various cultural influences that have shaped it. Such exhibits have a long history that dates back to and includes, most recently, the exhibition Once Upon a Time: Walt Disney (–), which travelled to venues on both sides of the Atlantic. What is unique about Inspiring Walt Disney, though, is how it traces back Disney’s aesthetic influences specifically to the courtly material cultures of early modern France while also using elite art objects from this period to animate the story of Disney’s global cultural ascendency. The exhibition brings together two hundred works. Drawn from the Met and various other museums is a rich selection of courtly decorative objects mostly of French origin that includes, among other things, Sèvres vases and Boulle clocks. These are joined by several pieces of Meissen porcelain. The vast majority () of the objects on display, though, are production artworks, like animation cells, supplied by Disney’s own institutional collections, most notably the company’s archives, the Disney Animation Research Library and Disney Imagineering. In terms of the exhibition’s historical scope, there are two chronologies that play out through these objects. On the one hand, there is the Disney timeline that leads from the company’s origins to a period of resurgence in the early s, driven by animated blockbusters like Beauty and the Beast () and The Lion King (). On the other there","PeriodicalId":37034,"journal":{"name":"Court Historian","volume":"27 1","pages":"277 - 280"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43723774","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/14629712.2022.2137343
M. Llorente
This essay will examine and compare some portraits of the Spanish queen Mariana of Habsburg (1634–1696) with others of Luisa of Guzmán (1613–1666), the first Braganza queen of Portugal, in order to explore and identify the roles they played as brides and queen consorts. It also proposes to ascertain how the identity of both women was constructed to portay them as queens. Mariana’s portraits are numerous and varied but the same cannot be said of those of Luisa, as few portraits of this queen remain due to the destruction caused by the Lisbon earthquake in 1755.
{"title":"The Representation of Two Iberian Queens: Luisa of Guzmán and Mariana of Austria","authors":"M. Llorente","doi":"10.1080/14629712.2022.2137343","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14629712.2022.2137343","url":null,"abstract":"This essay will examine and compare some portraits of the Spanish queen Mariana of Habsburg (1634–1696) with others of Luisa of Guzmán (1613–1666), the first Braganza queen of Portugal, in order to explore and identify the roles they played as brides and queen consorts. It also proposes to ascertain how the identity of both women was constructed to portay them as queens. Mariana’s portraits are numerous and varied but the same cannot be said of those of Luisa, as few portraits of this queen remain due to the destruction caused by the Lisbon earthquake in 1755.","PeriodicalId":37034,"journal":{"name":"Court Historian","volume":"27 1","pages":"245 - 263"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44669959","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/14629712.2022.2137332
Luc Duerloo
I n the neighbourhood school where I learned the three Rs, portraits of King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola hung in every classroom. I still remember what they looked like. The King wore a uniform and observed us attentively, but not unkindly, through his spectacles. The Queen had a white fur shawl draped over her shoulders and wore a tiara. In our typical single-sex school of the mid-s, she was the only woman in the classroom. The blurred backgrounds of the photos heightened the impression that these people lived in another world. At the same time, however, they were there with us. Every portrait generates a presence, the carefully contrived royal portraits most of all. For centuries, royal portraits have functioned as markers of the expanding involvement of the state in society. Toward the end of the Middle Ages the emergence of composite monarchies increased the demand for representations of the rulers, not least in the more peripherical parts of their domains. Portrait galleries retraced the line of succession to the present generation. At court, the rulers and their effigies took centre stage in the ritual legitimation of monarchical power. In the administration, councils deliberated under the watchful eye of their likenesses. The use of the plural is deliberate. If anything, female rulers made at least as much use of such imagery as men, if not more. In foreign relations, portraits belonged to the repertoire of diplomatic gifts and often played an important role in marriage negotiations. We don’t know much about how the increasing demand for royal portraits was met. Most studies concentrate on the prototypes created by the leading portraitists of the day or — if they have been lost — on high quality copies of their works. Yet the reserves of museums make it clear that there was a market for copies of copies, even the blatantly mediocre ones. Less costly still were the engravings that brought the royal image within reach of city dwellers. The icons of monarchy that we instantly recognize were never made by paparazzi who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. They were without exception meticulously curated. Henry VIII’s bold stare and menacingly spread legs eternalised by Holbein. The statuesque stillness of the Habsburgs posing for Velázquez. The studied Bourbon nonchalance of Louis XIV’s hand on the hip frozen in time by Rigaud. Van Meytens’ tables overflowing with Maria Theresa’s crowns. Napoleon’s right hand tucked in his waistcoat captured by David. The contrast between the young Elizabeth II and the age-old regalia in Beaton’s coronation photograph. The postures, the garments, the attributes, the scenery, nothing was ever left to coincidence. The goal was evoking majesty. In order to attain it, royal portraits diverged to a lesser or greater degree from reality. ‘Warts and all’ was always the exception, if not just a myth. In Hyacinthe Rigaud’s iconic Louis XIV in his Coronation Robes the sixtythree-year-old king is dress
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Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/14629712.2022.2137348
A. MacFarlane
he exhibition takes Isfahan, known, per a popular Persian proverb, as ‘ half the world ’ ( Isfahan, nesf-e jahan ), and reveals its place within the whole world: its connections in and beyond the city. In , Shah ‘ Abbas I (r. – ) moved to Isfahan, reimagining both city and court. He had built a grand new public square and palatial buildings, to play host to a court with a newly ascendant political power base of converted Georgians, Armenians and Circassians. That court ’ s culture sits at the heart of Meeting in Isfahan . Shahs commissioned magnificently illuminated manuscripts, while artists moved between court commissions and work in the wider city. All of this is encompassed in a single room at the Chester Beatty Library. Book arts are joined by a small selection of objects such as amulets and ceramic wares, some loaned from the National Museum of Ireland, to illuminate the network of people and cultural products which met in Isfahan. Green moulded jars with leafy designs and a woman playing a drum sample the style of images in manuscripts. Potters in Isfahan manufactured local versions of Jingdezhen porce-lain drinking vessels, adapted into water pipes, with blue-and-white Chinese-style decoration alongside Persian poetry and foliate details. An Isfahan artist incorporated European visual style into his new paintings for an old Shahnama manuscript. Meeting in Isfahan is a rich and rewarding display. The room is divided into four areas separated by a central wall. The first, ‘ The Safavid Shahs: Piety and Power ’ , introduces viewers to the early Safavid shahs and their sacred lineage, in the generations before the court moved to Isfahan. These include the dynasty ’ s founder, Shah Isma ‘ il I (r. – ), and his son Shah Tahmasp (r. – ).
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