Sunday 6 November 2011

Not Marie-Antoinette?


Over on Tea at Trianon's new forum, created by Elena Maria Vidal, there has been an ongoing discussion about Marie-Antoinette in art. Although re-labelling and mis-labelling of portraits is a common enough occurrence in sixteenth century history, it's much rarer in the better documented 1700s. However, according to several researchers, one of the most famous portraits of Marie-Antoinette may actually be of someone else.

The portrait (above) hangs in the magnificent Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Marie-Antoinette's main childhood home. Traditionally held to be a portrait of Marie-Antoinette painted around the time of her marriage negotiations, the lovely portrait was so famous that it even graced the UK cover of Antonia Fraser's award-winning 2001 biography of her, Marie Antoinette: The Journey. However, since 2008 the Schönbrunn has re-labelled the portrait and claims that is in fact a painting of Marie-Antoinette's elder sister, the Archduchess Maria-Josefa, who died tragically during a smallpox epidemic in 1767 at the age of sixteen.

An article about which Hapsburg sister the portrait represents can be found here.

And the forum's discussion begins here.


3 comments:

  1. Not at all! The forum is fantastic and I loved the discussion, especially reading that Marie-Antoinette had a book about Mary, Queen of Scots in her hands in the Temple portrait!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello Garteh,

    I love your Blog :)

    Because of the painting look sometimes here that is my Blog:

    http://erzherzogin-josephas-appartement.blogspot.com/2011/07/eine-verwechslungskomodie-in-ol.html

    Best regards,

    Sepha

    ReplyDelete

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