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Visual History of the World
(CONTENTS)
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The Early Modern Period
16th - 18th century
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The smooth transition from
the Middle Ages to the Modern Age is conventionally fixed on such
events as the Reformation and the discovery of the "New World,"
which brought about the emergence of a new image of man and his
world. Humanism, which spread out of Italy, also made an essential
contribution to this with its promotion of a critical awareness of
Christianity and the Church. The Reformation eventually broke the
all-embracing power of the Church. After the Thirty Years' War, the
concept of a universal empire was also nullified. The era of the
nation-state began, bringing with it the desire to build up
political and economic power far beyond Europe. The Americas,
Africa, and Asia provided regions of expansion for the Europeans.
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Proportions of the Human Figure by Leonardo da Vinci (drawing, ca.
1490)
is a prime example of the new approach of Renaissance
artists and scientists to the anatomy of the human body.
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France: From the Wars of Religion to the Eve of the Revolution
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1562-1789
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Louis XV and his Mistresses
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Pauline-Félicité de Mailly (1712 - 1741), marquise of Vintimille
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Marie-Anne de Mailly (1717 – 1744), marchioness of La Tournelle,
duchess of Châteauroux
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Louise Julie de Mailly (1710 - 1751), countess of Mailly
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Françoise de Châlus (1734 - 1821), duchess of Narbonne-Lara
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Marie-Louise O'Murphy (1737 - 1815)
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Jeanne Antoinette Bécu (1743 - 1793), countess of Barry
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Jeanne Antoinette Poisson (1721 - 1764), marchioness of Pompadour
"A Clever Mistress"
Madame la Marquise de Pompadour and Louis XV
(K.Reichold, B.Graf)
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Pauline Félicité de Mailly-Nesle
Pauline Félicité de Mailly-NeslePauline-Félicité de Mailly, marquise
de Vintimille (* 1712; † 9. September 1741 in Paris) war die Mätresse
des französischen Königs Ludwig XV.
Pauline-Félicité war die zweite Tochter von Louis III. de Mailly-Neslé
(1689–1767) und seiner Frau Armande Félice de La Porte Mazarin
(1691–1729), Enkelin von Hortensia Mancini. Ihre Schwestern waren Louise
Julie de Mailly-Nesle, comtesse de Mailly, Diane-Adélaïde de
Mailly-Nesle, duchesse de Lauraguais und Marie-Anne de Mailly-Nesle,
duchesse de Châteauroux.
Im Jahre 1739 wurde Pauline-Félicité de Mailly mit Jean-Baptiste
Hubert Félix, comte de Vintimille (1720–1777) verheiratet. Ein Jahr
später bat sie ihre Schwester, die am französischen Hof die Mätresse des
Königs war, sie nach Paris einzuladen. Dort angekommen gewann sie die
Gunst Ludwigs XV., der sie zur zweiten Mätresse neben ihrer Schwester
Louise Julie machte. Der König verlieh ihr den Titel „Marquise de
Vintimille“ und schenkte ihr das Schloss Choisy-le-Roi.
Pauline-Félicités Streben nach Geld und Macht war stärker ausgeprägt
als bei ihrer Schwester, aber ihr Einfluss auf den König war nur kurz,
denn sie starb bei der Geburt ihres ersten Kindes. Sie wurde in der Nähe
von Versailles bestattet. Louis de Vintimille, duc de Luc (1741–1814)
sah seinem Vater so ähnlich, dass er am Hof „zweiter Louis“
beziehungsweise „kleiner Louis“ genannt wurde. Später wollte Madame de
Pompadour ihre Tochter Alexandrine-Jeanne d'Étiolles (1744–1754) mit ihm
verheiraten, doch der König lehnte die Heiratspläne seiner Mätresse ab.
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Pauline Félicité de Mailly-Nesle
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Marie-Anne de Mailly-Nesle
Marie-Anne de Mailly-Nesle, marquise de La Tournelle, duchesse de
Châteauroux, est une favorite de Louis XV née à Paris le 5 octobre 1717
et morte à Paris le 8 décembre 1744.
Cinquième fille de Louis III de Mailly-Nesle (1689-1767), marquis de
Nesle, et de son épouse Armande Félice de La Porte Mazarin (1691-1729) (elle-même
petite-fille d'Hortense Mancini et arrière-petite-nièce de Mazarin),
Marie-Anne de Mailly-Nesle épouse en 1734 le marquis Louis de La
Tournelle (1708-1740). Sa sœur aînée Louise Julie de Mailly-Nesle,
comtesse de Mailly, avait été la maîtresse de Louis XV de 1737 à 1739.
Elle fut ensuite remplacée auprès du roi par sa sœur cadette, Pauline
Félicité de Mailly-Nesle, marquise de Vintimille. Mme de Vintimille
mourut le 9 septembre 1741, et le roi tomba amoureux de Madame de la
Tournelle, sa soeur la fit entrer au service de la reine le 4 octobre
1742,il la prit comme maîtresse en titre, en décembre 1742.Il la
présenta à la cour le 24 octobre 1743 la marquise de La Tournelle, sœur
des deux précédentes, poussée par le maréchal de Richelieu et Mme de
Tencin, prit par orgueil la décision de devenir maîtresse royale. Il la
titra duchesse de Châteauroux ( 20 octobre 1743) et renvoya sa sœur
aînée de la cour (3 novembre 1742).
Devenue favorite en titre et soutenue par le duc de Richelieu, elle
fut quelque temps toute-puissante à Versailles et usa de son influence
pour entraîner la France dans la Guerre de Succession d'Autriche et
persuader le Roi d'aller conquérir la gloire sur les champs de bataille
en Flandre et en Alsace. Louis XV l'autorisa à la rejoindre dans les
Flandres en juin 1744. En août, il tomba gravement malade à Metz. Il
résolut de se repentir et de renvoyer sa maîtresse à Paris.
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Marie-Anne de Mailly-Nesle par Jean-Marc Nattier
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Louise Julie, Comtesse de Mailly
Louise Julie
Louise Julie, Comtesse de Mailly (1710 - 1751) was one of the
many mistresses of Louis XV of France. Louise Julie was the eldest of
four sisters who served as courtesans in the French royal court.
Her three sisters who were courtesans to French royalty were: Pauline-Félicité
de Mailly (1712 - 1741), countess of Vintimille; Diane-Adélaïde de
Mailly (1713 - 1760), duchess of Lauraguais; and Marie-Anne de Mailly
(1717 – 1744), duchess of Châteauroux.
In 1726, Louise Julie wed her cousin, Louis Alexandre de Mailly.
Shortly thereafter she caught the attention of Louis XV, and was
permitted by her husband to become a royal mistress. Although she served
Louis XV as a courtesan from 1732, she did not become "titular mistress"
(in French, maîtresse en titre) until 1738. Louise Julie did not use her
position to enrich herself or to interfere in politics, unlike her
sister Marie-Anne, a later mistress of the king.
In 1740, she received a letter from her younger sister Pauline-Félicité
requesting to be invited to court. Louise Julie granted her sister's
wish, but upon her arrival at court, Pauline seduced the king and became
his mistress.
Louise Julie remained titular mistress, but the king was in love with
Pauline and gave her the title "marquise of Vintimille" by marrying her
to the marquis of Vintimille, and the castle Choisy-le-Roi as a gift.
However, Pauline quickly became pregnant, and she died giving birth to a
son, Louis, the count de Luc, who looked so much like the king that he
was called Demi-Louis, "small Louis". She was laid at Lit-the-Parade in
the town of Versailles, but during the night, a mob broke in and
mutilated the body of "the king's whore".
The king and Louise Julie were both devastated by the death of
Pauline and shocked by the mutilation of her body, and Louise Julie is
said to have begun to wash the feet of the poor.
Louise Julie was supplanted by her sister, Marie-Anne de Mailly-Nesle,
duchess de Châteauroux, and obliged to leave court in 1742.
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Françoise de Châlus
Françoise de Chalus, duchesse de Narbonne-Lara, dame de La Bove (24
février 1734 à Saint-Germain-Lembron - 7 juillet 1821 à Paris) fut une
maîtresse du roi de France Louis XV.
Dame d'honneur de Madame Adélaïde, fille de Louis XV, elle était donc
dans une situation privilégiée pour fréquenter son amant. Fille de
Gabriel de Châlus, seigneur de Sansac et de Claire de Gerau, elle épousa
en 1749 Jean-François, duc de Narbonne-Lara, sans postérité. Elle est
néanmoins la mère de deux enfants: Philippe, duc de Narbonne-Lara (né le
28 décembre 1750 à Parme) et Louis-Marie, comte de Narbonne-Lara (né le
17 avril 1755).
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Françoise de Chalus
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Marie-Louise O'Murphy de Boisfaily
Marie-Louise O'Murphy de Boisfaily (21 October 1737 – 11 December 1814)
was one of the younger mistresses of King Louis XV of France. Her life
was dramatised in the 1997 novel Our Lady of the Potatoes.
She was the fifth daughter of an Irish officer who had taken up
shoemaking in Rouen, France. After his death, her mother brought the
family to Paris.
In 1752, at fourteen years of age, she posed nude for a memorable and
provocative portrait by artist François Boucher. Casanova takes in his
Memoirs (ch. 31) the credit for introducing her to Louis XV and from
them it looks like the portrait is part of a sales campaign of her. The
king, being the best bidder, took her as one of his mistresses, and she
quickly became a favourite, giving birth to the king's illegitimate
daughter, Agathe Louise de Saint-Antoine (1754 – 1774). General de
Beaufranchet is also thought to have been her child but conceived
legitimately with the comte de Beaufranchet.
After serving as a mistress to the king for just over two years,
O'Murphy made a mistake that was common for many courtesans, that of
trying to replace the official mistress. Around 1754, she unwisely tried
to unseat the longtime royal favorite, Madame de Pompadour. This
ill-judged move quickly resulted in O'Murphy's downfall at court; a
marriage was arranged to comte de Beaufranchet. He died for France in
1757, at the battle of Rossbach. She would marry twice more, her third
husband being thirty years her junior. The last marriage ended in
divorce.
Following the French Revolution, O'Murphy was imprisoned because of
her royal connections, but she survived the Reign of Terror and many
years of political turmoil. She died in 1814 at the age of 77.
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Marie-Louise O'Murphy (1737-1818), mistress to Louis
XV of France, painted by
Francois Boucher
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see collection:
Francois Boucher
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Madame du Barry
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marie-Jeanne (or Jeanette) Bécu, Comtesse du Barry (19 August
1743 – 8 December, 1793) was the last maîtresse en titre of Louis XV of
France and one of the victims of the Reign of Terror during the French
Revolution.
Jeanne Bécu was born at Vaucouleurs, Lorraine, the illegitimate
daughter of Anne Bécu, a woman of enticing beauty, who was variously
reported as a seamstress or a cook. Her father was possibly Jean
Baptiste Gormand de Vaubernier, a friar known as 'Brother Angel.' During
her childhood, her mother's lover, Monsieur Billard-Dumonceaux, father
of Jeanne's brother Claude (who died in infancy when only ten months
old) funded her education at the convent of Saint-Aure.
At the age of fifteen, Marie-Jeanne moved to Paris, where she worked
first as an assistant to a young hairdresser named Lametz (with whom she
had a brief relationship which may have produced a daughter, although it
is very improbable (Joan Haslip, Madame du Barry-The Wages Of Beauty,
1991, pg.6, TPP publication.), then as a companion (dame de compagnie)
to an elderly widow Madame de la Garde, and later as a milliner's
assistant in a shop named 'Á la Toilette' owned by a certain Monsieur
Labille, where she became a very good friend of his daughter, the future
painter Adélaïde Labille-Guiard. As reflected in art from the time,
Jeanne was a remarkably attractive blonde. Her beauty came to the
attention of Jean du Barry, a high-class pimp/procurer (Joan Haslip,
Madame du Barry-The Wages Of Beauty, 1991, pg.13, TPP publication.) and
owner of a casino, in 1763 whilst Jeanne was entertaining in Madame
Quisnoy's brothel-casino (Agnes de Stoeckl, Mistress of Versailles,
1966, pg.23, John Murray.). He made her his mistress and helped
establish her career as a courtesan in the highest circles of Parisian
society, enabling her to take several wealthy men as her lovers.
Life as a courtesan and official mistress to Louis XV
She first became a courtesan known as Mademoiselle Lange, immediately
becoming a sensation in Paris, building up a large aristocratic
clientele. The dashing Maréchal de Richelieu became one of her recurring
customers. Jean du Barry, however, saw her as a means of influence with
Louis XV, who became aware of her in 1768 while she was on an errand at
Versailles which involved the duc de Choiseul, who found her rather
ordinary, in contrast to what most other men thought of her. In any
case, Jeanne could not qualify as an official royal mistress unless she
had a title; this was solved by her marriage to du Barry's brother,
comte Guillaume du Barry, on 1 September 1768, including also a false
birth certificate created by Jean, making Jeanne younger by three years
and of nobler descent (Joan Haslip, Madame du Barry-The Wages Of Beauty,
1991, pg.27, TPP publication.).
Her official sponsor, Madame de Béarn, presented her to the Court at
Versailles on 22 April 1769. Jeanne was wearing a queenly silvery white
gown brocaded with gold, bedecked in jewels and with huge panniers at
the sides, a dress which had been ordered especially by Richelieu, and
the likes of which many courtiers had claimed had never been seen
before.
Jeanne was a tremendous triumph. She now wore extravagant gowns of
great proportions both in creation and cost, exhausting the treasury all
the more. With diamonds covering her delicate neck and ears, she was now
the king's maîtresse déclarée. Due to her new position at Court, she
made both friends and enemies. Her most bitter rival was the comtesse
Béatrix de Grammont, Choiseul's sister, who futilely had tried her best
to acquire the place of the late Marquise de Pompadour.
Jeanne quickly accustomed herself in living in luxury, but her good
nature was not spoilt. When the old comte and comtesse de Lousene were
forcibly evicted from their château due to heavy debts, they were
sentenced to beheading due to the Comtesse having shot dead a bailiff
and police officer while resisting. To their great fortune, they were
good friends with Madame de Béarn, who told Jeanne of their situation.
Though warned by Richelieu of her possible failure, she asked the king
to pardon them, refusing to rise from her kneeling posture if he did not
accept her request. Louis XV was astounded and his heart thawed, saying,
"Madame, I am delighted that the first favour you should ask of me
should be an act of mercy!"(Stanley Loomis, Du Barry, 1965, pgs.55-6,
Pyramid Books.)
While Jeanne was part of the faction that brought down the Duc de
Choiseul, Minister of Foreign Affairs, she was unlike her late
predecessor, Madame de Pompadour, in that she had little interest in
politics, rather preferring to pass her time having new gowns made and
ordering jewelry of every shape, size and colour.
While Jeanne was known for her good nature and support of artists, she
grew increasingly unpopular because of the king's financial extravagance
towards her. Her relationship with Marie Antoinette, the Dauphine of
France, was contentious. The Dauphine supported Choiseul as the
proponent of the alliance with Austria and also defied court protocol by
refusing to speak to Mme du Barry, due not only to her disapproval of
the latter's background, but also after hearing of du Barry's amused
reaction to a story told by Cardinal de Rohan, in which
Marie-Antoinette's mother, Maria Theresa, was slandered. What was to
many an amusing incident had now become a phenomenon at Versailles, and
since the Dauphine refused to speak to her, Mme du Barry furiously
complained to the king. Eventually, during a ball on New Year's Day
1772, Marie Antoinette spoke to her, saying, "There are a great many
people at Versailles today," but she made it clear to Count Mercy the
very next instant that she would say nothing else to du Barry.
In time, the king started to show his age by constantly thinking of
death and repentance, even missing 'appointments' in Jeanne's boudoir.
During a brief stay at the Petit Trianon with her, Louis XV felt the
first symptoms of his second (and last) smallpox attack. He was brought
back to the palace at night and put to bed, where his three daughters
and Mme du Barry were kept to attend him. At the king's request before
his death in May 1774, Mme du Barry was sent away from the court and
sent to the Abbaye du Pont-aux-Dames, near Meaux-en-Brie, as her
continued presence at Versailles would have prevented the king from
receiving the last sacrament, the "extreme unction".
Two years later, she moved to the Château de Louveciennes. In
following years, she had a liaison with Louis Hercule Timolon de Cossé,
Duke of Brissac(Joan Haslip, Madame du Barry-The Wages Of Beauty, 1991,
pg.133, TPP publication.). She later also fell in love with Henry
Seymour, whom she met when he moved with his family to the Château's
whereabouts. In time Seymour became fed up with his secret love affair
and sent a painting to Jeanne with the words written 'leave me alone' in
English at the bottom, which the painter Lemoyne copied in 1796. The
Duke de Brissac proved the more faithful, having kept Jeanne in his
heart even though he jealously knew something was going on between her
and Seymour. Unfortunately the Revolution brought misfortune for the
two. Brissac had been captured whilst visiting Paris, and was
slaughtered by a peasant mob. Late one night Jeanne heard the sound of a
small drunken crowd approaching the Château, and from one of her opened
windows from where she looked out someone threw an object covered with a
blood-stained cloth. To Jeanne's horror, it was Brissac's head, at which
sight she fainted.
In 1792, Mme du Barry made several trips to London in order to
authenticate jewelry, which was stolen from her with the aid of her
now-grown black page Zamor, who disliked his mistress for her airy
attitude (Joan Haslip, Madame du Barry-The Wages Of Beauty, 1991,
pg.151, TPP publication.). In addition, she was suspected of financially
assisting émigrés who had fled the French Revolution. The following
year, she was arrested by the Revolutionary Tribunal of Paris on charges
of treason. After a trial, Mme du Barry was executed by guillotine on
the Place de la Révolution (nowadays, Place de la Concorde) on 8
December 1793. She had tried to save herself by revealing the hiding
places of the gems she had hidden around her property (Agnes de Stoeckl,
Mistress of Versailles, 1966, pg.174, John Murray.).
On the way to the guillotine, she continually collapsed in the
tumbrel and cried "You are going to hurt me! Why?!" She became terrified
at the time of her execution: "She screamed, she begged mercy of the
horrible crowd that stood around the scaffold, she aroused them to such
a point that the executioner grew anxious and hastened to complete his
task." Her last words to the executioner: "Encore un moment, monsieur le
bourreau, un petit moment," ("One moment more, Mr. executioner, one
little moment"). She was buried in a common grave in the Madeleine
cemetery (Cimetière de la Madeleine) where had been buried Louis XVI,
Marie-Antoinette and many victims of the Terror in Paris.
Since she was now dead and had no known heirs, the proceeds went to
the Tribunal de Paris. Later the jewels she had smuggled out of France
to England were sold by auction at Christie's in 1795 for the not
inconsequential sum of £8,791 4s 9d. .
The necklace involving Jeanne de la Motte-Valois, which was the same
one that the dauphine Marie Antoinette was wrongly accused of bribing
Rohan to purchase for her, was originally destined for Mme du Barry by
Louis XV, who died before the purchase could take place, leaving the
jewellers Bohmer and Bassenge desperate for a buyer of the
overly-expensive creation.
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Madame du Barry
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Madame du Barry by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, 1781
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Madame du Barry, posthumous portrait ca 1789–1805,
by Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun.
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Madame du Barry,
by François-Hubert Drouais
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Madame du Barry, 1782 von Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun
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A Clever Mistress
Madame la Marquise de Pompadour and Louis XV
(K.Reichold, B.Graf)
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Francois Boucher
Portrait of Madame de Pompadour
1756
Oil on canvas
201 x 157 cm
Alte Pinakothek, Munich
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I am always being blamed for the general wretchedness, the Cabinet's
unfounded policies, the disastrous war campaigns and the triumphs
celebrated by our enemies. I stand accused of having sold
everything, of having my fingers in every pie, of ruling behind the
scenes. One day at dinner the King asked an old man to be so kind as
to give his compliments to the Marquise de Pompadour. Everyone
laughed at the poor man as a simpleton. But I did not laugh.
Madame la Marquise de Pompadour(1721-1764), Letters, 1922
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There was a small secret staircase at Versailles that led
from the king's Cabinet to the second floor. There dwelled a
lady named Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, who has gone down in
history as the Marquise de Pompadour. Louis XV of
France, the Sun King's great-grandson and his successor,
frequently climbed the steps to visit her. He is said to
have preferred to disappear from Cabinet meetings for trysts
with his mistress. When that happened, the ministers had to
sit and wait for the king until he returned as Court
etiquette forbade their leaving the room without the
monarch. Thus Court lackeys could be deceived into thinking
the king had spent the entire time in conference with his
ministers.
Witty, cultured and beautiful, Madame de Pompadour may have
been the daughter of a head-groom working on a duke's
estate; her mother was a beauty in her own right. Madame de
Pompadour was the fourth official royal mistress. Although
married to the Polish princess Maria Leszczyriska
since 1725, Louis XV seems to have embarked on his first
extramarital affair in 1733. The first years of his marriage
had been happy ones and six daughters and a son survived the
union with Maria, who was deeply humiliated by her husband's
infidelity. The first three royal mistresses to be
established successively at Court from 1738 spent their time
giving parties at the king's expense and behaving in a way
that aroused public indignation. Years afterwards the queen
was still complaining of having nightmares about her
husband's dreadful mistresses.
Madame la Marquise de Pompadour was altogether different.
She was unlike the others. No Bacchanalian parties took
place in the private apartments of this grande dame. She
gave exquisite little dinners with the king and invitations
to them were coveted indeed. Moreover, Madame la Marquise
was anxious to be on a good footing with the queen. She
visited her every day, brought her flowers and chatted with
her. The Marquise was even known to have served on occasion
as an intermediary between the king and queen. When she
heard one day that the queen had lost a considerable sum at
gambling but was afraid to tell her husband what had
happened, Madame de Pompadour asked the king for the
privilege of paying the queen's debts of honour herself.
Submitting to fate with gentle piety, Maria Leszcyriska
allowed Madame de Pompadour to take her place at the king's
side. The bourgeoise, whose paternity has never been
satisfactorily established, became the power behind the
throne at Versailles. When it came to appointing officials
and ministers and making major decisions, Louis XV always
consulted his mistress.
For this reason Francois Boucher, once her drawing
master and Court Painter to the king, painted a
semi-official portrait of her. The seal and letter probably
hint at her political ambition. That she was an accomplished
singer is symbolised by the scores scattered at her feet.
Even the little spaniel was not a prop provided by the
painter. Her name was Mimi and she really did belong to
Madame de Pompadour.
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Maurice Quentin de Latour
Portrait of the Marquise de Pompadour
1755
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Francois Boucher
Portrait of Marquise de Pompadour
1759
Oil on canvas, 91 x 68 cm
Wallace Collection, London
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Francois Boucher
Portrait of Marquise de Pompadour
1758
Oil on canvas, 72,5 x 57 cm
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
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Francois Boucher
Marquise de Pompadour at the Toilet-Table
1758
Oil on canvas, 81 x 63 cm
Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge
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Francois Boucher
Portrait of Marquise de Pompadour |
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Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, marquise de Pampadour
(Encyclopaedia Britannica)
born Dec. 29, 1721, Paris
died April 15, 1764, Versailles, Fr.
byname Madame De Pompadour, also called (1741–45) Jeanne-Antoinette
Le Normant D'étioles influential mistress (from 1745) of the French
king Louis XV and a notable patron of literature and the arts.
Early years.
Her parents were on the fringes of a class gaining in
importance, speculators in the world of finance. Some of these people
made immense fortunes, but many ended in the gutter if not in
prison. Her father, François Poisson, involved in a black-market
scandal, had to flee the country in 1725; his beautiful wife and two
small children were then looked after by a more fortunate colleague,
Le Normant de Tournehem. Both children were clever, and the girl was
fascinating; she was educated to be the wife of a rich man. In those
days rich men, even if they came from a low class, were interested
in art and literature, and they expected their wives to share these
interests.
By the time Mademoiselle Poisson was of an age to marry, she could
hold her own in any society and had made friends with many
distinguished men, including Voltaire. Le Normant de Tournehem
arranged a match for her with his own nephew, Charles-Guillaume Le
Normant d'Etioles, a rising young man; they had a little girl,
Alexandrine. Madame d'Etioles became a shining star of Parisian
society and was admired by the King himself. In 1744 Louis XV's
young mistress, the Duchesse de Chateauroux, died suddenly. She was
soon replaced by Madame d'Étioles, who obtained a legal separation
from her husband and was created marquise de Pompadour.
Nineteenth-century historians thought that Madame de Pompadour had
complete ascendancy over Louis XV. These post-Revolution writers
were concerned with portraying the Bourbon monarchs as poor
creatures; it is now generally admitted that Louis XV was a much
more able man than he has been painted. Shy and introspective, he
had difficulty in communicating with people whom he did not know
well. Madame de Pompadour acted as his private secretary, but,
although she gave the orders, the decisions were made by the King.
She began her reign at Versailles modestly. She was lodged in a few
rooms under the roof; she set out to make herself agreeable to all
those who counted for anything in the palace, beginning with Queen
Marie (Maria Leszczynska). Marie could hardly have been a more
unsuitable wife for the handsome, artistic, sensual, and
pleasure-loving Louis XV. Eight years older than he, she
was preoccupied with the welfare of her father (a deposed king of
Poland), with childbearing, and with religion. After giving birth
to an heir to the throne (and eight or nine other children between
1727 and 1737), she let the King understand that she had no wish to
remain sexually intimate with him.
After five romantic years in her attic, Madame de Pompadour moved
downstairs to a regal apartment. Louis XV now began to take other
mistresses, but Madame de Pompadour was more firmly established than
ever before; favours, promotions, and privileges could be obtained
only through her good offices.
Artistic and political collaboration with Louis.
Her collaboration with the King was twofold, artistic and political.
The artistic side was wholly successful. On her suggestion, her
brother was appointed director of the King's buildings and created
marquis de Marigny; the brother, the sister, and Louis XV, working
in perfect harmony, planned and built the École Militaire and the
Place Louis XV (now the Place de la Concorde) in Paris, most of the
palace of Compiègne, the Petit Trianon Palace at Versailles, a new
wing at the palace of Fontainebleau, and the exquisite Château de
Bellevue, as well as many pavilions and summer houses. He and his
mistress patronized all forms of decorative art: painters,
sculptors, cabinetmakers, and craftsmen worked under the royal eye;
the famous porcelain factory was built at Sèvres. Madame de
Pompadour's 20 years of power marked the very apogee of taste in
France. The protector of most of the authors and the editor of the
Encyclopédie, she would have liked to do for literature what she did
for the arts, but the King had no literary interests and disliked
the intellectuals whom he knew.
The political collaboration between the King and his mistress was
much less successful than the artistic, mainly because the French
politicians and generals of the day were of such poor calibre. The
Duc de Choiseul, by far the ablest of the ministers, was Madame de
Pompadour's protégé. He was brought in to implement the famous
Reversal of Alliances, which allied Francewith its old enemy Austria
against the German Protestant principalities. This was a
statesmanlike conception, but it was unpopular and led to the Seven
Years' War, disastrous to France. Frederick the Great crushed the
huge, incompetently led French and Austrian armies, while the
English were driving the French out of Canada. All these defeats
were laid at the door of Madame de Pompadour. She fell prey to
melancholy, and soon after the end of the war she died, in the
spring of 1764, probably of cancer of the lung, in her apartment at
Versailles. One of her last actions was to get Louis XV's support
for the revision of the Calas case, a gross miscarriage of justice
in which Voltaire was interested.
Voltaire said of her:
I mourn her out of gratitude . . . Born sincere, she loved the King
for himself; she had righteousness in her soul and justice in her
heart; all this is not to be met with every day.
Nancy Mitford
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Portraits of Marquise de Pompadour
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 Francois Hubert Drouais
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 Carle van
Loo
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 Luois Marin Bonnet
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 Auguste de Saint Aubin
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 Jean-Marc
Nattier
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 Alexander Roslin
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 Chaudon F.
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see collection:
Francois Boucher
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