Phrygian Cap

I just finished the book Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution for school and I'm not going to lie by the end of the book I was in tears! Of course I knew Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were guillotined but I wasn't aware of all the details that surrounded the execution. 

The piece of history that most brought me to tears was that the guards at the Temple, where the royals were imprisoned, took absolutely everything away from the Queen that they could. Marie Antoinette's husband had just been executed and those in charge decided to take the last thing from her that mattered, her son Louis Charles or Louis XVII. 

Louis Charles or Louis XVII

Painting by: Alexander Kucharsky

The young boy, only 8 at the time was ripped from his mother's side. Marie Antoinette was so opposed to his being taken away that it took the guards over an hour to to remove him from her. The young boy was then placed into the hands of a fanatic revolutionary, alcoholic cobbler who was tasked with deroyalizing the boy. 

The drunk cobbler, Simon, made Louis XVII drink, beat him whenever he called for his mother, and made him curse the monarchy loud enough that his mother could hear him in her room above his. Marie Antoinette was not allowed to see her son but could sometimes catch glimpses of him through a crack in her wall. Louis was clothed in filthy rags and wore a phrygian cap or liberty bonnet on his head. 

Phrygian Cap Above. 

Photo Credit: Jon Goldstein

18th Century French Liberty Bonnet. 

The phrygian cap has a long history. The cap's meaning originated in Ancient Rome where it was used to signify freedom earned by a slave of war. The caps were cheap and easy to make. 

Phrygian caps can be spotted on various decorative arts throughout history but you will see it used religiously during the French Revolution. 

It sits atop the head of Liberty in Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People.

It appears center-stage on this coin from Ancient Rome. 

It even adds a splash of red to this French gravy boat. 

It should be noted that during the French Revolution that phrygian cap became such an important symbol of the revolution and revolutionaries that if you weren't wearing it or other revolutionary inspired accoutrements you could be murdered on the spot. Children as young as eight lives where taken because of trigger-happy revolutionaries. 

Louis XVII died mysteriously 2 years later in the care of the Temple guards. He never saw his mother again. 

Source: Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution. Caroline Weber. 2006.

- Grace

Portrait Drama

Marie Antoinette introduced the simpler fashion of the muslin dress with straw bonnet, similar to the clothing worn by French milkmaids around 1783. She loved the look so much she had her official portrait painted in the outfit and hung in the salon, below La Reine en gaulle. 

The portrait caused such an upheaval that it had to be removed and hastily replaced with the following portrait, La Reine a la Rose. 

Marie Antoinette's introduction of the simpler clothing made the French population fearful that she was trying to wipe out French fashion and replace it with Germanic tastes. The placement of the roses in the portrait, the Hapsburg flower, reinforced this fear in the 1783 French population. 

Please excuse all my Marie Antoinette references lately, I am not only a Francophile I also am reading the book Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution for my Symbolism class at the Smithsonian. The book is fabulous! It's an easy read and historically correct, which kills two birds with one stone. You can also check it out from your library instead of purchasing it, win-win-win. 

- Grace

Marie Antoinette's Shoe

I photographed this from a book in the Library of Congress and I can't find a better image anywhere online. Caption says "Marie Antoinette's leather and silk slipper, 1793 (Musee des Beaux Arts de Caen). The handwritten inscription on the insole reads: "Slipper worn by Queen Marie Antoinette the ill-fated day when she climbed to the scaffold. This shoe was picked up by an individual when the queen lost it and was immediately bought by M. le comte de Guernon-Ranville."

I wish I could see this in color, however it is still an amazing piece of material culture.

-Grace

Playing Cards with Marie Antoinette

Sometimes I like to pretend I'm Marie Antoinette in 18th century France playing cards with Louis XVI. However today I came across a set of cards that makes me wanna pretend I'm me playing cards now!

La Plates has created this adorable set of chevron and monogrammed playing cards. For only $32 you can own your own set that will make you feel like the Marie Antoinette of 2011.

I think I'll have MA emblazed on my set.

PS- Who thinks Chevrons are going to be dead in the water in 6 months? I love Chevrons but I think they've tipped too far into mainstream design and will soon be hanging out with red coral and nickel hardware.

-Grace