Posts tagged art

Posts tagged art
Maria Elisabeth Josepha of Austria, the sixth child of Maria Theresa and elder sister to Marie Antoinette, by Joseph Ducreux. 1769.
(C) RMN (Château de Versailles) / Gérard Blot
A portrait of the imprisoned Marie Antoinette in widow’s garb by Alexandre Kucharski.
Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, in 1774
(C) RMN (Château de Versailles) / Droits réservés
A great-niece of Marie Antoinette: Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria-Este (14 July 1817 - 25 March 1886).
Maria Theresa’s father, Francis IV of Modena, was the son of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, a son of Maria Theresa and brother of Marie Antoinette.
Maria Theresa had another yet connection to her great-aunt: She was chosen by Marie Antoinette’s surviving daughter, Marie Therese Charlotte, to marry the grandson of Charles X, Henri, the comte de Chambord. They married in 1846, although it was said that Henri preferred her younger sister, Maria Beatrix. Maria Theresa was later instrumental in the creation of a crypt for the French Royal Family in Görz, which is now Nova Gorica, Slovenia. She was buried there alongside her husband after her death in 1886.
Archduke Ferdinand of Austria with his wife, Maria Beatrice d’Este and his daughters, Maria Leopoldina and Maria Theresa.
Chateau de Versailles: From 19 June to 30 September 2012, the Palace of Versailles presents the exhibition Joana Vasconcelos Versailles in the State Apartments and the gardens.
Joana Vasconceloson her Versailles exhibition:
The palace of Versailles is the place of art par excellence, where artists have always felt at home, displaying their work in it not as an exhibition space but as a setting totally imbued with art. It is a full, complete and rich place where it seems that nothing can be added. It is the ideal setting for celebrating audacity, experimentation and freedom, where creative talent is appreciated like in no other place.
My work has developed around the idea that the world is an opera, and Versailles embodies the operatic and aesthetic ideal that inspires me. The works that I propose exist for this place. I see them as linked to Versailles in a timeless way. When I stroll through the rooms of the Palace and its Gardens, I feel the energy of a setting that gravitates between reality and dreams, the everyday and magic, the festive and the tragic. I can still hear the echo of the footsteps of Marie-Antoinette, and the music and festive ambiance of the stately rooms. How would the life of Versailles look if this exuberant and grandiose universe was transferred to our period?
Interpreting the dense mythology of Versailles, transporting it into the contemporary world, and evoking the presence of the important female figures that have lived here, while drawing on my identity and my experience as a Portuguese woman born in France, will certainly be the most fascinating challenge of my career.
Image: ‘Red Independent Heart’ by Joana Vasconcelos/ © Château de Versailles / DMF, Lisbon / Courtesy Atelier Joana Vasconcelos
Versailles by Auguste Renoir, circa 1900-1905