Marie Antoinette 瑪麗·安托瓦內特 マリー・アントワネット

One of the most significant seismic events in world history was the French Revolution. It was a consuming conflagration of violence, bloodshed, and utopianism that permanently altered France and, later, all of Europe. However, few names have survived as iconically as that of Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France, who has in many ways come to represent the revolution in the public consciousness, among the multitude of enormous, vibrant names that characterized this apocalyptic event. 

Marie Antoinette ( Maria Antonia Josefa Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last Queen of France before the French Revolution and the establishment of the French First Republic. She was the wife of Louis XVI. Born Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria, she was the penultimate child and youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I. She married Louis Auguste, Dauphin of France, in May 1770 at age 14, becoming the Dauphine of France. On 10 May 1774, her husband ascended the throne as Louis XVI, and she became queen.

As queen, Marie Antoinette became increasingly a target of criticism by opponents of the domestic and foreign policies of Louis XVI and those opposed to the monarchy in general. The French libelles accused her of being profligate, promiscuous, having illegitimate children, and harboring sympathies for France's perceived enemies, including her native Austria. She was falsely accused of defrauding the Crown's jewelers in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, but the accusations damaged her reputation further. During the French Revolution, she became known as Madame Déficit because the country's financial crisis was blamed on her lavish spending and her opposition to social and financial reforms proposed by Anne Robert Jacques Turgot and Jacques Necker.

Several events were linked to Marie Antoinette during the Revolution after the government placed the royal family under house arrest in the Tuileries Palace in October 1789. The June 1791 attempted flight to Varennes and her role in the War of the First Coalition were immensely damaging to her image among French citizens. On 10 August 1792, the attack on the Tuileries forced the royal family to take refuge at the Legislative Assembly, and they were imprisoned in the Temple Prison on 13 August 1792. On 21 September 1792, France was declared a republic and the monarchy was abolished. Louis XVI was executed by guillotine on 21 January 1793. Marie Antoinette's trial began on 14 October 1793; two days later, she was convicted by the Revolutionary Tribunal of high treason and executed by guillotine on 16 October 1793 at the Place de la Révolution.

For many revolutionary figures, Marie Antoinette was the symbol of what was wrong with the old regime in France. The onus of having caused the financial difficulties of the nation was placed on her shoulders by the revolutionary tribunal, and under the new republican ideas of what it meant to be a member of a nation, her Austrian descent and continued correspondence with the competing nation made her a traitor. The people of France saw her death as a necessary step toward completing the revolution. Furthermore, her execution was seen as a sign that the revolution had done its work.

Today, Marie Antoinette remains a celebrated and controversial figure, with her dramatic life story still evoking conflicting feelings. Her extravagant and frivolous behavior contributed to the fall of the French monarchy, and she is still regarded by many as la reine chante. The apocryphal phrase "let them eat cake" embodies her disregard for the suffering of the masses. She was charged with sexual excesses and personal profligacy. Others support her with equal fervor, believing that she is a misogynistic victim. One of history's truly romantic and mistreated figures is still Marie Antoinette. She was a loving mother and a kind queen who did little to merit her terrible fate. 

Long after her death, Marie Antoinette remains a major historical figure linked with conservatism, the Catholic Church, wealth and fashion. She has been the subject of many books, films, and other media. Politically engaged authors have deemed her the quintessential representative of class conflict, western aristocracy and absolutism. Some of her contemporaries, such as Jefferson, attributed to her as a cause of the French Revolution.

She is well remembered for her support to the arts. She supported the composers she appreciated, like Grétry, Gluck and Sacchini. She had a very refined taste and as a result was patron for many artists, such as the painter Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, whose successful career as a portraitist owed much to the Queen's support, and who produced around thirty portraits of her.

Marie Antoinette is a popular costume theme at the Venice Carnevale. I have seen quite a few versions of costumers doing the Marie Antoinette theme, but none as well as my Italian friend Laura, in her beautiful dress made by famous Sartista costume maker Angolo Poretti.

Another Italian friend comes as Hans Axel von Fersen (4 September 1755 – 20 June 1810), known as Axel de Fersen in France, a Swedish count, Marshal of the Realm of Sweden, a General of Horse in the royal Swedish Army, one of the Lords of the Realm, aide-de-camp to Rochambeau in the American Revolutionary War, diplomat and statesman, and a friend of Queen Marie-Antoinette of France.

In the late summer of 1778, von Fersen traveled to Normandy with his friend, the Baron de Stedingk, to see a large army camp that was training under the command of the Duke of Broglie. Besides military matters, they were treated to dinner and dances attended by the officers and their wives. Von Fersen later paid his respects to the French royal family for the first time since his grand tour more than three years earlier:

26 August: "Last Tuesday I went to Versailles to be presented to the royal family. The charming queen said when she saw me, 'Ah! Here is an old acquaintance.' The rest of the family did not say a word to me.

8 September: "The queen, who is the prettiest and most amiable princess that I know, has had the kindness to inquire about me often; she asked Creutz why I did not go to her card parties on Sundays; and hearing that I did go one Sunday when there was none, she sent me a sort of excuse. Her pregnancy advances and is quite visible."

19 November: The queen treats me with great kindness; I often pay her my court at her card games, and each time she makes to me little speeches that are full of good-will. As someone had told her of my Swedish uniform, she wished to see me in it; I am to go Thursday thus dressed, not to Court, but to the queen's apartments. She is the most amiable princess that I know."

There was a lot of conjecture regarding the nature of the Queen's relationship with the Swedish soldier. Although there isn't any concrete historical evidence that they were lovers, the myth is kept alive by the persistence of mystery. However, the count's letters to friends and family as well as their covert correspondence offer convincing proof of their shared affection. Von Fersen wrote in a letter to his sister Sophie Piper. "“I have decided never to marry. It would be unnatural… I cannot belong to the one person I truly want… So I prefer to belong to nobody.”

Marie Antoinette's social circle quickly disintegrated at the start of the Revolution, but von Fersen stuck by his queen. In 1791, he orchestrated the royal family's escape to Varennes and made every effort to preserve the Queen's life, including negotiating with foreign nations. The execution of Marie Antoinette in 1793 had a significant impact on him: “I have lost everything I had in this world... The one I loved so much, for whom I would have given my life a thousand times over, is no more.”

The Venice Carnevale is not solely about masks. Local Italians and an increasing number of foreign costumers now prefer historical costumes or painted faces. During Carnevale, the whole Venice becomes a real life theatrical stage, and many of these historical costumes carry deep perspectives...

And as usual, the portraits are just done on the busy streets of Venice and using natural lighting only...It is not an indoor photo studio, there is no artificial lighting, flash or reflectors...With my costumed friends, we just take our street portraiture to an all new level....