Kings of France
King Henri III
King Henri III in Court Dress
These are the controversial images of the king, after his ascension to the throne, where he is dressed in his Sunday finest, to deliberately show off.
from: Metropolitan Museum
Note the full blown dinner plate-sized ruff collar of the days of the mignons ca 1578, and far larger than those of 1571, King Henri III as a Young Man. The portrait above seems to predate the 1578 founding of the Order of the Saint-Esprit (he lacks the blue cordon in the image ? hard to tell...). This is the Henri II that was popularized (and savaged) by Dumas in la Reine Margot etc.
Now for the king's really controversial portrait en pied (full length portrait) with the famous two tone red shoes (not visible in the engraving), enormous ruff, mini cape and massive pearl necklace is owned by the Louvre, but no longer on display, and a color image (showing the red shoes cf infra) could not be found:
B&W image from JOCONDE
The peascod belly of the suit was quite fashionable: it is common in pictures of men in the later years of Queen Elizabeth of England's reign. To understand how controversial this image was/is
<< Tous les visiteurs du Louvre connaissent le
portrait en pied, grandeur
naturelle, de Henri III, qui semble les
accueillir à leur entrée
dans la salle XI.... Certaine grâce
peut-être dans le port, mais une grâce mièvre, apprêté,
à laquelle le
corset qu'on devine sous le pourpoint, conjointement avec
un étalage
de perles aux oreilles, sur la poitrine, ou aux doigts, enlève
toute
noblesse>> Gaston Dodu, Henri III, Revue Historique, sep-dec 1930, p 1
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k182626.r=gaston+dodu+henri+iii.langEN
In the 1930s, people judged the king by this portrait which they viewed as proof positive of his deviant character. Much of that has been disproved by recent historians and one can understand why the Louvre chooses not to show this portrait. The following 19th centry engraving is supposedly of the Louvre oil paiting but shows an exaggerated comic-book image of the king
Engraving from http://digital.nypl.org/mmpco/index.cfm
Note how his breeches have disappeared to be replaced by skin-tight pants that were typical of the 1800s, not the 1600s. (It is hard to see the breeches in the photograph above, but heis "pants" end at the knee with hose below. This was a two piece style of pants).
There is another portrait of the king, clearing from a different sitting (the king wears white and no cordon of the Saint Esprit) unfortunately in a copyrighted article (thus not copied here) that shows the same pearl necklace, but much smaller than in theoil painting. One must not take these details so literally. And the necklace may have come from his brother Charles IX, who wore an identical one, with much less criticism
An Unknown Portrait of Henri III of France
Author(s): Francis M. Kelly
Source: The Burlington Magazine for
Connoisseurs, Vol. 60, No. 351 (Jun., 1932), pp. 307-309
Published
by: The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd.
Stable URL:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/865250
Accessed: 10/06/2009
17:42
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of
JSTOR's Terms
Homosexuality & Effeminacy
The Louvre portrait is at the heart of many claims of the king's effeminacy and homosexuality. Norris, a famous fashion historian whose books remain an essential reference on costume, provides a detailed discussion of this portrait and savages the king in the process. Norris' homophobia is obvious in every word: he says the king "indulged in all kinds of frivolities and debaucheries". Norris cites the infamous anecdotes about bilboquets and playing with his tiny dogs in a colporteur basket (hung from his neck). In 1930, Norris described the shoes as "the velvet-covered feet have scarlet heels attached to white kid heel pieces which fasten around the instep " (655).
Norris always refers to the king's hat as a turban, which has negative connotations in English: women wear turnbans, not men. And it was not a turban - made of yards of material swirled around the head - it was a tocque, of sorts, though flatter than those worn by Charles IX.
Red Shoes - Souliers Rouges
Yet, note how the King's basic clothing is very simple. In modern day parlance, we would say he needs to lose some accessories but the suit is nice. The red shoes were later shown on Louis XIV in his portrait by Rigaud. Some claim that red shoes were a prerogative of the French monarchs. That is possible - red dye certainly was expensive stuff - but I have no hard evidence of this. perhaps it was an attempt to keep up satorially with the red shoes of the fisherman ? After all, the popes & French kings forever jousted for control
Cf http://etablissements.ac-amiens.fr/0020687l/articles.php?lng=fr&pg=910&mnu_modecol=W
Note how Monsieur - the younger brother of the uber-fashionable Louis XIV - made red shoes fashionable at the court of Louis XIV
http://www.histoire-en-ligne.com/spip.php?article994
A Fair Comparison
One must put the king in context: compare him to other sovereigns in Europe. And it is hard to find fair comparisons ie what did sovereigns look like at the same time as Henri III (not years earlier or later)
-
King Philip II of Spain was an old man - never managed to wear anything but black since the Spanish court edicted black for two years after a death in the family and there were lots of deaths among the Habsburgs
-
Emperor Rudolph was an eccentric & not a fair comparison by any means
-
Compare this to any one of Queen Elizabeth Tudor's outfits and it looks positively spare (alright, she was a woman and allowed to wear more frills ... but she was known for her penny-pinching ways) then take a look at the Earl of Leicester who is no less ornamented than the king.