Born Archduchess of Austria, forerunner of the fashionistas, very young consort of King Louis XVI, who ascended to the throne at just 18 years of age and was guillotined at 37 (1793), Marie Antoinette is today recovered for her elegant taste which influenced decorative and figurative arts.
On display are around 320 pieces, including portraits, dresses, jewels, shoes and personal objects, which show the extreme grace of a segregated queen, as a pioneer of style and harmony who inspired theatrical performances and designers such as Vivienne Westwood (1996) and Moschino (2020).
He loved the Toile de Jolie in all its declinations, with bucolic scenes, animals, flowers and flash so historic that it seems his last request in prison was a Toile jacket.
Louis XVI, upon ascending the throne on May 24, 1774, gave his bride a special bouquet: Le Petit Trianon, a small neoclassical castle within the court of Versailles.
The residence would have been the refuge of the young queen who isolated herself from the rigorous formalities of court, expressing her independence, her fascination with good taste, her Anglomania and Japanese and Chinese culture, keeping her distant from all reality, an act that made her presumptuous and arrogant not only in the eyes of the Third Estate, but also of the court nobles.
The precious embroidery, the colorful wigs, the dresses in the color palettes used by pastry chefs, abstract the figure of the queen from the horror and terror of her time, distancing her into a courageous and bold elegiac figure, a leader of good taste and not a victim of fashionism.
The last room is dedicated to the autobiographical film of the queen played by Kirsten Dunst (director Sofia Coppola, 2006) with costumes designed by Milena Canonero (Oscar winner, 2007) and shoes by English designer Manolo Blanik: a triumph of femininity in pastel colors that becomes a visual and chromatic language.
A performance that celebrates good taste an end in itself, and which neglects gruesome historical details (even if in one corner there is a guillotine, the white prisoner's smock and the prayer booklet with the last dedication to the two children Maria Teresa and Luigi Carlo).
In these pitiful times the exhibition is sic et simpliciter a hymn to the beauty of Femininity
