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Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Sunday, December 21, 2014

The French Court's Royal Ban On Smiles

During the days of Louis XIV, smiling - in real life and in portraiture - was considered gauche, not least because dental care was lacking. Then one smile sparked a revolution.
In the fall of 1787, the art establishment found itself shaken by a portrait hung in the Louvre by Elizabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun. Her sin? The smile depicted on her visage was not of the accepted tight-lipped, subtle variety, but rather portrayed her with mouth ajar, revealing her pearly whites. This seemingly innocuous painting was so disruptive and subversive in a France on the cusp of the Ancient Regime's demise.

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