|
|
|
|
The aged Chancellor, shown on horseback with an entourage
of young, fleet-footed pages, cuts a dignified figure. In
stiff robes of gold brocade, Pierre Seguier, Duke of Villemor,
has all the makings of an idol or a Chinese mandarin. In
fact, his swagger was the official pose of the Lord Chief
Justice of France and head of that country's civil service
in the mid-17th century; above all else, the grandeur of the
portrait by Charles Le Brun (1619-1690) shows how Seguier
wished the world to see him. The painting, measuring 2.95 by
3.57 metres, hangs in the Louvre, Paris.
Two violet silk parasols sway above Se-guier's head.
Conspicuous insignia of his rank, these also provided
welcome protection against the scorching sun under whose
burning heat Paris sweltered on that 26th August 1660.
Indeed, so great was the heat, according to one contemporary
chronicler, that the Chancellor, contrary to official
protocol, was obliged to allow his entourage to don their
hats now and then. The representatives of the state
chancellory were participating in a procession that moved
gradually through a Paris decorated with triumphal arches
and obelisks, while at His Majesty Louis XIV's side, his
newly-wed wife Maria Theresia celebrated her entry to the
capital.
The 21 -year-old French monarch and the daughter of Philip
IV, King of Spain, had been married shortly before in a town
at the border. The purpose of the match was to seal the
peace between the two states. France had emerged victorious
from the struggle for European hegemony which had marred
relations between the two countries for almost 30 years, but
it had emerged almost as exhausted as the vanquished Spain.
Before Louis XIV came of age, the nobility and parliament
had endeavoured to augment their respective power at the
cost of the monarchy, plunging the country into civil war in
the process. France was bankrupt; there was a depression;
the population had been decimated by invading armies, famine
and epidemics were rampant. It was time for a change.
The orderly procession was intended as a sign to the
cheering Parisians that a new epoch of peace and glory had
dawned. It was led by the retinue of His Eminence, the
all-powerful minister, Cardinal Mazarin, who had arranged
the peace treaty and wedding. Next came the royal household
and then the royal stables. Following them, in fourth place,
came the representatives of the chancellory. Besides Seguier
himself, counsellors, treasurers and secretaries, as well as
those at the bottom of the hierarchy, the beadles and court
ushers, all took part in the procession. Their appearance is
captured in an ironic description of the event by Jean de la
Fontaine, written in rhvming verse:
"The sires of Council a splendid sight, in their midst was
the Chancellor, a pillar of might, dressed from his head to
his toe in brocade, while his retinue made the splendid
parade ..."
The parade was an impressive testimony to the power of a
healthy monarchy. It was one of the first great
manifestations of this kind to take place under the auspices
of the young king. Louis XIV soon proved a master of the art
of using pomp and circumstance for propagandistic purposes,
in the service of absolutism as well as his own fame.
|
|
From burgher to duke
|
|
|
Chancellor Seguier at the Entry of Louis XIV into Paris
in 1660 (detail)
|
|
The Chancellor takes obvious pleasure in his appearance
on this occasion. According to the anecdotal "Histories" of
the writer and worst gossip of the 17th century Tallemant
des Reaux, he was "greedy for glory", avaricious, and
"driven by such extraordinary vanity that he was incapable
of raising his hat to another person." Nobody attached quite
so much importance as he did to "external appearances ...,
and he could hardly walk two feet without calling for his
lackeys and an armed guard." Like most of his
contemporaries, Tallemant was not particulary fond of the
Chancellor.
Seguier, who held his exalted office for 37 years and
exercised power ruthlessly, was one of the most hated men in
France. In 1648, while civil war raged in Paris, he was
obliged to hide from the people, who "wanted to tear him to
pieces", in the lavatory of a private house until troops
came to his rescue. The Marquise de Sevigne, famed for her
correspondence, likened the Chancellor to the spiteful
figure of Tartuffe, the hero of a comedy by Moliere, first
performed in 1664. It was not until 1672 when Seguier, with
due composure, died the edifying death of "a great man" that
the lady felt bound to remember his more positive qualities:
piety, wit, a talent for oratory, and a remarkably good
memory.
Seguier -was undoubtedly an unusually gifted lawyer and
administrator, abilities which rendered his services
indispensible to two prime ministers in succession. As their
"most loyal lackey", as Tallemant contemptuously put it, "a
man who could swallow anything", he served Cardinals
Richelieu and Mazarin, who ruled France under Louis XIII and
during Louis XIV's youth.
Like many 17th-century politicians, the Chancellor was from
a bourgeois background. His family came from Parisian
merchant stock and had slowly climbed their way up the
administrative ladder by marrying into the right circles and
using their money to buy profitable public positions. It was
quite normal at the time for public offices to be bought and
sold; such posts were seen as a form of capital investment,
offering their owners both income and independence: civil
servants could be neither transferred nor dismissed.
The Seguiers supported each other wherever they could. In
1612 one of his relations lent Pierre, born in 1588 and made
an orphan early in life, 56,000 livres for the purchase of
his first public office. He became Counsellor of Justice to
the Parisian parliament. Then, using the dowry of his wife,
the daughter of a wealthy army treasurer, who brought 80,000
livres into their marriage, he purchased the office of
President of the Parliament for the bargain sum of 120,000
livres. This allowed the career-minded public servant to
recommend himself to Cardinal Richelieu by steering various
political trials in an opportune direction. Having caught
the minister's attention, Seguier rose rapidly in rank and
position from then on.
In 1634 Seguier's daughter was married to Richelieu's
nephew. To be connected with the house of such a powerful
man brought advantage and honour, but it also meant the
ambitious burgher was obliged to provide a dowry of 500,000
livres, an enormous sum of money. In the following year he
was made Chancellor - a non-purchasable office - and
remained so until his death. He survived, practically
without damage to position or person, both the transition
into Mazarin's service following Richelieu's death in 1642,
and the confusion of the civil wars. In 1650 he was made
Duke of Villemor. By his death in 1672 Pierre Seguier had
amassed a fortune of over four million livres.
But the apotheosis of Seguier's career had come in 1639/40
when Richelieu, investing him with the power of a viceroy,
sent him to Normandy at the head of a punitive force whose
task was to subdue the revolt of the so-called "nu-pieds"
-poverty-stricken rebels who went barefoot — against the
war-tax. Suppressing the uprising with unprecedented
ruthlessness, the Chancellor entered the conquered town of
Rouen in triumph, sourrounded by his generals and saluted by
cannon. This time he was not part of another's entourage,
but the most celebrated figure present.
|
|
The seal of state
on a magnificent steed
|
|
|
Entering Paris with the royal couple, Chancellor Seguier
was preceeded by a magnificent steed sporting a feather
head-dress and decked with a lilac silk sha-braque
embroidered with lilies. The horse was unmounted and carried
on its back a gold-plated casket containing the French seal
of state, the instrument of Seguier's power. Four "chauffe-cires"
(wax-warmers) held silk cords to steady the casket. Their
work, heating the wax and applying the seal, could
apparently be done only by illiterate nobles. This was
thought to prevent abuse of their office.
Drawn in ink and red chalk, the scene is one of 14 drawings
in Stockholm which, laid out in series, show the entire
chancellory department of the procession. They include a
portrayal of Seguier's immediate group that is identical to
the group in Le Brun's painting. The drawing mentions by
name several of the counsellors and secretaries in the
Chancellor's company. The same names are recorded in lists,
dating from the period, of chancellory employees.
The drawings probably formed part of a project commissioned
by the Chancellor and carried out by one of Le Brim's
collaborators. A display of chancellory personnel with its
dignitaries dressed in the pomp of office must have been a
welcome prospect to the vain Seguier, with all his concern
for external appearances. Whether the sketches were intended
as preliminary studies for a series of prints or oil
paintings is unknown. Only the Seguier group found its way
onto canvas.
It was the Chancellor's solemn duty twice a week to preside
over the application of the seal - given such lavish pride
of place in the drawing - to royal correspondence, decrees
and documents. Without the seal, sentences, pardons and
elevations to noble rank remained null and void.
If necessary, the Chancellor could refuse to apply the seal,
for he was answerable only to the king, who, in person, had
appointed him for life. He combined the functions of a
viceroy and Chief Justice, and as head of the civil service
he also had various executive powers. However, his main
function was as the king's official spokesman.
"I have come to bestow my good will upon the parliament. The
Chancellor will tell you everything else." Thus Louis XIV's
dignified utterance on the occasion of his first political
appearance in 1643, following the death of his father. He
was four years old.
Seguier, together with the queen-mother and Mazann, held a
seat in the regency council. He occasionally took a personal
interest in the infant king's upbringing. "My Lord the
Chancellor was here", writes one courtier in his memoirs of
1651, "to see the king at his studies. He was highly
satisfied and exhorted the king to continue." Ten years
later, Seguier's condescension towards the king would have
been considered quite inappropriate. The day after Mazarin's
death, the king, though previously so submissive, threw off
the shackles of patronage. On 10th March 1661 at seven
o'clock in the morning, according to one report, he called
for his ministers and addressed the Chancellor in a tone
worthy of a man who was "Lord over himself and all the
universe": "My Lords, I have asked you to assemble here to
let you know that ... the time has now come for me to govern
my own affairs. You shall come to my aid with your council
should I require it... I demand of you, indeed I order you,
Lord Chancellor, to put my seal on nothing, and to do
nothing in my name, until we have spoken of the same, but to
act solely at my command."
The old Chancellor continued to serve the young king for
several years before his death. On his deathbed, he asked
his confessor to convey his undiminished loyalty to Louis
XIV and had his seal returned to the king: it was Seguier's
last official act.
|
|
Artist with a parasol
|
|
|
Chancellor Seguier at the Entry of Louis XIV into Paris
in 1660 (detail)
|
|
The elegantly poised figure in shining white linen
holding the parasol is said to be Le Bran's self-portrait.
Showing himself in the Chancellor's company was realistic
enough; the son of a Parisian sculptor, he had enjoyed
Seguier's patronage since his childhood. The arts and
sciences not only fell under Seguier's official brief, he
was also a patron of the arts in his own right - hoping, no
doubt, to "have his praises sung", griped Tallemant.
The Chancellor had become acquainted with the talented young
lad in 1631 or 1634, at an early stage in the latter's
career. He provided lodgings for him at his town palace,
where he had also set aside a number of stipends for
writers. He sent Lc Brun to study under well-known masters
and was soon able to show his work at court: a drawing,
executed in 1638, celebrating Louis XIV's birth, and an
allegory dedicated to Cardinal Richelieu. For his patron,
the young artist painted mostly altarpieces and portraits.
In 1642 Seguier sent him to Rome, equipped with letters of
recommendation, expenses and a commission to make copies of
Raphael's works.
Three years later, defying the orders of his patron, Le Brun
returned to France. He had shown signs of insubordination
before, during the years of his apprenticeship in Paris.
However, once back in Paris he remained obedient, gradually
adapting his personality to the dictates of an era in love
with order, in which artists were required to show
discipline and good manners.
Le Brun led an exemplary life. He was pious and diligent,
showing little sign of passion, and none of vice. Women
(other than his wife) had no place in his life or work, to
which he dedicated himself assiduously. His career was
favoured by the timely death of two important painters and
rivals: Simon Vouet (1590-1649) and Eustache Le Sueur
(1617-1655). As soon as the Sun King climbed the throne,
they left the stage to Le Brun without a struggle.
Le Brun had caught the monarch's attention through his work
on the palace of the Minister of Finance, Fouquet, at Vaux.
The artist was responsible for the entire decorations there,
from frescos to fountains in the park and displays of
fireworks on festive occasions. Louis ordered the artist to
paint a scene for him from the life of Alexander the Great.
Le Brun executed the large heroic work to the full
satisfaction of the monarch, painting it in front of his
very eyes. From that time ownwards he enjoyed the king's
favour and worked to spread his
sovereign's fame.
However, Lc Brun did not forget Se-guier, his first patron.
Though the exact date of his portrait of Seguier entering
Paris is unknown, Le Brun designed, following the
Chancellor's death in 1672, the decorations for a church in
which Parisian artists held a memorial mass in the
Chancellor's honour. Madame de Sevigne was present, and
reported as follows: "The mausoleum was as high as the dome
itself, decorated with a thousand candles and several
statues made up to honour the man ... with the insignia of
his high rank ... the judge's cap, ducal coronet and order
... They really were the most beautiful decorations
imaginable."
If Pierre Seguier really did attach so much importance to
having "his praises sung", then he could not have done
better than invest in Charles Le Brun.
|
|
Fashion as
royal propaganda
|
|
|
Chancellor Seguier at the Entry of Louis XIV into Paris
in 1660 (detail)
|
|
To "lend distinction to the highest ranking courtiers",
according to the philospher Voltaire (1694-1778), Louis XIV
personally designed "a blue doublet, embroidered with gold
and silver. To be invited to wear this piece of clothing
"was considered a great honour, an occasion for pride, and
it was as highly coveted as an order on a chain."
Elements of fashion such as patterns and colours, especially
gold, assumed a special value under the influence of the
young monarch. To help establish his absolute authority as
the Sun King, he subordinated all style, form and design, as
well as politics and etiquette, to the interests of his
personal propaganda.
Le Brun soon emerged as the dominant figure among the group
of artists employed by the king. He brought discipline to
the art world, turning the Academy of Fine Art, previously
little more than a loose association of artists, into a
tightly-knit state organization. The Academy assumed a
monopoly over the teaching of art; it awarded stipends,
prizes and state commissions, imposing strict stylistic
orthodoxy. Art, shown to be reducible to a universally
applicable set of precepts, was required to subject itself
to a doctrine of clarity and rationality explicit in the
rules of French Classicism. For twenty years, Le Brun, the
chancellor of the Academy, kept a dictatorial eye over the
strict observance of these rules.
Le Brun was also responsible for establishing norms for the
mass-production of artworks and artefacts. Under his
direction, 50 painters and 700 craftsmen worked at the Royal
Gobelin Factory, which opened m 1663. Here, not only
tapestries, but frescos, wood panelling, furniture, vases,
locks and coaches were made to Le Bran's design. Produced to
the highest standards and showing excellent taste, these
artefacts were intended for Versailles and for export. Le
Brun was the arbiter of taste in all matters of art, design
and cultural management; he created Louis XIV's official
court style, which, like the French language and French
fashions, quickly spread to the rest of Europe.
All this left Le Brun with little time for his own painting.
His great masterpiece, the decoration of Versailles - he
also influenced the architecture of the palace and gardens -
proved ephemeral. He "was forced to stand by and watch as
furniture and vases of silver and gold which he had designed
were melted down to provide funds for Louis' wars. The
unique synthesis of art and design that was Versailles may
have existed to perfection only at such moments when, paying
homage to the "Roi Soleil", courtiers perambulated in the
galleries to the music of Jean-Baptiste Lully. Le Brun, who
had devoted his life to his sovereign's fame, was permitted,
upon his elevation to the nobility, to include Louis XIV's
personal emblem in his coat-of-arms: a resplendent, golden
sun.
Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen
|
|
