la dame de beauté, Agnes Sorel

Still pondering the fate of the unfortunate Gabrielle, who about this time of year 416 years ago was making big wedding plans.

In February 1599, the king of France, Henri IV had promised to marry her but as mentioned in my previous post, it never happened. On the 9th April she developed stomach cramps and after much suffering, she died. Contemporary descriptions of her final agonies are pretty gruesome – including a self-dislocated jaw – and led to the strong suspicion that she was poisoned. If she was, it would not be the first time that poison had been employed to remove an unwanted mistress.

Something similar had happened 150 years earlier. In 1450 Agnes Sorel, beautiful mistress of Charles VII died at the tender age of 28. Just like Gabrielle she was an influential figure at Court, mother of several royal children already, and pregnant with one more at the time of her death. And, just like Gabrielle, we have reason to believe that she was featured in a most remarkable painting.

Jean Fouquet’s Madonna and Child is a quite sensational piece of art. When you first come across it, it is hard to believe that it was painted as long ago as 1450. It really is quite unlike anything else from that period. The background of interlinking cherubim and seraphim feels much more modern, and that has got to be the hottest depiction of the Virgin… ever.

This painting is one part of the Melun Diptych, it is now in Antwerp and the other panel from the diptych is in Berlin. On that other panel we find the sponsor of this commission, Etienne Chevalier with his patron saint, St Stephen. Chevalier was a rich and powerful man in the French Court, and commissioning a diptych for his home-town cathedral was pretty much what guys like him were expected to do. He had commissioned this in 1450, the year in which he had made a solemn promise to the dying Agnes Sorel that she would be the model for the Madonna.

Gesture of love or guilty conscience?

We now know that poor Agnes did not die of dysentery as it was reported at the time – but that she was poisoned. In 2005, a team of French scientists led by Philippe Charlier exhumed her body and analysed it. They were able to conclude that she had died of mercury poisoning, and although that doesn’t mean she was murdered – people did strange things with mercury in those days – it does make it quite likely.

Her murder, if murder it was, was probably ordered by the dauphin, the future Louis XI who was at war with his father at that time. If so, he needed the help of someone at Court to administer the poison. For a long time Etienne Chevalier was one of the suspects for this crime.

Was having her painted as the mother of God, his way of dealing with his role in her death? Maybe. Another theory is that he and Agnes were lovers, and that the commission was his way of remembering his own beautiful mistress. Of course if this were the case then we should probably add Charles VII to the list of those who might have wanted her dead.

Why would Gabrielle’s sister do that?

A Lover’s Pinch is intended to share a few theories about the unknowns of human history.

History is great but where it really gets interesting is when the detective work starts. Those mysterious events of our human history that remain unexplained or unsolved may never reveal their truths but it sure is interesting to speculate.

My current musings are on why an unknown artist in the late 1500’s painted Gabrielle d’Estrees in a bath with her sister, a sister caught pinching her nipple.

Who hasn’t come across this painting at some time, and wondered what on earth is going on?

The rather dull explanation of the Louvre museum (where the painting currently hangs) is that the pinched nipple is to show the fertility, and early pregnancy of the lady on the right. That lady is Gabrielle d’Estrees, the mistress of Henri IV of France from about 1590 until her untimely death in 1599. The Louvre believe the painting therefore dates from about 1594 the year of Gabrielle’s first pregnancy. The title of the painting is “Gabrielle d’Estrees et une de ses soeurs” (and one of her sisters), but at some point in time the words “la Duchesse de Villars” have been added to the title.

There’s enough mystery in this painting to fill a month of blogs, so let’s start with the basics. Gabrielle had six sisters. One did go on to become Duchess of Villars, but not until after Gabrielle was dead. So the original title of the painting did not include that extension. But if the lady on the right is one of Gabrielle’s sisters, why not name her? Or at least you would expect the title to be a simple “Gabrielle d’Estrees and her sister”. We can assume that the artist knew which one it was.

I do not believe it is her sister at all, not in the biological sense. I think the reference is to the sorority of royal mistresses.

First though let’s be clear on how this picture was painted. This is no photo shoot. I have no idea if Gabrielle ever shared her bath but we can be sure that the scene we see here is symbolic and never actually happened. The key to understanding this picture is to think why was it painted. If it was just to announce Gabrielle’s pregnancy then there are an awful lot of superfluous details. The curtains, the seamstress, the ring and the pinch, not to mention the painting and the bath – all these are symbolic elements that were used by someone to send a message. The bath has been used in several other paintings to suggest royal mistresses.

It makes more sense to consider that the lady on the left is not a biological sister but another of Henri’s mistresses. Yes, the pinch does indicate Gabrielle’s pregnancy but not her first. She and Henri had three children, in 1594, 1596 and 1598. In 1599 political events seemed to be going in Gabrielle’s favour. The Pope looked likely to grant Henri a divorce from his exiled queen, and in February he openly declared he would marry Gabrielle, who was already pregnant with their fourth child. Then it all went wrong. In April Gabrielle died after two days in terrible agonies – eclampsia or poison? It’s easy to see conspiracy everywhere, but her death was convenient for a lot of people.

By September Henri had a new mistress, Henriette d’Entragues, and the following year he married Marie de Medici.

I am convinced that this painting describes the events of 1599 – the two mistresses, the ring to show the possible marriage, the pinch to show the pregnancy and the curtains, partly open to show that behind the scenes there were political manoeuvres going on that meant it was very unlikely that Henri ever really intended to marry his beloved Gabrielle.