Marie Antoinette: What did she look like? Facial Re-creations from Death Mask & History Documentary

hey everyone and welcome back to royalty now today we're talking about the equally charmed and tragic life of marie antoinette the last official queen of france we'll tell her fascinating story and then of course reveal some recreations of her appearance at the end so let's go ahead and get started on november 2nd of 1755 the woman we now know as marie antoinette was born in vienna austria her birth name was maria antonia joseph joanna i'm going to refer to her as marie or marie antoinette throughout the episode just because that's how she's best known marie was the youngest daughter out of 16 children born to holy roman empress maria theresa maria teresa was also a fascinating figure she ruled the habsburg empire in her own right from 1740 to 1780. marie's father was frances the duke of lorraine and her parents founded the new dynasty of habsburg lorraine and their marriage really was one of true love and affection now being the 15th of 16 children marie was somewhat forgotten from a young age a full house and the holy roman empire was definitely a lot for her mother to deal with but maria theresa's large family proved useful for her and as her daughters came of age they became these very crucial marriageable ponds on the european stage her children went on to fill many of the royal houses of europe even amidst the chaos marie's childhood could be described as a happy one she was raised alongside her older sister maria carolina with whom she would have a lifelong close relationship despite having private tutors growing up marie was not exactly well educated by the time marie was 10 she couldn't write in german or even speak it all that well luckily she found a love for music and she was natural at it too she could play the harp and the flute and was said to have a beautiful voice marie's personality was a very sweet one she wasn't known to be the most intelligent of all her sisters but she was known to be the most compassionate pretty graceful charming and she was so eager to do her part the irony in marie's story is that she was never intended to be the highest status royal bride in her family four of her older sisters who were expected to be married into some of the most illustrious royal houses in europe either became ill died or were disfigured by smallpox which shattered their chances so in this cruel twist of fate little marie the sister of whom the least was expected was very ill prepared to become a queen especially the queen of an ailing country as marriage negotiations between marie and the dolphin of france louis auguste were beginning to come to fruition maria theresa began what some would call a french indoctrination of her daughter she began teaching her all about fashion how she should be submissive obedient and always let others take the lead she should in every way make herself agreeable to others and not only that but she should look impeccable while doing so this was the way in france louis auguste even though he grew up in france was actually in quite a similar position he was never expected to become the king especially not at such a young age with both his father and an older brother ahead of him at the time of his birth now louis had a much better education than his future wife but he was also taught to be agreeable and never let others know his true thoughts it's important to set the scene a little bit in regards to the relationship between france and austria during the latter half of the 18th century the habsburg empire was huge and continued to expand throughout the 1700s coming increasingly close to french territory and making everyone a bit uncomfortable louis goo's great grandfather had fought the nine years war against the habsburg holy roman empire just 50 years before in the late 1600s so this rivalry was still really fresh in fact the entire purpose of marie and louie's marriage was to create peace between france and the habsburgs for the first time in 200 years marie was just 14 when she was sent to france to marry louie and she would never see her home in austria again a ceremony took place at the border of the two countries where marie was forced to literally leave everything of austria behind including her ladies her clothing and even her pet dog maria antonia became officially marie antoinette the two were married in may of 1770. the palace of versailles located 12 miles outside of paris was the magnificent royal residence and de facto capital of france during the reigns of louis 14 15 and 16. the distance from paris made versailles into its own unique ecosystem with some pretty intense and bizarre rules of etiquette everything here was about rank and show marie and louis couldn't even eat in private there was always a crowd gathered to watch them eat publicly courtiers weren't even allowed to knock on the door it was considered too disruptive so they had to scratch on it instead it was said that marie had an incredibly hard time adjusting to this pomp and ceremony of the palace it also didn't help that the previous tensions between france and the holy roman empire had people accusing her of being an austrian spy the early years of louis and marie's marriage were rocky louis was young timid and a bit eccentric he was an inattentive husband marie as we know was taught to submit to whatever her husband wanted leading their marriage to remain unconsummated for seven years to the great distress of her mother on may 10 1774 the current king louis xv died immediately louis august became king louis xvi of france at the age of only 19 marie just 18. louie's words that the news of his grandfather were heartfelt oh god guide us and protect us we are too young to reign after years of being married and ascending the throne together marie and louis had become closer it was said that he had developed a genuine affection for his wife so finally in december of 1778 their first child marie therese was born it wasn't the son they were hoping for but at least their marriage was now considered official and secure now versailles itself is a magnificent sight to see truly jaw-dropping in its splendor louis xiv was said to have spent half of france's income on it i say this to put into perspective that although marie antoinette did have this taste for the finer things in life this was also the way that she was expected to live this show of opulence was the monarch's way of projecting authority not only to his own people but to the whole of europe as well marie enjoyed court entertainment immensely and loved music and dancing she would gamble she would play cards sometimes winning or losing entire fortunes she was a great singer and she supported composers such as chevalier de san george one of the most famous french composers of her time marie was very fond of fashion and hairstyles she became famous for these giant intricate powdered wigs and huge extravagant dresses that she wore of course outside of the walls of versailles france was in a massive debt income inequality for the people of france was at an all-time high the peasant and laborer population of france made up what we now call the third estate it made up almost 90 of france's population and despite being the poorest sector paid the highest taxes on top of that they were required to tithe meaning they had to pay some of the little income they had left to the church the people of france had suffered badly they'd suffered bad harvests in the preceding years suffered an extreme winter in 1784. the bad harvest had caused the price of flour to rise dramatically resulting in a bread shortage that caused peasants to spend almost their entire wage just to eat now this may ring a bell as being when the famous kind of villain quote of let them eat cake began to be attributed to marie antoinette really she never said this and this line was written well before her time as queen it's important to remember that the monarchs of france like the current king louis ruled on the basis of the divine right of kings meaning they weren't really responsible for their poor decision-making since god had placed them in the role of king obviously the last few generations of monarchs had pushed france to the brink of bankruptcy the hungry peasants began to wonder if god had really intended for them to starve while the king and queen got to live in such splendor back at versailles marie antoinette had gotten used to the jewels and finery of her lavish lifestyle but she did long for a simpler life away from the rigorous strange and very public ceremony of versailles in 1783 she requested that the trianon gardens be transformed into the model of a rural village called the queen's hamlet it included cottages a mill and a small farm now this small village is the source of a lot of contempt for her legacy with people accusing her and her friends of playing at being farmers or essentially playing at being poor in reality the farm was functional and created work for the family that oversaw the production full time similar to the discredited let the meat cake quote the queen's hamlet is something that has long lived at the center of criticism about marie antoinette although initially the young and charming queen had been welcomed by the french population public opinion of her became more and more negative another event that is attributed to her downfall is known as the affair of the diamond necklace all the way back in 1772 louis xv commissioned a massively expensive diamond necklace for his mistress madame du berry however the commission was so extravagant that it took the king's jewelers several years to source and set the diamonds unfortunately before the piece was sold to the king and paid for louis xv had died of smallpox the court jewelers first offered it to louis xvi as a gift for marie but she refused it saying that they had more need for ships than for a diamond necklace she eventually ended up turning it down a second time but thanks to a trickster named jean forging her signature false rumors began to spread that marie had ordered the extravagant necklace and then refused to pay for it although gene was later convicted of the crime the damage had been done this is an event that some describe as the straw that broke the camel's back in public support from marie antoinette on the very eve of the french revolution now known through france mockingly as madame deficit every attempt to win back public opinion had failed her to the people of france marie antoinette simply represented their giant class divide she was the figurehead by the time the revolution broke out the queen was a truly hated figure on july 14 1789 french revolutionaries stormed and seized control of the bastille the bastille itself was the symbol of royal authority to the revolutionaries being used as a fortress and political prison in the days following this event many members of the high aristocracy began to flee versailles with many urging the royal family to follow but louis still believing that he was beloved by the people refused to leave france and marie refused to leave louie so they stayed in versailles hoping that the anger would die down on october 5th 1789 an angry parisian mob arrived at versailles and tore down its golden gates they had come for their king and queen the mob quickly infiltrated the palace marie antoinette quickly grabbed her children and hid in the king's bed chamber with louie barely escaping the mob before the guard was able to gain back control the mob was pushed out of the palace but they reformed outside of their balcony their voices rising up in unison demanding to see their queen marie antoinette completely terrified but unwilling to let them see it gathered her wits and went out to the balcony faced now with pointed weapons and angry shouts she did nothing but stare right back at them instead of the fearful spoiled woman the crowd had expected they were faced with a defiant unyielding prideful woman and for the first time in years they began to cry out long live the queen soon after the mob laid out their demands the royal family must leave versailles king louis obliged and within hours the mob was escorting their carriage out of the palace they would never see versailles again they would be forced into guarded house arrest at the twilory palace and although louis did not want to see it marie knew that their only option left was to leave france in the summer of 1791 she was finally able to convince him in what's now called the flight to varenne louis and marie dressed themselves as a ballot and a governess and attempted to leave in a carriage unfortunately things went horribly a slow pace and bad judgment from louis led them to be quickly recognized captured and then returned to paris a revolutionary crowd had gathered but instead of anger they were met with only shock and silence at the king's attempt to flee his credibility as king was now lost forever [Music] the family were imprisoned at the temple prison on august 13th by september 1st 1792 the monarchy was officially abolished the national convention officially became the government of the new french republic and preparations for their trials began on the 15th of january 1793 louis xvi was tried and condemned to death by guillotine on january 21 1793 louis xvi was executed marie was told of his death only when they handed her his wedding ring she would be held in the prison for several months in deep mourning and completely cut off from the outside world but she was hopeful that she and her children would be exiled her charges were not those of execution but on october 14th nine months after louie's execution marie antoinette was tried by the revolutionary tribunal she was quickly found guilty of depletion of the national treasury conspiracy against the state and high treason which carried the penalty of death two days later marie was dressed in a simple white gown her hair was cut and her hands were bound she was paraded through paris until she reached her execution spot her last words sadly evoked memories of the young polite marie she said pardon me sir i did not do it on purpose when she accidentally stepped on her executioner's toe at 12 15 pm marie was beheaded [Music] although marie antoinette no doubt played a pivotal role in the revolution she's gained a lot of sympathy over the years for the unbalanced amount of blame she took i myself find her more of a tragic figure than a malicious one marie's story continues to fascinate us to this day she has become the very symbol of class conflict a woman whose position at birth put her in the wrong place at the wrong time and although her life had a tragic conclusion the dissolution of the monarchy paved the way for a new france a free france so let's talk about what marie antoinette really looked like one of the influences for my recreations and what i believe to be maybe the most accurate source for her appearance is the supposed death mask of marie taken soon after her execution the mask was taken by a wax worker whose name you probably recognize marie tousso chuzzo had previously worked for the queen making likenesses of her living relatives she took the mask of marie and other executed revolutionaries in order to make an exhibition out of them the masks actually provided a really interesting real-time political commentary on the events and executions that were taking place during the revolution death masks are usually made of wax or plaster and they date back thousands of years when they were used just to preserve the faces of the dead before photography so while the masks used to be used to preserve the likenesses of friends or relatives tusso was the first to make the practice a commercial venture marie was maybe not what we'd call a modern classic beauty but she did have some really beautiful facial features and she was considered quite pretty for the time she also has what's known as the habsburg dropped lip it's just a slightly protruding lower lip and you can see that it was often omitted in her official portraits i'm not sure how severe it was though you can't really see it too much in the death mask what i love about marie as a subject is that you can clearly see the portrait stylizations when compared to the mask which is obviously a more faithful representation of her true features in the portraits her lips are more plump and pinched this was just the style at the time she did have these really beautiful blue wide set eyes on the portraits they're super exaggerated again that was just kind of the french style but in the death mask they look more of an average size she also appears to have more of a hooked nose in real life than in the paintings behind the powdered wigs marie was said to have blonde or strawberry blonde hair so what i did is kind of make a composite image working from her portraits as well as the mask i did want to create a version of marie kind of in her prime as the queen of france before the stress of the revolution so let's go ahead and take a look at the recreations of marie antoinette now [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] thank you all so much for watching please check out the etsy store for prints and bookmarks of these recreations you can also sign up for our newsletter at royaltynowstudios.com to see new subjects early before they hit the youtube we'll see you all for the next video [Music] you

Channel: Royalty Now Studios

Views: 2,693,467

Keywords: real face of, what historical figures would look like, true face of, true faces of, real faces of historical figures, true faces of historical figures, what historical figures would look like today, royalty now, roylaty now, Marie Antoinette, Marie Antionette, Marie Antoinette Documentary, Marie Antoinette Death Mask, What did Marie Antoinette Look Like, Was Marie Antoinette Beautiful, Historical Figures according to AI, Historical Figures AI, Historical Figures in Modern Day

Id: OXhEBfK3Njc

Length: 20min 35sec (1235 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 14 2022