Irish Arts Review

Grace and FavourAuthor(s): Peter MurraySource: Irish Arts Review (2002-), Vol. 24, No. 3 (Autumn, 2007), p. 144Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20493256 .

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Grace and Favour Daniel Maclise depicts a crucial episode in the life of Diane of Poitiers, true

to the tenets of the Romantic movement, writes PETER MURRAY

T his painting by Daniel Maclise, acquired by the Crawford Art Gallery at Sotheby's Irish Art Sale

in May 2007, is an important work by an

artist who was born and trained in Cork,

and who went on to become one of the key

artists of mid 19th-century Britain. Painted

in 1834, eight years after Maclise had left

Cork, it depicts a scene in the court of the

King of France, Francois I, when Diane of

Poitiers has come to beg for the life of her

father. The scene that Maclise has chosen

to re-enact in his large and detailed canvas

reveals much about the artist's own view of

history, politics and gender. Born in 1499, in a small town in south

east France, Diane de Poitiers had, by any

standards, a remarkable life. At the tender

age of fifteen, she married Louis de Breze, a

man forty years her senior. The marriage,

which resulted in two daughters, proved surprisingly robust. Both Diane, whose symbol was three interlaced crescent

moons, and Louis, grandson of the King,

shared an aristocratic passion for hunting, and after her husband's death in 1531,

Diane honoured his memory by erecting a tomb in the cathedral at Rouen, and by

wearing the colours of mourning for the rest of her life. The painting by Maclise

depicts a key event in Diane's life, when, in

1524, her father was accused of complicity

in the aborted rebellion of Charles, Duke de Bourbon. Imprisoned in the dungeons of the Chateau de Loches, under sentence

of death, he wrote '. . . the King hath had

me taken for no cause, I swear it upon my soul's damnation, whereas the Constable that gone, and hath had me brought hith er to the Chateau de Loches, as a false trai

tor, which to me is so very horrible grief that I die of it'. On 17 February de Poitiers

was led to his place of execution, and his head was placed on the block. The execu tioner waited, as rumours of a reprieve

were circulating. It was known that Diane had gone to Francois I to plead for her father's life. One story has it that she slept

with him, while another, possibly more credible, is that she stood by her marriage vows, thus eaming the greater respect of the King. Either way, when the King's let

ter of reprieve finally did arrive, Diane's father was reportedly so relieved that he thanked God for giving his daughter such a sweet body that had swayed the King's

decision. Diane's father was released, while the Duke de Bourbon fled to Italy. Three

years later the Duke led the undisciplined army that sacked Rome, plunging Europe into a crisis and precipitating the

Mannerist movement. Even while she was still married to de

Breze, Francois 1, clearly still impressed by Diane's intervention, appointed her a lady in-waiting, and when his own son Henri

d'Orleans, aged just 12, retumed home after five harrowing years as a hostage in

Spain, it was Diane who was appointed to

act as his guide and mentor. Diane was

probably not the mistress of Francois I, alhough they often hunted together, but she almost certainly did become the mis

tress of Henri, in spite of him being twenty years younger, and for the next quarter of a

century, she dominated his life, notwith

standing his official marriage to Catherine

de Medici. This intimacy with the royal

family aroused passionate envy amongst others at the court, particularly with the

Calvinist Anne de Pisseleu, who circulated

rumours that Diane, a devout Catholic,

used witchcraft to retain her extraordinary control over the royal family. Another rival, understandably, was Catherine de

Medici, and after the death of Francois I,

Catherine exacted revenge by banishing Diane from the court.

As an historical narrative painting, replete with overtones of theatre and of

the Romantic movemerkt, Francois I and

Diane of Poitiers fits in with other paint

ings by Maclise done during this period, such as Charles I, King of England and his

Chi dren, before Oliver Cromwell (National Gallery of Ireland). Indeed, in 1831, Maclise had won the Royal Academy's

gold medal for history painting and two years later had returned to Cork to paint one of his masterpieces, Snap Apple Night,

depicting the traditional celebration of Halloween in a barn near Blarney, Co. Cork. The many references to magic and fortune-telling in Snap Apple Night, may provide one key to interpreting the strange, intense, almost haunted scene depicted by the artist the following year in Francois I and Diane of Poitiers.Ea

PETER MURRAY is Director of the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork.

DANIEL MACLISE

(1806-1870) Francois / and

Diane of Poitiers,

1834 oil on canvas

133 x 160cm

Crawford Art

Gallery, Cork

144 |IRISH ARTS REVIEW AUTUMN 2007

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