The Mozarts, Who They Were Volume 2. Diego Minoia
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what about false moles, also known as beauty marks? They were tiny pieces of sticky cloth in various shapes (hearts, moons, stars, etc.), purchased from the famous manufacturer Madame Dulac, meant to complete the make-up with personality and spirit.
The position of these false beauty marks (each with an assigned name) were rigorously imposed by well known rules: the assassin (at the corner of the eye), the romantic (in the middle of the cheek), the cherished (near the mouth), the regal (on the forehead), etc.
To complete the preparation of the head of the noblewoman before leaving the house neccessitated the setting and styling of her hair which, for the great noblewomen on important occasions usually involved true architectural creations by the greatest hairdressers in Paris.
The height of the hairstyles reached towering limits, so much so that caricaturists represented the hairdressers standing on stools, if not ladders to reach the peaks while they worked on their creations.
If during the early part of the 18th century, brown was the favored standard for beauty of hair color, at the turn of the century, fashion abruptly changed: dark hair fell out of favor to blue eyes and blond hair.
A pale complexion, though, remained an essential element. To reach this objective, many underwent a bloodletting procedure often many times a day through the application of bloodsuckers or being stuck with a pin in an exterior vein.
Even religious devotion and the morality of the Parisians gave Leopold reason to express many of his sarcastic doubts. Regarding the business that the Mozarts expected from the exhibitions in Versailles, all moved so slowly that Leopold complained that at the Court “things go at a snail's pace, even more than at other Courts” mostly because every entertainment activity (festivities, concerts, theatrical performances, etc.) had to pass through the evaluation and the organization of a special commission of the Court, the Menus-plaisirs du Roi (the lesser royal pleasures of the King). Leopold Mozart writes to Hagenauer's wife, illustrating some of the Parisian Court's different practices compared to what was done in Vienna: in Versailles you do not kiss the hand of royalty or bother them with requests and pleas, least of all during the ceremony of the “passage” (the procession between the two wings of courtiers that the royal family practiced while going to mass at the chapel inside the palace). It was not customary to display honor to royalty by bowing the head over a bended knee as was done in other European Courts. Instead, one was to stand up straight and comfortably and watch the members of the royal family walk by.
In reference to these customs, Leopold does not miss the chance to remark with great surprise that among the guests present, the daughters of the King stopped to speak with Wolfgang and Nannerl, letting them kiss their hands and doing likewise. Even on the evening of the New Year during the “grand couvert” (royal dinner where numerous courtiers and guests stood by watching the high ranking social class) held in the Hearth Hall that also served as the antechamber to the Queen's apartments, “My Mr. Wolfgangus had the honor to pass the entire evening near the Queen”. He conversed with her (she spoke German very well as she was of Polish origin and spent some years of her youth in Germany) and even ate the food offered by her. Leopold also draws attention to the fact that they were all accompanied to the “grand couvert” hall (given the large crowd that flocked in order to watch the dinner) by the Swiss Guards and that he, too, was near Wolfgang while his wife and Nannerl were placed near Louis, Dauphin of France (heir to the throne) and one of the daughters of the King.
The Swiss Guards
Today when we talk about the Swiss Guards, the first thing that comes to mind are the pictoresque soldiers at the State of the Vatican, with their colorful Renaissance uniforms that guard of honor of the Pope.
In truth, dating back to the 14th century during the epoch of the Hundred Years' War, many European kings used Swiss mercenaries to form military corps for their protection.
The first monarch to create a Swiss Guard corp was Louis XI and his successor Charles VIII progressively increased the number to 100, hence the name Cent suisses (the Hundred Swiss).
Between the end of the 1400s and the beginning of the 1500s, the Papal State followed the example of the King of France to the point that Julius II had at his service 150 Swiss Guards that demonstrated their faith during the course of the Sack of Rome which was carried out by the German mercenary Landsknecht soldiers enrolled in Emporer Charles V's army.
Even the Savoys had their Swiss Guards in the 16th century, and during the 18th century the Swiss were personal guards to Frederick I of Prussia, the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, Joseph I of Portugal and even utilized by Napoleon Bonaparte.
The Mozarts arrived in Versailles on the evening of Christmas Eve in 1763 and were able to watch the traditional mass in the Royal Chapel: the first at midnight, a second later during the night, a third at sunrise, the last at the early morning hours of Christmas Day. As a musician, Leopold voices his opinions of the music: good and bad, he says, specifying that the pieces for only voices and the arias were cold and lacked quality, meaning the French (evidently Leopold did not enjoy French vocal style, preferring Italian and German). However, he found the choral pieces excellent, so much so, that he took advantage of the opportunity to continue Wolfgang's musical and stylistic training, accompanying him everyday to the King's mass held at 1 pm in the Royal Chapel (unless the King decided to go hunting, in which case the mass was anticipated to 10 am).
The blatent visibility of the wealth accumulated by the richest Parisian aristocrats, from the fermiers généraux (private parties who received the privilege of collecting taxes in certain areas, becoming excessively wealthy) and the important upper class bankers (about a hundred people altogether according to Leopold) struck the moderate Salzburg enough to consider them “astonishingly mad”. The display even led women to wear fur coats in warm weather: fur collars, fur bands in their hair in place of flowers, ribbons of fur around their arms. At the opera and receptions, the great dames who could afford it flaunted the most luxurious furs (ermine, wolf pelts, otter, sable). Particularly favored were “hand muffs”, in fur or angora in cilinder shape (so-called barrel) or draping majestically to the ground. However, the use and abuse of fur was not only limited to women.
Men wore daggers adorned with ribbons which were highly fashionable in Paris, made of very thin fur, causing Leopold to mockingly comment that something so ridiculous would surely impede the dagger from freezing.
Even excessive love for luxury by the French was reproached by Leopold, in particular the habit of sending newborns to caretakers in the countryside, entrusting them to a “tenant” who would distribute the children to the wives of farmers, where they wrote the names of the parents and guardians in a ledger in collaboration with the local parish in exchange of an offering for their “certification”.
The “care” of children in the 18th century in Paris – To be born female was a difficult fate
In general, when a female child was born, it was a disappointment for the parents. Wealthy or poor, the reaction was the same.
No celebrations and above all, a fate marked by a “lesser” future in comparison to male children. It would not be her who carried the family lineage, or to inherit property and public positions (in the case of noble families) and it would not be her to contribute to the sustainance of the family with physical strength, unless helping in the household or working as a housekeeper (in the case of poor families).
In the aristocratic homes, newborns were immediately entrusted to the tenants and taken away from their homes and mothers until they were weaned.
The tenants were often ignorant farmers that neglected the children often to the point of death or, as happened to Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (Prince and later an astute politician for all seasons), was rendered an invalid.
It appears, in fact, that Talleyrand had a permanent limp due to a fall from a chair that was too high of which the absent-minded tenant had left him unattended.
After the children were weaned, they were returned to their families and were entrusted to a nanny who looked after their every need, from basic education (reading and writing, catechism, some