Character Catalog

Marie-Antoinette transformed the Petit Trianon into a space of freedom away from Versailles court etiquette, and had the Hamlet built, an artificial rustic village. These achievements, testaments to her taste for the neoclassical style and return to nature, are today listed as UNESCO World Heritage.

By posing for Vigée Le Brun's portrait in a simple white muslin dress (the "chemise dress"), Marie-Antoinette caused a scandal but sparked a fashion revolution, abandoning heavy corsets and panniers in favor of lighter garments that influenced all of Europe.

Marie-Antoinette, together with Louis XVI, supported American independence by funding French military aid to the insurgents. This decision, costly in financial terms, contributed to the budget crisis that precipitated the French Revolution.

An avid music lover, the queen patronized composer Christoph Willibald Gluck, her former teacher, and supported his Parisian career. She also played a role in the musical quarrels between the supporters of Gluck and Piccinni.

I read all the letters from my dear mother with the greatest attention; I strive to benefit from her wise counsel and to merit her approval.

I come, my brother, to beg your forgiveness for all the distress that, without wishing it, I may have caused you... I die in the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman faith, that of my fathers, that in which I was raised.

Marie-Antoinette, widow of Louis Capet, has been since her time in France the scourge and the leech of the French people. Even before the Revolution, she had dealings with the King of Bohemia and Hungary.

The Queen loved with passion all that was beautiful; she gathered in her chamber the most brilliant works of the arts. She had the surest and most refined taste for music, painting and poetry.

The Queen received the people's complaints with a kindness that touched all hearts; she said that the misery of the people brought tears to her eyes and that she would do everything in her power to relieve it.

Main residence of the royal court, where Marie-Antoinette lived from 1770 to 1789. She had her private apartments redecorated there and had the Queen's Hamlet built in the grounds of the Petit Trianon.

Parisian residence where the royal family was forced to move following October 1789. Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette lived there under surveillance until the storming of the palace on 10 August 1792.

Former royal prison on the Île de la Cité where Marie-Antoinette was held from 2 August to 16 October 1793, in very austere conditions, before being tried and sentenced to death.

Site of Marie-Antoinette's execution on 16 October 1793. The guillotine had been erected there, and Louis XVI himself had been beheaded on the same spot nine months earlier.

Imperial palace in Vienna where Marie-Antoinette was born and spent her childhood alongside her mother, Empress Maria Theresa. She left Austria in 1770 and never returned.

Elaborate court dress featuring ruffles, embroidery, and panniers (metal frames widening the hips). Marie-Antoinette ordered dozens of them each year, thereby setting the trends of European fashion.

An indispensable accessory at Versailles, the fan served as much to cool oneself as to communicate through a coded language of gestures. Marie-Antoinette owned an exceptional collection of them.

The royal apartments at Versailles were lit by thousands of candles during grand festivities, representing a considerable expense and a symbol of the court's luxury.

Marie-Antoinette had received advanced musical training in Vienna and played the harpsichord and pianoforte with great talent. She had even been a pupil of the young Mozart during his visit to the Viennese court.

Deeply Catholic, Marie-Antoinette kept a book of hours by her side. In her final hours at the Conciergerie, she spent the night in prayer before her execution.

On her way to the scaffold, Marie-Antoinette wore a simple white dress and a white cap, the colour of mourning for the queens of France, in stark contrast to the luxury of her former wardrobe.