The role of women in the formation of gallant aesthetics.

Zaótseva Nataliya Vladimirovna PhD in Art History Director General, "Voyager" LLC 194100, Russia, g. Saint Petersburg, ul. Kharchenko, 1, kv. 34 nvzaytseva@mail.ru Other publications by this author

The completion of the formation of the monarchy of the classical model and the social changes associated with this process, which are characteristic of France in the first half of the XVII century, namely, the transformation of the knightly estate into a courtier, lead to the fact that men leave the historically habitual and habitual ideal of knightly valor, entering the space of the salon and the courtyard. In this space, they are forced to comprehend the art of secular communication, which is new to them, and the participants of this communication like the art. That art, which, according to contemporaries, was perfectly mastered by women, because they "have a delicacy of mind, not always inherent in men, and grace, because women learn the art of admiring from childhood"^[1].

In the public space of salons in the first half of the XVII century, women made a breakthrough, leaving the old role of submissive, subordinate to the desires of men. They become a role model and a mouthpiece for new ideas: "I confess that the respect we have for women makes us perceive more what we hear from them than what we talk about ourselves," Chapuzot admitted in 1668^[2]. 

The first half of the XVII century is characterized by radical changes in gender relations, an increase in the social role of women, the formation of a modern view of the relationship between the sexes. All these phenomena are characteristic of European culture and largely determine the modern European mentality. The analysis of these phenomena and their genesis is extremely important and relevant both for understanding many historical realities, including the formation of the European gender tradition, and for studying the influence of these processes on the formation of new aesthetic ideals.

Francis Bomal was the first to evaluate the increasing role of women in the gallant ethos as feminism, which, in his opinion, was not political, but intellectual and moral. At the same time, he notes that women gained their independence without a struggle, as a result of the development of society^[3]. Following Bomal, a number of researchers, such as Domna S. Stanton^[4], Maclean^[5], Philippe Selye^[6] and Renat Baader^[7], engaged in the literature of the XVII century, precision and the formation of gallant aesthetics, tried to transfer the dispute from the sphere of philosophy and literature to the plane of the feminist movement. However, in this approach to the historical realities of the XVII century, we see the danger of modern interpretation of historical facts and views. The increasing role of women in the gallant ethos can be explained by a complex of reasons.

Firstly, the historically established legal and economic independence of women in France, in comparison with Spain or Italy of that time^[8]. This was especially evident to foreigners coming to France. Cavalier Giambatisto Marino, who came to Paris in 1615 and lived there for eight years, in his letters to his homeland draws how much the French have changed in just a couple of decades: "Everything is the opposite here. Men have become women, women have become men, in the sense that a woman runs the house, and men dress up in rich clothes like women"^[9].

Foreigners were amazed by the financial independence of French women. The Bolognese priest Locatelli writes with admiration about women engaged in trade, running shops, traveling on ships^[10]. A Sicilian traveler echoes him: "The freedom of this sex is great here… They have privileges to command their husbands"^[11]. This was recognized by the French themselves, so the Abbot de Pur wrote: "The most important sweetness of our France is the freedom of women. It is so great in the whole kingdom that our husbands have almost no power, and women are rulers"^[12].

      Secondly, two periods of the regency of Queens Marie de Medici and Anne of Austria played a role, when women begin to play an active political role. According to Miriam Dufont-Meter, at this time we see women influential at court, ruling in the city and constantly being envied because of their political influence^[13]. The historical anecdote that has come down to us in the retelling of Guy Joly, very accurately describes the increasing role of women in politics. Cardinal Mazarin, talking with the Spanish ambassador and Minister of Philip IV, Luis Mendes de Haro, envied that women in Spain are busy with love and prayers: "On the contrary, ours, whether virtuous ladies or gallant coquettes, old or young, narrow-minded or clever, want to interfere in everything. A decent woman does not sleep with her husband, a flirt with her lover, if they do not talk to them about state affairs. They want to see everything, know everything, understand everything and, worst of all, get into everything and quarrel with everyone"^[14].  Guy Joly himself cites this anecdote to confirm his descriptions of the events of the Fronde, including the "fronde in lace" - the decisive actions of the Duchess de Longueville, the Duchess de Chevreuse and Mademoiselle Montpensier, who, in his assessment, are absolutely equal to men in intelligence, determination and intelligence ^[15].

The next reason for the increasing role of women is the social transformation of the higher French society. The transformation of yesterday's warriors and feudal lords into courtiers required psychological restructuring. The mechanisms of suppressing impulses and emotions that contradict the laws of the new social space of salons and the courtyard, comfortable coexistence in it, were easier to launch with the help of women. Remembering the traditions of courtliness, it is easier to accustom to a new code of conduct first in relation to women, and then in relation to all participants in secular communication.

And finally, new views on social differences were also an important reason for the change in the role of women. In particular, the discussion that has unfolded in the moralistic literature about nobility as a personal quality of a person that can be acquired raises the question is nobility inherent in women?^[16]. One of the first to proclaim the spiritual and intellectual equality of men and women was Marie de Gournay (1565-1645), who saw the difference between them only in different educational opportunities ^[17]. Some researchers see in Marie de Gournay only a single free voice of a woman who was above the average level of society, who appeared ahead of time[18. However, all progressive moralistic literature of the first half of the XVII century stands on the same positions.           

The ideas expressed by Nicolas Fare (1596?-1646) in the book "A noble man or the Art of being liked at court", published in 1630, made it possible to equalize women in the right to be noble, meaning equal to men in intellectual terms [19].

 He was followed by Jacques du Bosc (160?-1664) in the books "The Noble Woman"^[20] and "The Heroic Woman. Comparing heroines with heroes in all their virtues"^[21] also asserted intellectual and moral equality of the sexes: "they have the same virtues and vices"^[22]. He raised the question of women's education, since the concept of nobility is inextricably linked with it: "If we see exceptional qualities in the powerful of this world, then they occur more often from their education than from their birth"^[23]. He is one of the first to pay close attention to the role that women play in secular society and consistently takes a feminist position.          

In 1647, the Jesuit Pierre Lemoine (1602-1672) published a biography of great women, dedicating it to the Regent Anna of Austria. He asks if a woman is capable of studying philosophy and answers that intellectually women are equal to men and are able to get involved in philosophy, since philosophy is given to curb passions, and women have the same passions as men. Lemoine cites the example of the salon of his contemporary Marquise Rambouillet as an example of a space where taste and refined manners reign, a kind of analogue of the academy: "This is a courtyard of courtyards. At the same time, I do not mean a selfish, ambitious or vicious court. But the court is refined and spiritual, the court is gallant and modest"^[24].

This kind of moralistic literature legitimized the view of a woman not only as a person equal to a man, but as a teacher of noble men, as a being of the highest order, capable of ennobling rude male morals. Nicolas Fare was one of the first to write about it^[25]. Following him, many moralists begin to write that "only women teach men the science of secular communication"^[26].

Continuing the line of his predecessors, the apologist of nobility Chevalier de Mer (1607-1684) states: "It seems to me that it is important not only the company of noble men, but also conversation with ladies whose grace of thought and decency are necessary in order to become truly noble"^[27]. And further: "There is nothing more capable of polishing a man's mind and making a man pleasant in conversation than communicating with women. They inspire us in the desire to please with their soft, insinuating and delicate manners. With them, men learn the manners that are in use among educated people"^[28]. He is echoed by Jacques de Calli?re (160?-1662), who writes that from ladies "we learn manners, they inspire us to be pleasant in everything and guide us to virtues"^[29].

Women became inspirers of good manners, politeness and courtesy. The Marquise de Lambert (1647-1733) sums up the era, explaining to her son: "Those who do not take away the glory of educating men from women do very well, because we have the most courteous people in the past. It is to them [women - N.Z.] that we owe the gentleness of morals, the delicacy of feelings and the subtle refinement of mind and manners"^[30].

Serious moralists and secular publications write about the civilizing role of women: "Women - nature created them in order to please, but also in order to create rules that make us attractive. We try to please them and make efforts for this, which make us kind. This passion forms better than rhetoric, art forces us to reveal all the grace of eloquence"^[31].   

To young Louis XIV, Madame de Choisy, one of the most famous secular beauties of that time, whose mansion became a meeting place for the highest nobility, explained the role of women in this way: "Sire, if you want to become a great king, then you should talk as often as possible with Monsieur Mazarin, if you want to become a courteous cavalier, you should communicate with me as often as possible"^[32]. Louis was grateful to her for these lessons, and when compliments were paid to him, noting the beauty of speech and impeccable manners, he replied that it was Madame de Choisy's merit.

In the salon of Ninon de Lanclos, parents sent young people of the highest origin, begging her to accept them among her friends so that they would receive the proper social gloss, education and manners ^[33].

            By the middle of the XVII century, the view of the civilizing role of women was so established that gallantry is directly associated with women's society. In other words, a man can achieve the ideal of gallantry only in communication with a woman. Mademoiselle Scuderi in "Artamen or the Great Cyrus" tries to formulate what gallantry is: "A gallant look does not consist in having a lot of intelligence, a lot of common sense, and knowing a lot: it is something so special, so difficult to acquire, if it is not there, then it is not known where to get it, or where to look for it". And since this is something elusive, it is not possible to formulate it by the method of denial (neither mind nor common sense ...). However, in order to acquire a gallant appearance, one needs "a natural mind, some disposition, prolonged communication in society and at Court, which helps to acquire it; conversation with women is necessary [...] for I cannot assume that someone who has a gallant appearance would run away from conversation with persons of my sex. In addition, he had to experience affection at least once in his life in order to have a gallant appearance, so that a man had a slightly unfree heart"^[34]. 

The change of the chivalrous ideal by the ideal of a gallant person leads to the fact that love for a woman is no longer considered as a weakness, but turns into a sign of the elevation of the soul and the subtlety of the mind. With all the rationalism of gallant aesthetics, feelings, especially the feeling of love, are given great attention, the diet does not conflict with love: "Love and reason are the source of the two greatest pleasures of life. A man who is calm in his soul, has excellent health, and has property can indulge in love and divine principles of reason for his pleasure"^[35]. According to J. M. Peloux, gallantry voluntarily renounces suffering love, but retains all its reverence for the power of love. Moreover, it gives love a quasi-official cult: court ballets, opera. This gallant paneroticism almost mixes love and civility^[36].

A new ideal of relationship arises - fickle, playful, changeable. The desire of women to please, coquetry, contemporaries believe, is compatible with piety, moreover, it helps to observe decency in the position of a married woman. Even the reasons for the frivolous behavior of women, the change of lovers, the moralist Pierre Vuomier saw that they lose the desire to please their husbands over time: "The desire to please is not contraindicated to the chastity of worthy women, on the contrary, it can help them to observe the decency of their position with greater accuracy in order to earn the respect of those who are attached to them, so that they inspire a passion that could be long-lasting"^[37].

     Secular society in the person of Pierre Vuomierre begins to justify not only female coquetry, but also libertinage: "What I'm going to tell you now may seem paradoxical to you. Don't you think that flirting with some women is a sign of wisdom? In fact, isn't it wise to live without lasting attachments? They want to taste the sweetness of impermanence all the time. The ease with which they change the object shows that they think the least of all to bind themselves. Change has a huge appeal for them, impermanence is the main quality of their character"^[38].

            The demands for diversity and novelty in social communication, in the relationship between men and women are gradually flowing into the sphere of art. So Paul Pelisson considers diversity and novelty as the main aesthetic principles of modern art. In his opinion, in works of art we are attracted by the novelty of the drawing, "nothing makes you laugh like the unexpected, nothing entertains like what you don't expect. Diversity, which is useful and commendable in various kinds of work, is absolutely necessary in that which aims at pleasure"^[39].

            Recognition of a woman as equal to a man in dignity and nobility makes her an equal participant in secular communication. This is not a courtly ideal of worshipping a silent beautiful lady, but a new gallant code of behavior, two active participants. Herminius, a character in the novel "Clelia" explains the basics of refined love: "In all the countries I have traveled to, I have found love. But I found her more rude, more obscene, and more criminal among people who have no courtesy and who are absolutely ignorant of the fine gallantry inherent in noble people"^[40].

            It is to France of the XVII century that European civilization owes the revolutionary morality of love. And it's not so much the role that women begin to play, but a different understanding of the relationship of the sexes, which is inherent in a noble person. "We must agree that it was the French who created the refined art of love. What the Spaniards and Italians lack. [...] Since the heart is involved in love relationships, especially in noble people, it is it that determines the relationship and is the source of all pleasures. We have filled all our novels with these relationships... When it comes only to love, the novel turns out to be short. When gallantry is destroyed, you pass by the refinement of the mind and feelings," writes the Marquise de Lambert with pride^[41].

 The basis of the new relationship is the respect that characterizes the relations of noble and gallant people. The Princess de Montpensier wrote to Madame de Motteville in 1660: "I would like men to have the respect for ladies that noble people should have, so that they communicate with us with a sense of nobility and gallantry"^[42].  Women begin to fight for the right to choose marriage, do not look at themselves more "as a victim of family interests", expelling slavery from themselves^[43].

Mademoiselle Dupree, in a letter to Bussy Rabutin, describes the golden age as the complete conquest of people by love, quotes the poem:

Love felt like a slight longing

Without annoyance, without sadness, without fear, cloudless.

Like a traveler who came to the house before a thunderstorm

And people knew neither pride nor passion.

Love did not meet rebellious hearts at all

All hearts were submissive, all hearts were faithful

And that's why they didn't become suspicious

Lovers did not exaggerate their own merits,

They moderated their demands by paying a visit

And finally, they combined love and respect ^[44].

New relationships, a new role, which is now intended for a woman, put forward new demands on herself. Women become conversationalists. In secular salons, from now on, it is women who have the right to determine the direction of conversation: "Ladies have a privilege that men do not have - they can suggest the subject of their conversation without sinning against decency"^[45]. In the "Mercury Galan" article about the art of conversation, women are compared to flowers, the decoration of society. Without them, there can be no nobility, courtesy and gallantry - the three sources of excellent conversation^[46].

In order to shine in conversation, a lady must be educated, moralist Jacques du Bos believes in the book "A Noble Woman" ^[47]. The issue of women's education is beginning to rise in society.  The letters of Saint-Evremont and Ninon de Lanclos are a vivid example of a new relationship between the sexes. They reason and argue on equal terms about the philosophy of Epicurus and the philosophy of the Stoics^[48]. This correspondence is an example of conversations that were conducted in salons. Ninon de Lanclos reads the letters of Saint-Evremont in his salon and discusses the philosophical questions posed by him: "This is a masterpiece of your last letter. It became the topic of all conversations in my salon for a month"^[49].

            Women's taste and outlook are beginning to influence literature and art, as women became writers, critics, salon mistresses: "Among the advantages that are now given to women, they claim that she has a delicate taste to judge the fine arts," writes Marquise de Lambert^[50]. Women's authority eventually begins to determine the direction of criticism, women act as arbiters of good taste in literature and art. According to Marie Dufour-Meter, through language, education and literature, women participated in the birth and approval of a public space built around a certain concept and a new practice of fiction^[51].

            If Marie de Gournay was still indignant in 1626 against modern writers who refused to read some books under the pretext that their authors were women, then by the middle of the XVI century the entire aristocratic public was reading women's novels, as can be seen from Bussy-Rabutin's letters ^[52].       

            Novels "Clelia. Roman History", "Artamen, or the Great Cyrus" by Mademoiselle de Scudery, "The Princess of Cleves" by Madame de Lafayette demonstrate a female view of love and teach men to an exquisite form of expressing their feelings, they pose social problems, talk about love, marriage and freedom of a woman. The Duchess de Lafayette, Madeleine de Scudery, the Duchess de Longueville, the Baroness de Sevigne, the Duchess de Montpensier became writers and began to talk in their literary works about the feelings and psychology of women and men. Like Descartes in philosophy, they turned a person inside himself, describing the nuances of experiences and passions.

            And even the caustic critic De Vise spoke favorably about women writers as a generally recognized and well-established phenomenon: "There is something so subtly gallant and so free, so great refinement and a turn so spiritual in everything they write about that one cannot read their works without being fascinated"^[53]. 

            Book publishers and critics are beginning to turn to ladies as recognized legislators of good taste. In the second edition of Voiture's works, in 1650, his nephew writes about this: "For in the refined taste of the ladies and in the utmost courtesy that they require in their writings and conversation, he [Voiture - N.Z.] has always had the happiness to please them, having success with them. And since this beautiful half of humanity with the ability to read has the ability to judge as well as we do, today it takes possession of human glory as well as men themselves"^[54].

            In the preface to Sarazin's works, Paul Menage refers to Mademoiselle Scuderi as a critic, a brilliant writer, a person whose opinion is extremely important^[55]. In 1671, Charles Sorel, performing a review of published books, speaks of the unconditional influence of ladies on publishing, "since it is they who determine modern taste"^[56].

            Not having received a scholastic education, women bring naturalness and lightness to the requirements for art, freeing them from excessive seriousness, pedantry and scholasticism. In The Revenge of the Coquette, published in 1659, which is attributed to Ninon de Lanclos, one of the characters Eleanor warns her niece Philomena about "salon philosophers who utter dogmas while sitting in armchairs" ^[57]. The whole plot of this story is built in opposition to modern secular aesthetics, the bearer of which are women and pedantry inherent in learned men. Not without the influence of women, the new gallant aesthetics has a pronounced anti-scholastic and secular character. 

            At the same time, it is clear that men are annoyed by women's encroachment on intellectual spheres. The echoes of this struggle are obvious to many moralists. For example, Womovier writes: "Our ladies talk about them without a doubt, but I think they have read only part of them. They know that Herodotus is the most ancient (historian), that he is magnificent, that he described everything that happened most memorably from the first Cyrus to his time"^[58]. And states that such terms as bastion, maneuvers, counterscarp, ravelin have entered the fashionable conversation not only among men, but also among ladies [l59]. 

            In 1672, Moliere staged the play "Learned Women", mocking women's erudition and education. This play outraged the Marquise de Lambert to the depths of her soul and, in her opinion, "influenced public opinion. From that moment it became a shame to be knowledgeable [...] Promiscuity replaced preciousness"^[60].

            Since the end of the XVII century, there has been a change in the female ideal. By creating a precious frame for women, King Louis XIV reduces them to the role of a beautiful decoration of this frame. By putting women on a pedestal, he takes away their will to act. Versailles changes the feminine ideal, making it more passive than active. Although men still repeated: "Women can do everything, because they control men who control everything"^[61], the emphasis in this phrase already fell on its last part. 

            However, the change of the prevailing ideal in society and at the court could not affect the global changes in gender relations that occurred in the first half of the XVII century, nor reduce the influence of women in the salon space on the sphere of literature and art. It was not feminism as a conscious political struggle for women's rights. At the same time, responding to the demands of their time, writers, moralists, philosophers for the first time in history raised questions of intellectual equality of women, women's education, new love ethics and the position of women in society.

            Gallant aesthetics develops with the participation and under the influence of women, because gallant culture is a culture permeated with the idea of love: "Love is an inexhaustible source of conversations, thoughts, it is at the heart of all projects and all actions. Finally, politics depends on love, because it naturally combines interests and ambitions"^[62].