The Interiorization of Identity: Portrait Busts and the Politics of Selfhood in Pre- and Early Revolutionary France

Ronit Milano In Anne-Flore Millet’s portrait of Marie-Antoinette awaiting her execution in the Conciergerie, the queen is seated, in a nearly-monochromatic interior, in front of a grated prison-like window and next to a grisailles-painted sculptural portrait of her husband, King Louis XVI (Figure 6. 1) . Although this representational formula of a sitter next to a bust on a table was common in eighteenth-century imagery, in reality, portrait busts rarely stood on tables within French interiors. This chapter seeks to explore the motivation and aims of the artists using this formula, which communicated a familiar yet imaginary setting. The main argument is that portrait busts in pre- and early Revolutionary France functioned as reflections of certain selfhoods and that, when placed in an interior setting, the bust emblematized mental interiority.