Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XVII - Marienlyst
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
Chap. XVII. EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FOREHEADS.
263
Frederic and Juliana surmount the mirrors,—he in all
the pride “ d’une beauté insolente,” she so handsome you
could almost pardon her wickedness in later days. Here
are the dining, reading-rooms, and restaurant. Views of
Venice, not quite Canaletti, adorn the walls,—pleasant
to look upon as old acquaintances, not as works
of art. The view from the windows is glorious, and
(the palace being built mi-cöte) you walk out from
thence across a wooden bridge straight into the
woods above. On our staircase stand two large white
glazed Fayence busts of Christian VI. and his son
Frederic V., in all the glory of elephants and periwigs,
—goodnatured faces, with the “front fuyant” so
remarkable among all monarchs from the commencement
of the eighteenth century. Look at the Bourbons, the
Austrians, George III., and now the house of
Olden-borg—all alike. The forehead recedes, giving an “air
moutonnier” to their Majesties. How is this to be
accounted for ? Christian IV. and his son have
intellectual faces; Louis XIII. and XIV. are not wanting.
The Stuarts have foreheads straight and broad enough
to contain the well-known hereditary obstinacy of their
race. Unless the nurses of that century indulged in some
peculiar bandaging or manipulation of the infant head,
like that which exists among certain tribes of the Bed
Indians, this formation can only be attributed to the
weight of the pigtails attached to the wigs by which
their youthful heads were disfigured.
Bun your eye over a gallery of royal portraits of the
later centuries, and you will see boys of the tenderest
age, hardly able to toddle, bewigged and dizened out
like men of seventy. It is not at all impossible that the
weight of a pigtail, before the head was thoroughly
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
