17thwomen

17th Century Women --Part 3

L - M - N - O - P - Q

Note: to view the full-scale image, right-click on the reduced picture, and choose "view image"

Ninon de Lenclos. The most famous French woman of her century, beautiful and witty. Her salon was attended by many people including Moliere and La Rochefoucauld. She was legendary for her eternal youth. She left her books to Voltaire. We definitely live in the wrong
century!

Isabella Leonardo. Born in Novara on September 6, 1620, the Ursuline nun, Isabella Leonarda, composed mostly sacred vocal music. However, in 1693, at the age of seventy-three, she published a set of eleven trio sonatas, and in 1696 a sonata for solo violin and organ continuo, which place her among the first Italian women to compose in the new baroque instrumental genres.

Judith Leyster. Self portrait at age 26. Dutch Paintress, 1609 - 1660. The only female member of the Haarlem School. Though her work is closely identified with that of the great painter Hals, their relationship remains unclear. What is known is that she successfully sued Hals for a breach of ethics after he took on one of her students.

Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate (better known as "Liselotte" from the Pfalz). She became Duchess of Orleans by virtue of her marriage to the brother of Louis XIV, yes, him again! It is clear from the above that Louis saved the beautiful women for his own royal self, and left the "dirty" work to his brother. She was the granddaughter of Mary Stuart. From that period in history comes the expression "never trust the smile of Liselotte". I certainly wouldn't.

Duchess of Longueville (Anne Genevieve de Bourbon) (1619 - 1679) - the sister of Grand Conde, very intelligent. She was good pals with the cardinal de Retz, Turenne and La Rochefoucauld, among others.

Mary of Modena -- second wife to James II, English queen. Her Catholic upbringing caused concern and led to a glorious revolution and to numerous Jacobite's uprisings in England in the 18'th century. Her son never became an English king.

Madame de Maintenon, age 25, (yet another) royal mistress of Louis XIV. I told you to hang in.

Hortense Mancini, Duchess of Mazarini - adventuress, niece of Mazarini and a mistress of Charles II. Was very popular in her time.

Maria Mancini. She used to be the first love of Louis XIV and heavily influenced him. She also died in the same year as Louis. Interestingly, the famous cigars of a protagonist from Thomas Mann’s novel „Der Zauberberg“ are named after her.

Soeur Marie de l'Incarnation. First mother superior of the Ursulines in Quebec. Subsequently beatified.

Maria de Medici, age 11. She would surely have made it to the 17th Century but died prematurely at age 17. This picture certainly illustrates the legendary beauty of so many of the Italian Medicis.

Maria Sibylla Merian. The famous woman on the (valuable!) German 500DM bill. Scientist, botanist. Note that Gauss is on the 10DM Bill together with his standard normal probability density function and its formula (no wonder Germans become good at mathematics). Clara Schumann is also on one of the Deutsch Mark notes, but all of these are replaced by the new Euro bank notes as of Jan 1, 2002.

Madame de Montespan, age 26, You guessed it: another one of Louis XIV's royal mistresses... but don't give up on Louis yet.

Anne Marie Louise d'Orleans, alias La Grande Mademoiselle, or Mademoiselle Montpensier -- (1627-1693) the daughter of the duc Gaston d'Orleans ("Monsieur") and his first wife Marie de Bourbon. She was the grand daughter of the king Henri IV the Great, niece of the king Louis XIII and first cousine of the king Louis XIV. She belonged to the group of dissidents during the Fronde, and ordered to the use of guns aimed at Paris . At one time a marriage with the king was being planned but she eventually entered into a morganic marriage in 1670 with Antoine-Nompar de Caumont, the subsequent duc de Lauzun.

Boyarinja (Countess) Morozova. The Russian "non-conformist" (she was opposed to reforming the Orthodox church). This is a famous painting of her by Sourikov.

Mumtaz Mahal - it suffices to say that she was the very lady to whom Taj Mahal is dedicated. The most loved wife of Shah Jahan, niece of Nir Jahan (see picture). She died after delivering her 14th child (a daughter) in the city of Burhanpur on June 17, 1631. It is said that Mumtaz Mahal on her deathbed asked Shah Jahan to create a symbol of their love for posterity and her loyal husband accepted it immediately. But many historians do not agree with this story claiming that it was the grief-stricken emperor himself who decided to build the most memorable symbol of love in the world. It took him 22 years and most of his royal treasury to built a monument befitting the memory of his beloved
wife.

Empress Nur Jahan, the wife of the emperor Jahangir (they got married in 1612). She was a strong supporter of Mughal art. She was herself a brilliant woman, a poetess, a conversationalist, a warrior. Her niece Mumtaz Mahal is the very lady to whom the Taj Mahal is dedicated. Nur Jahan was a very influencial woman in the politics of her time. She designed the following rather moving epitaph for her tomb:

"On the grave of this traveller be so good as to light no lamps nor strew any roses.
This will ensure that the wings of the moths do not get singed
and that nightingales will not sigh and weep and lament"

Nzingha, Amazon queen of Matamba, West Africa (1582-1663) She was of Angolan descent and fought against European slave traders. She was a very competent military leader.

Josefa de Óbiedos (also known as Josefa de Ayala). Spanish/Portuguese Baroque Era Painter, 1630-1684, whose versatility is demonstrated by the range of genres she undertook including still life studies, portraits, religious themes, and allegorical subjects. One of her surviving paintings is that of the Marriage of Saint Catherine now at the Museu Nacional de Arte in Antigua, Lisbon. During her life time, Ayala was sufficiently well-regarded as an artist to be elected to the Lisbon Academy.

Dorothy Osborne - a brilliant letter-writer from England. Experienced a very beautiful love story with Sir William Temple, which (you guessed right) ended in happy marriage.

Clara Peeters. An important Flemish painter, who introduced the Dutch type of "Breakfast Piece" to Antwerp at
a very early date, and along with several women pioneered the development of still-life painting in the early seventeenth century. She is said to have dated a painting (now lost) 1657, and this is the last record of her before her death in Antwerp in 1659.

Katherine Philips ("matchless Orinda"). English poet and translator from French (she translated Corneille), considered to be the best woman writer of her time, a predecessor of Aphra Behn (see picture)

Pocahontas (indian name: Matoaka), early US colonies. Died in 1617. Before Walt Disney made her famous (infamous?) in some other way.

Louise de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth - the mistress of Charles II of England - she was hated by people because of her nationality and her Catholic faith. Keeping her in mind, Nell Gwyn (see picture of Gwyn) once cried to the mob: "Good people! I am a Protestant whore!"

Catharina Questiers - (1630-1669) Dutch writer specializing in poems and plays. Her motto was " Ick min mijn vrijheit" which means "I cherish my freedom". Accordingly she led a life of great independence. She was also a collectioner of items such as shells and coins. She was also a gifted landscape painter and she had a beautiful singing voice.

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