17th Century Amazonian Interiors

Fighting Women in Vogue

http://www.elizabethfiles.com/elizabeth-i-a-virago-genetically-male-or-simply-a-strong-woman/3279/

"Interiors of elegant homes were decorated with paintings of Amazons and other ancient heroines. Between 1637 and 1642, the flamboyant Marie de Cosse Brissac, marechale de La Meilleraye, embellished her study with a series of portraits of deadly heroines, including three Amazon queens. She was not alone in this interest; no less a personage than the queen regent of France, Anne of Austria, intended to create such a gallery for herself." [1]

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ttp://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_390595/Johann-Georg-Platzer/The-Battle-Of-The-Amazons

There were women that fought alongside men in the seventeenth century. Most had to disguise their identity, and change themselves into me. Others, fought in skirts to save their homes from marauders. There was a third type of woman warrior in the seventeenth century. These were women that did not disquise themselves whatever, and chose to fight as women alongside men. Some of these women became famous. What is so interesting is that they were used as a romanticized version in songs, poems, plays, and even as paintings in homes. From what I have read, the paintings were not of any of the real women warriors, but of the Amazonian women of legend. 

http://www.andrewgrahamdixon.com/archive/readArticle/966

And, in searching the web, I could not locate the paintings of Marie de Cosse Brissac, marechale de La Meilleraye, nor of the French queen. These are either lost to time, or difficult to locate. If anyone knows where I can view them, please let me know.

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[1] [1] John Lynn II, Women, Armies, and Warfare in Early Modern Europe. (New York:

Cambridge University Press, 2008.), 167.