Archive: "Queens and Archetypes," New Orleans Art Review, Spring 2018
https://www.noareview.org/uploads/4/3/5/8/43585085/noar-spring-2018-lay.pdf “A Queen Within – Adorned Archetypes” New Orleans Museum of Art Kathy Rodriguez “ A Queen Within began with the idea that the queen, as an archetype and historical feminine construct, symbolizes tradition yet possesses the creative freedom to redefine the rules established by a patriarchal system,” states Kelly Peck in the foreword to the catalog for this show. Just upstairs from the first-floor gallery that houses dazzling fashion within complex set designs, one can peer at such a queen from across the mezzanine. New Orleans Museum of Art’s jewel of the permanent collection, Elisabeth Vigée Lebrun’s portrait of Marie Antoinette, gazes back at the viewer in splendor. The portrait is notable for its Neoclassical elements, such as its rectilinear composition punctuated by the triangular form of the subject matter. By description, this portrait fulfilled