Nobles' function is to fight --
as commoners' is to work and the clergy's to pray:
So warfare and valor are glorified
• Roman attire idealizes even mercenaries
 |
Soldiers' pay (detail), tapestry, Renaissance Museum, museum publication
|
• The shield-wielding combattant
hovers over the chimney,
the dominant spot
in a salon that was impossible to heat
hovers over the chimney,
the dominant spot
in a salon that was impossible to heat
 |
| Jacob and Esau, Chateau d'Écouen (Renaissance Museum) / Claude Abron |
• The ideal this horseman expresses
is not concerned with concrete goals
 |
| Renaissance Museum, museum publication |
• Duelling,
another sport reserved for nobles,
another sport reserved for nobles,
appears at the same time:
One throws away one's life
as one does one's wealth,
with panache
One throws away one's life
as one does one's wealth,
with panache
 |
| Maurice Leloir |
Valor lets aristocrats affirm their superiority
over the prosaic, penny-pinching...
and ascendant middle class.
over the prosaic, penny-pinching...
and ascendant middle class.
* * *
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