For the Pentecost - Diamond star of the Order of the Holy SpiritArchived Message
Posted by Arthur on May 24, 2015, 4:51 pm
Today (24th May 2015) is, in the Catholic and Protestant liturgical calendars, the solemn festivity of the Pentecost - i.e., according to the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, the Holy Spirit descending onto Mary and the Apostles, and giving them the ability to speak in various languages and the strength to spread the Gospel throughout the world, to all nations (to sum it up shortly). In other words, the Pentecost is, in the liturgical calendar, a celebration highlighting the role of the Holy Spirit in the Christians' spiritual life.
So far, no relation with royal jewels, the topic of this board? Well, there is a link, as you will see...
Indeed, in 1578, King Henri III of France (1551-1589) founded the Order of the Holy Spirit ("Ordre du Saint-Esprit"). Henri III had a personal devotion to the Holy Spirit and to the Pentecost, because two of the main events of his life had happened precisely on the day of the Pentecost: his election as King of Poland and Lithuania in May 1573, and his accession to the French throne one year later, in May 1574.
The Order of the Holy Spirit remained until 1830 (with an interruption during the Revolution and the Napoleonic time) the highest order of the French monarchy. On almost all portraits of French Kings and Princes, you can see a pale blue sash, which is the sash of the order.
The star and badge of the order depicted a Maltese cross, with four fleur-de-lys between the arms of the cross, and a white dove in the middle - in the Christian iconography, the Holy Spirit is traditionally represented under the form of a dove flying down from heaven.
The "usual" insigns of the order were made in white and green enamel on gold.
Yet, several Kings later commissioned for themselves, or for other Knights from the Royal Family, jewelled insigns, to be worn for the most solemn occasions. King Louis XIV (1638-1715) and King Louis XV (1710-1774) had such jewelled insigns of their orders made with stones from the Crown Jewels' collection:
- the inventory of the Crown jewels made in 1691 for Louis XIV mentions a bejewelled badge (to be attached to the sash) and a bejewelled breast star of the Order of the Holy Spirit. The sash badge, made in 1672 by Pitau, included 120 diamonds, including a 14.90-carat diamond for the body of the dove, two diamonds of 13.87 carats each for the wings, and a 12.58-carat diamond for the head; the whole was estimated 158,356 pounds (I do not know how much it would be worth in today's euros...). The breast star, made by Lescot in 1663, included 112 diamonds, and was estimated 150,750 pounds. The inventory also mentions another bejewelled badge of the order, made with 25 yellow diamonds and 148 white diamonds, worth "only" 30,000 pounds.
- King Louis XV had most of the jewels of his great-grandfather and predecessor remodelled to keep in touch with the new jewellery fashion of the time. He commissioned in the 1750s from the Crown jeweller Jacquemin two new versions of the insigns of the Order of the Holy Spirit (one all in diamonds, the "white parure", the other with coloured stones, the "coloured parure").
The biggest diamonds of the "white parure" were between 10 and 15 carats, and formed the body, head and wings of the dove, as well as the main petals of the fleur-de-lys. The value was estimated in the Inventory of the Crown Jewels in 1791 at 314,000 pounds for the breast star, and 200,000 pounds for the sash badge.
The "coloured parure" was created in 1757. The Maltese crosses and the fleur-de-lys of the breast star and of the sash badge were made of diamonds (some of them painted), but the doves of the two jewels were made with two large cabochon spinels, which were until then uncut and were in the Crown Jewels collection since its foundation in 1530 by King Francis I. These two spinels, which were known as the "Oeuf de Naples" (the "Egg of Naples") and the "A Romain" (the "Roman A"), were recut and sculpted, and mounted as the dove in the centre, respectively, of the breast star and of the sash badge; the two spinels had to be divided to make the body and the wings of the dove. The value was estimated at 92,000 pounds for the breast star, and 59,000 pounds for the badge.
Unfortunately, during the turmoil of the French Revolution, the depository where the Crown jewels were kept was the target of a burglary in September 1792, and almost 95% of this tremendous collection was stolen. If some jewels were found again later, the jewels included in these jewelled insigns of the Order of the Holy Spirit were never found again, and are probably lost for ever...
After Napoleon I was overthrown in 1814, King Louis XVIII and his brother and successor, Charles X, commissionned new jewelled insigns of the royal orders, including a breast star and a sash badge of the Order of the Holy Spirit for the King, and another breast star for the Dauphin (i.e. the Crown Prince), all in diamonds. The King's breast star was estimated 325,956 francs, the sash badge 29,115 francs, and the Dauphin's breast star 102,864 francs.
The Order of the Holy Spirit was abolished in 1830, after the revolution which overthrew Charles X, and the jewelled insigns of the order were dismantled by Napoleon III in 1853, who used the stones to create new decorations for himself or now jewels for his wife Empress Eugénie.
The Louvre Museum owns a jewelled breast star of the Order of the Holy Spirit. It is entirely in diamonds, except the beak of the dove, which is a ruby. But as explained above, this breast star was not part of the Crown Jewels. This one was a gift from King Louis XV, either to his son-in-law, Infante Philip, Duke of Parma, or to his grandson, Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Parma. It was bought by the Louvre in 1951, and is displayed in the Apollo's Gallery. Though it is not an original piece of the Crown Jewels, it probably gives us a good idea of the splendour of the decorations created by the French Kings, and notably of the "white parure" created for Louis XV.
On the following two pictures, the breast star is visible on the left:
Edit: I forgot to mention that most of the information mentioned above comes mostly from Bernard Morel's book about the French Crown Jewels (Les Joyaux de la Couronne de France, published in 1988, and which is "the" authoritative and until now still unequalled book on this topic...).
on May 24, 2015, 4:51 pm
