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Marguerite de Navarre and the AndrogynousPortrait of Francois Ier*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Extract
Celluy qui dit ta grace, eloquence & scavoir
Ne estre plus grands que humains, de pres ne t'a peu veoir
Et à qui ton parler ne sent divinité
De termes et propos n'entend la gravità.
De l'Empire du Monde est ta presence digne,
Et ta voix ne dit chose humaine, mais divine.
Combien doncques diray l'Ame pleine de grace,
Si outre les Mortelz tu as parolle et Face?
Clement Marot, EpigrammePoem Bestowing upon François IER the essence of divinity was not a flattering aberration but an example of imagery that became emblematic of his long reign. As Anne-Marie Lecoq has shown in her incisive analyses of many laudatory illuminated treatises and poems and extravagant royal entries with theatrical enactments, the king was glorified by an allegorical symbolism often intricately interwoven with Christian typology as deemed appropriate, indeed necessary, for “un roi très chrétien” who was the brave, virtuous, pious elect of God.
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