Further to my post above on the possible Ferdinand of Parma/Marie Antoinette match, here is the exact description of her as a child/adolescent:
============
She was a very German-looking child. Lady Jackson describes her as having a long, thin face, small, pig-like eyes, a pinched-up mouth, with the heavy Hapsburg lip, and with a somewhat misshapen form, so that for years she had to be bandaged tightly to give her a more natural figure.
At fourteen, when she was betrothed to the heir to the French throne, she was a dumpy, mean-looking little creature, with no distinction whatever, and with only her bright golden hair to make amends for her many blemishes.
(Source: http://fascinatinghistory.blogspot.com/2005/12/count-fersen-marie-antoinette.html )
=============
Also, I read elsewhere in this forum that she had smallpox scars on her face, which had to be powdered, which of course, worried her mother, who knew of the French King's (Louis XV) taste in beautiful women, his future granddaughter would not have pleased him very much in terms of appearance. Oh, she had bad teeth, too!
Truth be told (and MA's fans would hate for saying this), MA does not seem to be a beauty at any point, whether as a child, adolesent, lady.
Altogether, not the type of girl who would attract Ferdinand of Parma, who certainly liked **very pretty and voluptuous girls** !
The overabundance of testimonies of all MA's contemporaries about her irresistible charm, is enough to reduce to nothing that strange demonstration, which would make us believe that MA was something like a monstruous dog...
Totally stunning...
The more harsh memorialists about MA's appearence say the same thing : her features were not perfectly regular, but her seduction was so strong that she would have been able to be prefered to all more beautiful women.
I don't even want to waste my time in a collection of citations, it would be to easy, and to long... There is NOT ONE testimony which reports that MA was ugly (that seems to be ridiculous to even have to write this....)
Maybe only two citations, especially about this inane story about smallpox scares on her face, when Mme Vigée-Lebrun wrote :
(FR)"Mais ce qu'il y avait de plus remarquable dans son visage, c'était l'éclat de son teint. Je n'en ai jamais vu d'aussi brillant, et brillant est le mot; car sa peau était si transparente qu'elle ne prenait point d'ombre. Aussi ne pouvais-je en rendre l'effet à mon gré : les couleurs me manquaient pour peindre cette fraîcheur, ces tons si fins qui n'appartenaient qu'à cette charmante figure et que je n'ai retrouvé chez aucune autre femme."
= "But the most remarkable thing in her face, was the radiance of her complexion. I had never seen something more sparkling, and sparkling is the word ; for her skin was so translucent that it didn't take the shades. Then I wasn't able to reproduce this effect like I would have loved to. My colours were inadequate to paint this freshness, these so fine tones which belonged only to this lovely face, and which I never found in one single other woman..."
And the "Mémoires Secrets" by Bachaumont, when MA came in France in 1770 (very important, because this chronicle was only a manuscript not made for a publication, and was very opposed to the french court. That's the reason why the first publication took place in London only in 1783).
Even this inimical lampoonist, who later was merciless about MA during the necklace affair, reports here :
(FR) "Voici exactement le portrait de madame la Dauphine. Cette princesse est d'une taille proportionnée à son âge, maigre sans être décharnée et telle que l'est une jeune personne qui n'est pas encore formée. Elle est très bien faite, bien proportionnée dans tous ses membres. Ses cheveux sont d'un beau blond, on juge qu'ils seront un jour d'un châtain cendré, ils sont bien plantés. Elle a le front beau, la forme du visage d'un ovale beau mais un peu allongé, les sourcils aussi bien fournis qu'une blonde peut les avoir. Ses yeux sont bleus sans être fades, et jouent avec une vivacité pleine d'esprit. Son nez est aquilin un peu effilé par le bout. Sa bouche est petite, ses lèvres sont épaisses, surtout l'inférieure qu'on sait être la lèvre autrichienne.
La blancheur de son teint est éblouissante et elle a des couleurs naturelles qui peuvent la dispenser de mettre du rouge. Son port est celui d'une archiduchesse..."
I translate "skim through" :
= "Here's the exact description of the Dauphine... This princess is of an average height for her age, she's thin, without to be scrawny, just like a young girl not fully developped yet. She's very shaply, well proportioned in all her body. Her hair is beautiful blond... The forehead beautiful, the face beautiful oval but a little too long, the eyebrow as thick as a blonde can have it...
Her eyes are blue but not dull, and they play with a spark full of wit. Her nose is aquiline, a little sharp on the end. Her mouth is small, her lips are fleshy, espacially the lower lip, which is known as "the austrian lip".
The sparkling whitheness of her skin is dazzling, and she's got natural color (on her cheeks) so that she doesn't need to use any blusher. Her bearing is the bearing of an archduchess..."
Such a girl would'nt have been lovely enough for Ferdinand of Parma. Yeah right!
The more funny in all that is (the future) Louis XVI's word, when he saw the Comtesse de Provence (Marie-Joséphine of Savoy), her young brother's wife. He said to Marie-Antoinette : "When I look at you and when I look at her, I must admit that I was really treated like the elder-brother!"
And in another moment, the Comte de Provence himself asked to the Dauphin his opinion about Marie-Joséphine's physical appearence.
He answered : "Not good! I wouldn't have wanted a woman like this!"
Provence said with bitterness : "I'm very happy for you to have received better than me..."
