period makeups: eighteenth-century France

Period makeups: Eighteenth-century France

The ancien régime, the ‘old order’, is the term often used to label the aristocratic social and political system established in France under the Valois and Bourbon dynasties, where power relied on the three pillars of the monarchy, the clergy, and the aristocracy. It was swept away by the revolution of 1789: although the monarchy was briefly re-established after 1815, France was never, nor looked, the same again.

This period has a number of well known characters: Marie Antoinette, of course; Madame de Pompadour and Madame du Barry – mistresses of Louis V both; and the unforgettable Marquise de Merteuil.