Dairy Queens: The Politics of Pastoral Architecture from Catherine de Medici to Marie-Antoinette (review)

Pleasure dairies, initially perceived as frivolous, were strategically used by French queens from Catherine de Medici to Marie-Antoinette to legitimize female rule and project an image of Arcadian peace and prosperity. Meredith Martin's study reveals that these pastoral structures served as a complex matrix of ideologies, merging old and new forms of aristocratic self-representation while emphasizing themes of fecundity and maternal care. By analyzing architectural, archival, literary, and visual sources, Martin demonstrates how pleasure dairies (laiteries) evolved from functional spaces to symbols of political agency and courtly refinement, notably at Fontainebleau's Mi-voie and Versailles' Menagerie. The research also explores the dairy's association with neo-Hippocratic medical practices, as seen in Madame de Pompadour's use of her dairies to counter claims about her influence over Louis XV.

Taylor-Leduc, S. (2012). Dairy Queens: The Politics of Pastoral Architecture from Catherine de Medici to Marie-Antoinette (review). Eighteenth-Century Studies, 45(2), 333–335. https://doi.org/10.1353/ecs.2012.0005