Who was she?

I’m back! We have a wild character today who I’ve been wanting an excuse to make a miniature of for so long, so her being chosen is excellent, hooray! Julie d’Aubigny was also know as “La Maupin”, that was her opera stage name. She was here from 1670 – 1707 though records vary and as we will come to see, her story is somewhat muddled into legend! Much like Mad Max (also always wanted to start a sentance with that) tales of her would have been spread by word and almost certainly been embellished or added to, crossed over with other events. For example “Did you hear they’re saying the boat was blown up by Mad Max I mean, La Maupin?” when she might have just been sat at home watching a painting.

However! Her story is cool enough that it warrents telling, and I’d like to think every single detail is accurate as it makes for a tale of awesome proportions.

Julie is known for being the sword fighting, opera singing, law breaking bisexual temporary nun. What a title. Taught to fence early on by her father, she was a handful from the beginning, and after a failed matchmake because the chap was too boring, she ran away and began her life of scandal. She made money basically by busking around with a mix of operatic singing and swordfighting demonstrations, which was of course a delightful spectacle for the public with her being a woman, so probably raked in some decent coin.

For most of her life, Julie dressed in men’s clothes, it’s impossible (probably) to know exactly why, as with many historical characters it could be for practicality and getting around town easier, it could be she had a different gender to that assigned at birth. The book “Female Husbands” by Jen Manion covers this topic really well. I’ll be referring to her as she/her as there is nothing to say the contrary.

Her story is a whirlwind of romance, stabbings and a very short attention span! She was pardoned by King Louis XIV TWICE. Once for burning down a convent (after romancing a woman who was sent to a nunnery as punishment then Julie joined the nunnery to continue the romance) and second for stabbing (some accounts say killing) a bunch of chaps at a Royal Ball. The first due to her dad’s status, the second because Louis just thought it was very entertaining.

Designing the Sculpt

To be honest, I was so tempted to phone this one in. I think partly because I spent so long on Harriet Tubman, it’s 6pm at time of writing, and I wanted to get all 6 done today (ha, sweet summer child) but I’m not too disappointed as I am really enjoying this, and starting was most of the battle. By “phoning it in”, the image above, at first, I thought was perfect! Very rarely do we just make a painting into 3D, but it being public domain and “would make a cracking figure” was very temping.

HOWEVER. Then I got down the rabbit hole of 17th century fashion! What a rabbit hole indeed. So first I looked up images of her, how other people had represented. Many were in skirts, which would make for great miniatures, but if she dressed as a man her whole life, it’s inaccurate. I will do some sword fighty dress ladies at some point though don’t worry.

This made the research all about late 17th Century Men’s Fashion. Which the more I looked, became more and more of a minefield. This was very peak “fashion” time. The wealthy were changing their minds every decade pretty much on what the look was going to be. Big boots to small shoes, big flappy trousers, tight ones, ruffs, cravats, everything!

These were the closest I could find for around 1685-95 when a lot of the scandal was occurring! It really does change that quickly. The musketeer boots had gone out of fashion and the little red heels made popular by Louis XIV are just darling, so they’re going in. Justaucorps had replace the tighter doublet (of the first image), they were longer coats with a cinched waist. It was all less “flouncy” that a decade before, though still very elaborate compared to today’s tracksuits. The breaches no longer were as poofy and ribboned, as the coat covered them anyway.

Of course, all this fashion is for those of high society. I decided to dress Julie in the gear of a high society man due to her upbringing status, and the fact she was documented socialising at a Louis XIV Royal Ball. I figured with her other criminal activity, she may have done the odd theft to make sure she had enough to keep up with the times in a fashionable suit, and I get the impression she would have been quite proud of her appearance.

Ok it’s time for the reveal of my next terrible sketch. I am leaning into the terrible sketches now. Of course to the sculptor, this is accompanied with lots of descriptions and reference!

The pose is the same as the first image from the article. I think it’s great and suits the character. The clothes are a mixture of largely two of the clothing above, largely that of the khaki suit (which is part of the V&A collection) but with the actual justaucorps being from the one in red as you can’t see the other from under the cape. Leaving that undone to the belly button area I think will help with the shape, and it was a common way of wearing it.

Casting Concerns

I’m slightly concerned about the sword, even though it will touch the base making it stronger, I don’t know if it will be a liability, so I’ll discuss this with the caster and sculptor before we go ahead. It will be thicker than “at scale” as it would be needle thin, but I don’t want it to look like a big stick either! A workaround could be changing the wind so the cloak is floating behind the sword, a pose I am sure you are familiar with across many ranges! We shall see!

That’s all for now, I’m sure there will be an update on how we’ve adapted from the “first draft”. I am thinking of doing the Black Agnes write up next, but I’m going to have my tea and a walk first, before my eyes fall out. – Annie