Madame de Pompadour views on Modern Day

As the king’s mistress, most of Madame de Pompadour’s thought and energy was put into entertaining him or increasing her standing with him. She would have abhorred the more modern and abstract pieces of art or sculpture that we have now. She heavily supported the “rococo” art form, a kind of painting that depicts people in a too-good-to-be-true way. The paintings are very defined and have intricate details filled with rosy cheeked nobles having fun. Madame de Pompadour would have hated the darker art that we have more commonly today. Art that was more abstract and meant to send a message or convey a dark meaning would have been looked at with disdain. Art was meant as something fun and something that entertained and pleased the king, not as a true means of self expression. Looking at art should make the viewers happy, not just the painter.

Her views on the American government system would have been mixed. She would have been confused about the concept of voting and choosing a president rather than having one born in. Having three different branches of the government that share the power would have been an alien concept. In her life, politics was so interwoven with pleasing the King, that they practically became inseparable. To move up in the world, you would have had to be loved by the king and good in social situations. Politics was much more outwardly socially driven than it is now. Now, making the president happy is certainly part of politics, but the decisions that are made for the country are much less dependant on moods. However, I think she would have been drawn to the freedom of America. Social class matters so much less in the present day US than it did in the 1700 of France. There is so much more social mobility. Although she was able to move from middle class to nobility in her life, it was a hard road and she would have certainly been intrigued by so much social freedom.