Sensual History of Scent: Part Two | Scentrifugal Events
In our last Blog, we covered the sensual history of perfume through the 1300’s. This post will begin with the 16th century and take us through the 1800’s.
An Italian Beauty Becomes a French Queen with a Deadly Perfumed Secret
The art of perfumery prospered in Renaissance Italy, and in the 16th century those skills came to France when Catherine de Medici, who had arrived to marry the French King Henry II, brought her perfumer Rene Florentin with her. She quickly made Paris a fashionable city of perfume, and Rene had a laboratory connected to Catherine’s apartments by a secret passageway, so that no formulas could be stolen en route.
Rene crafted for Catherine the fragranced leather gloves she loved and had made popular, and when she needed help dealing with her enemies, she turned to Rene and also her alchemist, Cosimo Ruggiero. They brewed poisonous perfumes, including the one that scented the gloves of Jeanne d’Albret, Henri II’s mistress, which killed her.
Catherine encouraged the development of the perfume industry in France, and Grasse, in Southeastern France, had emerged as its focal point. The temperate climate and fertile soil of the region proved hospitable to orange trees, acacia, roses, lavender, olive trees, chamomile, thyme, orange blossom, and jasmine. Over time, distillation plants and facilities for processing perfume materials sprung up there, and some are still in operation today, like the factories of Molinard, Galimard and Fragonard.
In Renaissance Europe people had become very status-conscious about their gloves, but the solutions used to cure the skins were foul-smelling, so gloves were heavily-scented to disguise this. Grasse was also known as a tanning center, with plenty of goats grazing the hills to skin for their hides, and gradually a guild of glovemakers moved into the area, utilizing the local plants, and selling not only perfumed gloves, but perfumes of all kinds. The most famous scent of fine kid gloves at that time was ‘neroli’, from the blossoms of the bitter orange, named after the Duchess of Nerola. Grasse enjoyed huge success during the 17th century and developed into the center of the global perfume industry. By the 18th century when the leather business declined, the glovemaker-perfumers dropped the gloves and evolved into perfumers exclusively.
In Renaissance Europe people had become very status-conscious about their gloves, but the solutions used to cure the skins were foul-smelling, so gloves were heavily-scented to disguise this. Grasse was also known as a tanning center, with plenty of goats grazing the hills to skin for their hides, and gradually a guild of glovemakers moved into the area, utilizing the local plants, and selling not only perfumed gloves, but perfumes of all kinds. The most famous scent of fine kid gloves at that time was ‘neroli’, from the blossoms of the bitter orange, named after the Duchess of Nerola. Grasse enjoyed huge success during the 17th century and developed into the center of the global perfume industry. By the 18th century when the leather business declined, the glovemaker-perfumers dropped the gloves and evolved into perfumers exclusively.
The Perfumed Court of Sensory Indulgence
In the 17th century, King Louis XIV of France was dubbed ‘the sweetest-smelling monarch that had yet been seen’. One of his favorite perfumes was Acqua Angeli, a mixture of spices, agarwood, jasmine and rosewater with a few drops of musk, and all of his shirts were laundered in it. Perfume took on an even bigger life when Louis XV came to the throne in the 18th century. His courtiers were ordered to wear a different scent each day, so that Versailles became known as ‘La Cour Parfumee’ (the Perfumed Court).
Scents were applied daily not only to skin, but also to wigs, clothing and furniture, and scented fans were popular as a flirtation device. Madame de Pompadour, the King’s mistress, spent more on perfume than any other of her household expenses. By the 18th century, the French Court was consuming almost as much perfume as the sensual citizens of ancient Rome. People were so obsessed by perfume at this time that perfume substituted for soap and water, and personal hygiene flew out the door!
The 18th century also brought one of the most famous fragrance developments in the history of perfume – the creation of the Eau de Cologne. There are several stories as to who the true inventor was, but the most documented is that it was created by a young Italian perfumer, Jean-Marie Farina, who was living in Cologne, Germany. Translated to mean ‘water from Cologne’, it was a tremendous success first in France and then rapidly throughout Europe. The first blend was a mix of neroli and other orange oils combined with bergamot, lavender and herbs, resulting in a fresh citrus accord. The refreshing Eau de Cologne was originally intended for both internal and external use, having both medicinal and cosmetic functions as a mouthwash, in the bath, added to wine, and as a disinfectant for wounds - but subsequently under Napoleon’s rule he mandated a legal distinction between pharmacy and perfumery.
After Napoleon came to power, exorbitant expenditures for perfume continued. Two quarts of violet cologne were delivered to him each week, and he used sixty bottles of double extract of jasmine every month. He favored Eau de Cologne, and added sugar to it. He patronized the perfume houses of Houbigant and Lubin, which are still thriving today. His wife, Empress Josephine, also had very strong perfume preferences. She loved musk, and she used so much that sixty years after her death the scent still lingered in her boudoir! Napoleon and Josephine’s love-making was centrally focused on their attraction for each other’s body smells meshed with perfume, and when he was away he often wrote to urge her not to bathe before he returned.
Jean-Louis Fargeon, born into a family of perfumers, had visions of taking his talent to the mirrored and gold-encrusted Court of Versailles and creating masterpieces for the young Queen, Marie Antoinette. He opened a shop in Paris, and was soon concocting perfumes and cosmetics for many of the French nobility, like Lady DuBarry, the King’s mistress, who adored iris, orange blossom, and angelica. He formulated a coloring powder for Lady Du Barry’s hair, and this led him to a meeting with Marie-Antoinette at the Trianon Palace. He tempted her with lavish, custom scents that reflected her whims, moods and personality, and he served as her personal and exclusive perfumer, as well as confidante, for fourteen years until 1789 when the French Revolution loomed darkly over France. With the Revolution came a hatred for the extravagant, indulgent and self-involved Queen , who was now seen as an enemy of the people. Fargeon, an avid supporter of the Republican cause, but also a supplier to the Court and a trusted friend of the Queen, was in a dangerous position. He remained exceptionally loyal to Marie Antoinette, as she fled to Varennes, at the horror of her execution (with a vial of Houbigant perfume tucked into her bosom for courage), and through his own trial and imprisonment. Even after her death her notoriety lived on, and a perfume surfaced called Parfum a` la Guillotine!
Our next posting will take us into more modern times.