Bad history blamed on “right-wing website”
(And who got the wrong Louis?)

While it is not central to the point under discussion, I spotted an error in an article in the Daily Mail linked by Glenn Reynolds about an allegedly “racist” portrayal of Michelle Obama as Marie Antoinette. I find the argument that it is racist to PhotoShop the First Lady into a Marie Antoinette portrait ludicrous on its face, and I don’t think it’s worthy of serious discussion.

However, much as I hate to sound like an art snob, the article also discusses an earlier photoshop parody and shows this side by side comparison:

The caption underneath it reads as follows:

‘Profligate?’: The U.S. President has also been depicted as Louis XVI, husband of Marie Antoinette, with a caption ‘You should be thanking Me’

Wrong. And it isn’t just a case of some underpaid copy writer getting his Roman numerals mixed up, because the portrait into which Obama was PhotoShopped is that of Louis XIV. That’s Louis the Fourteenth, who was most definitely NOT the husband of Marie Antoinette. And unlike that unfortunate woman and her husband (Louis the Sixteenth) Louis XIV did not lose his head at the guillotine.  He was the absolute monarch of all monarchs known as Sun King, and the famous portrait by Hyacinthe Rigaud used in the parody is right there at his Wiki page.

I realize this may seem like a petty detail, but you’d think the British press would be more knowledgeable about basic history (and basic art history).

The piece certainly had no problem going into petty detail about American bloggers, and they single out Glenn Reynolds as being culpable for the “Louis XVI” photoshop:

Blogger Jim Hoft placed the picture on Gateway Pundit along with a reference to Mrs Obama’s guest appearance on Nickelodeon sitcom iCarly.

On the show, she praises the cast for their support of military families and she is mistakenly referred to as ‘your excellency’, to which she jokingly replies: ‘I kinda like it.’

The image is believed to originate from another right-wing website, Instapundit, where it first appeared in 2010.

How easy it is to point the finger at that evil “right-wing website, Instapundit!” Sheesh, next thing you know, some leftard will “connect the dots” and say that because Louis XVI was guillotined, the parody is actually a coded message advocating similar treatment of Obama.

Except they have no such “dots” to connect, as they can’t blame Instapundit for their own historical error.

I checked Glenn’s original file, and the jpg is labeled “SunKingObama.” The Sun King was vain and extravagant, lived in the grandest style possible to a then ripe old age of nearly 77, and far from losing his head, was the “longest-reigning monarch in European history, reigning for seventy-two years and one hundred and ten days.“

Fortunately we live in a republic where such things aren’t possible.

(At least, I hope they’re not.)

UPDATE (1/15/12): I like what Glenn Reynolds said earlier in a different context:

When they can’t criticize you without misrepresenting what you said, you know you’re winning.

How true. And I guess I should add that when they attribute their misrepresentations — and even outright fabrications — to you, they have lost an argument not with you but with themselves.

So… how long should I keep waiting for the British, um, “journalists” to correct their blatant but still uncorrected error?

It is one thing to make a historical mistake, but to deride American bloggers for it is a bit much.