Joan of Arc: Why she is still popular in pop culture
Joan of Arc: Why she is still popular in pop culture
More than 800 years after her birth, Jeanne d’Arc - a patron saint of France - remains a fascinating object of both historical and cultural attraction. This summer we experienced an impressive appearance of chappell roan in the armoring look Futuristic figure by Jeanne d’Arc, created by fashion designer Jeanne Friott and the leather craftsman Robert Mercier, during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. BAZ Luhrmann also announced last month that Jeanne d’Arc will be the topic of his next film.
The cultural influence of Jeanne d’Arc
Inspiration in pop culture has existed over the decades. In 1997, an iconic photo shoot by the indie pop artist Fiona Apple took place, held by Joe McNally, where she drove the subway in a medieval knighthood. "The pictures," remarked McNally on Instagram, "for reasons that are not clear to me, were divided on Twitter." Ten years later, Chloe Sevigny wore a torn peroxide hairstyle, part of a armor suit and a white linen dress than her Jeanne d’Arc-Halloween costume. Most recently, the Disney star and fashion icon Zendaya 2018 appeared at the Met Gala, dressed in full chain armor and a sharply cut chestnut brown bob for the motto "Heavenly Bodies".
The modest beginnings of Jeanne d’Arc
As one of five children of a farmer's family in Domrémy, northeastern France, Jeanne was born in 1412. Already at a young age she had visions and believed to be managed by God to save France from the English invasion. Despite her simple origin, in February 1429 she received a rare audience from France, the later King Charles VII.
"How do you get from a village and find yourself in the highest circles of French society? Wherever you talk to dukes and is in dialogue with the Dauphin - how does that happen?" Consider Katherine J. Chen, author of the historical novel "Joan" from 2022.
This unlikely beginning contributes significantly to Jeanne's mysticism. The French artist Jules Bastien-Lepage, who grew up in similar conditions, used her life as a motive for his painting of 1879. It shows it with dirty hands and feet while she has given up her spinning wheel and thinks about her ghostly visions with eyes. The late Alexander McQueen, who spoke that he felt like an outsider at the beginning of his career in the world of haute couture, was inspired by Jeanne d’Arc for his autumn winter collection in 1998, playing on her death as a martyr and courage as a heroine.
The climb to the heroine
in 1429, at the age of around 17, Jeanne asked the Dauphin, she and an army to siege Orléans, a French city in the Loiretal, which was then under English occupation. Finally, convinced of Jeanne's religious faith, the future king of France agreed. After getting a armor set, she was sent to Orléans. Jeanne's presence motivated the battered French soldiers, and within nine days after their arrival the city was freed.
dr. Eleanor Jackson, curator of the upcoming Exhibition" Medieval Women "in the British library It is clear that Jeanne: "An enormous personal charisma and an incredible sense of conviction" must have had to go to maintain permission. "It was quite unusual for a woman to be on the battlefield, to take on a military role, to influence military tactics and to actively intervene in politics, especially if you come from simple conditions," said Jackson.
a patron saint of female power?
After Jeanne had success in the Loiretal, she saw Charles crowned King of France in Reims, but was captured after a defeat in the siege of Compiègne and sold to the English. In 1431, Jeanne was convicted of heresy by a pro-English court and burned at the stake at the age of around 19.
The protocol of Jeanne's process, which documents the cruelty of her tormentors and their remarkable resilience, is one of the two crucial documents about Jeanne's life. It also served as an inspiration for Carl Theodore Dreyer's silent film "The Passion of Jeanne d’Arc" (1928) with Renée Jeanne Falconetti in the leading role. Falconettis captivating representation of Jeanne after her detention remains an important milestone in modern film history.
Jeanne, who was initially glorified and then crucified, embodies the precarious fate of women in society - especially by those in the spotlight. In 2022, the cultural author Rayne Fisher-Quann proposed that the pendulum movement of public perception is an almost feminine experience, which made it to shape the term "Woman’d".
"Like wild animals and recycled plastic, women in public life have a life cycle that most of us know," wrote fisher-quann for the British youth culture magazine i-d . "Sometimes she just gets too much praise ... most often the audience simply gets tired from her ... It is a perpetual cycle of ritual idolization, degradation and restoration, which only serves to entertain the masses and generate profit for the powerful ... I have started to call it 'Woman’d'."
Jeanne d’Arc as feminist icon
as Roan, Sevigny, Apple and Zendaya - each a young woman on the front of fame - when Jeanne d’Arc performed, she not only conjured up her appearance, but also the feminist symbol of the patron saint. McNally explained that Apple's Jeanne d’Arc-like styling helped to change her public perception of "ornament" to "warrior". Similarly, Zendaya told Instyle that her look at the Met Gala gave her the feeling that "nothing could harm me - I was like a warrior".
More and more designers are dealing with the idea of portraying Jeanne as a passionate fighter instead of as a passive martyr. On the London Fashion Week 2023, the Turkish label dilara " Fındıkoğlu with a dress entitled 'Joan's knife' - a striking skeletal dress that was made from Victorian antiques and is inspired by Jeannes after her death for revenge. LGBTQ+actresses like Emma Corrin and Hari Nef also wore the dress.
For Chen, it is the changeability of Jeanne's identity, which she has sometimes consolidated as a cultural icon. "She is so many people for so many people," she told CNN. Not only an armed symbol of the victory or a military strategist - Jeanne was also a saint, a witch, a martyr, a heretical and an innocent - a confusion of contradictions that she also makes human and understandable after centuries. It is also a reminder for young women, a brutal warning of the changeable nature of fame and a symbol of morality and strength.
"We love it when people rise very quickly, we love success stories, especially if they are enough to wealth, but - that's how human nature - we also love to overthrow and burn people. Her life is a wonderful explosive spectacle," said Chen.