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# Portrait of Marshal Duke de Gontaut-Biron as a peacock and the debate over its meaning
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/kogda-ne-do-kontsa-opredelilsia-s-politicheskoi-orientatsiei/
- Published: 2019-04-03T19:23:49.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:54:51.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Aristocracy, Art, Humour

When One Has Not Quite Made Up One's Mind About One's Political Allegiance.

A very strange portrait of Louis-Antoine de Gontaut-Biron, Duke and Marshal of France (1700-1788). Art historians dispute whether the depiction in the form of a peacock was a mockery, a hostile jest or a tribute to Biron's personal vanity and strutting masculinity. It is quite likely that the duke, being neither blinkered nor driven by prejudice, would himself have thought highly of such a metaphor, and taken not the slightest offence at being identified with a bird, be it peacock or cock. The author of the work is, regrettably, unknown