8 COURTESANS WHO BECAME LEGENDS!
We all know the word prostitute but how many people know what a courtesan is? It is not a type of ointment that one rubs over something itchy, that is cortisone and is in no way related. Courtesans were at the top of the prostitutional hierarchy. They were above streetwalkers, prostitutes, madams and lorettes. They were the upper tier and they had very elegant lifestyles. Courtesans were basically mistresses. They were supported by wealthy men who provided them with anything they could ever want. Many such women lived in a more comfortable way then some of the bourgoisie.
Usually a woman of an upper class household would turn to the world of the courtesan for several different reasons. To begin with, marriage in the nineteenth century was more of a business deal then an act of true love. This idea was abhorrent to some women and so, not wanting to leave the comfort of their lifestyle would simply turn to a life that would allow them to continue on as they had without the confines of a husband. Some women chose the life of a courtesan in order to cultivate their minds which they usually, were they not independent, were meant to keep dormant. Defining the courtesan basically comes down to this: "a prostitute with a courtly, wealthy, or upper-class clientele."
Usually a woman of an upper class household would turn to the world of the courtesan for several different reasons. To begin with, marriage in the nineteenth century was more of a business deal then an act of true love. This idea was abhorrent to some women and so, not wanting to leave the comfort of their lifestyle would simply turn to a life that would allow them to continue on as they had without the confines of a husband. Some women chose the life of a courtesan in order to cultivate their minds which they usually, were they not independent, were meant to keep dormant. Defining the courtesan basically comes down to this: "a prostitute with a courtly, wealthy, or upper-class clientele."
1. Su Xiaoxiao
Su Xiaoxiao, also known as Su Xiaojun and sometimes by the appellation "Little Su", was a famous Chinese courtesan and poet from Qiantang City in the Southern Qi Dynasty. Well known for her intellectual talent and great beauty, Su Xiaoxiao pursued the values of love, beauty and humanity, as reflected in her writing and in popular stories. There are many stories attached to the life of Su Xiaoxiao, with no way of knowing the historical accuracy of any single story. One such story has her meeting a young scholar travelling in a state of dire poverty, hoping to reach the capital to sit the official examinations. She gave the scholar several nuggets of silver from her purse, but sadly he never returned to her after completing the examinations. In any event, it seems that she did not wish to be a man's wife or mistress, preferring to share her beauty with the common people while showing a certain contempt for the wealthy. In her late teens, Su Xiaoxiao developed a terminal illness, during which she took the view that heaven was giving her the special opportunity to leave a legacy of beauty in her memory through her death at a young age. She died at a mere 19 years of age. For more than a thousand years, her tomb was situated at the Xilin Bridge beside her beloved West Lake. Su Xiaoxiao's life and poetry provided much inspiration for later Chinese writers and artists. She was the romantic heroine of Tang dynasty poets Bai Juyi, Li He, Wen Tingyun, and Ming dynasty writer Zhang Dai, also the heroine of the story "Romantic Trails of Xilin" in Fine Stories of the West Lake.
A woodcut of unknown provenance was used to illustrate porcelain objects during the Ming dynasty and early Qing dynasty. The woodcut was based on the short story "Dreaming of Qiantang", which told of the scholar Sima Yu, who, while visiting Hangzhou, wrote a poem about a dream he had in which Su Xiaoxiao was brought by three gusts of wind to come and sing at his window. Su was also a frequent figure for portrayal in Chinese theater.
Su Xiaoxiao's tomb was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, but it was rebuilt in 2004, complete with a brand new pavilion decorated with twelve poetry posts handwritten by famous calligraphers. Su Xiaoxiao's tomb is now again a major tourist site in Hangzhou. Su Xiaoxiao is also the heroine of TV series Loving Courtesan Su Xiaoxiao.
2. Madame du Barry
Jeanne Bécu, countess du Barry, (born August 19, 1743, Vaucouleurs, France—died December 8, 1793, Paris) last of the mistresses of the French king Louis XV (reigned 1715 – 74). Although she exercised little political influence at the French court, her unpopularity contributed to the decline of the prestige of the crown in the early 1770s. She was born Marie-Jeanne Bécu, the illegitimate daughter of lower-class parents. After a convent education, she was a shop assistant, under the name Jeanne Vaubernier, in a fashion house in Paris. While there she became the mistress of Jean du Barry, a Gascon nobleman who had made a fortune as a war contractor. He introduced her into Parisian high society, and her beauty captivated a succession of nobly born lovers before she attracted Louis XV’s attention in 1768. She could not qualify as official royal mistress (maîtresse en titre), a position vacant since the death of Madame de Pompadour in 1764, unless she was married to a noble.
Hence, du Barry arranged a nominal marriage between Jeanne and his brother, Guillaume du Barry; in April 1769 she joined Louis XV’s court. The comtesse immediately joined the faction that brought about the downfall of Louis XV’s powerful minister of foreign affairs, the Duke de Choiseul, in December 1770; and she then supported the drastic judicial reforms instituted by her friend the chancellor René-Nicolas de Maupeou, in 1771. She spent much of her time on the estates that Louis had given her near Louveciennes, where she earned a reputation as a generous patron of the arts. On the death of Louis XV (May 1774) and the accession of Louis XVI, Madame du Barry was banished to a nunnery; from 1776 until the outbreak of the Revolution she lived on her estates with the Duke de Brissac. In 1792 she made several trips to London, probably to give financial aid to French émigrés. Condemned as a counterrevolutionary by the Revolutionary Tribunal of Paris in December 1793, she was guillotined.
3. Veronica Franco
Born in 1546, Franco was the daughter of a former courtesan. She may have fallen in love unhappily when she was young as her character did in the film; she certainly wrote about unrequited love. Her mother taught her the art of being a courtesan but her three brothers' tutors gave her an excellent education in Greek and Latin.
Franco also played the lute,
as well as being extremely cultured. The young Franco married Paolo Panizzo but the marriage was unhappy and they separated. She had six children by a few different men but only three survived. Wealthy men helped her throughout her life, including Domenico Venier who held the most influential literary salons in Venice, and she had a liaison with Henry III, the King of France. Franco eventually gave up the life of a courtesan so that she could be more involved in literature. She wrote two important volumes of poetry and many letters, and collected anthologies and acquired a large library. She apparently regretted her life of prostitution; at one point she advised a friend not to let her daughter become a courtesan, saying that it involved giving 'your body in slavery.'
4. Viriginia Oldoini, the Countess of Castiglione
Virginia Oldoini, the daughter of noble parents, was born in 1837 and raised by her grandfather. She was taught to speak many languages and became a voluptuous beauty with brown hair and blue eyes who shocked everyone by wearing revealing clothes. Men were mad about the young woman who became the mistress of the naval officer, Marquis Doria, at the tender age of 16.
Her parents arranged a marriage for Oldoini to the Count Castiglione when she was only 17. A year later she had a son, Giorgio, but Oldoini was destined for greater things than being an ordinary countess. She caught the attention of those in power in the Italian government, who recruited her to act as a secret agent to assist in the unification of Italy movement. She was given instructions to "succeed by whatever means you wish, but succeed," and in this pursuit she seduced the French Emperor, Louis Napoleon.
During this time, she caused quite a sensation at a ball held by Louis Napoleon. Johann Strauss halted the orchestra when she entered the room because he was so stunned by her beauty. Princess Metternich described her as having 'wonderful hair, the waist of a nymph, and a complexion the color of pink marble!' As Napoleon III's mistress she helped persuade him that Italy should be united. Four years later the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed, in part because of Virginia Oldoini's influence.
Napoleon III wasn't the only famous man who became the Countess's lover. She also became the mistress of the Italian King, Victor Emmanuel II, who set her up in an apartment in Florence's splendid Pitti Palace and granted her a large pension. Her other lovers included Prince Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne and the fabulously wealthy Baron James de Rothschild.
After the Countess moved back to Paris, she became the world's first fashion model. The photographic studio of Mayer and Pierson took more than 400 portraits of her. She liked to be photographed as theatre or opera heroines, or as historical characters such as Anne Boleyn. She also liked to have her lovely hands, legs, and feet photographed.
Unfortunately the Countess became a recluse in her later years. Like many beautiful, famous women, she was unable to face the loss of her beauty. After she turned forty, which was hardly a great age even in those days, she hid away in her apartment and eventually died a tragic, solitary death.
5. Mata Hari
Mata Hari was a professional dancer and mistress who became a spy for France during World War I. Suspected of being a double agent, she was executed in 1917.
Born on August 7, 1876, in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, Mata Hari was a professional dancer and mistress who accepted an assignment to spy for France in 1916. Hired by army captain Georges Ladoux, agreeing to pass military information gleaned from her conquests to the French government. Not long after, however, Mata Hari was accused of being a German spy. She was executed by firing squad on October 15, 1917, after French authorities learned of her alleged double agency.
All things "Oriental" were the fad in the Paris of 1905. The time seemed ripe for Mata Hari's exotic looks and the "temple dance" she created by drawing on cultural and religious symbolism and that she had picked up in the Indies. With characteristic confidence, she siezed the moment. She billed herself as a Hindu artist, draped in veils—which she artfully dropped from her body. In one memorable garden performance, Mata Hari appeared nearly naked on a white horse. Although she daringly bared her buttocks—then considered the most tittilating part of the anatomy—she was modest about her breasts, generally keeping them covered
with brassiere-styled beads. Completing her dramatic transformation from military wife to siren of the East, she coined her stage name, "Mata Hari," which means "eye of the day" in Indonesian dialect. Mata Hari took the Paris saloons by storm, then moved on to the bright lights of other cities. Along the way, she helped turn the striptease into an art form and captivated critics. A reporter in Vienna described Mata Hari as "slender and tall with the flexible grace of a wild animal, and with blue-black hair." Mystery continues to surround Mata Hari's life and alleged double agency, and her story has become a legend that still piques curiosity. Her life has spawned numerous biographies and cinematic portrayals, including, most famously, the 1931 film Mata Hari, starring Greta Garbo as the courtesan-dancer and Ramon Novarro as Lieutenant Alexis Rosanoff.
6. Chica da Silva
Very little is known about Chica da Silva; the rest is shrouded in myth. We know she was born a slave in present-day Belo Horizonte in the early 1730s, but that by the time she died 1796, she had joined the upper crust of Brazil’s diamond coast. We know that her mother had also been a slave, from the Gulf of Guinea, but that Chica’s sons would be educated in Portugal’s top schools and receive titles of nobility. We know that her father had been a slave owner and captain-major in the Portuguese army, but that for much of her life, she carried on a very public romance with João Fernandes de Oliveira, who operated several diamond mines and was one of the richest men in Brazil. In fact, for over 15 years the lovers lived together and had 13 children, though they never married. After Fernandes bought Chica from her second master and freed her, the two moved into a palatial home at Praça Lobo de Mesquita 266 in the town of Diamantina (today a UNESCO World Heritage Site). Ultimately the relationship ended when Fernandes returned to Portugal in 1770 to attend to financial matters; he died in
Lisboa nine years later. Chica continued her gilded lifestyle back in Brazil, as Fernandes had given her all of his Brazilian assets including his slaves. She became a member of several religious societies, two of which were exclusively for whites. Her daughters, who stayed with her while her sons left for Portugal, would receive the kind of education expected of aristocratic débutantes of any color. When Chica died in 1796, she was buried in the town’s most prestigious church. These facts make up the history of Chica da Silva, and although falsehoods normally have no place in a historical profile, it’s important to mention the myth overshadowing Chica’s life in order to understand her legacy. It’s said, for example, that when an all-white church didn’t let Chica join its congregation, dom Fernandes had a chapel built attached to their home for Chica’s personal use. Since Chica had never seen the ocean, Fernandes is also rumored to have ordered the creation of an artificial lake, complete with a 10-person sailboat for those invited to Chica’s extravagant parties. Due to the high social status she attained during her lifetime, as well as the myths that arose about her in the years following her death, Chica is known by many today as “the slave who became a queen.”
7. Brooke Magnanti
Brooke Magnanti (born November 1975) is an American research scientist, blogger, and writer, who, until her identity was revealed in November 2009, was known by the pen name Belle de Jour. While completing her doctoral studies, between 2003 and 2004, Magnanti supplemented her income by working as a London call girl known by the working name Taro. Her diary, published as the anonymous blog Belle de Jour: Diary of a London Call Girl, became increasingly popular as speculation surrounded the identity of Belle de Jour. Remaining anonymous, Magnanti went on to have her experiences published as The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl in 2005 and The Further Adventures of a London Call Girl in 2006.
Magnanti worked for 14 months as a £300-an-hour prostitute called Taro for a London escort agency from 2003, after submitting her PhD thesis. She did so due to lack of funds before her viva voce at the University of Sheffield in 2003 and is estimated to have earned more than £100,000 in that period. She had previously been a science blogger using her real name and started blogging about sex work under a pseudonym. Diary of a London Call Girl was voted Blog of the Year by The Guardian newspaper in 2003.
8. Sheila Vogel-Coupe
Vogel-Coupe, said to be Britain’s oldest prostitute, reportedly earns about $420 per hour and was servicing as many as 10 clients a day until she underwent surgery to have part of her intestines removed, notes British tabloid Metro. She entered the sex trade four years ago to overcome
Vogel-Coupe’s career choice has reportedly alienated her from most of her family, including her granddaughter, former British “X Factor” contestant Katie Waissel. However, she does maintain a relationship with one daughter and grandson, Britain’s Mirror tabloid reported.
The Huffington Post UK points out that Vogel-Coupe can be found as Cecilia Bird on the Mature Courtesans website, where her age is listed as 80.
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