Writers differ as to the true nature of Mme. de Pompadour, some saying that she was bereft of all feeling, a callous, hard-hearted monster; others maintain that she was tender-hearted and sympathetic.  However, the majority agree as to her possession of many of the essential qualifications of an able minister of state, as well as great aptitude for carrying on diplomatic negotiations.

She was the greatest patroness of art that France ever possessed, giving to it the best hours of her leisure; it was her pastime, her consolation, her extravagance, and her ruin.  All eminent artists of the eighteenth century were her clients.  Artists were nourished, so to speak, by her favors.  It may truthfully be said that the eighteenth-century art is a Pompadour product, if not a creation.  The whole century was a sort of great relic of the favorite.  Fashions and modes were slaves to her caprice, every new creation being dependent upon her approbation for its survival—­the carriage, the cheminee, sofa, bed, chair, fan, and even the etui and toothpick, were fashioned after her ideas.  “She is the godmother and queen of the rococo.”  Such a eulogy, given by the De Goncourt brothers, is not shared by all critics.  Guizot wrote:  “As frivolous as she was deeply depraved and base-minded in her calculating easiness of virtue, she had more ambition than comported with her mental calibre or her force of character; she had taken it into her head to govern, by turns promoting and overthrowing the ministers, herself proffering advice to the king, sometimes to good purpose, but still more often with a levity as fatal as her obstinacy.”

In The Old Regime, Lady Jackson has given an unprejudiced estimate of her:  “She was the most accomplished and talented woman of her time; distinguished, above all others, for her enlightened patronage of science and of the arts, also for the encouragement she gave to the development of improvements in various manufactures which had stood still or were on the decline until favored by her; a fresh impulse was given to progress, and a perfection attained which has never been surpassed and, in fact, rarely equalled. Les Gobelins, the carpets of the Savonnerie, the porcelaine de Sevres, were all, at her request, declared Manufactures Royales.  Some of the finest specimens of the products of Sevres, in ornamental groups of figures, were modelled and painted by Mme. de Pompadour, as presents to the queen....  The name of Pompadour is, indeed, intimately associated with a whole school of art of the Louis Quinze period—­art so inimitable in its grace and elegance that it has stood the test of time and remains unsurpassed.  Artists and poets and men of science vied with each other in admiration of her talents and taste.  And it was not mere flattery, but simply the praise due to an enlightened patroness and a distinguished artist.”