Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Enough gilding for you?

The decorator, after several minutes of stationary examination, paced determinedly to the end of the hall and back.

"You've almost captured my vision," he said. "There are just a few details you seem to have overlooked. Some of the portraits are not large enough. Parts of the wall have --- nonsensically --- been left as giant, empty panes of glass rather than covered with hagiographic landscapes and heavenscapes featuring our main politicians."
"... also, I'm not sure it's gilt enough. This is a palace, you fools --- why can I see the exquisite marble peeking between the gilt frames of these paintings? Cover that with gold. What sort of second-rate palace do you think this is?"

 "Yes, that's better. None of that pesky expensive underlying wall showing --- all gold, all the time. And what's not gold, a grand depiction of Napoleon's glory. Or red velvet. Red velvet is also acceptable. It sets off the gold nicely."

*********

I enjoyed my series of visits to the Louvre.

Yes, the Louvre contains self-referential artwork.
Hubert Robert's Project d'aménagement de la Grande Galerie du Louvre.


This post's theme word is baldachin, "a rich embroidered fabric of silk or gold; a canopy." The decorating scheme of French palaces focuses on baldachin and grandeur.

Phallic architecture

Can you spot the phallic architecture?

Vanishing into the mist, which here symbolizes the feminist movement?


This post's theme word is leptorrhine, "having a long narrow nose." The leptorrhine architect made the obelisk in his own image; he later insisted it was his nose, of course.