Author: Palermo

THE AGE OF INNOCENCE

Few cities suffered a facelift as radical as Paris in the late 19th century. In the wake of the transformations of baron. Haussmann and the growth of affluence, new neighborhoods. Were built and old ones became unrecognizable. Around the Parc Monceau, in the northwest of the city, the brothers Pereire, holders of. Five hectares of land, could barely control the demand of. The new fortunes to acquire building plots. The. 

Rue de Monceau, a wide and majestic street, bordering the gardens on the south side, witnessed thus the appearance of magnificent mansions where the likes of. Alfred and Maurice de Rothschild, Baron Ephrussi and the Count de Camondo turned the. Area into an emblematic slice of. Parisian splendorous living.

Number 63 has always exerted a fascination upon me. The intriguing story of a middle aged. Jewish financier, who proceeded to recreate with rigor and passion a unique 18th century environment, is not the simple tale of a collector, as many of his rich contemporaries were. Parc Monceau It has dimensions of Shakespearian tragedy, where wealth, power, family ties and death weave a narrative of silent sorrow.

The Camondos, Sephardic Jews with deep roots in Istanbul, were newcomers to France in 1869. As Moïse de Camondo and his cousin, Isaac, immersed themselves in this. Atmosphere of refinement and luxury, their artistic inclinations soon overtook their dedication to  business.  Isaac composed symphonic music and, in common with Moïse, began collecting 18th century furniture, paintings and objects. Moïse’s impassioned attraction for the period took him one step further. In 1910, he razed the hotel Violet, inherited from his late mother.

With the help of René Sergent, an ambitious and talented architect who later designed the. Savoy and Claridge’s hotels in London, Moïse erected a replica of the Petit Trianon where he indulged in his collecting. When he started his project he had already divorced the mother of his two children, Irene. Cahen D’Anvers, scion of one of the most prestigious families of local society.

Three years after completing this monumental project, his only son, Nissim, was killed in action during the First World War. The home became a fortress. Of sorrow and a shrine to the memory of his fallen child. Portraits of Nissim are displayed in almost every room.  Upon his death in 1935, he donated the house to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and named it after his son. But destiny still had not uttered the last word: in 1943 his daughter Beatrice, her husband and their two children were sent to Dachau.

Their deaths put an end to a lineage whose memory is kept alive in this melancholic residence where life was. first recreated for historic resemblance and then suspended by death.

BEST IN SHOW

BEST IN SHOW In the distribution of architectural space, galleries are long and dramatic corridors conveying a clear message as to why they are. There and how they justify their existence. Like monumental staircases, they are poor in. Function and high in solemnity,  providing support to the civic ideals from which they spring  and to the power structure they serve.

None exemplifies this better than the Long Gallery or the Gallery François I at the château of Fontainebleau.  Its dimensions, 64 meters long (200 feet) and only 6. Meters high (20 feet), are simultaneously splendorous and comfortable. It seems to propel us, upon entering, into exalted emotions: the walnut carvings and the three dimensional stucco figures framing the.

Colorful frescoes, constitute an ensemble that later royal dwellings envied for harmony and balance. This iconography sustains a. Profound narrative rooted in classical mythology whose final sense escapes exegetes of all periods. In 1533, both the patron king and his appointed artists. Rosso Fiorentino and Francesco Primaticcio staged this monumental show to dazzle friends and foes of. France, an unforgettable display of royal triumph and dominance. Francois I was only too delighted to take them all around and immerse them in the glory he wanted to. Bestow upon himself even before his passing away.

This gallery embodies the introduction into France of the Italian Renaissance art and the transformation of the nobility of. The sword into the nobility of the plume. The refined court that reached its apogee at Versailles has its embryonic beginnings here. It was the model to many that followed: the. Gallerie des Glaces at Versailles, the Gallery at Chenonceau and the Gallery of portraits at the Chateau of Beauregard.

There are other galleries where there is no king honored or well designed spaces. Galleries where no admission ticket is required, although function retains a meager role. Urban trades used them centuries ago to transport goods into shops, studios or warehouses. Today they lie indifferent and silent, yet atmospheric, in the middle of our cities.

THE ROMANTIC BATTLEMENTS OF HADDON HALL

When entering Haddon Hall, leave your dreams outside. This English manor house, sitting on a slope overlooking the. River Wye in Derbyshire and dating back in some parts to the 12th century, is a dream machine in its own right. Lying abandoned for more than two centuries, then restored with a  rigorous hand by. The 9th Duke of Rutland and a team of expert craftsmen, it has a unique and pulsating energy that is hard to translate into words.

In his childhood, John Manners, the 9th. Duke, used to visit Haddon with his brothers and sisters. The family spent the summer holidays nearby and. Yet did not inhabit their own property. They merely whiled away the bright summer afternoons at. Haddon sketching watercolors and gardening, as. lady Diana Cooper, the sister of John Manners, recalled. However, he fell under the spell of the site and. Decided to bring back to life this tarnished jewel.

Even if you have previously glimpsed medieval chapels, banqueting halls, long galleries or. Casement windows with leaded glass panes, nothing will prepare you for the experience of this environment. Once you step through the gateway into a courtyard surrounded by a miscellaneous. Collection of buildings, the magic begins. The slabs of stone worn out by age and weather act as a. Time warp, silencing the echoes that come from the voices around you.

You are then ready to savor Haddon Hall in its full intensity. The Banqueting Hall, the oldest structure in the. House, was built in 1370 with additional wood paneling and oak screen added in 1600, years before the house entered its big sleep. Room after room, the captivation of this ancient building unfolds. Then, at the end of your exploration, you reach the gardens. It is in the contemplation of this peaceful setting, perched over the river. Wye, where you unreservedly admire  the spirit of those who erected this treasure. The terraced gardens and. The balustrades, abounding in roses, clematis and delphiniums, are the chromatic background to the soft yellow of the stone façade. You are moved by this perfect setting, created in a period that in spite. Of brutal behaviors, was capable of generating such romantic emotions. These gardens are a final gift to the borrowed dream.

AN ENGLISH PASSION

Visiting gardens is an education of sorts. It teaches us the meaning of things that otherwise would go unnoticed in our passage through earth. The mystery of a garden is the mystery of life, a silent cycle of vigor and decay, a simple lesson of acceptance and serenity, of patience and love.

The love of gardens makes us wiser and richer. In England, more perhaps than elsewhere, gardens are also the expression of a culture where the values of privacy and warmth have prevailed in the creation of their landscaping.

Arley Hall gives us hints in that direction. The seat of the Warburton family since 1495, the current Jacobean mansion sits in a vast expanse of 8 acres of formal garden and an additional 7 of woodland.

This garden is the expression of a work of passion transmitted from generation to generation, expanded, redesigned and enlarged until reaching its current state. The present layout is due to William Emes, who, in 1750, undertook the design of the walled gardens of cooking herbs, scented plants and fruits in a botanical division of functions.

The famous herbaceous border, known as the Alcove Walk, was the first of its kind. It was laid out in 1846 for displaying perennial plants. Today, it dazzles for its chromatic palette as well as for its spacious proportions.

Arley appears like an immense tapestry unveiling to the eye intimate spaces, geometrical designs and framed vistas. A visit to Arley is like the rekindling of a passion, a moment of high emotion in the arms of a lover.  After all, beyond enriching us with wisdom, gardens are above all, a manifestation of yearning. This is the place for savoring it.

THE SILENCE OF SAN FRANCESCO DEL DESERTO

I have always been drawn to places of stillness. A mountain peak or an empty church have a quality of. being that only silence can bestow. In the waters of the Venetian lagoon, there is an island that. From time immemorial has honored the virtues of deep tranquility and calmness: San Francesco del Deserto.

Located a few miles from. Burano and inhabited by only six Franciscan friars, it retains a profound and otherworldly beauty. History and legend mingle to tell us that before. Saint Francis landed in these parts, there already was a chapel dedicated to the Madonna. Upon his return from. Egypt and the Orient in 1220, Saint Francis created a cenobite community in this spot. Years later. a noble Venetian. Bequeathed the island to his religious order. It was only twice left by the friars: in 1440 for health reasons (it was “deserted”) and during the Austrian occupation of Venice, when the place was converted into military barracks.

Closed off to public vaporettos and fenced off by spears of dark cypresses, it is only accessible for just four hours of the day. Two thirds of its surface remain out of bounds. This is a world outside of this world. Do not expect magnificent architecture reminding you of the exquisite beauty of. The big city across the water. This is a place of almost crude simplicity yet charged with an eerie energy.

What does this idyllic setting represent in today’s world? The waters of secular reality threaten to submerge this. Island of spirituality and prayer as if whatever message it brings us could be just a faint and odd echo of the past. Do not fool yourself, at. San Francesco del Deserto you can be. Stroked by a burning cinder when you least expect it. Then you will have to make room in your heart for the immensity of this silence.

PLEASING THE SENSES

There is a grandeur that makes Villa Pisani stand out form the rest of the villas of the Veneto. The country estates initiated by. Palladio along the Brenta in the 16 century maintain an intimacy in their classical symmetry, that is conspicuously absent from the baroque design that the. Venetian brothers Almorò and Alvise Pisani commissioned to the architect Girolamo Frigimelica.

Only 61 years after its construction, the majestic estate became protagonist of the political vicissitudes of the. Veneto region and of the turbulent birth of Italy. Napoleon Bonaparte, Maria Anna, the Italian-born empress of. Austria and successive occupiers, all engaged in leaving their imprint in this palatial dwelling. The backdrop of the villa as an historic stage continued. Intensely during the 20th century, when it witnessed the meeting of Hitler and Mussolini.

Ghostly statuary covers the borders of the pond or stand sentinel under the porticos of the ground. Floor as if the former residents insisted on coming back to a petrified life. The 11 hectares park and gardens give a sensation of floating above the ground, as if. Escaping their overwhelming destiny. I am always astonished at the tremendous force that a beautifully designed lanscape can exert on its immediate surroundings.

The contrast between the ambitious architecture and the serenity of the park is striking. Among the orangery and the. Stables, a revelation awaits the visitor: the labyrinth or maze, a work of nine concentric circles of box hedges, complex and playful, with a destination at the center: the. Statue of Minerva on top of a turret with two spiral staircases. As the goddess of wisdom and magic, she confers her gifts on the victorious ones that reach the center. The ambiguous symbolism of the structure. Points to the path of the pilgrim or to a dangerous place of entrapment. Like all ancient myths, it nurtures a form of sacred mystery. And acts like a coda to a place that, in spite of its charms, still seems to be searching for its soul.

ISLAMIC EXHIBITS

We live a convulsive world. Amid shortages of all sorts in western economies, violent clashes and protests in the. Arab world against publication in a French satirical magazine of cartoons ridiculing the. Prophet Muhammed, the Louvre has opened a new wing dedicated to Islamic art. After ten years of works, at an expense of over € 20. Million and introducing contemporary additions to the. Fabric of the building, the message behind such pageantry is one of approach and reconciliation.

I visited the new wing on a Sunday morning among a mixed crowd of visitors. French middle-class couples. Groups of seniors, young and not so young Arabs pressing against the glass cases of the exhibits to grasp some. Of the aesthetic wonders of a world, whose geographic expansion and. Influence is measurably unfamiliar.

The width and scope of what is presented along with its chronological. Display has already provoked conflictive views. According to Marwan Mohammad, an author and journalist, the galleries display an. Orientalist vision of Islamic art and not one. That is inclusive of the Muslim community. President Hollande insisted during his speech at the opening that “the honour of. Islamic civilizations is older, more vibrant and more tolerant. Than some of those who pretend to be speaking in their name today”.

And so goes the exchange with Islam. Opposing viewpoints overshadow a brilliant panorama of splendid objects that speak for themselves and do not need additional political readings. Yes, we do live in a convulsive world.

REMEMBRANCE OF BALLS PAST

Are glamour and money happy bedfellows? Does one stand alone without the other? That is certainly and sadly the case when money speaks. Not necessarily the other way around. Be that as it may, occasions of felicitous pairings can produce brilliant outcomes.

I was musing on this as I came across what I consider an instance of felicitous pairing: the 20th. century balls masqués. These parties, mostly centered on a theme, involved meticulous planning, a pinch of a performance, imaginative costumes and the collaboration of artists, designers and musicians.

Count Etienne de Beaumont was a pioneer on that front. Planner of such balls as “The Tales of Perrault”, “The Games Ball” or “The Sea Ball”, where he appeared as a devilfish or manta ray, he then became involved with the Théâtre de la Cigale. There he launched the “soirées de Paris”, avant-garde spectacles in collaboration with the likes of Derain, Picasso, Cocteau and Satie. Viscount de Noailles and his wife, Marie-Laure, patrons and leading members of Parisian society, Baron Alexis de Redé and the self- appointed Marquis of Cuevas, carried the torch of that tradition devising choreographed fantasies, one-off theatrical illusions as if the tragic memory of the Great War forced the imagination into higher flights of fancy.

Two of the last organizers of those extravaganzas, Baron Guy and Marie- Hélène de Rothschild and Carlos de Beistegui, achieved perhaps the most notoriety, as the world was gradually entering into a fascination with celebrities. Beistegui’s “Bal Oriental” in 1951 at Palazzo Labia resonated in the media and became a reference in the mythology of bals masqués. The final chapter of this tradition, “The Surrealist Bal”, given in 1971 by the Rothschilds in their Château de Ferrières, closed this legendary tradition, which has had trouble surviving in a world where glamour has failed to seduce money into more provocative arrangements.

HOLDING IT UP

When I was a child, I associated colonnades and porticos with history of art manuals. On those occasions. Family or school instructors took me to visit buildings clad in columns. In those outings, I awoke to the presence of those supporting artifacts and my initial awe.

Turned into a vertiginous sense of belonging, as if I had a special right to live among them, either as hero, saint or king. These places were usually churches or civic edifices of majestic size, and. Columns help the narrative of the building, empowering the purpose of the construction.

With the passing of the years, columns. Began appearing in my dreams, although not as a match to my childhood reveries. In those situations, they often sprung from the ground like menacing trees blocking my escape.

From an anguishing maze only to reappear days later as a gate to a mysterious mansion. Their regular presence, devoid of specific messages, magnified the dream. Wrapping it in operatic scenography.  I began thinking of them as an interchangeable ingredient, nourishing both my wakeful state and my sleep.

In my travels, I lay a loving eye on these elements. Their basic supporting function is rarely. On display in contemporary architecture. Unseen steel columns have replaced the theatrical force and intensity of the classical orders. Structure and decorative appeal have parted ways.

Either as standing ruins of ancient buildings or as living. Examples of how architecture can instruct us, they represent strength. And balance, support and nobility. Virtues shared in the collective dreams of their makers, faintly echoing in ours.

THE POINT OF VU

When “Vu” was launched  in Paris at the end of March 1928  as a novel and stylish magazine, few  expected the rippling effect it was going to have on photography, design and the world of publication at large.

Its founder, Lucien Vogel, left the feminine press where he started his career, to launch. Vu (as in “seen”). His clear engagement with pacifism and his horror of the damages of the. Great War propelled the writing and to some extent the initial. Photography, although the reading. Public was not of the militant sort. The political principles of the magazine were a clear mirror of the troubled period that France was undergoing, in. Which weak governments were falling one after the other.

And yet, the mystique created around Vu stems from the crossroads where the world of new. Printing process and photography found themselves. Like today’s internet, new technologies set in motion creativity and inspiration. A new world opened. Up where graphic designers and photographers were experimenting with photomontage and typography. The trailblazing photos of the likes of. Man Ray, Brassaï, Cartier-Bresson and Gaston Paris filled the pages of this weekly, engaging in an experiment where the. Rules of content and image were being written with each issue. In 1932, the famed Alexander Liberman, later of Vogue, was appointed artistic director.

The downfall of Vu, which stopped printing in 1940, was curiously brought about by the defiant positioning of. Vogel as a staunch defender of the Spanish. Civil War republicans. Having given up his pacifism and witnessing the menacing advance of Hitler, he adopted what was considered by many a political attitude too far to the left. The shareholders of the magazine decided to fire him. Thus ended one of the most audacious. And avant-garde experiments in the world of publication. It was a harbinger of what lay ahead for France.