Oh I love that, good sense of humor and yet it still maintain the realistic portrait style.
And as Leena said, must be a great conversation piece :p
11 November 2013, the Gabriel Chandelier was set up at the Palace of Versailles. This contemporary artwork, designed by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec and realized by Swarovski, will permanently enlighten the Gabriel staircase.
In 2011, the Palace of Versailles launched a competition tocreate a permanent mobile artwork to adorn and illuminate the grand Gabriel Staircase. The award-winning project : a majestic chandelier, made by the artists Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec , whose modern linesharmoniously integrate with the historically charged location.
The Chandelier is formed of three interlacing strands, each made of hundreds of crystal illuminated by luminous LEDs light-sources which diffuse a soft light . These immense, supple lines form an organic design ruled by the laws of gravity. The crystal establishes a strong link with the past since this material is traditionally used in the making of chandeliers in Versailles.
The Gabriel staircaise
Located at the entrance of the Grands Appartements , the Gabriel staircase conceived by Ange-Jacques Gabriel in 1772, was never completed. Work resumed in the 1980s, but the finished staircase lacked a focal point. The Gabriel Chandelier will enrich these historic surroundings whilst preserving the unique nature of the space.
We had to produce a piece which possessed character but which, unlike several contemporary art initiatives at Versailles in the past, was not a temporary installation, nor a work of art, nor an exhibition. The design brief was to create a chandelier to light the Gabriel Staircase. [...]
Then we thought that in the final analysis it was not perhaps necessary to give a delineated form to this piece of lighting but rather to try to arrange it so that the form naturally found its line from gravity. In this way we developed the idea of twists of crystal suspended from four points on the ceiling and tracing loops which subdivide into organic trees. In the end its shape arrived almost naturally.
Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec
Swarovski helped to restaure some of the chandelier of the Palace by creating a candle lit by a flame in crystal LED allowing to reproduceperfectly the appearance, ambiance and tones of 17th century candle-lit chandeliers. These chandeliers can be found in Mesdames' apartments , the King and the Queen's Grands Apartments, the apartments of the Dauphin, Dauphine, as well as in the King and Queen's smaller apartments.
The Gabriel Chandelier was designed by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec and realized by
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I have mixed feelings about it, but I haven't formed an opinion yet, what do you guys think about it?
Not on my side of the world...
just kidding, beautiful photo!
oh thanks! I had a hard time trying to add it to the post :p
Take a bow: The viola organista's strings are played in the same way as a cello.Photo: Tomasz Wiech/AFP
A bizarre instrument combining a piano and cello has finally been played to an audience more than 500 years after it was dreamt up Leonardo da Vinci.
Da Vinci, the Italian Renaissance genius who painted the Mona Lisa, invented the viola organista - which looks like a baby grand piano but never built it, experts say.
The viola organista has now come to life, thanks to a Polish concert pianist with a flair for instrument-making and the patience and passion to interpret da Vincis plans.
Full of steel strings and spinning wheels, Slawomir Zubrzyckis creation is a musical and mechanical work of art.
This instrument has the characteristics of three we know: the harpsichord, the organ and the viola da gamba, Zubrzycki said as he debuted the instrument at the Academy of Music in the southern Polish city of Krakow.
[ Link to a video, I can't figure it out how to put it here *blushes* ]
The instruments exterior is painted in a rich midnight blue, adorned with golden swirls painted on the side. The inside of its lid is a deep raspberry inscribed with a Latin quote in gold leaf by 12th-century German nun, mystic and philosopher, Saint Hildegard.
Holy prophets and scholars immersed in the sea of arts both human and divine, dreamt up a multitude of instruments to delight the soul, it says.
The flat bed of its interior is lined with golden spruce. Sixty-one gleaming steel strings run across it, similar to the inside of a baby grand.
Each is connected to the keyboard, complete with smaller black keys for sharp and flat notes. But unlike a piano, it has no hammered dulcimers. Instead, there are four spinning wheels wrapped in horse-tail hair, like violin bows.
To turn them, Zubrzycki pumps a pedal below the keyboard connected to a crankshaft. As he tinkles the keys, they press the strings down onto the wheels, emitting rich, sonorous tones reminiscent of a cello, an organ and even an accordion.
The effect is a sound that da Vinci dreamt of, but never heard; there are no historical records suggesting he or anyone else of his time built the instrument he designed.
A sketch and notes in da Vincis characteristic inverted script is found in his Codex Atlanticus, a 12-volume collection of his manuscripts and designs for everything from weaponry to flight.
I have no idea what Leonardo da Vinci might think of the instrument Ive made, but Id hope hed be pleased, said Zubrzycki, who spend three years and 5000 hours bringing da Vincis creation to life.
AFP, with Nick Galvin
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One of the grandest items in the New Room was an engraved portrait of King Louis XVI of France in a magnificent gilt frame. Like much of the artwork in the room, this item was one that Washington brought back from his executive residence in Philadelphia.
Charles-Clment Bervic after Antoine-Franois Callet, Louis Seize, Roi des Franais, Restaurateur de la Libert [Louis XVI, King of the French, Restorer of Liberty] , 1790 in its original frame. Mount Vernon Ladies Association [ W-767/A-B ]
The print by Charles-Clment Bervic was published in 1790 after a painting by Antoine-Franois Callet, the kings official portraitist. Callets full-length portrait depicts Louis XVI wearing his opulent state robes.
The print by Charles-Clment Bervic was published in 1790 after a painting by Antoine-Franois Callet, the kings official portraitist. Callets full-length portrait depicts Louis XVI wearing his opulent state robes.
Antoine-Franois Callet, Louis XVI, King of France and Navarre (1754-1793), wearing his grand royal costume in 1779 , 1789. The Apollo Salon, Palace of Versailles .
Bervics engraving was given to Washington by French ambassador Jean-Baptiste Ternant on December 22, 1791.
Charles Willson Peale, Jean-Baptiste Ternant , 1781. Independence National Historic Park
Thirteen years earlier, a young Ternant had resigned his commission in the French Army and sailed across the Atlantic to join the Continental Army under Washingtons command, eventually rising to the rank of Inspector General for the Southern Department. Now serving his home country, Ternant clearly retained affection toward Washington, writing in a note that accompanied the portrait:
Permit me to present you with a new print of the king of the [F]renchI shall feel a very great Satisfaction if you will consider that feeble mark of my lively and respectfull attachment for your person, as worthy your kind acceptance.
Bervics engraving of Callets portrait, unframed.
That same day, Washington replied to Ternant to express his thanks, writing,
I accept, with great pleasure, the new and elegant print of the King of the French, which you have been so obliging as to send to me this morning as a mark of your attachment to my person. You will believe me, Sir, when I assure you, that I have a grateful and lively sense of the personal respect and friendship expressed in your favor which accompanied the Print.
While this correspondence makes it sound as if the print was a token of Ternants own admiration for Washington, the portrait was likely part of a larger series of diplomatic gifts from King Louis XVI and the French regime. When he arrived in the United States in the summer of 1791, Ternant brought with him twenty impressions of Bervics engraving, which he presented to members of the U.S. government. Thomas Jefferson, then serving as Secretary of State, also received one .
The bottom of the frame, featuring George Washingtons initials and his family crest.
As Washington observed, the print was certainly elegant, but its frame was even more impressive. A palace style frame similar to others used for state portraits, it was clearly commission by Louis XVI as a gift to Washington. In the lower corners, the cartouches feature the presidents initials (G and W) with the Washington family crest in the middle. The monogram of the French king (L and XVI) appear in the top corners, while the center ornament features the French royal coat of arms topped with a pierced crown, and flanked by a Native American headdress on the right and the French cap of liberty on the left. This merging of symbols of the nations and their leaders emphasized the exceptional bond between France and the United States established by their alliance in the Revolutionary War.
The elaborate ornament at the top of the frame, featuring the French royal coat of arms topped by a pierced crown and flanked symbols of France and the United States.
Of course, when Ternant sent this portrait to Washington in December of 1791, France was experiencing the stirrings of revolt which would soon erupt into full-scale revolution. King Louis XVI was executed by guillotine on January 21, 1793, and Ternant was dismissed from his role as ambassador. Fearing repercussions from reproducing the overthrown kings image, Bervic actually cut his engraved copper printing plate in half ( he would later mend it back together after the Bourbon Restoration in 1814 ). Still, Washington hung this portrait in his New Room at Mount Vernon when he returned there in 1797, demonstrating his continued admiration for the monarch who provided critical aid in the American Revolution, as well as the U.S. governments declared policy of neutrality in the European conflicts precipitated by the radical revolution in France.
One interesting trend we have noticed while analyzing the New Room inventory is that almost everything hanging on the wall has a mate: two large looking glasses, two landscapes by Winstanley, two paintings by Beck, two religious pastels, and so on. So what was the mate to Louis XVI? It had to be John Trumbulls portrait of George Washington at Verplancks Point . The juxtaposition of these two menan absolute monarch beheaded by revolutionaries and a republican leader beloved by his peoplesurely provoked much interest and conversation among Washingtons guests.
Bervics engraving after Callet and John Trumbulls Washington at Verplancks Point , 1790 ( Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library )
Jessie MacLeod, Assistant Curator
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It has begun, in Minas Gerais [an state of Brazil], the celebrations of the work of a master of barroque art. The death of the sculptor Aleijadinho will complete 200 years in 2014.
At the altar, reliquaries sculpted by Antnio Francisco Lisboa, the Aleijadinho. Of his authorship are also the sculptures of the sanctuary, an World Heritage Site.
"This is the History of Brazil, is is our history" says a woman.
The 12 Profets [Os 12 Profetas] were sculpted in soapstone, when Aleijadinho alredy suffered deformations on his body, caused by a mysterious disease.
Aleijadinho died in November 18th of 1814.Throughout his life, he made several works, today recognized worldwide, like in the city of Ouro Preto. But one of them, in Congonhas, is considered his masterpiece.
"To think the baroque arised in Italy around the 1600s. He will close an cycle in Congonhas, in Brazil, more specificaly in Congonhas", states Luciomar Sebastio de Jesus, municipal director of Heritage.
Nas capelas em frente baslica, 64 imagens em cedro, em tamanho real, representam a Via Sacra de Jesus. Tudo isso a leva a uma viagem emocionante, muito emocionante, diz o mecnico Carlos Alberto Amorim.
In the chapels in front of the basilica, 64 images in cedar, in life size, represent Jesus' Vila Sacra.
It is just the beginningof many tributes for the bicentenary of an master's death.
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I like the very early-1890's puffy sleeves of the first dresses(specially Anastasia), so cute!
But my favorite is the russian court dress, I love it <3
