tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/fantasy-art-travel-102156/articles
Fantasy art travel – The Conversation
2021-08-15T19:51:24Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/165663
2021-08-15T19:51:24Z
2021-08-15T19:51:24Z
If I could go anywhere: a world through the eyes of botanical artist Marianne North at Kew Gardens
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415796/original/file-20210812-17-1uhi1tt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C15%2C2023%2C1278&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Marianne North Gallery at Kew Gardens.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/helen61/4911340028/in/photolist-8tZUhm-azTJF8-eiSJi9-77XpwL-kB9aR-hpeBaw-S6ABkG-7sqAP4-9L63Wt-p4z8Zx-p6RV8K-867FLL-qaHJhg-qEae3z-dy8ZJm-dy8ZGs-hEWV5X-sWerkq-9RVnez-bjwVWA-dVBbrQ-xkxTsU-Q6XuTq-2j7vrRv-dy8ZEh-Curwec-U6hknT-S8euYU-W4iPqw-o86GTS-9vz7iw-9vw5TP-4reKxi-eWa3Er-V8djdL-Q6Xuzu-9vw6hT-U4vFy1-2j6dEtu-eWa2qV-4riRc1-4riRj3-2j6f2nK-2gxuvpC-JU18x-XVVBnp-4zVfAS-2gxuwdS-4riR8f-Fb3bBZ/">Flickr/Helen.2006</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/if-i-could-go-anywhere-102157">this series</a> we pay tribute to the art we wish could visit — and hope to see once travel restrictions are lifted.</em></p>
<p>Have you ever entered a gallery, cathedral or grand old ballroom and drawn breath with surprise? Usually, it is opulence, vastness or one stunning painting or sculpture that evokes this response — think Michelangelo’s David, or Chartres Cathedral or the hall of mirrors at Versailles.</p>
<p>In London, an extraordinary gallery draws gasps because there is none like it anywhere else. It is like entering a giant “globe” covered in paintings of faraway places and plants. You can walk from South America to North America to Asia in a few paces. </p>
<p>All the paintings are by the Victorian-era female botanical artist and explorer <a href="https://www.kew.org/read-and-watch/marianne-north-botanical-artist">Marianne North</a>. The small gallery nestles in a stunning natural setting — Kew Gardens beside the Thames River.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-i-could-go-anywhere-marie-antoinettes-private-boudoir-and-mechanical-mirror-room-at-versailles-160599">If I could go anywhere: Marie Antoinette's private boudoir and mechanical mirror room at Versailles</a>
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<h2>A very intrepid painter</h2>
<p>The design of the gallery and the layout of the 800-plus paintings were largely North’s idea, assisted by Kew Gardens staff. Though she was a largely self-taught botanical illustrator, she also discovered four specimens that were named in her honour.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415791/original/file-20210812-20-1gzn2je.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="woman with palm trees" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415791/original/file-20210812-20-1gzn2je.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415791/original/file-20210812-20-1gzn2je.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415791/original/file-20210812-20-1gzn2je.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415791/original/file-20210812-20-1gzn2je.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415791/original/file-20210812-20-1gzn2je.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1122&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415791/original/file-20210812-20-1gzn2je.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1122&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415791/original/file-20210812-20-1gzn2je.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1122&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Victorian-era adventurer and artist Marianne North, photographed at her home in Ceylon by Julia Margaret Cameron around the 1870s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marianne_North01.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>I remember my first impression of the peacefulness and softness on entering the gallery, elicited by a timber-panelled gallery covered top-to-bottom with paintings. It is a tightly packed mosaic of artworks.</p>
<p>Then I notice the gold lettering of countries and continents above the panels —America, Australia, Japan, Jamaica — and begin to explore the natural world as it was in Victorian times.</p>
<p>The vibrancy, colour and beauty in each individual painting emerges on closer viewing.</p>
<p>I walk from one continent to another noticing the unique vegetation of each, but also the similarity and diversity of natural forms — when these paintings were being created and collated, Charles Darwin had already written:</p>
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<p>[…] endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.</p>
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<p>The gallery displays this exquisitely, from a grand avenue of Indian rubber trees in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), medicinal plants from the tropics, vivid tangerine flowers on coral trees in Brazil, early coffee plantations in Jamaica, to a tall and majestic monkey puzzle tree in Chile. Australian banksia, bottle tree and bottle-brush are accurately and beautifully depicted. </p>
<p>Within the walls of the gallery, I can even travel back in time to see what <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26780344">Mudgee in NSW looked like</a> in the late 1800s.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Over 14 years, Marianne North visited 15 countries and created more than 800 detailed paintings.</span></figcaption>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-forgotten-german-botanist-who-took-200-000-australian-plants-to-europe-143099">Friday essay: the forgotten German botanist who took 200,000 Australian plants to Europe</a>
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<p>Then there are the four specimens <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12395284-marianne-north?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=B3GmE47b2w&rank=5">named in North’s honour</a>. <em>Kniphofia northiae</em>, discovered in South Africa, now grows in many gardens with the common name red hot poker (<a href="https://images.kew.org/botanical-art/marianne-north/367-a-giant-kniphofia-near-grahamstown-4991693.html">Painting no. 367</a>). <em>Northia seychellana</em> is also called the capucin tree <a href="http://plantillustrations.org/illustration.php?id_illustration=329734&id_taxon=8027&mobile=0&SID=c8vg74l4peg5bljdcr7m1kccvf&language=English&thumbnails_selectable=0&selected_thumbnail=0&query_type=species&query_broad_or_restricted=broad&group=0&lay_out=0&uhd=0">Painting no. 501</a>). <em>Nepenthes northiana</em>, a large and unusual pitcher plant, was discovered by Marianne in Borneo (<a href="http://www.kew.org/mng/gallery/561.html">Painting no. 561</a>). And <em>crinum northianum</em> , in the lily family (<a href="https://images.kew.org/botanical-art/marianne-north/602-bornean-crinum-5122279.html">Painting no. 602</a>), comes from Sarawak, Borneo.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415794/original/file-20210812-14-18qzmef.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="pitcher plant drawing" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415794/original/file-20210812-14-18qzmef.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415794/original/file-20210812-14-18qzmef.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415794/original/file-20210812-14-18qzmef.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415794/original/file-20210812-14-18qzmef.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415794/original/file-20210812-14-18qzmef.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415794/original/file-20210812-14-18qzmef.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415794/original/file-20210812-14-18qzmef.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A New Pitcher Plant from the Limestone Mountains of Sarawak Borneo, painted by Marianne North, circa 1876.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MN561_A_New_Pitcher_Plant_from_the_Limestone_Mountains_of_Sarawak,_Borneo.jpg">Wikimedia Commons/Royal Botanic Gardens Kew</a></span>
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<h2>When Charles met Marianne</h2>
<p>North was one of several Victorian-era British female explorers. She was born (1830) into a wealthy family and had early connections to Kew gardens since her father knew its first director, <a href="https://www.kew.org/read-and-watch/william-hooker-and-a-case-of-mistaken-identity">Sir William Hooker</a>. </p>
<p>Her interest in botanical art grew as an educational activity and as a means of passing on knowledge in pre-photography times. She made nearly 900 works from across the continents and larger islands.</p>
<p>North set out on her first main botanical tours in the 1870s, 40 years after Darwin sailed on HMS Beagle, determined to “paint from nature”. Her paintings of vegetation, birds, mammals and terrain, depicted with close accuracy, helped to foster awareness of the evolutionary connections between plants, animals and environment. </p>
<p>North and Darwin were in fact <a href="https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/marianne-north">acquainted</a>. In 1880 they met and discussed her paintings and he advised her to see and paint the <a href="https://www.plantexplorers.com/explorers/botanical-artists/marianne-north.htm">Australian vegetation</a> “which was unlike that of any other country”. North took Darwin’s advice, and returned to Down house in 1881 with a new collection spanning Townsville to Perth.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415797/original/file-20210812-26-1tl43cs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="painting of flowers and landscape" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415797/original/file-20210812-26-1tl43cs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415797/original/file-20210812-26-1tl43cs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415797/original/file-20210812-26-1tl43cs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415797/original/file-20210812-26-1tl43cs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415797/original/file-20210812-26-1tl43cs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415797/original/file-20210812-26-1tl43cs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415797/original/file-20210812-26-1tl43cs.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">View near Brighton, Victoria by Marianne North, circa 1879.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marianne_North_(1830-1890)_-_View_near_Brighton,_Victoria_-_MN752_-_Marianne_North_Gallery,_Royal_Botanic_Gardens,_Kew.jpg">Wikimedia Commons/Royal Botanic Gardens Kew</a></span>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-darwins-the-descent-of-man-150-years-on-sex-race-and-our-lowly-ape-ancestry-155305">Guide to the classics: Darwin's The Descent of Man 150 years on — sex, race and our 'lowly' ape ancestry</a>
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<h2>The world through her eyes</h2>
<p>North gifted her botanical collection to Kew Gardens along with a gallery to house it. She arranged the paintings and also the decorations surrounding the doors to the gallery. Hence the unique design and global feel of the <a href="https://www.kew.org/kew-gardens/whats-in-the-gardens/marianne-north-gallery">gallery interior</a>. It opened in 1882.</p>
<p>Some 140 years later, we can explore her adventurous life and travels and view a global nature study in one gallery. With today’s technology we can see much of it <a href="https://www.kew.org/search?textsearch=marianne+north">online</a>, which is handy during lockdown. I wonder what human expansion and global warming have done to those special places? If I could retrace North’s steps, what would I see?</p>
<p>After “browsing the continents”, you can exit the gallery into <a href="https://www.kew.org/kew-gardens">Kew Gardens</a>. Among the 50,000 plants at the World Heritage site, you can search for the rare Australian Wollemi Pine, growing quite vigorously in the grounds.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1316181-there-is-grandeur-in-this-view-of-life-with-its">words</a> of Darwin in 1859’s Origin of Species come to mind: “There is grandeur in this view of life”.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415799/original/file-20210812-15-s32y6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="tree painting" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415799/original/file-20210812-15-s32y6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415799/original/file-20210812-15-s32y6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415799/original/file-20210812-15-s32y6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415799/original/file-20210812-15-s32y6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415799/original/file-20210812-15-s32y6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415799/original/file-20210812-15-s32y6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/415799/original/file-20210812-15-s32y6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">African Baobab Tree in the Princess’s Garden at Tanjore, India. Painted by Marianne North, circa 1878.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marianne_North_(1830-1890)_-_African_Baobab_Tree_in_the_Princess%27s_Garden_at_Tanjore,_India_-_MN262_-_Marianne_North_Gallery,_Royal_Botanic_Gardens,_Kew.jpg">Wikimedia Commons/Royal Botanic Gardens Kew</a></span>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/janet-laurence-after-nature-sounds-an-exquisite-warning-bell-for-extinction-112942">Janet Laurence: After Nature sounds an exquisite warning bell for extinction</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165663/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Voice does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A special gallery in London’s Kew Gardens allows the visitor to travel the world via the 800-plus detailed paintings of Marianne North, Victorian-era adventurer and botanical artist.
Mary Voice, Lecturer - Climate (Honorary), The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/164357
2021-07-26T19:55:19Z
2021-07-26T19:55:19Z
If I could go anywhere: Greek cake shops, the Athenian countryside and the sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411587/original/file-20210716-13-1shbw9e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C13%2C4580%2C3414&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/ancient-sanctuary-artemis-columns-arcade-stoa-1668363172">Konstantinos Livadas/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/if-i-could-go-anywhere-102157">this series</a> we pay tribute to the art we wish could visit — and hope to see once travel restrictions are lifted.</em></p>
<p>In Book Two of the Republic, Plato famously describes the “fevered” city, a town bustling with artists, musicians, actors, butchers, barbers, courtesans, and … confectionery! </p>
<p>Plato was clearly talking about the Athens of his day, but, over 2,000 years later, he could have easily been talking about modern Athens. </p>
<p>The city remains just as hectic and sweet treats remain just as much a part of the city’s landscape. </p>
<h2>Sweet retreat</h2>
<p>There are few words more wonderful in the Greek language than <em>zacharoplasteio</em>, the Greek word for a cake shop. </p>
<p>Literally meaning “a place of sugar sculpture”, these shops treat the subject of cake-making with the seriousness it deserves. How I miss the great piles of silver and gold foil-wrapped chocolates, the baklava and <a href="https://www.mygreekdish.com/recipe/homemade-kataifi-recipe/">kataifi</a> pastries dripping in syrup, and, most of all, the trays of <a href="https://www.kalofagas.ca/2011/10/28/halva-farsalon/">halvas farsalon</a> caramelized on top and studded with almonds quivering in amber unctuousness. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411590/original/file-20210716-19-103dfa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="greek cake shop" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411590/original/file-20210716-19-103dfa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411590/original/file-20210716-19-103dfa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411590/original/file-20210716-19-103dfa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411590/original/file-20210716-19-103dfa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411590/original/file-20210716-19-103dfa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411590/original/file-20210716-19-103dfa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411590/original/file-20210716-19-103dfa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Towers of sweet treats on offer in Athens.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/athens-greece-march-22-2018beautiful-modern-1078011047">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Yet, as much as I love all the chaos of modern Athens, it also a place that can quickly become overwhelming. This is especially the case in summer when crowds clog up the streets and the baking heat extends well into the evening. </p>
<p>Fortunately, a trip to the countryside of Athens allows you to escape the pandemonium. It is also home to a wide variety of fascinating archaeological sites.</p>
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<p>
<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/unearthing-falerii-novis-secrets-in-the-hot-italian-summer-an-archaeologist-reports-from-the-dig-162527">Unearthing Falerii Novi's secrets in the hot Italian summer: an archaeologist reports from the dig</a>
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<h2>Ancient wandering</h2>
<p>Within an hour’s drive from the centre of Athens, you can wander among the extensive remains of an ancient town at Rhamnous, or stroll among seas of wild flowers bursting with colour on the plains that witnessed the battle of Marathon. </p>
<p>Nearby you can visit the shrine of the Greek hero Amphiaraos, where Greeks would sleep in the hope that the hero would visit them in their dreams and provide them with oracular visions.</p>
<p>South of Athens you can explore a cave devoted to the wild god Pan and nymphs. The sanctuary was built by a passionate devotee called Archedemus, literally the world’s first nymphomaniac. Alternatively, you can visit one of the oldest surviving stone theatres at Thorikos or watch the sun set into the sea by the ruins of the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion.</p>
<p>One of my favourite sites is the sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron. Like many sanctuaries to Artemis, it is located in a marsh. The Greeks were always fascinated by places where fresh water turned salty. It seemed a great mystery to them why fresh water rivers kept running into the sea, yet the ocean remained permanently undrinkable.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/11YWBbZV8CA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A sunny day to walk the site.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-i-could-go-anywhere-florences-san-marco-museum-where-mystical-faith-and-classical-knowledge-meet-157863">If I could go anywhere: Florence's San Marco Museum, where mystical faith and classical knowledge meet</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A goddess of puberty and fertility</h2>
<p>Artemis was the virgin goddess of the hunt. Yet, this sanctuary acknowledges another aspect of the deity, her strong connection with childbirth. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411600/original/file-20210716-27-y9jke9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="statue head of goddess" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411600/original/file-20210716-27-y9jke9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411600/original/file-20210716-27-y9jke9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411600/original/file-20210716-27-y9jke9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411600/original/file-20210716-27-y9jke9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=882&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411600/original/file-20210716-27-y9jke9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1108&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411600/original/file-20210716-27-y9jke9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1108&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411600/original/file-20210716-27-y9jke9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1108&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A statue head thought to depict huntress Artemis at the Brauron archaeological museum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/25/Brauron_-_Head_of_Artemis.jpg/1024px-Brauron_-_Head_of_Artemis.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Artemis was particularly associated with puberty and the transition to fertility. Women worried about issues of fertility or the dangers of childbirth would make offerings to the goddess. These were particularly grave concerns in a culture where women were primarily valued in terms of their ability to produce children, and where every woman would know someone who had not survived their pregnancy.</p>
<p>The nearby Brauron museum preserves many of the gifts made by these women. These include numerous statues of children. Many survive intact. </p>
<p>The museum also features cases of disembodied children’s marble heads and limbs. Depending on your feelings towards children, it is one of the cutest or creepiest exhibitions on display in Greece.</p>
<p>The sanctuary played an important role in the lives of young Athenian girls. It was here that an important coming of age ritual was staged. At some point, around the age of ten, young girls came to the sanctuary and “became bears”. The precise details of this ritual remain unclear. The most plausible suggestion involves the young girls dressing up in bear costumes or wearing bear masks as well as taking part in naked races and dances. </p>
<p>Scholars looking for a metaphorical explanation of the ritual point to the way that “becoming a bear” symbolises the wild, dangerous, untamed nature of pubescent girls. Parents with teenage daughters might be able to relate.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411597/original/file-20210716-19-9fymxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="ancient greek statues" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411597/original/file-20210716-19-9fymxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411597/original/file-20210716-19-9fymxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411597/original/file-20210716-19-9fymxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411597/original/file-20210716-19-9fymxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411597/original/file-20210716-19-9fymxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411597/original/file-20210716-19-9fymxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411597/original/file-20210716-19-9fymxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Statues of children in the Archaeological Museum of Brauron.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Archaeological_Museum_of_Brauron_05.jpg">Wikimedia Commons/tomisti</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-i-could-go-anywhere-japanese-art-island-chichu-a-meditation-and-an-education-133439">If I could go anywhere: Japanese art island Chichu, a meditation and an education</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Working up an appetite</h2>
<p>Only the foundations of the temple to Artemis survive. The most intact remains are a row of columns associated with dining rooms that would have housed the feasts of visitors to the sanctuary. Standing in an open field, below a rocky outcrop, they make a picturesque sight amongst the reeds, the croaking of the frogs, the humming of the cicadas, and the occasional banging sounds of amorous tortoises. </p>
<p>There is also a shrine to Iphigenia, the daughter of King Agamemnon, who was offered as a human sacrifice to Artemis by her father in order to get fair winds to allow his fleet to sail to Troy and begin the Trojan War. Fortunately, Artemis swapped Iphigenia with a deer at the last moment and whisked the girl to safety. </p>
<p>After a number of adventures, Iphigenia was eventually rescued by her brother Orestes and came to Brauron, where she spent her remaining days as a priestess of Artemis. </p>
<p>The site makes a wonderful day trip from Athens. Close to the sea, the nearby tavernas are replete with local seafood. Perfect for a late lunch of fava, ouzo, and octopus or fried fish and a Horiatiki (Greek) salad or, better yet, <a href="https://triedandsupplied.com/saucydressings/horta/">horta</a>. Just make sure that you leave room for a slice of <a href="https://www.thehellenicodyssey.com/karidopita-greek-walnut-cake/">karidopita</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411593/original/file-20210716-25-zxe0qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Athens view" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411593/original/file-20210716-25-zxe0qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411593/original/file-20210716-25-zxe0qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411593/original/file-20210716-25-zxe0qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411593/original/file-20210716-25-zxe0qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411593/original/file-20210716-25-zxe0qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411593/original/file-20210716-25-zxe0qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411593/original/file-20210716-25-zxe0qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sometimes you can have too many cakes and need a retreat from bustling Athens.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/acropolis-athensgreece-188628197">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164357/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alastair Blanshard does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
From the towering sweet treats of Athens to the place where rituals saw young girls become fierce bears — there is much to explore on this day trip.
Alastair Blanshard, Paul Eliadis Chair of Classics and Ancient History, The University of Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/162928
2021-07-18T20:03:42Z
2021-07-18T20:03:42Z
If I could go anywhere: Château La Coste, a sculpture and wine walk in Provence holds random surprises
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411580/original/file-20210716-15-jqbnmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C7%2C1007%2C1008&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tom Shannon's Drop</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/marc_carpentier/36568497070/in/photolist-XHr79N-TmK6gT-TmK6JB-TmK6VD-Pomugf-TmK6kF-TdZg2f-TmK6Ei-SLNgyQ-TmK73T-SLNgEG-QrwZL9-S176Lm-TmK78x-SLNgTh-Q6AX2S-QExV8K-S176cW-S177p5-QBitBS-S178BW-S176XU-S3JJqZ-TdZg9E-S176vb-S176rd-SLNgum-2gWMsuH-S178hC-S176Qu-S1765S-S177NS-PomsBJ-XHr7VN-S176D7-YjsEKx-soG3hk-rrFLcU-s76wVb-vkfvUU-vzw3wj-XMuQKk-2i7shDQ-rrHLkf-vBghF5-DxfoVF-vkfqbG-uEPbEf-uEP8TU-8CjNkQ">Flickr/.marc carpentier</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/if-i-could-go-anywhere-102157">this series</a> we pay tribute to the art we wish could visit — and hope to see once travel restrictions are lifted.</em></p>
<p>As winter digs in across the country, I’ve been thinking of summer days in Europe. How pleasant to be back in sunny, southern France among the vineyards and hum of crickets, rather than trapped on our large island continent with little prospect of a return to Europe anytime soon. </p>
<p>One of the highlights of my visit to that region in the summer of 2017 was the surprising <a href="https://chateau-la-coste.com/en/">Château La Coste</a>, an art and architecture park in the heart of Provence, about 15 kilometres north of the university town of Aix-en-Provence. </p>
<p>Surprising, partly because the 600-acre enterprise was established by one individual with no public subsidies, and an Irishman at that. Also surprising because we’d been staying with local friends for several weeks before discovering the park’s existence nearby while idly googling. Château La Coste’s most delightful surprises still awaited us.</p>
<h2>Paddy’s place</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/paddy-mckillen-jnr-the-mystery-man-of-dublin-nightlife-1.3960320">Paddy McKillen</a>, a publicity-shy hotelier and investor, bought the land and developed the park in 2011. </p>
<p>Among his site-specific acquisitions are 34 works of art, large scale sculptures, small buildings and pavilions from renown artists and architects such as Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel and Tadao Ando. </p>
<p>“We looked at many, many places,” McKillen <a href="https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/chateau-la-coste-paddy-mckillen-interview-2018">told GQ</a>. “And then, one morning, I drove into Château La Coste. I didn’t even drive 20 metres — I decided to buy it right there, because it had a magical feel.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0AIbW4qdmAw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A drone’s eye view of Château La Coste’s sculpture walk.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Besides the art and architecture trail, the lure of La Coste is also its biodynamic vineyard, with adjacent cafe and fine dining restaurant. The winery is designed by Jean Nouvel, consisting of two striking metallic cylinders, and provides a suitably refined final stop after the leisurely two-hour trail through the park. </p>
<p>The vineyards spread out before us to the Luberon Hills, flanked by olive groves and lines of Judas trees. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/young-female-south-african-architect-reinvents-serpentine-pavilion-in-london-161444">Young female South African architect reinvents Serpentine Pavilion in London</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Enter via the bookshop</h2>
<p>We make our entrance through the sleek Tadao Ando designed building, which houses a small gallery and bookshop, and the cafe and restaurant. </p>
<p>Its V-shape appears to sit in a bed of water from certain angles and its low slung, concrete walls blend artfully with the grey-green hues of the landscape. </p>
<p>Perched in the water surrounding the building is Louise Bourgeois’s giant, menacing Crouching Spider (2007), poised to strike fear into any passing arachnophobe. </p>
<p>Nearby, Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Mathematical Model Surface of Revolution (2010), a gleaming cone base sculpture ascends to the heavens, thinning to needle point towards the tip. For a bit of colourful whimsy, Alexander Calder’s Small Crinkly (1976) completes the trio of water-based sculptures.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408198/original/file-20210624-25-1y9auok.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C6%2C826%2C551&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="spider sculpture" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408198/original/file-20210624-25-1y9auok.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C6%2C826%2C551&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408198/original/file-20210624-25-1y9auok.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408198/original/file-20210624-25-1y9auok.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408198/original/file-20210624-25-1y9auok.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408198/original/file-20210624-25-1y9auok.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408198/original/file-20210624-25-1y9auok.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408198/original/file-20210624-25-1y9auok.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Louise Bourgeois Crouching Spider. The Easton Foundation ADAGP Paris.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-i-could-go-anywhere-id-revisit-maman-louise-bourgeois-9-metre-spider-at-londons-tate-modern-157859">If I could go anywhere: I'd revisit Maman, Louise Bourgeois' 9-metre spider at London's Tate Modern</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Wandering from the building out through the vineyards towards the hills, the art trail meanders across grassland and rocky terrain and occasionally under the canopy of large forest trees. Tom Shannon’s Drop (2009) seems to hover like a silver spaceship above the vines. </p>
<p>It is here we find the remarkable Oak Room by British sculptor <a href="https://www.wnyc.org/story/andy-goldsworthys-projects/">Andy Goldsworthy</a>. The visitor descends into a small, cave-like structure, whose entire curved walls and ceiling are constructed from plaited tree branches, creating a comforting and peaceful ambience. The woody odour is appealing too, reminiscent of a vineyard’s barrel room. </p>
<p>By contrast, out in the sunlight the multi-coloured Multiplied Resistence Screened (2010) by Liam Gillick, invites interactivity and play by moving colourful panels of barred walls and creating different shapes and spaces. </p>
<p>Irish-American artist Sean Scully, who made his reputation as an abstract painter, departs here with two sculptural pieces. His Wall of Light Cubed (2007), a composite wall of pink and grey geometric volcanic stone blocks, is faced across an olive grove by his Boxes Full of Air (2015), a monument of stacked rectangular frames made in corten (rusted) steel. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409212/original/file-20210701-21118-ingd96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="stylish building" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409212/original/file-20210701-21118-ingd96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409212/original/file-20210701-21118-ingd96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409212/original/file-20210701-21118-ingd96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409212/original/file-20210701-21118-ingd96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409212/original/file-20210701-21118-ingd96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409212/original/file-20210701-21118-ingd96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409212/original/file-20210701-21118-ingd96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tadao Ando Art Centre.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Château La Coste/Photo: Andrew Pattman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/it-seemed-like-a-good-idea-in-lockdown-but-is-moving-to-the-country-right-for-you-148807">It seemed like a good idea in lockdown, but is moving to the country right for you?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Happy wandering</h2>
<p>It’s a joyful experience to wander through the landscape in the waning days of summer, “discovering” works of art as they seemingly appear at random throughout the estate. But of course, their placement is not random. Owner McKillen doesn’t like the phrase “sculpture park” but <a href="https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/chateau-la-coste-paddy-mckillen-interview-2018">notes</a> there is a “science to where the pieces are located”. </p>
<p>There are so many notable works, created by so many renown artists, it is difficult to single any out. Tracey Emin, Tunga, Sophie Calle, Guggi, Richard Serra, Tom Shannon, Jenny Holzer and Paul Matisse (yes, grandson of Henri) to name a few. Even former REM singer Michael Stipe is represented (Fox, 2008).</p>
<p>Two structures stand out. </p>
<p>One is the tiny chapel designed by Tadao Ando, whose elegant interior invites contemplation and feels somehow connected to the natural world outside with its rough sandstone walls and glass portico. A large red cross made of glass beads (Jean-Michel Othoniel 2008) dominates the courtyard behind the chapel. </p>
<p>And of course, Frank Gehry’s Music Pavilion provides a focal point of the estate, with its striking deconstructed roof and off kilter angles that is Gehry’s signature. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409208/original/file-20210701-21128-1cywbb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="outdoor sculpture" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409208/original/file-20210701-21128-1cywbb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409208/original/file-20210701-21128-1cywbb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409208/original/file-20210701-21128-1cywbb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409208/original/file-20210701-21128-1cywbb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409208/original/file-20210701-21128-1cywbb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409208/original/file-20210701-21128-1cywbb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409208/original/file-20210701-21128-1cywbb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Frank O. Gehry’s Pavillon de Musique.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Château La Coste/Photograph: Andrew Pattman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-i-could-go-anywhere-marie-antoinettes-private-boudoir-and-mechanical-mirror-room-at-versailles-160599">If I could go anywhere: Marie Antoinette's private boudoir and mechanical mirror room at Versailles</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Château La Coste is one of the earliest examples of what’s now known as “<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301272685_Oenotourism_and_conservation_a_holistic_approach_to_special_interest_tourism_from_a_cultural_heritage_perspective_-_the_Azienda_Agricola_Model">oenotourism</a>”, a growth industry where wineries in or close to tourist areas also house and exhibit contemporary art. The exhibitions are usually temporary but La Coste is an exception. </p>
<p>Most acquisitions will be added to their permanent collection over the next few years, <a href="https://artreview.com/blogpost-oenotourism/">reportedly</a> including an installation by artist <a href="https://www.olafureliasson.net/">Olafur Eliasson</a>. Architect Richard Rogers <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2021/02/15/richard-rogers-drawing-gallery-cantilevered-art-gallery-chateau-la-coste-france/">just completed a cantilevered pavilion</a> jutting out from the hillside. The property has 28 villa suites for a longer stay. Another reason to get on a plane as soon as travel restrictions are lifted.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162928/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Felton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Of all the places to be right now, picking your way between sculptures in the French countryside, with a glass of wine to finish, sounds ideal.
Emma Felton, Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Creative Industries Faculty, Queensland University of Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/161659
2021-06-24T05:17:54Z
2021-06-24T05:17:54Z
If I could go anywhere: the ‘cathedral’ at Blythburgh that rises from the marshes
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408066/original/file-20210624-19-1fdbeve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C9%2C3302%2C2257&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/early-christian-holy-trinity-church-blythburgh-1385091707">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/if-i-could-go-anywhere-102157">this series</a> we pay tribute to the art we wish could visit — and hope to see once travel restrictions are lifted.</em></p>
<p>A church, an ancient heap of flints, rises up, cavernous, through mist and marshes. The “<a href="http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/Blythburgh.htm">Cathedral of the Marshes</a>”, they call it. This is Blythburgh on England’s windswept Suffolk coast.</p>
<p>The landscape here is oppressive, bleak. And what man once made is quickly being lost to nature: sea erodes land. </p>
<p>Nearby, the parish at <a href="http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/eastonbavents.htm">Easton Bavents</a> almost completely perished centuries ago beneath the waves. Bare traces remain of the great <a href="http://www.dunwich.org.uk/reconstruction/">medieval port of Dunwich</a> five miles south. </p>
<p>Yet Blythburgh’s Holy Trinity stands tall, majestic even, a near-perfect expression of the mature <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpendicular_Gothic">perpendicular style</a> of English Gothic architecture. </p>
<p>East Anglia is dotted with such archaic oratories, which exercise a remarkable hold over the English psyche. These churches are our public monuments, as <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/England_s_Thousand_Best_Churches/GJxNAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0&bsq=simon%20jenkins%20england%27s%20thousand%20best%20churches">Simon Jenkins has noted</a>. But they are also memory palaces that enshrine a thousand years or more of history. </p>
<p>Names, dates, materials, shapes: they link us to lives, tastes, communities and faiths of the long forgotten. To visit such a place is to do more than admire. It is to commune with the past, marvelling in its reinvention as a foreign country and at how far we ourselves have come.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403322/original/file-20210528-15-1e7f21b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403322/original/file-20210528-15-1e7f21b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403322/original/file-20210528-15-1e7f21b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403322/original/file-20210528-15-1e7f21b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403322/original/file-20210528-15-1e7f21b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403322/original/file-20210528-15-1e7f21b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403322/original/file-20210528-15-1e7f21b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403322/original/file-20210528-15-1e7f21b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Holy Trinity Church, Blythburgh Suffolk England UK known as the ‘Cathedral of the Marshes’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikipedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-i-could-go-anywhere-the-dizzying-spectacle-of-gaudis-basilica-de-la-sagrada-familia-159532">If I could go anywhere: the dizzying spectacle of Gaudí's Basílica de la Sagrada Família</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Far from the madding crowd</h2>
<p>I used to visit Blythburgh as a kid. My Dad liked it here: the lonely desolation a tonic for the hustle and bustle of Cambridge’s university life.</p>
<p>His love of churches inspired me. In <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/norfolkodyssey/sets/72157614259434788/">Ely</a> and <a href="http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/buryjames.html">St Edmundsbury</a>
we went to cathedrals together. At <a href="http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/Orford.htm">Orford</a> and <a href="http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/Longmelford.htm">Long Melford</a> he showed me the brasses and stained glasses. </p>
<p>But Blythburgh’s impression on me was always greatest. It had atmosphere — that intangible <em>je ne sais quoi</em> that comes from time and place and feeling.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vx_AJ_r6TiY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The view from above and within the church.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Blythburgh’s mein is wistful and melancholy, the result of centuries of diminishing relevance and (mostly) benign neglect. </p>
<p>This sort of place inspired <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-suffolk-24984013">Benjamin Britten</a> to opera and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/oct/30/aldeburgh-ghost-james">M. R. James</a> to ghost stories. After all, the set of <a href="https://www.theopera101.com/operas/grimes/">Peter Grimes</a> and <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18510848-a-warning-to-the-curious">A warning to the curious</a> is just a hearty walk away along the coast. </p>
<p>The magic here is that you are never quite sure you are truly alone, however drab or empty the space might seem. Another James story, <a href="https://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/jamesmr-ohwhistle/jamesmr-ohwhistle-00-h.html">Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad</a> tells of an encounter on one of the beaches round about. The protagonist, a young professor, finds a little bronze object which he blows. The rest is all chasing and shadows: pure Gothic horror. </p>
<p>As a kid, the tale terrified me.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mYjtxHHjZ00?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The darkest of M. R. James stories hints at the dangers of intellectual pride and the failure to acknowledge forces we can’t understand.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cathedrals-of-light-cathedrals-of-ice-cathedrals-of-glass-cathedrals-of-bones-60557">Cathedrals of light, cathedrals of ice, cathedrals of glass, cathedrals of bones</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Watched over by angels</h2>
<p>A church first stood in Blythburgh before 654 CE. That was the year <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Penda">King Penda of Mercia</a> slaughtered <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44510584">King Anna of East Anglia</a> and his son in battle. Anna’s followers brought their bodies here for burial.</p>
<p>The present building is mostly 15th-century. In this part of England those days were what Evelyn Waugh <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=mAjbDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PT341&ots=xa-y0qaAcx&dq=the%20fat%20days%20of%20wool%20shearing%20and%20the%20wide%20corn%20lands&pg=PT341#v=onepage&q=the%20fat%20days%20of%20wool%20shearing%20and%20the%20wide%20corn%20lands&f=false">called</a> the fat days of wool shearing and the wide corn lands.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408052/original/file-20210624-21-1pa5rka.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="wooden angel" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408052/original/file-20210624-21-1pa5rka.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408052/original/file-20210624-21-1pa5rka.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408052/original/file-20210624-21-1pa5rka.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408052/original/file-20210624-21-1pa5rka.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408052/original/file-20210624-21-1pa5rka.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408052/original/file-20210624-21-1pa5rka.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408052/original/file-20210624-21-1pa5rka.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Weathered and watching angels inside the roof.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blythburgh_church_-_roof_angel.jpg">Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nearly all the current plan was laid out then: the languid nave, the capacious chancel, memorial chapels in the aisles, benches, monuments, font and the immense hammerbeam roof.</p>
<p>That roof: it protects the congregation from more than just the elements. A throng of angels, their faces serene but their wings aflutter, stand guard over those who sit on pews below. </p>
<p>The pews themselves are works of art, with carved <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/Qr5r0TAvTaWkUYxvIvi47A">poppy heads</a> parading saints and seasons, works of mercy and sins personified.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403366/original/file-20210528-14-1vbbvqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="wooden carving" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403366/original/file-20210528-14-1vbbvqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403366/original/file-20210528-14-1vbbvqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403366/original/file-20210528-14-1vbbvqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403366/original/file-20210528-14-1vbbvqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403366/original/file-20210528-14-1vbbvqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403366/original/file-20210528-14-1vbbvqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403366/original/file-20210528-14-1vbbvqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A poppy head carving at the end of a pew depicts the sin of Slander.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Trinity_Church,_Blythburgh#/media/File:Blythburgh_Slander.jpg">Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Here, Slander brandishes his tongue, Gluttony his paunch, Hypocrisy his false piety and Sloth his bedgown. There, a man comforts the sick, another visits a prisoner, a third buries his dead. </p>
<p>This kind of delicate, intricate carving demanded the highest levels of skill possessed of medieval craftsmen. </p>
<p>Other churches have their own <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/resource/56478/lesson-27-on-the-sacramentals">sacramentals</a>, but Blythburgh’s are amongst the most beautiful and haunting. Spartan white walls and a clear, clean glass clerestory — the bandages of <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/The_Stripping_of_the_Altars/K48k6JIcPrUC?hl=en&gbpv=0">Reformation trauma</a>? — only enhance the effect.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-digs-romanticisation-of-an-anglo-saxon-past-reveals-it-is-a-film-for-post-brexit-uk-154827">The Dig's romanticisation of an Anglo-Saxon past reveals it is a film for post-Brexit UK</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>An elegy to time</h2>
<p>Blythburgh’s decline has been a long time in coming. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zrpcwmn/revision/1">The Reformation</a>, an early blow, destroyed the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blythburgh_Priory">priory</a> which abutted the church. </p>
<p>The tower’s steeple fell in 1577 and its lack of resurrection somehow seems to symbolise this part of Suffolk’s gentle retreat thereafter into bucolic backwater. </p>
<p>In the 1640s, “<a href="https://boydellandbrewer.com/9780851158334/the-journal-of-william-dowsing/">Smasher Dowsing</a>” and his men attacked the church’s art and icons, stripping the roof of half its angels. A parochial itch to shoot at jackdaws nesting in the rafters <a href="http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/Blythburgh.htm">may have caused</a> further damage in the 18th century.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403319/original/file-20210528-22-1fz18xu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="church statue" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403319/original/file-20210528-22-1fz18xu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403319/original/file-20210528-22-1fz18xu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403319/original/file-20210528-22-1fz18xu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403319/original/file-20210528-22-1fz18xu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403319/original/file-20210528-22-1fz18xu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403319/original/file-20210528-22-1fz18xu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403319/original/file-20210528-22-1fz18xu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jack keeps time, if only for himself.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Holy_Trinity,_Blythburgh_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1747028.jpg">Wikipedia/Chris Gunns</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Victorian antiquaries <a href="https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781783271672/the-restoration-of-blythburgh-church-1881-1906/">restored the place</a> to something of its former glory. But today, few come to worship in Blythburgh’s paludal “cathedral”. </p>
<p>The village itself houses just 300 souls and the locality, in the hinterland of a <a href="https://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves-and-events/reserves-a-z/minsmere/">bird sanctuary</a>, is best known as a haven for sailboats and as a twitchers’ paradise. </p>
<p>Inside the tower, a sombre armoured <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacquemart_(bellstriker)">Jack-o-the-Clock</a> from 1682 still keeps time. His baleful inscription: “As the hours pass away, So doth the life of man decay”. </p>
<p>The church, which has borne silent witness to countless other plagues, disasters, and wars, endures even now in its gloomy spot. </p>
<p>I glimpse it still from half a world away, an eerie greyness cloaking it with a salt wind from the sea.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161659/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Miles Pattenden has previously received research funding from the British Academy, the European Commission, and the Government of Spain.</span></em></p>
A public monument, a place of memory and a crumbling testament to how far we’ve come. A centuries old church in windy Suffolk, England, is a world away.
Miles Pattenden, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry/Gender and Women's History Research Centre, Australian Catholic University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/159532
2021-06-06T20:00:11Z
2021-06-06T20:00:11Z
If I could go anywhere: the dizzying spectacle of Gaudí’s Basílica de la Sagrada Família
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404163/original/file-20210603-13-1uni8db.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C15%2C5131%2C3390&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/barcelona-spain-february-10-la-sagrada-580489630">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/if-i-could-go-anywhere-102157">this series</a> we pay tribute to the art we wish could visit — and hope to see once travel restrictions are lifted.</em></p>
<p>We hadn’t packed bags yet, but it was about all that was left to do. I had compiled playlists to keep me diverted, amused, energised on the long flights. We’d pored over pictures and hopeful descriptions of poky little apartments in the right places, or spacious, sleek pads too far away from the action.</p>
<p>It took us three months to get the accommodation and the flights just so. The right amount of layover; the right seats for me and the kid and my sweetheart; the menus, the access options for my travelling companions and their idiosyncratic needs. </p>
<p>All the while, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antoni-Gaudi">Antoni Gaudí</a>’s dream cast its evening shadow over the park across the Carrer de la Marina. Darkening the playground, the streets of the <a href="https://barcelonando.com/eixample/">Eixample</a> and their endless cars; blurring the faces of the crowds that ebb and flow past and through the structure, dwindling at day’s end and disappearing into the larger tide of Barcelona at night.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404164/original/file-20210603-23-1hze1ml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Inside cathedral view up" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404164/original/file-20210603-23-1hze1ml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404164/original/file-20210603-23-1hze1ml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404164/original/file-20210603-23-1hze1ml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404164/original/file-20210603-23-1hze1ml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404164/original/file-20210603-23-1hze1ml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404164/original/file-20210603-23-1hze1ml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404164/original/file-20210603-23-1hze1ml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Inside the Basilica.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/g8LX7zxvHis">Unsplash/La Partida Eterna</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Since builders broke ground for the <a href="https://sagradafamilia.org/historia-del-temple">Basílica de la Sagrada Família</a> under architect <a href="http://tobarcelona.blogspot.com/2008/05/francisco-de-paula-del-villar.html">Francisco de Paula del Villar</a> in 1882, the site has seen several architects and project managers. But Antoni Gaudí remains its creative heart. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cathedrals-of-light-cathedrals-of-ice-cathedrals-of-glass-cathedrals-of-bones-60557">Cathedrals of light, cathedrals of ice, cathedrals of glass, cathedrals of bones</a>
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<h2>An otherworldly mix of styles</h2>
<p>When Gaudí <a href="https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-tortured-136-year-history-building-gaudis-sagrada-familia#:%7E:text=By%20the%20first%20decade%20of,full%20attention%20to%20the%20basilica.">turned his attention in 1909</a> to del Villar’s original neo-Gothic design, he mixed it with the organic flow of the Art Nouveau. </p>
<p>Using intricate <a href="https://www.jovinlim.com/blog/2020/6/18/modelmaking-throughout-history-sagrada-familia">upside-down models, with weighted strings</a> tracing parabolic curves, reflected in mirrors, Gaudí created his own style.</p>
<p>Gaudí sculpted rather than drew, creating apartments and parks and public buildings whose undulating lines and unexpected textures weren’t really seen again until <a href="https://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/best-of-frank-gehry-slideshow">Frank Gehry</a>’s iconic structures, such as the Olympic Fish Pavilion and the Bilbao Guggenheim, both in Spain. Like the Sagrada Família, these buildings are otherworldly, seeming to exist outside both time and gravity.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404169/original/file-20210603-19-84jsj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="hanging chain sculpture" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404169/original/file-20210603-19-84jsj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404169/original/file-20210603-19-84jsj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404169/original/file-20210603-19-84jsj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404169/original/file-20210603-19-84jsj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404169/original/file-20210603-19-84jsj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404169/original/file-20210603-19-84jsj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404169/original/file-20210603-19-84jsj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Gaudí used hanging chain models, like this one of the chapel in Park Güell, reflected in mirrors for his architectural designs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/agathman/4765159709/in/photolist-7MQnb-dRMre3-8Ymnx3-8Ymnub-2g24Jcm-7ZEGZC-8g5FY2-8FgaCJ-gYEyTX-54UGU">Allen Gathman/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-i-could-go-anywhere-florences-san-marco-museum-where-mystical-faith-and-classical-knowledge-meet-157863">If I could go anywhere: Florence's San Marco Museum, where mystical faith and classical knowledge meet</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>A stop on tour</h2>
<p>The first time I saw the Basílica, it was a grey afternoon in late August, 1988. I was on vacation from touring as bassist with The Go-Betweens and fled London with a dear travelling companion to saunter/stagger through southern Portugal, then Lisbon and Spain. </p>
<p>Brisbane friend Peter Loveday was “our man in Barcelona” and graciously led us through the town, cracking open each day as a fresh delight. I loved a wine, back in those days, and a beer. Prawns, vodka, gin and mussels. Barcelona was made of such treats, but the greatest treat was Gaudí. </p>
<p>We lingered in the wonder of <a href="https://parkguell.barcelona/en?q=en">Park Güell</a>, where architecture and nature entwine, and the view stretches south across the city to the blue of the <a href="http://www.marbalear.com/en/">Mar Balear</a>. On the clearest of clear days you can see the mountains on Majorca.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404165/original/file-20210603-19-m30n77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="colourful tiled benches and curves" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404165/original/file-20210603-19-m30n77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404165/original/file-20210603-19-m30n77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404165/original/file-20210603-19-m30n77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404165/original/file-20210603-19-m30n77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404165/original/file-20210603-19-m30n77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404165/original/file-20210603-19-m30n77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404165/original/file-20210603-19-m30n77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A place to rest on a summer’s day of sightseeing at Park Güell.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/qiH16d5SRxg">Denise Jones/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>We were tourists visiting <a href="https://www.lapedrera.com/en/la-pedrera">Casa Milà</a> and <a href="https://www.casabatllo.es/en/">Casa Batlló</a>, dumbstruck by the extraordinary colours and finishes (lots of murals and tiles, cool to the touch on a hot afternoon), the bespoke furniture and fittings, and the opulent, sensual design of the facades and interiors.</p>
<h2>Towering scale</h2>
<p>The Sagrada Família stood apart from these architectural treasures. On that August afternoon, the scale of the cathedral was staggering. Not just in size, towering over this five-storey city, but in the depth of detail. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404160/original/file-20210603-21-hwmjlg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="view of city" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404160/original/file-20210603-21-hwmjlg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404160/original/file-20210603-21-hwmjlg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404160/original/file-20210603-21-hwmjlg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404160/original/file-20210603-21-hwmjlg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404160/original/file-20210603-21-hwmjlg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404160/original/file-20210603-21-hwmjlg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404160/original/file-20210603-21-hwmjlg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Under construction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1558338729-fa89713bc138?ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=2479&q=80">Alex Reiss/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>The Basílica is based on a crucifix, with the two facades — the Passion and the Nativity — at the ends of the transept or crosspiece. Each of these facades is dense with sculpture — flowers, plants, animals, angels, saints and scenes from the Bible — and from each rises four belltowers.</p>
<p>The spiral staircase inside the eastern belltower of the Nativity facade was worn smooth, a fractal path tracing the interior of a Nautilus shell. The towers are just over 100 metres tall (the central tower will top 170 metres when completed <a href="https://www.catalannews.com/culture/item/the-sagrada-familia-may-be-completely-finished-between-2026-and-2028">sometime after 2026</a>). With little room for passing on the stair and no handrail, the experience was dizzying.</p>
<p>We emerged into the afternoon high above the city, on a little bridge between the towers; the beginnings of the cathedral below us. We saw colourful glazes of the <em>cimborio</em> (domes or cups) capping the belltowers. The sight, as I later noted in my diary, brought tears. I’d been triggered by the vastness of the idea, the astonishing detail and the knowledge that Gaudí didn’t live to see it finished.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404162/original/file-20210603-23-13frfg9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="aerial view of gridded city" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404162/original/file-20210603-23-13frfg9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404162/original/file-20210603-23-13frfg9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404162/original/file-20210603-23-13frfg9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404162/original/file-20210603-23-13frfg9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404162/original/file-20210603-23-13frfg9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404162/original/file-20210603-23-13frfg9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/404162/original/file-20210603-23-13frfg9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Barcelona Eixample’s grid residential district.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/aerial-view-barcelona-eixample-residencial-district-1095000005">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>God’s architect</h2>
<p>In June 1926, at the age of 73 and after almost two decades of working on the Basílica, Gaudí stepped into the path of a tram a few blocks from the cathedral. “<a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/17550521">God’s architect</a>”, the Catalan Modernist, was <a href="https://aleteia.org/2019/06/19/5-amazing-facts-about-barcelonas-sagrada-familia-church/">buried in the underground crypt</a> of the Sagrada Família below the Basílica he designed.</p>
<p>I have returned to Barcelona a couple of times over the years but never to the Sagrada Família. Much has changed since the 31-year-old me climbed those stairs. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fmu0FBBX-B0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A century and a half in the making.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The nave has been built, with towering columns and stained-glass windows. More belltowers rise above the street, with more to come. It is within a handful of years of being <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcDmloG3tXU&t=81s">completed</a>, hopefully by the 100th anniversary of Gaudí’s death.</p>
<p>Our carefully laid travel plans would have seen us arrive in Barcelona early in July 2020. The pandemic put those plans (and much else) on hold. I enjoyed the quiet but ache for the trip we had imagined. I think I’ve waited long enough for a second visit to my favourite building.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-i-could-go-anywhere-japanese-art-island-chichu-a-meditation-and-an-education-133439">If I could go anywhere: Japanese art island Chichu, a meditation and an education</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159532/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Willsteed does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
At the beginning of 2020, author John Willsteed had plans to revisit Barcelona’s towering Gaudí cathedral. He’s still planning and dreaming of its scale and detail.
John Willsteed, Senior Lecturer, School of Creative Practice, Queensland University of Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/160599
2021-05-23T20:15:47Z
2021-05-23T20:15:47Z
If I could go anywhere: Marie Antoinette’s private boudoir and mechanical mirror room at Versailles
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402054/original/file-20210521-15-1l4qak4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=92%2C58%2C5389%2C3564&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Le Petit Trianon</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://image.shutterstock.com/image-photo/little-trianon-france-22-august-260nw-478921510.jpg">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/if-i-could-go-anywhere-102157">this series</a> we pay tribute to the art we wish could visit — and hope to see once travel restrictions are lifted.</em></p>
<p>Along a dusty path on the outskirts of the Château de Versailles lies my favourite destination: <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/marie-antoinette-134629573/">Queen Marie-Antoinette</a>’s private bedroom and <em>boudoir</em> in the <a href="https://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/estate/estate-trianon">Petit Trianon</a> (small trianon). Built for King Louis XV and his mistress Madame de Pompadour in 1768, it was gifted to the new queen of France by Lous XVI and refurbished after 1774. </p>
<p>It was already an extremely beautiful cuboid design by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, the height of neo-classical French taste. Its reconfiguration and that of the surrounding grounds by the queen saw it embody a raft of new ideas concerning everything from the education of children to what women should wear. </p>
<p>The bedroom and boudoir were rooms in which the queen retreated from the formality and etiquette of the main palace of Versailles to spend time with women friends. She assembled aristocrats such as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marie-Therese-Louise-de-Savoie-Carignan-princesse-de-Lamballe">Princesse de Lamballe</a> as well as famed portrait painter <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2016/vigee-le-brun">Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402041/original/file-20210521-13-14cjg3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting of French queen" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402041/original/file-20210521-13-14cjg3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402041/original/file-20210521-13-14cjg3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402041/original/file-20210521-13-14cjg3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402041/original/file-20210521-13-14cjg3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402041/original/file-20210521-13-14cjg3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402041/original/file-20210521-13-14cjg3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402041/original/file-20210521-13-14cjg3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Marie-Antoinette, by Elisabeth-Louise Vigee Le Brun, 1783, French painting, oil on canvas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://image.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/marieantoinette-by-elisabethlouise-vigee-le-600w-423235789.jpg">Shutterstock/Everett Collection</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Here the group wore a wardrobe not possible at formal assemblies: loose, tubular muslin dresses secured with a high sash, similar to juvenile girls’ clothes worn in England and the practical Creole summer dress they knew of from the French colony Louisiana. </p>
<p>The clothes were considered so scandalous that Vigée-Lebrun’s painting of the queen in such attire had to be taken down at the public Salon exhibition. The queen looked like she was in her underwear, the pose was too informal and the superfine muslin was likely imported from India. It was replaced by another portrait by Vigée-Lebrun of the queen in French silk, one of the many luxury trades that bolstered the French economy. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-what-is-it-about-versailles-69559">Friday essay: what is it about Versailles?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2><em>Boudoir</em> to <em>jardin</em></h2>
<p>Leaving the formal apartment the ceilings suddenly lower. Framed by two large corner picture windows are views from the boudoir of the garden outside. But this is no ordinary garden. </p>
<p>French formal architecture had been characterised by geometrical designs in which trees and other plantings were clipped into axial vistas, often leading to sculptures or fountains indicating the status of the king, aristocrat or grandee who commissioned the work. The garden at Versailles was an abstraction in which viewing positions and plantings were subject to order, the ultimate act of control. Enormous canals mirrored the sky, unifying heaven and earth under the spell of their creator, Louis XIV.</p>
<p>From Marie-Antoinette’s window we see a simple landscape in which a large tree on the side anchors the “composition”. This was the new <em>jardin anglais</em> (English garden), claimed to embody ideas of liberty and freedom rather than French absolutism. Such gardens were anchored by asymmetrical lakes, elegant, classical pavilions as well as “ruins” (faked old structures, in which hermits sometimes resided) evoking melancholy and Romanticism. </p>
<p>Marie Antoinette’s private view looks rather like the wings of a theatre. Rather than a painting, we look out at nature, reframed by a set designer and man-made for wandering and thoughtful contemplation.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XHcQsfCZ1tA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The 19-year-old queen was given exclusive use of Le Petit Trianon and made it her own.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-great-movie-scenes-sofia-coppolas-marie-antoinette-101893">The great movie scenes: Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Magic mirrors</h2>
<p>Light pours into the boudoir from several directions. It falls onto delicate wall panelling and a beautiful set of calcified, white gessoed furniture in the most advanced taste by <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/202141">Georges Jacob</a>. The perfectly cubic space is small, accommodating only about four people comfortably, a contrast to court levées or assemblies for hundreds. </p>
<p>As evening comes, a miracle happens. From the basement kitchen-floor below, as directed by the queen, come two large <em>glaces volantes</em> (flying Venetian mirrors) to fill the window panes, raised by a series of weights and pulleys. The engineer Mercklein received 12,500 livres tournois (later francs) for this innovation (overall per capita income was about <a href="https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/27692/1/MPRA_paper_27692.pdf">250 per year</a>); his system is now electrified.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402043/original/file-20210521-19-1eqtcyo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="ornate french boudoir" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402043/original/file-20210521-19-1eqtcyo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402043/original/file-20210521-19-1eqtcyo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402043/original/file-20210521-19-1eqtcyo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402043/original/file-20210521-19-1eqtcyo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402043/original/file-20210521-19-1eqtcyo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402043/original/file-20210521-19-1eqtcyo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402043/original/file-20210521-19-1eqtcyo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mechanical mirrors emerge from the basement level to cover the windows.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The room goes from day to night. Views of a garden, perhaps on a gloomy day in autumn, are replaced by the sparkling reflections of mirror. Large expanses of mirror glass could only be made in Venice until industrial espionage brought the technology to France. Mirrors perform important cultural work as they can infer vanity, falsehood or indeed show the truth. Animated guests were doubled and conversed like shadowy ghosts. </p>
<p>The queen and her circle could not be observed. Privacy, a new social conception that comes to govern middle-class life in the 19th century, now reigns. What a contrast to the <a href="https://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/estate/palace/hall-mirrors">Hall of Mirrors</a> at the palace, where a sense of infinite repetition was created in a 73-metre-long gallery with 17 enormous windows and where hundreds of people thronged.</p>
<h2>A reputation for scandal</h2>
<p>Marie-Antoinette’s domain at Versailles was dominated by her frustration with a rigid court and her desire to embrace contemporary ideas. In her adjacent <a href="https://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/estate/estate-trianon/queen-hamlet#history-of-the-premises">farmlet</a> (the <em>hameau</em>), farm buildings were built to look shabby. Simulated wooden buckets of the finest porcelain by Sèvres lined the farmhouse stairs. </p>
<p>Following the educational ideas of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Jacques-Rousseau">Jean-Jacques Rousseau</a>, Marie-Antoinette encouraged her children to plant seeds and dig the earth. She did not, as many believe, play at being a shepherdess or farmer. The woman who was <a href="https://www.britannica.com/story/did-marie-antoinette-really-say-let-them-eat-cake#:%7E:text=For%20one%20thing%2C%20the%20original,as%20luxurious%20as%20cake%2C%20it">erroneously claimed</a> to have said of the hungry peasantry “let them eat cake” (this translates as brioche or sweet bread and was <a href="https://www.history.com/news/did-marie-antoinette-really-say-let-them-eat-cake">likely uttered by someone else</a>), was simply trying to be a good mother as advocated by contemporary thinkers. </p>
<p>And what of the female friends? The queen was accused of running a tribadic or lesbian household. These scurrilous claims were designed to discredit her circle. Similarly, the bedroom shows no evidence to back the claim in an 18th-century English travel guide that Marie-Antoinette slept in a suspended bed-basket of roses.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402051/original/file-20210521-23-1l55m1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="antique bedroom" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402051/original/file-20210521-23-1l55m1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402051/original/file-20210521-23-1l55m1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402051/original/file-20210521-23-1l55m1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402051/original/file-20210521-23-1l55m1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402051/original/file-20210521-23-1l55m1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402051/original/file-20210521-23-1l55m1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402051/original/file-20210521-23-1l55m1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A bed fit for a queen, but no bed of roses to be seen.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://image.shutterstock.com/image-photo/versailles-france-october-14-2018-260nw-1223850688.jpg">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-i-could-go-anywhere-boughton-house-the-english-versailles-and-its-shimmering-treasures-157598">If I could go anywhere: Boughton House, ‘the English Versailles’ and its shimmering treasures</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Later generations were not much interested in the queen’s motivations. She became an index of the profligate spending and obscene luxury of the old regime. She and her husband, as well as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Th%C3%A9r%C3%A8se_Louise_of_Savoy,_Princesse_de_Lamballe">Princess de Lamballe</a>, were executed by the guillotine or in massacres between 1792 and 1793.</p>
<p>The mirrors were lowered, the furniture auctioned and the domain went to sleep until <a href="https://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/history/great-characters/eugenie-montijo">Empress Eugénie</a> turned it into a museum honouring the queen. </p>
<p>A Swiss luxury brand has recently restored the rooms. They allow us to imagine a spirited woman married off from Austria aged 14, stripped of her foreign clothes at the French border, who became a lover of the latest French design and manufactures — rather than the debauched queen image we have inherited from the post-revolutionary period. </p>
<p>Wandering through the spaces I didn’t see ghosts. I did see the queen’s modern dress echoed in the brilliant white wall panels. She wandered a little in the distance towards the “temple of love” in her up-to-date garden. Her cracked mirrors are now nicely restored for the tourists. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402052/original/file-20210521-19-15sxn6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="gold mirror and candles" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402052/original/file-20210521-19-15sxn6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402052/original/file-20210521-19-15sxn6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402052/original/file-20210521-19-15sxn6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402052/original/file-20210521-19-15sxn6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402052/original/file-20210521-19-15sxn6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402052/original/file-20210521-19-15sxn6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402052/original/file-20210521-19-15sxn6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Simple, perfect luxury. Inside Marie Antoinette’s rooms at Petit Trianon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://image.shutterstock.com/image-photo/versailles-france-october-14-2018-260nw-1256143720.jpg">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160599/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter McNeil does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A queen with a reputation for scandal, Marie Antoinette enjoyed her private spaces with a small circle of friends. A mirrored room kept the judgments of the outside world at bay.
Peter McNeil, Distinguished Professor of Design History, UTS, University of Technology Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/157862
2021-05-10T19:50:39Z
2021-05-10T19:50:39Z
If I could go anywhere: searching for music in the places where Chopin lived and died
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399383/original/file-20210507-19-1aik5i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C3%2C1227%2C840&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Chopin's grave, Paris. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Chopins_Grave_October_1978.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/if-i-could-go-anywhere-102157">this series</a> we pay tribute to the art we wish could visit — and hope to see once travel restrictions are lifted.</em></p>
<p>The appreciation of art is enriched through experience, and there is perhaps no greater experience than travel. But while landmark destinations, such as Carnegie Hall or Glyndebourne, are wonderful to visit, it can be paradoxical to travel for music. </p>
<p>Music is less tangible than other art-forms — like architecture or painting — and is often hard to pin down. Where exactly “is” music? Can it be embodied within one place? If one searches for it, where exactly does one end up? </p>
<p>As a classical pianist, I’ve been searching for Polish composer and piano virtuoso <a href="https://www.classicfm.com/composers/chopin/">Frédéric Chopin</a> since my early teens. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/performing-beethoven-what-it-feels-like-to-embody-a-master-on-todays-stage-129184">Performing Beethoven - what it feels like to embody a master on today's stage</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Delacroix’s portrait of Chopin</h2>
<p>The journey began after inheriting a dog-eared volume of piano pieces which featured <a href="http://www.eugenedelacroix.net/frederic-chopin/">Eugène Delacroix</a>’s well-known portrait of the composer on the cover. I later learned that the painting hung on the walls of the <a href="https://www.louvre.fr/en">Musée de Louvre</a>, so when I first visited Paris I searched for it.</p>
<p>Chopin had arrived in Paris after leaving Poland in 1830. A fierce nationalist, the failure of the November Uprising against Russian occupation meant he was unable to return. Subsequently, he made Paris his home, dying there at the tragically young age of 39. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399392/original/file-20210507-21-1axor34.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting of man's face" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399392/original/file-20210507-21-1axor34.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399392/original/file-20210507-21-1axor34.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399392/original/file-20210507-21-1axor34.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399392/original/file-20210507-21-1axor34.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399392/original/file-20210507-21-1axor34.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399392/original/file-20210507-21-1axor34.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399392/original/file-20210507-21-1axor34.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A section of Eugène Delacroix’s 1838 portrait of Chopin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eug%C3%A8ne_Ferdinand_Victor_Delacroix_043.jpg">Wikimedia Commons/Louvre</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today, it is a challenge to see Paris as he would have known it. Some of the half-dozen homes where he lived no longer exist. This is also true of the original <a href="https://www.sallepleyel.com/tag/la-salle-pleyel_t5/1">Salle Pleyel</a>, where Chopin gave rare public performances. While the grand boulevards seem quintessentially Parisian, the construction of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/31/story-cities-12-paris-baron-haussmann-france-urban-planner-napoleon">Georges-Eugène Haussmann</a>’s elegant urban design post-dates the composer’s death.</p>
<p>Yet, in Chopin’s day the Louvre was already established as a museum. When I visited, I fairly much ignored the great masterpieces by Titian, Caravaggio, Vermeer, and da Vinci. At last, I found the room in which the Delacroix portrait was hung. But I was, sadly, disappointed: it had been removed for repair. My search would continue. </p>
<h2>Winter in Majorca</h2>
<p>Delacroix’s portrait has another story to tell. It is cut from a larger, unfinished canvas, which depicted Chopin with George Sand (the pen name of Aurore Dupin), a novelist as famed for her literary works as for wearing men’s clothing and smoking cigars. For eight years Chopin and Sand were romantically linked, yet their relationship ended acrimoniously. (Perhaps fittingly, Sand’s portion of the painting now <a href="https://ordrupgaard.dk/en/portfolio_page/delacroix-george-sand-2/">hangs in Copenhagen</a>.)</p>
<p>From Sand’s autobiographical <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2411990.Winter_in_Majorca">Winter in Majorca</a>, we have a chronicle of their four-month stay on the island of Majorca in Spain, among many valuable glimpses of the composer at the beginning of their romance. The trip to warmer climes was for Chopin’s “delicate” health, yet an unseasonably cold and wet winter likely exacerbated the tuberculosis that later killed him. </p>
<p>At first, the setting was idyllic, with Chopin writing joyfully <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=mdzCAgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA185&ots=rkV4EGZL9s&dq=Chopin%20%20%E2%80%98palms%2C%20cedars%2C%20cacti%2C%20olives%2C%20and%20pomegranates.%E2%80%99&pg=PA185#v=onepage&q=Chopin%20%20%E2%80%98palms,%20cedars,%20cacti,%20olives,%20and%20pomegranates.%E2%80%99&f=false">in letters home</a> about the “palms, cedars, cacti, olives, and pomegranates”. Yet the unmarried couple grew frustrated with the religious conservatism of locals and, when the composer’s ill health was assumed to be contagious, they retreated to the <a href="https://www.cartoixadevalldemossa.com/en/">Carthusian Monastery at Valldemosa</a>.</p>
<p>The imposing stone building is today about 25 minutes’ drive from Palma, yet in Chopin’s time the journey north through mountainous terrain was taken perilously by carriage. He described his room there as being like a cell “in the shape of a tall coffin”. According to Sand, he also believed it was haunted. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399404/original/file-20210507-15-1bvjco0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="bust in lush garden" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399404/original/file-20210507-15-1bvjco0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399404/original/file-20210507-15-1bvjco0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399404/original/file-20210507-15-1bvjco0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399404/original/file-20210507-15-1bvjco0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399404/original/file-20210507-15-1bvjco0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399404/original/file-20210507-15-1bvjco0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399404/original/file-20210507-15-1bvjco0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chopin’s bust in the grounds of Valldemossa’s monastery, Spain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/valldemossa-mallorca-spain-july-2015-statue-1523678429">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-original-love-island-how-george-sand-and-fryderyk-chopin-put-mallorca-on-the-romance-map-121148">The original Love Island: how George Sand and Fryderyk Chopin put Mallorca on the romance map</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Yet some of his most inspired pieces appear to have been created there, like the so-called “raindrop” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVau-JRGirg">prelude</a>. Sand recounted returning to the monastery late at night, finding Chopin “pale, at the piano, wild-eyed, his hair standing almost straight up”. He imagined that he had been drowned in a lake, with the repetitive notes of the piece representing “heavy and icy raindrops” falling on his chest. </p>
<p>My own journey resumed when I had the opportunity to visit Majorca in my late 20s. I enjoyed better weather, with winter sunshine bringing warmth and colour. Chopin’s room itself is now a museum, and in a corner stands the fine Pleyel piano which arrived, with cruel timing, only shortly before he left.</p>
<p>Off his room is a long terrace which overlooks a deep valley. While imagining Chopin enjoying the view, I watched as a bank of dense mist rolled incongruously up the slope. A minute later it had enclosed me, and the place was grey and silent. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-gDinVAmtA0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">‘He passed away with his gaze fixed on me,’ remembered Chopin’s daughter Solange.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Final resting place</h2>
<p>The relationship between Chopin and Sand dissolved after an argument over her daughter, Solange. While the couple would never again speak, Solange remained loyal until his death in 1849. Years later she recounted his <a href="https://journal.chestnet.org/article/S0012-3692(16)39573-3/fulltext">final moments</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We wanted to give him a drink, but death prevented us. He passed away with his gaze fixed on me […] I could see the tarnishing in his eyes in the darkness. Oh, the soul had died too!</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399406/original/file-20210507-13-1ot0s27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="cemetary" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399406/original/file-20210507-13-1ot0s27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399406/original/file-20210507-13-1ot0s27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399406/original/file-20210507-13-1ot0s27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399406/original/file-20210507-13-1ot0s27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399406/original/file-20210507-13-1ot0s27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399406/original/file-20210507-13-1ot0s27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399406/original/file-20210507-13-1ot0s27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pere Lachaise in Paris, reportedly the world’s most visited cemetery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/paris-france-december-22-2014-view-319007234">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Appropriately, my search for Chopin concludes with a visit to the cemetery of <a href="https://en.parisinfo.com/paris-museum-monument/71470/Cimetiere-du-Pere-Lachaise">Père Lachaise</a>, where artist Delacroix had been among the composer’s pallbearers. After looking at the graves of Rossini, Oscar Wilde, and Jim Morrison, my companions and I looked for the final resting place of Chopin.</p>
<p>We walked in silence, but on finding the place — marked by a statue of the muse <a href="https://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/MousaEuterpe.html#:%7E:text=EUTERPE%20was%20one%20of%20the,attribute%20was%20the%20double%2Dflute.">Euterpe</a> weeping over a broken lyre — I asked what they’d thought of the piano music that had played in the distance. I thought that it seemed like a composition by Chopin, but couldn’t place it. </p>
<p>Yet they hadn’t heard a thing, and to this day I can’t account for the strange occurrence. In such a place, perhaps the mind plays tricks.</p>
<p>Audiences expect performers to do more than play the notes; they expect insight and personal conviction. For me, tracing Chopin’s footsteps has contributed to that conviction and, certainly, these experiences have enriched his music to me. </p>
<p>But, as with all travel, the urge continues. And if I could go anywhere now, I’d keep on searching. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/four-indigenous-composers-and-a-piano-from-colonial-times-making-passionate-layered-honest-music-together-152080">Four Indigenous composers and a piano from colonial times — making passionate, layered, honest music together</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157862/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott Davie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
As a concert pianist, Scott Davie has been searching for the spirit of Chopin since his teens. It’s taken him to Paris and Majorca and channeled tantalising notes through time.
Scott Davie, Lecturer in Piano, School of Music, Australian National University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/157594
2021-04-28T20:05:50Z
2021-04-28T20:05:50Z
If I could go anywhere: German Modernism at the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart — beauty, play and the horror of war
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397249/original/file-20210427-15-y2x1zp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Triadic Ballet costumes by Oskar Schlemmer, 1922.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/if-i-could-go-anywhere-102157">this series</a> we pay tribute to the art we wish could visit — and hope to see once travel restrictions are lifted.</em></p>
<p>The city of <a href="https://en.stuttgart.de/">Stuttgart</a> doesn’t generally come to mind when planning a jaunt to Germany. Berlin’s edgy <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/berghain-bouncer-sven-marquardt-interview">nightclubs</a> and rich history make it a <a href="https://www.visitberlin.de/en">must-see destination</a> and of course, thousands travel to <a href="https://www.muenchen.de/int/en.html">Munich</a> for its famous annual <a href="https://www.munichsoktoberfest.com/">Oktoberfest</a>. But poor old Stuttgart isn’t usually on tourists’ radar and perhaps that’s why I love it. </p>
<p>Stuttgart is Germany’s fourth largest metropolitan region and a major manufacturing hub. The <a href="https://www.daimler.com/company/">Daimler Group</a>, which owns Mercedes-Benz, is headquartered there, as are the <a href="https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/company/porsche-zuffenhausen-stuttgart-headquarter-12121.html">Porsche</a> HQ and factory.</p>
<p>But the city has put art at the centre of its cultural life for more than 250 years with countless famous artists, from the neo-classical scupltor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Heinrich_von_Dannecker">Johann Heinrich von Dannecker</a>, to leading Bauhaus practitioner <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Schlemmer">Oskar Schlemmer</a> and contemporary artist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karin_Sander">Karin Sander</a>,
all calling Stuttgart home. </p>
<p>A 2015 study ranked Stuttgart the <a href="https://www.thelocal.de/20171010/10-fascinating-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-stuttgart/">number one city</a> in Germany for arts and culture. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397232/original/file-20210427-13-1917t5h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397232/original/file-20210427-13-1917t5h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397232/original/file-20210427-13-1917t5h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397232/original/file-20210427-13-1917t5h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397232/original/file-20210427-13-1917t5h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397232/original/file-20210427-13-1917t5h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397232/original/file-20210427-13-1917t5h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397232/original/file-20210427-13-1917t5h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stuttgart’s Neue Staatsgalerie has magnificent collections.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Stuttgart’s veneration of art is reflected in the magnificent collections held in the <a href="https://www.staatsgalerie.de/en.html">Neue Staatsgalerie</a>, which include works spanning more than 1,000 years. Among my favourites are paintings and sculptures by leading German Modernists. These powerful works express the joys and beauty of the world as well as the horrors of World War I.</p>
<p>The Staatsgalerie holds Franz Marc’s works, The Little Blue Horses (1911) and The Little Yellow Horses (1912). Marc was one of the key figures of German Expressionism, an artistic movement that broadly emphasised representing the artists’ inner emotions or ideas over replicating reality.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397228/original/file-20210427-17-5b7ri3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397228/original/file-20210427-17-5b7ri3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397228/original/file-20210427-17-5b7ri3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397228/original/file-20210427-17-5b7ri3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397228/original/file-20210427-17-5b7ri3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397228/original/file-20210427-17-5b7ri3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397228/original/file-20210427-17-5b7ri3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397228/original/file-20210427-17-5b7ri3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Franz Marc, The Little Blue Horses, 1911.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1909, Marc, along with Russian artist, Wassily Kandinsky, founded the Expressionist group, <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/d/der-blaue-reiter">Der Blaue Reiter</a> in Munich. The characteristics of Marc’s Expressionism included simplified shapes, bright colours and gestural marks or brushstrokes, which are seen in the beautiful, big, round rumps of Marc’s blue and yellow horses. </p>
<p>The pictures recall the geometry of Cubism, yet perfectly capture the spirit of relaxed horses standing in a field.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397229/original/file-20210427-23-d2t954.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397229/original/file-20210427-23-d2t954.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397229/original/file-20210427-23-d2t954.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397229/original/file-20210427-23-d2t954.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397229/original/file-20210427-23-d2t954.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397229/original/file-20210427-23-d2t954.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397229/original/file-20210427-23-d2t954.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397229/original/file-20210427-23-d2t954.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Franz Marc, The Little Yellow Horses, 1912.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another key work is Max Beckmann’s 1916 painting, <a href="https://www.staatsgalerie.de/g/sammlung/sammlung-digital/einzelansicht/sgs/werk/einzelansicht/1330989D413DC400C839A9A1C5D7A4AA.html">Auferstehung</a> (Resurrection). Beckmann had painted a neo-baroque vision of salvation in 1908-09, also entitled <a href="https://www.staatsgalerie.de/en/g/collection/digital-collection/einzelansicht/sgs/werk/einzelansicht/721375A24387651DE15E5EB787E36323.html">Auferstehung</a>, which depicts the figures of redeemed souls reverently ascending to heaven in a column of light. </p>
<p>But after being discharged from the German army in 1915 following a nervous breakdown, Beckmann abandoned classical conventions in painting and turned to the distortion, angularity and exaggerated colour found in Expressionism for his 1916 Auferstehung to portray the terrible suffering of a people deceived by nationalistic promises of a glorious war. </p>
<p>In contrast to his earlier work of the same title, Beckmann’s 1916 Auferstehung shows dehumanised, broken people crawling from bombed out cellars onto piles of rubble and performing an apocalyptic <em>danse macabre</em>, or dance of death. The scale of the work, which is almost 3.5 metres high by 5 metres wide, adds to its shocking, tragic impact. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397231/original/file-20210427-13-kcbmfm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397231/original/file-20210427-13-kcbmfm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397231/original/file-20210427-13-kcbmfm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397231/original/file-20210427-13-kcbmfm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397231/original/file-20210427-13-kcbmfm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397231/original/file-20210427-13-kcbmfm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397231/original/file-20210427-13-kcbmfm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397231/original/file-20210427-13-kcbmfm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Auferstehung, Max Beckmann, 1916.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>George Grosz’s 1917-1918 <a href="https://www.staatsgalerie.de/g/sammlung/sammlung-digital/einzelansicht/sgs/werk/einzelansicht/04B9A380494146E06B7118AD8FE5BE99.html">The Funeral Procession, Dedicated to Oskar Panizza</a>
painted the same year as his work, Explosion, also depicts the horrors of a society ruined by war. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397237/original/file-20210427-13-1j9bgsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397237/original/file-20210427-13-1j9bgsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397237/original/file-20210427-13-1j9bgsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397237/original/file-20210427-13-1j9bgsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397237/original/file-20210427-13-1j9bgsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397237/original/file-20210427-13-1j9bgsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397237/original/file-20210427-13-1j9bgsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397237/original/file-20210427-13-1j9bgsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=971&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">George Grosz, 1917-18, The Funeral (To Oskar Panizza), oil on canvas, 140 x 110 cm, 1918-18.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The painting shows grotesque figures moving in a macabre funeral procession through an infernal city led by three allegorical creatures representing Drunkenness, Syphilis, and Religious Fanaticism.</p>
<p>To me, this painting is a bitter reminder of how humans often self-medicate with alcohol, unsafe sex and religious zeal to try to cope with trauma. </p>
<p>The Staatsgalerie, however, also contains beautiful, strange and compelling works that exemplify Modernity in post-World War I Germany, including the original costumes for the <a href="https://www.staatsgalerie.de/g/sammlung/sammlung-digital/einzelansicht/sgs/werk/einzelansicht/2B95DCBB43CB51A4CBFF1F9D58D4730B.html">Triadic Ballet</a> (1922) by Oskar Schlemmer, and the
<a href="https://www.staatsgalerie.de/en/g/collection/digital-collection/einzelansicht/sgs/werk/einzelansicht/3AC0F10449F23BC11089FDBD748C7797.html">Head in Brass (Portrait Toni Freedan) (1925)</a> by the sculptor Rudolf Belling. </p>
<p>Schlemmer’s costumes point to the ideals of play and fun — so important to the ethos of the <a href="https://mymodernmet.com/what-is-bauhaus-art-movement/#:%7E:text=Bauhaus%E2%80%94literally%20translated%20to%20%E2%80%9Cconstruction,approach%20to%20architecture%20and%20design">Bauhaus</a> movement — particularly after the brutal war. The costumes are also a complex exploration of the relationships between the body and space. </p>
<p>Seeing them up close lets the viewer appreciate not just Schlemmer’s aims and work, but how important it must have been for artists to create something completely unrelated to war.</p>
<p>Belling’s brass head perfectly captures the Zeitgeist of mid-1920s Germany. Its lines point to styles Belling explored throughout his career, including Expressionism, Futurism and traditional sculpture, as well as to his 1921 work, Fashion Sculpture A, a mannequin made in collaboration with a Berlin workshop. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392432/original/file-20210330-19-2plbe4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392432/original/file-20210330-19-2plbe4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392432/original/file-20210330-19-2plbe4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392432/original/file-20210330-19-2plbe4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392432/original/file-20210330-19-2plbe4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392432/original/file-20210330-19-2plbe4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392432/original/file-20210330-19-2plbe4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392432/original/file-20210330-19-2plbe4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rudolf Belling Head in brass (Portrait Toni Freedan) (1925).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The head’s enigmatic expression echoes that of the ancient <a href="https://www.smb.museum/en/museums-institutions/aegyptisches-museum-und-papyrussammlung/collection-research/bust-of-nefertiti/the-bust/">Bust of Nefertiti</a>, which was first exhibited in Berlin in 1924, and foreshadows the beautiful “Maschinenmensch” robot of Fritz Lang’s 1927 film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0017136/">Metropolis</a>.</p>
<p>These key works are just the beginning of any visit to the Staatsgalerie and to understanding how these great artists shaped how we see the world today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157594/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Brayshaw does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Stuttgart flies under the radar as a tourist destination but it is a treasure trove of Expressionist art and works that exemplify post-war modernity.
Emily Brayshaw, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Technology Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/157859
2021-04-19T20:14:21Z
2021-04-19T20:14:21Z
If I could go anywhere: I’d revisit Maman, Louise Bourgeois’ 9-metre spider at London’s Tate Modern
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395611/original/file-20210419-19-tooupy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C2982%2C1868&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Louise Bourgeois' Maman (1999) outside the Tate Modern in London. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://photos-cdn.aap.com.au/Image/20071003000046396944?path=/aap_dev3/device/imagearc/2007/10-03/63/6e/3b/aapimage-5gtce6b563mv5t1t79p_layout.jpg">AP Photo/Nathan Strange</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/if-i-could-go-anywhere-102157">this series</a> we pay tribute to the art we wish could visit — and hope to see once travel restrictions are lifted.</em></p>
<p>She’s called <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/arts/gallery/2007/oct/03/spider">Maman</a>, and she emerged into the world in 1999, just in time to find her feet and grace the opening of the <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern">Tate Modern</a> in the heart of London. </p>
<p>Maman. The biggest spider you’ve ever seen at more than nine metres high. The extent to which you are entranced by her bears a direct correlation to whether, when you think “spider”, you think <a href="https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/eb-white/charlottes-web-white/">Charlotte in her web</a> or Hobbit-bothering <a href="http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Shelob">Shelob</a>. </p>
<p>For her maker, that most fertile and perhaps febrile artist <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/louise-bourgeois-2351/art-louise-bourgeois">Louise Bourgeois</a> (1911–2010), spiders represent maternal beings in their care of the young, and in their skillful making and repairing of the family web (that is, they are Charlotte, not Shelob). </p>
<p>A more typical human response is a severe case of the “ick” factor at best, and panic at worst. Yet under Bourgeois’ hands, something marvellous happens — new ways of seeing spiders, and with them the more-than-human world. </p>
<p>Her spiders have populated the globe since 1999. They are to be found poised, crouching, menacing or magnificent (depending on your attitude to arachnids) in Ottawa, Shanghai, Bilboa, Provence, Geneva, Zurich, New York, San Francisco, Moscow and elsewhere. </p>
<p>If I could go anywhere, one option would be to trail around the world on a Bourgeois spider-hunt, though I have always been uncomfortable around spiders.</p>
<p>In recent years, chagrined by my species-ism and captivated by videos of <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-travelled-australia-looking-for-peacock-spiders-and-collected-7-new-species-and-named-one-after-the-starry-night-sky-135201">tiny dancing peacock spiders</a>, I have been making valiant attempts to recognise their beauty; with some success. Recently, with much of Australia under floodwaters and my news-feeds full of stories of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/22/horrific-swarms-of-spiders-flee-into-homes-and-up-legs-to-escape-nsw-floods">spiders desperately swarming</a> up fenceposts and trees and human legs to escape death, I would leave this country and fly straight to London, to see Maman again.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qy7xJhImnLw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">‘I transform hate into love.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/review-the-naked-nude-from-the-tate-68324">Review: The naked nude from the Tate</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Incidental art</h2>
<p>I would take the underground from whichever dingy affordable flat I could find to rent, arriving at Southwark Station. I stood there in 2006 for nearly half an hour, entranced by Bill Fontana’s <a href="https://resoundings.org/Pages/Harmonic_Bridge1.htm">Harmonic Bridge</a>. That work is the product of the Millennium Bridge vibrating under the feet of pedestrians crossing from St Paul’s to Bankside, and against the movement of the river below it and the wind that crosses it. </p>
<p>Like Bourgeois’ Maman, the sounds captured by Fontana and shaped into an audio sculpture have the capacity to shift one’s sense of lived experience and what it can mean.</p>
<p>Incidentally, in 2011 I visited Tate Modern to see Ai Weiwei’s <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ai-sunflower-seeds-t13408">1-125,000,000</a> (2010), a hill of handcrafted sunflower seeds made of porcelain, fired and painted, displayed in the <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern/turbine-hall">Turbine Hall</a>. Gazing at the seeds, I found myself listening to percussive sounds coming from further up the building, and hunted about for a plaque to say it was also the work of Bill Fontana. Eventually I asked a nearby guide who the sound artist was and, without a hint of condescension, she smiled and said, “They’re doing some plumbing work next door”.</p>
<p>In my fantasy art trip now, I choke down that humiliating memory and walk the ten minutes or so down toward the Thames, back to what was the Bankside Power Station, and is now the Tate Modern.</p>
<p>And in my imagination, I retrace my steps to the Turbine Hall, greet Maman, and then wander up through gallery after gallery, through permanent collection and special exhibitions, all the way to the bar on Level … is it 5? I forget. There I buy a glass of wine, alone or with friends and colleagues, and gaze across the Thames to the dome of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Christopher-Wren">Christopher Wren</a>’s <a href="http://scihi.org/christopher-wren-saint-pauls-cathedral/">St Paul’s cathedral</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/h51hVeQyooQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The chimney of the Tate is 99 metres high.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-i-could-go-anywhere-japanese-art-island-chichu-a-meditation-and-an-education-133439">If I could go anywhere: Japanese art island Chichu, a meditation and an education</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A special host</h2>
<p>St Paul’s is just around the corner from where my late aunt lived, in the brutalist <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/oct/10/barbican-housing-photography-design-architecture">Barbican</a> estate. </p>
<p>She generously provided me a bed on various of my trips, and showed me the art at the heart of her city. I saw Benjamin Britten’s haunting, heartbreaking War <a href="https://artswarandpeace.univ-paris-diderot.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/1.1_2_coudercrevised1novbrittenwar.pdf">Requiem</a> in her private box at the <a href="http://www.avictorian.com/alberthall.html">Royal Albert Hall</a>, that remarkable Victorian structure that resembles, to a stranger seated within, the inside of someone else’s mouth. Later she took me to Bach’s <a href="https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/bwv/bwv-244/">St Matthew Passion</a> performed at the Barbican, where we <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/friday_review/story/0,3605,472259,00.html">sang along with the choir</a>, lustily and not entirely in tune.</p>
<p>She took me, too, on her personalised tour of the city. I saw another Christopher Wren building, the church of St Stephen Walbrook, and its splendidly democratic <a href="https://ststephenwalbrook.net/history/henry-moore/">Henry Moore altar</a>. I saw remnants of that ancient Roman construction, the <a href="https://www.barbicanliving.co.uk/blocks/wallside/the-wall/">London Wall</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-i-could-go-anywhere-boughton-house-the-english-versailles-and-its-shimmering-treasures-157598">If I could go anywhere: Boughton House, ‘the English Versailles’ and its shimmering treasures</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Just beyond my aunt’s apartment is Michael Ayrton’s priapic <a href="https://www.bowmansculpture.com/michael-ayrton/544e655/minotaur-erect">Minotaur</a> sculpture, which, she told me, often boasts a shopping bag or scarf hooked by some passing wag across the phallus. We went to <a href="http://www.postmanspark.org.uk/about.html">Postman’s Park</a>, devised in the late 19th century by the artist <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/george-frederic-watts-586">George Frederick Watts</a> as a place to remember everyday heroes who lost their lives in saving others. </p>
<p>I want to go back to London, a city all awash with art, and with history tucked between the glass and steel monoliths that characterise its skyline. </p>
<p>I want — in my imagination — to visit my aunt and Maman: to revisit women’s care for family; to remember my aunt’s knowledge of and passion for the city and its art, and her generosity to a niece landing on her doorstep, fresh from the antipodes. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395617/original/file-20210419-19-oaarna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A pretty London park." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395617/original/file-20210419-19-oaarna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395617/original/file-20210419-19-oaarna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395617/original/file-20210419-19-oaarna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395617/original/file-20210419-19-oaarna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395617/original/file-20210419-19-oaarna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395617/original/file-20210419-19-oaarna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395617/original/file-20210419-19-oaarna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Postman’s Park off Aldersgate Street, London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://image.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-august-15-2009-600w-1909271344.jpg">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157859/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jen Webb receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>
In this instalment of our fantasy art travel series, Jen Webb yearns to revisit London, a special aunt and a very big arachnid.
Jen Webb, Dean, Graduate Research, University of Canberra
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/157598
2021-04-12T06:18:07Z
2021-04-12T06:18:07Z
If I could go anywhere: Boughton House, ‘the English Versailles’ and its shimmering treasures
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/390827/original/file-20210322-13-1ovzlhj.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C3000%2C1898&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Euan Myles Photography/Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/if-i-could-go-anywhere-102157">this series</a> we pay tribute to the art we wish could visit — and hope to see once travel restrictions are lifted.</em></p>
<p>If you are a country house fanatic like me, and you’ve been lucky enough to spend time travelling around Britain to seek them out, you might have visited some of the greats: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petworth_House">Petworth</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blenheim_Palace">Blenheim</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatsworth_House">Chatsworth</a>. </p>
<p>But have you heard of Boughton House, the “<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3752187-boughton-house">English Versailles</a>”?</p>
<p>As an art historian born in England who works on the art and culture of Louis XIV’s France, I’m a little embarrassed to admit I only learnt about Boughton very recently. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392113/original/file-20210329-13-15dldom.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Oil painting." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392113/original/file-20210329-13-15dldom.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392113/original/file-20210329-13-15dldom.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392113/original/file-20210329-13-15dldom.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392113/original/file-20210329-13-15dldom.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=838&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392113/original/file-20210329-13-15dldom.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1053&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392113/original/file-20210329-13-15dldom.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1053&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392113/original/file-20210329-13-15dldom.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1053&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ralph Montagu, 1st Duke of Montagu, painted around 1710.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Trust/wikimedia commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Now, I yearn to book a flight to England to visit the house rebuilt by Ralph Montagu (1638–1709), the first Duke of Montagu, in the flashy new French style back in the 17th century.</p>
<p>Montagu inherited his family’s country seat in Northamptonshire when his father died in 1684. A monastic building was converted into a manor house by Sir Edward Montagu in 1528, following the dissolution of the monasteries <a href="https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Dissolution-of-the-Monasteries/">by Henry VIII</a>. The younger Montagu’s renovations began upon his inheritence and continued well into the 1690s.</p>
<p>Montagu’s contemporaries knew <a href="https://www.livescience.com/38903-palace-of-versailles-facts-history.html">Louis XIV’s palace</a> was the inspiration for Boughton. </p>
<p>The “Sun King” had transformed his father’s modest hunting lodge at Versailles into the most magnificent palace of the age. By 1680, it was the French king’s principal residence and the centre of government.</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://archive.org/details/historyreignque04boyegoog">one account</a> written shortly after Montagu’s death, Boughton was:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>contrived after the Model of Versailles, with extending Wings, excellent Avenues, Vistas and Prospects; for Rich Furniture, Exquisite Gardens, Beauty of Building, and advantageous Situation, scare to be equalled in Britain.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Boughton House may not be well know today, but it was famous when it was built. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dnsllbgNk2Y?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Dreams of France</h2>
<p>Montagu was a greedy and ambitious fellow. He married twice for money and to advance his social status. He first went to France as an ambassador of King Charles II of England in 1669. </p>
<p>Although he was a minor noble, as the representative of the King of England his official entry into Paris was of unequalled magnificence. He developed a taste for the finest things at the time France was fast becoming the centre for luxury in Europe. </p>
<p>He travelled to France again in 1678, and returned to England with more than 200 trunks filled with works of art and furniture.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392115/original/file-20210329-15-1l8lnw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Large house. A fountain in foreground, statues, shrubbery and lawned areas in forecourt." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392115/original/file-20210329-15-1l8lnw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392115/original/file-20210329-15-1l8lnw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392115/original/file-20210329-15-1l8lnw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392115/original/file-20210329-15-1l8lnw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392115/original/file-20210329-15-1l8lnw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392115/original/file-20210329-15-1l8lnw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392115/original/file-20210329-15-1l8lnw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=612&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Facade of Montagu House, looking across the forecourt, etching and engraving by James Simon c.1715.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© The Trustees of the British Museum</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To live in the magnificent way he did in France, Montagu needed a house to display his treasures. With aid of his first wife’s dowry, he built Montagu House in London – which would become the site of the first British Museum in 1755, before being demolished to make way for a new grand museum in 1850.</p>
<p>Montagu employed all manner of French architects, painters, sculptors, wood engravers, furniture makers and silversmiths to decorate his London house and country seat. He commissioned artists like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Rousseau_(painter)">Jacques Rousseau</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_La_Fosse">Charles de la Fosse</a> who had worked for Louis XIV at Versailles. </p>
<p>Montagu was a Francophile through and through. His household staff were nearly all French — everyone from his housekeeper to his wigmaker — and the entertainments he gave were in the French style, with French dancing and music.</p>
<h2>Treasures in situ</h2>
<p>The main building of Boughton House is much as it was in Ralph Montagu’s time. The mansard roof and plain white stone of the façade lend the building a distinctly French feel. </p>
<p>Despite what Montagu’s contemporaries thought, it is not that similar to the Château at Versailles. It looks more like the lost <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Saint-Cloud">Château of Saint-Cloud</a>, where Montagu spent time in the circle of the English princess, Henrietta Maria, who married Louis XIV’s only brother Philippe. </p>
<p>I don’t want to visit just to see its lovely Frenchified exterior. Boughton is one of those rare country houses still in the hands of the family that built it. </p>
<p>Today, it is one of the ancestral homes of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_of_Buccleuch">Duke of Buccleuch</a>, passed on by marriage in the 18th century. </p>
<p>Boughton is not the largest, nor the fanciest, of the Buccleuch seats. This is probably why it remains intact, full of the treasures collected and commissioned by the first Duke of Montagu. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392112/original/file-20210329-19-1y7rro1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in a grand room, surrounded by paintings." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392112/original/file-20210329-19-1y7rro1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392112/original/file-20210329-19-1y7rro1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=613&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392112/original/file-20210329-19-1y7rro1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=613&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392112/original/file-20210329-19-1y7rro1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=613&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392112/original/file-20210329-19-1y7rro1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392112/original/file-20210329-19-1y7rro1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392112/original/file-20210329-19-1y7rro1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Duchess of Buccleuch and Queensberry photographed in the hall of Boughton House, April 1958.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/53035820@N02/8286840596/in/photolist-79yadn-SMyBQw-Rai9Fp-SMyCKC-2fCYPWP-2ef3pfr-2dwTudM-RaiaGT-RaiaT4-RaiaX2-2eVGhM2-2eVGhSn-RaiaNK-Raiaor-KxCCDq-SMyBGL-Rai7ax-2eVGi82-2dwTuzi-2ef3p5M-RaiaeZ-Rai8q8-SMyBsh-Rai7D8-Rai7sB-Rai6Px-Rai7XV-Rai8fD-2dwTukR-SMyCF9-2dwTtWV-dChe11-srpTha-SMyC9C-2eVGhGH-2dwTusK-Raiatg-2eVGij4-2eVGiwt-79yb1P-SMyCk9-2eVGhse-2eVGhz8-2eVGhhz-RaiazP-2dwTu5v-2eKKv3P-265VQSW-2eMxqvz-24b6tjz">Slim Aarons/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Among the hundreds of trunks of objects Montagu brought back with him from France was a desk attributed to Pierre Gole, furniture maker to Louis XIV. According to family tradition, this was one of the personal gifts the French king gave to Montagu. The <a href="http://www.yannickchastang.com/conservation/portfolio/boulle/47/">Gole desk</a> is an exquisite treasure shimmering in the gold and silver tones of its pewter and brass inlay. </p>
<p>Objects have lives, too. </p>
<p>Just as the first Duke of Montagu was an English ambassador to France, this desk became a French ambassador to England. But where Montagu only played the role of ambassador for a few years, the desk has been in ambassadorial service for centuries, sitting at Boughton waiting for an audience. </p>
<p>Houses like Boughton delight me more than any museum. There is something so special about seeing works of art where they have remained for centuries.</p>
<p>Objects in museums are a little like birds in cages. By contrast, when you glimpse an exquisite object like that shimmering desk in a country house it’s like spying a rare bird in its natural habitat.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157598/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Wellington is an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) Fellow. </span></em></p>
The first Duke of Montagu was a a Francophile through and through. After spending time with Louis XIV, he dreamed of a Versailles of his own.
Robert Wellington, Senior Lecturer, Art History and Visual Culture, Australian National University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.