This vase is simply designed but elegant, and as such, is unerringly beautiful. The variance of lines and shadow in the blue glaze is not easily achieved, and as such, should be marveled at.
Tag: 18th century
Thursday
Back in the day, portrait painting was one of a handful of legitimate jobs that women could do that brought prestige. However, they very often were attributed to their male counterparts for obvious reasons (aka, a woman couldn’t paint that well, no formal training, etc.), which makes this portrait special in the SLAM collection. It is correctly attributed, it is well-painted, the brush strokes are minimal and the subject appears almost airbrushed. Welcome to the 18th century equivalent of Photoshop!
Wednesday
You can read about the painting all you want, but until you look at it, you don’t understand it. To me, the real focus of the picture is in the background, in the moonlight glow – the focal point for the rest of the action is there. The campfire and lighthouse become evident only after you see the moonlight, and the reflection of the moonlight off the water. Everything about this composition is about light, even in the darkness. It is everything.
Saturday
I know I talked about Rococo yesterday about being the naughty little sister of Baroque, and, really, it was. But it’s easy to dismiss it as frivolous and pink and ruffles and giggles and all poufs and fluff and shit. It was anything but. It was the forerunner to our modern views on sexuality and how it is portrayed in the media and film. Take, for instance, this series of paintings/etchings/prints about the woman on a swing: it is an erotically charged story about a woman and her lover(s), and matters of the heart, told through the allegorical reference of, well, knowing that she’s got no underwear on under her frilly underskirts. So, there’s that. I guess I’ll leave you with that image burning into the back of your brain.
Friday
Textile art is a special kind of art: it’s rare that it survives intact for very long because fiber pigments degrade much more quickly than, say, paint pigments or fritware glazes do. For textiles to survive in this condition and age is nothing short of a miracle. Not to mention, holy shit. It’s Rococo on goddamn steroids. It took the elegance of the Baroque, turned it upside down, molested it, put a pink bow and a petticoat on it, gave it a flirtatious spank and a naughty wink, and then turned it loose on an unsuspecting public. It looks like it’s supposed to be prim and proper, but it’s not really. Look closer: there are allegorical allusions to sex and naughtiness throughout the symbols. *fans self* Okay, enough about the naughty. It really is a gorgeous piece of cloth.
Friday
Y’all, it’s a dagger. A curve-bladed dagger, typical Mughal style, very simple, very pretty, nice and stabby. We do love our stabbity objects over here.
Saturday
It’s difficult to see in the photos, but the glaze really reflects the light and comes off as almost metallic in many ways. I love these particular dishes because they are simple in their overall design but very complex in their execution. They are not dishes for the faint of heart, and, if you know me at all, you know that I am anything but a simpering twit. These are the dishes of a household of distinction – with a warrior’s twist.
Tuesday
When you think of the sheer number of things that were destroyed in the French Revolution, then the Napoleonic Wars, then the World Wars, the fact that this not only survived, but made it out of France intact is a miracle. That it is preserved and in a public collection to be admired and appreciated for its beauty and its historical significance is also a miracle.
Sunday
I’ve been racking my brain all day trying to remember the first time I actually saw this piece in terms of date. The placard says it was donated in 1991, so that gives me a rough period of time in which it could have been. I think the first time must have been 1996 or thereabouts, but definitely before the 1998 Angels of the Vatican exhibition.
Regardless, this wardrobe has always been an immense favorite of mine (one of my top ten in the entire collection) because of several factors. The craftsmanship is solid, well-designed, and imposing from rooms away. It is functional as well as a statement piece. The detailing is exquisite. It has been cared for and loved and lived through for hundreds of years and is a living piece of history.
This is a piece of sheer perfection in wood.
Friday, Friday…
It’s really quite rare for jaded old me to come across something that moves my hardened old heart, but they opened a new exhibition in Gallery 100 with beautiful textiles and I am in bloody damn love. I was moving in a rapture from piece to piece, my eyes glazing over with passion, lust, glee, and everything in between… and then I saw something that took the breath out of my lungs, the proverbial wind from my sails, knocked me for a loop.
As simple as it might seem, this bedcover had me sitting down on the bench in the middle of the gallery and crying from the sheer beauty of it. The simplicity, the elegance, and yet the complexity and incredible amount of work that went into making the fabric make it a rare treat to have survived as long as it has intact. It’s an amazing feat.