In just a few hours, the modern ideal of a fairy tale wedding will take place at Windsor Castle. A trip I took to the medieval palace several years ago had a legendary feel to it that may not rival the experience of a young American woman marrying her prince charming but it was […]
Tag: Greek deities
I’ve always had a fascination for Greek deities, an interest that makes me appreciate the art that has been created around their personalities.
As I was strolling through the National Gallery of Art one day, marveling at the Greek deities and Roman gods and goddesses involved in their adventures around nearly every corner, I was reminded of a wonderful summer I once spent immersed in classical mythology. The names forming the cast of characters came rushing back as I spotted a marble sculpture of a Nereid next to a bronze statue of Neptune; and saw a fleet-footed Mercury dance nimbly atop a fountain in the rotunda while one of Diana’s nymphs posed prettily on her pedestal.
Carved from marble by Jean-Louis Lemoyne, the latter was titled A Companion of Diana (shown below), and though she was chiseled from hardened stone, the fabric clinging to her rococo physique made her body seem downright supple. The statue was one of ten that Louis XIV commissioned for the grounds of his Château de Marly, each to serve as an artful representation of the goddess’s nymphs. After his death in 1715, Louis XV installed some of the completed statues in the forests of La Muette, another hunting retreat favored by the Bourbon kings.
Though the nymph drew me a bit off course when I spotted her, I wasn’t simply ambling at the time. I was making my way through the sculpture hall to find a painting I’ve always wanted to see in person—Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s Apollo Pursuing Daphne. It was magnificent to stand in front of it and soak in the luminescence emanating from the chaotic scene. I am grateful to museums for housing such magnificent examples of art and I enjoy writing about them here on The Diary of an Improvateur.
Echoes of History
Life is a paradoxical affair at the corner of Boulevards Saint-Michel and Saint-Germain. Uber drivers dressed in tailored suits whiz through the intersection in sleek Mercedes just yards away from an assemblage of ragged walls nearly 20 centuries old. Pocked with scraggy arches, they splay toward the streets—unapologetic in their dilapidation. The […]
Far from Oblivious in Bologna
If you find yourself strolling along the streets of Bologna near the city’s center, don’t be surprised if you turn a corner and come upon an anomaly. It will stand unapologetically as traffic whizzes by, a thumb of unruly masonry with its flanks sawed off. The amputations were necessary to make way for thoroughfares […]
My Porcelain Bucket List
When I am planning literary design adventures, I look for experiences that give me the feeling of transcendence—encounters during which I am conscious of having one foot in the past and one in the future. One of the strongest examples of this I have had to date took place during a trip to the […]
Seeing with New Eyes
Day two of my Parisian literary adventure follows a foray I wrote about last week. It turned out to be a long excursion because I decided to walk all the way from my hotel, Le Meridien Etoile in the 17th arrondissement near the Périphérique, along the spine of Avenue de la Grande Armée, past the Arc de Triomphe, onto […]
Vigée Le Brun’s Passion for Painting
A Passion for Painting Billowing ruched fabric, pointy toes of dainty shoes visible from beneath flounced skirts hemmed in gold fringes and ornate trims. A bejeweled crown on a pillow festooned with gold fleurs-de-lis; and a red velvet tablecloth flowing downward, its gold trim cascading onto a floral rug. Sumptuousness at every turn. Painting in […]
Rewriting the Myth of Pandora
I’ve always been fascinated by the myth of Pandora because the most widely accepted explanation of this parable—that feminine curiosity “is responsible for all the woes from which mankind suffers”—may not be accurate according to some scholars. The quote, from Frances E. Sabin’s book Classical Myths That Live Today, goes on to say, “Another […]
Musing Through Classical Mythology
As I was strolling through the National Gallery of Art a week and a half ago, I couldn’t help but marvel at the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses involved in their adventures and the beautiful architecture of the museum that served as the perfect backdrop for the stories of classical mythology they represented. I was […]
The Peacock Room à la Whistler
The most recognizable painting by artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler might lead you to believe he was as Puritan as his upbringing. The fact he could render such a realistic homage to piety in Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (Portrait of the Artist’s Mother)—better known as Whistler’s Mother—does seem to further the […]