This essay examining the military career of the last pagan emperor while he resided in Paris is included in my most recent book The Modern…
View More The Paris of a PaganTag: architectural storytelling
Beyond architectural language is architectural storytelling, which I do here on The Diary of an Improvateur.
When I received the Rizzoli book Grand Bordeaux Châteaux, I was bowled over by how gracefully modern architects had added contemporary additions to the grand neoclassical châteaux in Bordeaux. The architectural storytelling took off when I found out the intrepid Stendhal had visited one of the wineries and I tapped his travel writing about touring the area to offer an entertaining look at Bordeaux in a time when it took seventy-two hours to travel there from Paris by stagecoach!
For the Stendhal had visited, the storytelling hinged on chivalry, which was such an important subject during the Tudor Era. I continued the exploration in Stendhal had visited, which looked at jousting through the Tudor King’s eyes. Henry VIII inherited his predilection for sport honestly, as his father, Henry VII, saw no need to devote any funds to supporting a court poet; instead, he invested in a state-of-the-art games-and-gambling complex at Richmond Palace that held facilities for jousting, bowling, tennis and archery.
Libraries Are My Temples
This essay about the legacy of Cardinal Mazarin, which includes several libraries, is included in my book The Modern Salonnière. The 34 other essays in…
View More Libraries Are My TemplesThe Architecture of Chivalry
This essay about the built legacy of Henry VIII is included in my new book The Modern Salonnière. The 34 other essays in the book…
View More The Architecture of ChivalryThe Nature of Noble Loyalty
It’s spring in London and the flowers are bursting forth on Cheyne Walk, which skirts the edge of the River Thames until it gives way…
View More The Nature of Noble LoyaltyThe New Face of Religious Zeal
As I circle the domed space, I approach the front of the pulpit for the third time. I can’t believe how perfect it is that…
View More The New Face of Religious ZealFar 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…
View More Far from Oblivious in BolognaMy 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…
View More My Porcelain Bucket ListArchitecture with Heart in Bordeaux
In the preface to the book Grand Bordeaux Châteaux: Inside the Fine Wine Estates of France, Philippe Chaix describes discovering Bordeaux as a bewitching act: on…
View More Architecture with Heart in BordeauxHeaven Shall Be Here
In the film A Little Chaos, Alan Rickman, who plays an unlikely Louis XIV, declares, “Heaven shall be here.” He’s speaking of a ballroom he…
View More Heaven Shall Be HereReading Dante in Milan
“I’d like that sunny table near the windows under the beautiful mirror,” he says to the hostess at Le Vrai, pointing to the niche set…
View More Reading Dante in Milan