Splendour Versailles continue… June 6, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Austria, France, Museum, Paris, USA , add a commentLouis’s vanity, however, was not inexhaustible. Once a year he felt the need to retire to Marly where a much easier regime was in force, and spirited young duchesses were even allowed to bombard him with bread pellets during supper. At Versailles too, he felt the need for greater intimacy. For this purpose he selected a small pavilion on the site of the former village of Trianon, which was enlarged to make the Grand Trianon in 1687. During the summer the king organised little dances and suppers there, to which he invited a few select guests. (more…)
The relentless uniformity of the bays of the south facade of the Escorial continue… June 3, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Austria, Europe, Library, USA , add a commentThe church itself is a central-plan building focusing on four great piers that support a hemispherical crossing dome. The general scheme of the interior follows the example of St Peter’s in Rome, but the architect has transposed the details into a solemnly majestic key, his personal interpretation of the Doric order. The enormous scale, the relative absence of ornament and the unrelenting austerity of the granite surfaces produce an awesome, almost suffocating effect. Fortunately this tension is relieved by the presence of a number of outstanding works of art, which act as aesthetic oases, so to speak. The east wall is entirely filled by a great retable designed by Giacomo Trezzo of Milan, incorporating paintings by Pellegrino Tibaldi and Federico Zuccaro and sculpture by Leone and Pompeo Leoni. (more…)
Aranjuez: Philip II’s leafy palace on the banks of the River Tagus May 14, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Airlines, Art Gallery, Austria, Beach Resorts, Destination, Europe, Granada, Gymnasium, Hotels, Library, Lodges, Memorial, Museum, Portugal, Restaurant, Spain, Sunblock, Travel Gear, Travelling Bag, USA , add a commentAranjuez, at the confluence of the Tagus and Jarama rivers, about thirty miles south of Madrid, is the most celebrated of the rare oases which break the arid monotony of most of Spain. The air resounds with the noise of rushing water, the trees are the finest in southern Europe and the nightingales (which were Philip II’s chief regret during three years’ absence in Portugal) are as renowned as the strawberries and asparagus from its market-gardens.
In the Middle Ages the land belonged to the knights of Santiago, whose Grand Master, Lorenzo Suarez de Figueroa, erected a castle there in 1387. When Ferdinand and Isabella merged the Grand Mastership in the Crown, the property passed with it. Charles V converted the building into a hunting-lodge, which Juan Bautista de Toledo and Juan de Herrera, the architects of the Escorial, replaced by a palace for Philip II. (more…)
The Escorial: Nobility without arrogance, majesty without ostentation continue… May 9, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Accommodation, Airlines, Austria, Beach Resorts, Flight Schedule, Hostels, Hotels, Library, Lodges, Motel, Restaurant, USA , add a commentReligious observances and the arts were Philip II’s two hobbies and much of the last fourteen years of his life was spent in decorating the Escorial. His choice of artists — Italian Mannerists of mediocre ‘talent — was not fortunate, though the frescoes of Castilian victories over the Moors in the Hall of Battles, although drastically restored, have much interest and charm. Little now survives of his collections of drawings, maps, architectural designs and natural history specimens, and the parks, pavilions and herds of deer with which he surrounded the palace, have all disappeared. Even his collection of relics has suffered depredation and its chief treasure, a feather from the wing of the Archangel Gabriel which Beckford saw, `full three feet long, and of a blushing hue more soft and delicate than that of the loveliest rose’, is no longer mentioned. (more…)
Schönbrunn : The palace which symbolizes the peak of Viennese maturity continue… May 3, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Austria, Europe, Hungary , add a commentBaroque decoration, especially in a Hapsburg residence, could never be a simple art form, and the interior of Schönbrunn is a great deal more elaborate than the clean low-slung lines of its exterior might suggest. The show _piece is the _Great Gallery which runs along the entire length of the central portion on the courtyard side, linked by open indoor archways to the Small Gallery, running parallel with it on the garden side. Here is baroque in all its disciplined magnificence - richly inlaid wooden floors, cream and gilt panelling, glittering crystal chandeliers and wall brackets, gold ornamented stucco work at every turn and the whole richly balanced scene crowned by three ceiling frescoes of Gregorio Guglielmi depicting Austro-Hungary in war, the arts and the sciences. (more…)
Corfu: The place erected in honour of St Michael and St George April 21, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Austria, Beach Resorts, Greece, Ireland , add a commentThe visitors to corfuwho wishes to see the palace, is invariably asked, ‘ Which palace?’ For this incomparably beautiful island, pricked with cypresses and cacti and serrated round the edges by a gently gnawing sea, contains three of them. There is the Achilleion, the villa built by the tragic Empress Elizabeth of Austria in 1890, and subsequently bought by Kaiser Wilhelm II; Mon Repos, originally the private residence of the British High Commissioner and now the summer villa of the Greek Royal Family; and the Royal Palace in the centre of the town, known to cultured Corfiots as the Palace of St Michael and St George. (more…)
ROCOCO April 4, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Australia, Austria, Brazil, England, Europe, France, Germany, Greece, Hotels, India, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Spain, The Nile, USA, Wellington , add a commentAfter the great days of Baroque, the High Renaissance, led by Bernini and Borromini, and followed variously by Mansart and le Vau in France, Fischer von Erlach and von Hildebrandt in Austria, Zimmerman in Germany, Churriguera in Spain, and Wren,Hawksmoor and Vanbrugh in England, and before a period of Revivalism, France emerged from the reign of Henri IV (reigned 1589-1610) to establish a wealthy bourgeoisie under the political patronage of high taste in the salons of country chateau and hotels. In the next century, during the transitional period from Louis XIV (1638-1715) to the regency of his great grandson, Louis XV (1710-74), a demand for comfort, intimacy and ornament led to the late Baroque variant of Rococo.
The word Rococo derives from the French word rocaille, meaning sea rocks and shells, and it is applied to the highly ornamental and decorative strain of late Baroque architecture. (more…)
The Renaissance continue… April 4, 2008
Posted by dodo in : Austria, Belgium, England, Europe, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Library, London, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain , 1 comment so farThis language was inherited by Donato Bramante (1444-1514), whose friends and mentors included Leonardo da Vinci (14591519), Alberti and Piero della Francesca (c.1420-1492). Within this extraordinary environment, Bramante, who had trained as a painter, studied the work of Brunelleschi and turned his genius to architecture. He collaborated with Leonardo da Vinci in the Santa Maria delle Grazie, a partnership that gave Milan a great building and the Last Supper. The French invasion of northern Italy forced Bramante to flee to Rome, where he taught Raphael (1483-1520) and the influential architect Antonio da Sangallo the Younger (1483-1546), and he was commissioned to design the new St Peter’s by Pope Julius II. After Bramante’s death in 1514 and the sack of Rome in 1527, Michelangelo (1475-1564) inherited the task of continuing the project, which was to become the apogee of classical architecture. (more…)
