Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Marie-Antoinette's Ceiling

The ceiling in the Queen's bedroom at Versailles. (Via Louis XX.) Share

2 comments:

The North Coast said...

The wealth of fine, dense details in beautiful old buildings overwhelms me. I can imagine staring at that ceiling might make it easier to relax on a sleepless night, or during a boring conversation.

Modern architecture killed the old crafts that went into something like this. Many a lovely mansion remains in our old cities, especially, such as stupefying ceiling frescoes that look like the work of the ancient masters, but after WW1, the crafts began to die as modern architecture eliminated the exquisite stonework, plasterwork, fine carpentry, and other crafts. A story comes down about how a busload of Italian stone masons- they are the most skilled in the world- shook their fists at a flat-roof, unadorned modern building going up in NYC in the late 30s.

elena maria vidal said...

Thank you for your thoughts, NC, which are better than anything I could put into words!