Tea at Trianon: A Modern Capability Brown

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

A Modern Capability Brown

An interview with Sienese gardener Luciano Giubbilei,. From Goop:

There aren’t a lot of gardeners who are modern day Capability Browns—who can take some fox hedging and turn it into something else entirely. One of the masters at work today is Sienese gardener Luciano Giubbilei, who make these architectural, rarefied, and conceptual spaces that defy all preconceived ideas about what a garden can actually be. In a nutshell, they’re more like living pieces of art.

His story is fascinating, and not just because he’s won countless awards—including Best in Show 2014 at the Chelsea Flower Show in London—but because he’s the first to admit he’s still learning. In fact, a few years ago, at the recommendation of Paul Smith, he asked to start a kind of apprenticeship at the Great Dixter, since he felt like he could pick up some new tricks at this mecca for emerging gardeners. We asked him a few questions about his work below. (Read more.)