Tea at Trianon: The Tapestries of Dom Robert

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, July 19, 2017

The Tapestries of Dom Robert

From France Today:

Many of the tapestries are monumental: bold and mesmerizing works of art. Nature was readily the inspiration for Dom Robert, born in 1907 and deceased in 1997. He was a monk at the Abbaye d’En-Calcat in the neighbouring commune of Dourgne, and demonstrated his keen attachment to nature with his numerous sketches and watercolors. In 1941, the tapestry artist Jean Lurçat made the acquaintance of Dom Robert and was touched by his highly original and sensitive work.

Encouraged by Lurçat, Dom Robert worked up patterns to begin the process of creating tapestries. From 1942 to 1992, he created close to 150 tapestries, most fabricated by the Goubely atelier in Aubusson, which helped to revive tapestry manufacturing. I found the process Dom Robert used of transferring the designs into numbered patterns for the weavers to follow, truly mind boggling. There is an exhibit room set up showing how this process was achieved with a multitude of minuscule color changes made for the exacting patterns. Sitting before some of these majestic tapestries was a meditation on the power and wonder of nature. His lyrical quality creates a unique symphony of line and colour that plays to the inner child and soul. The disappointment came when the guard advised us it was time to leave; the museum closes promptly at 6 pm. (Read more.)