Tea at Trianon: More on 'Art Nouveau'

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

Monday, April 25, 2022

More on 'Art Nouveau'

From Emily Henderson:

Here’s the deal: Art Nouveau was a FLASH IN THE PAN. It came out of nowhere in the 1890s and it was florid and futuristic and sculptural – in modern terms, it’s kind of like The Hobbit meets Vogue. Art Nouveau picked up steam and spread across the globe for 20 years like wildfire, but its ornate aesthetic was too expensive to justify during the First World War. Instead, we saw the rise of Art Deco, which was a simple and streamlined version take on Art Nouveau – deco’s geometric shapes and straight lines were more affordable to produce than all of nouveau’s whiplash curves. BUT THAT’S ENOUGH HISTORY (for now, at least), LET ME SHOW YOU A BUILDING!

PS. There’s no Gaudi in this post because (a.) he’s already world-renowned and (b.) less famous places from my incredibly dense Pinterest board deserve some shine, too. I’ll link up some of his work at the bottom if you want to explore more in this style, though. OKAY NOW HERE’S A BUILDING! (Read more.)