Flowers of Change

In the sixteenth pilgrims traveled around Europe and Greece in search of the ‘plants of the ancients’. It was at this time the European plant world began to change with the introduction of oriental bulbs. At this time the science of botany also broke away from medicine, to which it had long been subordinate. New flowers were introduced to the public in countless books. Roman Poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses enjoyed a revival success at this time. Its poetic narrative echoed a period of massive change when people were called upon to prove their flexibility. This was the age of the Reformation and Counter Reformation when, in the view of the Jesuits, God’s character and wishes were manifested in his creation and his will revealed in the magnitude of nature. Every flower contained a hidden message an attentive observer could interpret. The rose exuded the sweet perfume of virtue, the blue hyacinth encouraged meditation on God and Heaven while the crown imperial, that majestic of all flowers, reminded us of the futility of human power. A humble soul could draw a moral lesson from the violet, a simple flower that crowned Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love and protectress of flowers and gardens.

Ming Magic

The description of the manufacture of porcelain written in 1713, by French Jesuit priest Father D’Entrecolles, resident in Peking, describes the seeming magic connected with the firing of blue and white porcelain. ‘A beautiful blue colour appears on the porcelain after having been lost for some time. When the colour is first painted on, it is pale black; when it is dry and the glaze has been put on it, it disappears entirely and the porcelain seems quite white, the colour being buried under the glaze. But the fire makes it appear in all its beauty, almost in the same way as the natural heat of the sun makes the most beautiful butterflies, with all their tints, come out of their eggs’. When the Emperor Wan Li sat on the throne of the middle kingdom in the forbidden city from 1573 – 1620, Elizabeth 1 was contending with Mary Queen of Scots. His reign mark of Wan Li is the most sought after of the Ming Period. Many of the wares were produced at Jingdezhen, where sixty kilns were working for the Imperial court and some of its most splendid plates were painted imperial yellow over the glaze which served as a ground colour for the designs that had been painted in blue under the glaze. 

Flowers & High Society

Around the world during the second half of the nineteenth century the expansion of wealth generated by the expansion of industry meant that where high society led others could now afford to follow. In 1884 in England Kate Greenaway published her book The Language of Flowers, a Handbook for Victorian lovers when flowers appeared in elegant, sparsely furnished rooms. Fabulous flora spilled out into the streets when the young Danish Princess Alexandra arrived at London in England to marry Queen Victoria’s son, the Prince of Wales and future King Edward VII. She found the pier, stations and streets festooned with roses, with walls of houses draped with wreaths and garlands of laurel and white and red roses and evergreens. The Prince and Princess of Wales set an example by the decoration of their table for houses, dinner, dresses, carriages and so forth and the whole community copied their example with passionate fervour. Alexandra enjoyed everything from lowly wild flowers to the regal lily or marvellous magnolia. She was so mad about flowers she had them sewn onto her dresses, including her wedding dress.

Flower Decor & Louis XIV

French Chef Francois Massialot was Cuisinier Royal at the court of Louis XIV (1638 – 1715). He set a standard for dining throughout Europe from 1698 when he used flowers to decorate the dessert remove following a great dinner. Other descriptions of flowers decorating the dessert at Versailles include one with twenty-four silver pots filled with fabulous flowers and one with potted flowering shrubs decorating the table for dessert, hung with preserved fruit and ribbon garlands. At a gala a vase of silver filigree held an orange tree covered with flowers and fruit. Around its base was sixteen baskets and vases filled with flowers. Another momentous occasion saw tables covered with turf as green as if it was the month of May encircled with garlands charged with leaves, flowers and fruit. This was laid out on round tables made fashionable by Louis, who wanted a clever way to defy protocol and place his mistress the Marquise de Maintenon opposite him, rather than at the far end of a long narrow table. At the turn of the eighteenth century A.F. Desportes recorded in a painting a multi-tiered buffet set up for a banquet at Versailles. Garlands festooned the shell-framed mask of Pan and tumbled over the plates and dishes.

Georgia O’Keefe & Flowers

It can be safely assumed and perhaps agreed by many, that there is some innate quality about the presence of flowers in any room that brings about a sense of celebration, pleasurable association and one of occasion. They express a broad range of feelings, stimulate the senses with their scent and provide subtle messages for those literate in the language of flowers. Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) was an early twentieth century American painter, whose artistic brilliance revolutionized modern art in her country. Over her long lifetime she became one of its most important cultural icons. She was celebrated for her exceptional powers of observation, visible in her bold beautiful paintings of flowers. She enlarged and expanded the European tradition of flower painting during the 1920s in America, by making large-format paintings of blooms by presenting them up close and personal. They are as if seen through a magnifying lens and truly superb.

What is an Antique – Watch our FREE Video

Collecting antiques is a social phenomenon often misrepresented as being the hobby of only a select few. From my own experience working in the trade, perusing galleries, working at and attending fairs and auctions over a long period of time (some 30 years) collecting antiques is a pleasure indulged in by a vast number of people from very different backgrounds and all walks of life. Collecting aesthetically pleasing items is quite normal and fulfills a deep emotional need within us all. You can become “hooked” on the search for that special piece, forgotten, unappreciated and unloved. It is not a question of cost, but an individual quest, one that showcases the triumphs of mankind. The efforts of collectors, whatever their objective, have helped document the evolution of contemporary society. Click here to watch our FREE online video presentation on our You Tube Channel

Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV (1838 – 1715) was known for being dignified, gracious, exquisitely polite and never blamed his generals for a defeat. His reign 1661 – 1715 was of incomparable brilliance. French art and literature flourished and artisans, included the celebrated playwright Jean Baptiste Poquelin Moliére (1622-1673), dramatists Pierre Corneille (1606-84) and Jean Racine, (1639-99) and Baroque composers Giovanni Battista Lully (1632-87) and Francois Couperin (1668-1733). History painter Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) and landscape artist Claude Gelée (named Lorrain) were also very influential. Louis founded the Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1648 and bought the Gobelins tapestry factory in 1662. In 1664 he founded the Royal Academy of Architecture and the original Academy of Painting and Sculpture became the Royal Academy of the Arts. He excelled at sport and spent hours every day hunting or shooting, or, riding to war. Even in old age, the year before his death, he brought down thirty-two pheasants with thirty-four shots a considerable feat with a primitive gun. Keeping up with him must have at times been overwhelming for everyone.

Tiffany’s – Shedding Light

Charles Louis Tiffany (1812-1902) founded his now famous firm Tiffany & Co at New York in 1837. He began by selling tableware and jewellery from American manufacturers with imports from the firm of wealthy art-loving patron Samuel Bing (1838-1905) whose shop L’Art Nouveau” at Paris was all the rage. Edward C. Moore (1827-91) designed silver for the firm from 1851, becoming chief designer in 1868. As a pioneer collector of Japanese art Moore transformed the firm so that it was at the forefront of Japonisme style and techniques  and the wares produced were truly innovative.  Tiffany’s also explored native styles taken from American Indian patterns for international exhibitions in the United States. Their Silver was highly acclaimed at the Paris exhibitions of 1867 and 1878. Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) became artistic director in 1902 and founded the Society of American Artists in 1877 and Associated Artists in 1879. From 1885 he designed fabulous stained glass windows made by the Tiffany Glass Co. In the 1880s he developed the divine iridescent ‘Favrile’ glass, which was also sold through Bing’s Maison de L’Art Nouveau in Europe. In 1895 the first Tiffany lamp was launched, designed not by Louis Comfort as always supposed but Clara Driscoll, whom the firm employed. The NY Times revealed in 2007 scholars had accidentally discovered a cache of letters shedding light on this talented woman, who for so long had remained on the sidelines of decorative arts design history.

Charles Voysey & Frank Lloyd Wright

In England during the last twenty years of the nineteenth century architect Charles Francis Annesley Voysey (1857-1941) had a distinct dislike and distaste for overindulgence and display. He wrote of ‘discarding the mass of useless ornaments’. He evolved a style, which though susceptible to local variation, was universally acceptable rejecting the notion architecture is an ‘occult being’. He stressed it had its roots in good quality work, which should have some connection with everyday life.

In America during the same era architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1869-1954) was developing architecture for conditions unlike anything in Europe, one whose philosophy was based on a house ‘developing from within’. His Prairie houses, mostly built in the first decade of the twentieth century, were large comfortable villas. They had boldly exposed internal brickwork, a prominence of fireplaces and chimney breasts, which ran often the full height of the room. He used textural contrasts to great effect, all of which were considered revolutionary at the time.

Andy Warhol & Art

Andy Warhol with Belgian Artist Hergé aka Georges Remi (1907–1983) the creator of Tin Tin

Andy Warhol (1928 – 1987) knew that works of art meet many needs, including that of the ‘artist’.  He didn’t want to pay the wages of art or beauty himself but to provide the lifestyle he wanted to enjoy. He concentrated on graphic works because he knew they would exhibit more than normal significance in a world rapidly being dominated by emerging technologies. While he seemingly broke with all conventions with his methods, he was also adhering to views inherent in the goals of Modernist artists of the late nineteenth century like that of the artists of the DeStijl movement. This was an early twentieth century art movement centred in the Netherlands and one of many groups working to achieve “honesty” in their artwork, which was in reflection a very lofty ideal.  Their perception and notion was that the art of the past was dishonest and that much European artwork had been painted to ‘fool’ the viewer’, which is what Warhol in reality delighted in doing.

English Palladianism in America

Noted English architectural historian the late great Sir John Summerson (1904 – 1992) described English Palladianism, as it has become known, as ‘that balanced combination of the useful and the beautiful, or prosperity and good breeding’. What it did do was satisfy the need for a style that encompassed the principles of order and harmony with elegance and a lightness of touch so that the end result was a style that was aesthetically very pleasing. English Palladianism became highly influential in America through the support it received from American President Thomas Jefferson. He pursued his passion for knowledge of the classical style and, at his house Monticello it reigned supreme, at least until the advent of a new style produced by architect, interior designer, writer, educator and all around genius Frank Lloyd Wright (1867 – 1959) with the arrival of Modernism, late in the nineteenth century.

Creating Lasting Impressions

Claude Monet in his garden, a profusion of flowers blooming beautifully courtesy Elizabeth Murray

French Impressionist painters, like Claude Monet, paused in the countryside to capture the light of the sky in Normandy, where the intense colour of red poppies flowering in its fallow fields remind us of war and peace. They recorded the haze leaching off lovely lavender fields in the heat of a summer in Provence, as it released its heady calming fragrance into the cool night air. They floated on boats along the Seine, following the river as it meandered in circuitous routes through the city of Paris. They enjoyed picnics on its banks, while recording all sorts of places from power stations to railway stations for posterity. When they reached the seashore they scrambled over slippery moss covered rocks to capture the magic of the ocean and rugged rock formations. The turbulence of the waves echoed the up and down aspects of their life and its times. They were as unpredictable as the swelling number of tourists clamouring to see them at work, giving them a whole lot of trouble while helping establish their all-new celebrity status.

Napoleon & Jewellery

Napoleone Bonaparte and his rise to power dramatically changed the political and social scene of Europe and the world of costume, including jewellery. At his coronation as Emperor of France in 1804 he wore a gold laurel wreath in the Greek taste. Each leaf represented a military victory. So great was the weight of this ornament it had to be pruned so he could wear it. The attraction of gold at this time stemmed from both its intrinsic brilliance and associations with wealth and power. A fashion for cameos and intaglios began after his Italian campaign of 1796. Many cameos were brought back to France from Italy. Some were ancient Greek or Roman in origin and their beauty and perfection fascinated Napoleon. He promoted the foundation of a school of gem engraving at Paris, where precious stones like emerald were used, as well as semi precious stones such as agate, cornelian and jasper.

Mastery over Reflection

French mirror - tortoiseshell and ormolu c1700 - Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mastery over reflection was the first stage in a cultural revolution that influenced the relationship between humans and their image evermore. A mirror allowed a knight to learn gestures of civility. It promoted the ideal gentleman by helping him to refine his image and bodily adornment. Appearance became everything. ‘Sweet mirror invented in order to know that which our own gaze cannot see’. A Sicilian visiting Paris in the seventeenth century observed ‘Ribbons, lace and mirrors are three things the French cannot live without’. The mirror an instrument of social hierarchy and aristocratic ideal gradually became commonplace and a symbol of equality, feeding our narcissistic need for recognition. The metaphorical distance between the polished surface of a mirror from antiquity to one made of glass for Louis XIV’s Chateau at Versailles is immense. It is probably about the same as comparing oilpaper and plaited rushes used in wind eye insets of ancient houses, to that of plate glass windows in a modern department store. What role will the mirror play in our future. Will we always remain haunted by what is not found within it?

Fashion – the Elixir of Life

From February 1, 2012, lovely Sydney fashionista and stylist Jo Bayley, will offer observations about the ever changing world of fashion, style and travel in her new column on our home page -  Fashion Elixir.

“Jo is like a breath of fresh air guiding us all in fashion and style. Her passion is contagious – she wants us all to feel and look the best we can… She’s the best!” said Dimity Hodge, Head of Women in Leadership at Westpac.

On The Culture Concept Circle you will find many free posts to choose from about art, both visual and performance, antiques, design, fashion, ab fab events, music and society – past, present and future. Costume is all about who we are…where we have been and where we are going. It is a footnote to culture, and remains both a changing and eternal form of human expression.

French Impressions

While passionate, unlike their posh artist predecessors the so-called French Impressionist painters (1874 – 1886), with a few exceptions, were mostly spectacularly poor. They wanted to provide an all-new view of life and not follow an old set of rules. They pulled away from the French Academy, whose focus was on the ancient past, to produce a new style of painting full of people within natural settings and without ‘artifice or grandeur’. They thought beyond the square, brilliantly capturing life indoors and outdoors where nature ruled in all her spectacular glory. They wanted society to become forward thinking. They provided subjects that were either dark or light, en grisaille or in full glorious rich sensuous colour. They recorded them at play, at the opera, the ballet or horse races, at home, in gardens, bedrooms and even from under their beds, whether undressing, dressing or, buck naked in their bath and much more. Many people found it difficult to cope with their new vision.