Cameo Diadems

The fashion for cameos and intaglios began soon after Napoleon’s Italian campaign of 1796 when cameos were brought back to France from Italy. Many of these were of Greek or Roman origin. Their beauty and perfection fascinated Napoleon. He had some mounted especially for his own use and for his sister, the very beautiful Paolina Borghese. He also promoted the foundation of a school of gem engraving in Paris. The skills of fine workmanship was established and rendered in precious stones like emerald, although more often in hard and semi precious stones, such as agate, cornelian, jasper and, to satisfy the lower end of the market, also in modestly priced shell.  Cameos were so popular they were set in all sorts of jewels such as tiaras, necklaces, bracelets and earrings. Josephine’s favourite diadem was made of shell inlaid with cameos. It resides in the Musee d’Art et d’Histoire, Palais Massena at Nice, France.

The cameos are set in gold, silver, ivory, rubies, and sapphires. Another diadem in 1823 became part Josephine’s grandaughter, Josephine of Leuchtenberg’s dowry upon her marriage to the future King of Sweden, Oscar I. Now part of Swedish Crown jewels, the tiara has been worn by many royal brides since.

Le Notre & Le Petite Versailles

The spectacular cascade and fountain at Chateau Villette designed by royal gardener Andre Le Notre is one of the few in France today still in working order. Artists were, and still are regarded as interpreters of truth. French gardener Andre Le Notre (1613-1700) was certainly one. Witty, and much admired, contemporary descriptions characterize him as vivacious, exuberant and enthusiastic.  He began with the spade and hoe, developing his abilities until he was invited to design some of the finest parks in Europe. In the process he became a close friend of Louis XIV (1638-1715). They shared the same vision and ambition to beautify France to glorify Louis’ reign. As well as being in tune on matters relating to art and design they were both keen collectors of botanical specimens in a wide range of fields. The Chateau Villette, near Paris has retained and enclosed the light of Italy in its stone, keeping the sobriety of an architectural project worked on by two of the most illustrious architects who also worked with Louis XIV at Versailles, Francois Mansart and his nephew Jules Hardouin Mansart, wit gardens by Andre Le Notre. Viewed from inside the Chateau the cascade is set into 185+ acres of garden that spread out behind it in the central axis with two rectangular lakes filled with swans, ducks, birds and fishes. Villette is often called ‘Le Petite Versailles”

John Singer Sargent & Notoriety

The Acheson Sisters by American painter John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), are represented in nature. They signify not only the traditional base of the aristocratic power in land ownership, but also link femininity to nature, in opposition to masculine culture and the dominance of state and government. One of the great painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, John Singer Sargent made his fortune and reputation as a portrait painter of beautiful women and influential men. Raised in Europe by an American expatriate family, Sargent attended art schools in Paris. Precociously gifted, he assimilated lessons from the old masters, the contemporary Impressionists and the Spanish painters Velázquez and Goya, producing a spectacular array of exciting and masterful paintings while he was only in his 20s. At the 1884 Paris Salon, his portrait of 23-year-old American beauty Virginie Gautreau, shown with bare shoulders, overflowing bosom and haughty manner, scandalized the Paris establishment. It is hard to imagine when viewing it today that the picture, known as Madame X, crippled Sargent’s hopes of establishing himself as a portrait painter in Paris.

Biedermeier Era

One can find real beauty in the design style known as Biedermeier. While only short lived, it was suffused with truth and dignity in its ‘rigorous simplicity’. The style’s name is a play on the word Bieder, meaning unpretentious or plain, and Maieir, a German surname much like Smith or Jones. A Beidermann embodied bourgeois values of reliability and integrity and had a good reputation, for that of a law-abiding citizen. An important aspect of the Biedermeier era (c1815 – c1830) was that every corner of a room was devoted to the pursuit of some happy and leisurely pastime completely rejecting the previous Empire style’s ideals that interiors were arranged for the sake of appearance. Instead, they reflected the personal taste and functional needs of an industrious busy bourgeouise family. In 1832 painter Constantin Hansen captured a little girl clutching a bunch of cherries staring seriously at the bird her brother holds up for her, with the family cat playing with its wool. The sofa and chair made of a light timber such as Karelian birch, and upholstered ensuite in very chic brown/black striped fabric, is characteristic of this period. As are the plain wide nailed boards on the floor. With its homely subject so characteristic of a realist approach, the precise texture and colour of every detail is this piece is beautifully composed.

St Cecilia and Music – The Audible Breath of Ages

St Cecilia was a high born woman whose ancestors loom large in ancient Rome’s history, because she was believed to have sung in her heart to God alone. Martyred for her beliefs she became patron saint of music. Over the centuries the instruments that have played and the voices that have either sung, or narrated to music, have been a powerful force affecting the lives of many people. Music expresses emotions and ideas in significant forms with rhythm melody, harmony and colour elements contributing to creating an art of sound. It can have both darkness and light, as opposing forces in its make up, highlighting its ability to represent both evil and good. Music creates camaraderie at major festivals. It has been proven medically to have many therapeutic qualities, including providing an atmosphere wherein calm can prevail in our busy world. In ancient times it is recorded in The Holy Bible that trumpets and people’s voices felled the legendary walls of Jericho. English actor Orson Welles’ radiobroadcast of 1938 about an invasion of the world by aliens, against a backing of an ordinary music show, terrified millions. In more recent times Elton John’s tuneful rendition, accompanied on piano, of the poignant ‘candles in the wind’ at Princess Diana’s funeral touched the hardest heart. Nineteenth French poet, playwright and novelist Victor Hugo believed music expressed ‘that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent’.

Raising Awareness of Cultural Heritage

The Elaich Project funded by the European Union crosses disciplinary boundaries, as well as geographic boundaries in its aim of contributing to the development of awareness and appreciation of cultural heritage by connecting the general public, especially young people, to their cultural heritage, specifically the built environment.  It is hosted by Technion, a public research university in Haifa, Israel which is celebrating its Cornerstone Centennial in 2012. It has recently approved The Culture Concept Circle video What is Classic Architecture, More than a Column as an ‘advanced video’ for Module 2 of their elearning platform of study. The video contemplates the spiritual, intellectual, philosophical meanings as well as the mathematical and artistic aspects of both public and domestic architecture of the ancient world. It is about benefiting from the preservation of our built history around us, abouut contributing to the well being of the local community, as well as the wider world. Click to Watch the Video

The Hume Report – Australian Fashion Industry

Last month Fashion Elixir editor stylist Jo Bayley and I attended the InForum Group‘s excellent presentation by veteran fashion editor and commentator Marion Hume at Mossgreen Gallery at Melbourne. The evening was a great success. Everyone appreciated the warm welcome, the setting, the culinary delights and Marion Hume’s candour, as well as her insights into the Ethical Fashion Forum a group dedicated to bringing about ‘a sustainable future for fashion’. Ms Hume has filed a major report for the April 2012 Fashion Issue of The Australian Financial Review Magazine. She paints a picture that is both sobering and thrilling, a cautionary tale with key findings for the future of the industry. The Hume Report captures a critical moment for an industry in flux, as it confronts both local and global pressures on various fronts, including the rise in online shopping.  There are going to be casualties as well as standout success stories. Salutations to all those inspiring and creative leaders in the Australian fashion industry, who are taking on the fashion pundits in the rest of the world and winning on their own terms. Click our Link to read The Hume Report, retrieve a copy of The Australian Financial Review by subscription, or pick one up from your local newsagency today.

Robyn Bauer Studio Gallery Martin Edge Show

Robyn Bauer Studio Gallery at Paddington in Brisbane has announced its next exhibition “Martin and the Animals” by naïve Strathpine artist Martin Edge, will be opened on the 5th April at 6pm by Mr Bruce Heiser, Director of Heiser Galleries. It will run until the 28th April. Martin’s appealing images reflect life in the city big enough to get lost in, but small enough to feel at home. His works can be sighted in and around the city, because he has decorated quite a number of Traffic Signal Boxes with his art.  They can be found in the Parliament House Canberra Collection, ACT.  Ken Done, Private Collection, Sydney.  Bruce Heiser, Private Collection, Brisbane.  St James College Collection, Brisbane, the Moreton Bay Regional Gallery and the Randa Collection at Melbourne.

His colourful work celebrating Queensland’s 150th birthday of The City was shortlisted in the Q150 Traffic Signal Boxes Awards of 2009 when he also reached the finals of Australia’s oldest competition dedicated to spiritualism and religion – the Blake Prize. Robyn Bauer Studio Gallery is situated amongst the restaurants, cafes and boutiques of cosmopolitan Latrobe Terrace, Brisbane’s most exciting street for those interested in the original and the dynamic. It is only minutes from the city by bus or on foot so be sure to take in this very special event For further details contact Robyn Bauer Studio Gallery, 54 Latrobe Terrace Paddington, Queensland 4064 Ph 07 35116380

Muquets – Men of Good Birth

Under Louis XIII (1601-1643) in France economic progress grew and it became harder to distinguish a person’s rank. The different ranks in society were equally well dressed and everyone aspired to carrying a sword.  A contemporary observed that Parisians no longer seemed able to live without ribbons or laces or, a mirror and that noblemen were now obliged to change clothes and ornaments every day. Men of good birth the ‘muguets’ (lilies of the valley) as they were known, threw themselves completely into the pursuit of elegance. Satin suits, cloaks of silk, beaver hats, scented suede collars known as collars of flowers and, lace trimmed bell bottoms were de rigeur. The ordinary people and minor country gentry, whose daughters married working men, disapproved of all this luxury as elegant men vied with women in inventing new fashions. Over a period of 125 years until 1715 men’s costume gradually became refined, elegant and more modern than ever before, especially when led by a very young and dashing Louis XIV (1638 – 1715)

Martyrdom and Fashion – The Merveilleuses

Following the revolution and during the reign of Napoleon 1 in France the ornate costumes of the Kings and Queens of France quickly gave way to garments of revolutionary simplicity. Based on the craze for neoclassical architecture they were emulating the classical purity of ancient Greek statues. Ladies wore dresses of flimsy material, often dampened so they would cling revealingly to their body. Doctors reminded ladies the climate of France was far harsher than that of Greece, but a fashionable Frenchwoman’s only concession to the elements was to don a voluminous shawl. High waisted and free from any unnecessary ornament, which might detract attention the tunics, inspired by Greek and Roman antiquity, favoured colours were yellow, white, lilac and pistachio green.  The Merveilleuses as these ladies were known were the talk of Paris. Among their members were Madame Juliette Recamier, Madame Theresa Tallien (pictured), Madame Hamelin, Mademoiselle Georges and Mademoiselle Lange. Two of them dared to walk down the Champs Elysees in October 1798 almost naked wearing only gauze sheaths. Napoleon entirely disapproved of this type of behavior and when Madame Tallien and two of her friends appeared as nymph huntresses, clad only in light tunics that reached barely to the knees with bare feet adorned with rings in light sandals with purple straps, he declared ‘the time of fable was over and the reign of history had begun’ The ideal jewel to complement these new high waisted opaque dresses had to be simple, geometric and flat. It was often a cross, which symbolized a martyrdom for their cause, rather than religious belief.

Sir Galahad

Mrs. Sarah Eliss wrote in The Women of England in 1842 “To be admitted to his heart to share his counsels and to be the chosen companion of his joys and sorrows’ it is difficult to say whether humility or gratitude should preponderate and Lady Tennyson wrote Man must be pleased; but him to please Is woman’s pleasure. There was two schools of thinking in the mid nineteenth century romantic and moral. Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem about Lancelot and Guenevere was a romantic view, because he had never been sexually promiscuous, and after marriage disapproved of sexual adventures.  Poem’s about the love of Tristram and Isolt were about as exciting sex as watching paint dry, but became burned indelibly into the consciousness of men and women everywhere. Women as a result began to long for Sir Galahad on a white charger to carry them away from all the stifling controls now imposed by society.  His exploits and tales of daring kept the flames of passion burning in their breasts. Sir Galahad at the end, was so powerful and attractive a character there was rumoured to be a danger he might set young boys on the wrong path.  Baden Powell recommended an edited version of the tale to his boy scouts in which Lancelot remained a pure, chaste and honourable gentlemen.

The Tradescants

The Tradescant’ rose has highly fragrant, double, rich crimson flowers.It is named for The Tradescant family at Lambeth, England who made one of the first great collections of international plants. They were plant collectors in every sense of the word. Naturalist, gardener, collector and traveller, John the Elder (1570 -1638), found plants in Europe, North Africa and Russia, as well as obtaining them through the Virginia Company in North America. He travelled to the Low Countries and brought back cherries, quince, medlars and Provins roses for the Gardens at Hatfield House, the home of the Cecil family. John the Younger (1608 – 1662) collected trees, shrubs and perennials on his three trips to Virginia. The listed contents of his purchases are astonishing and we know it included tulip bulbs for 10 shillings per hundred between 1610 and 1615. The garden established by the father and son was well documented and an incredible record of most of the plants known at that time still exists. As well as working for the Cecil family they worked for the Royal family in the gardens at Oatlands and Queen Henrietta Maria at St. James’s Palace. They had a museum at Lambeth – Tradescant’s Ark (Museum Tradescantianum1656), which eventually formed the nucleus of the now famous Ashmoleon Museum at Oxford.

Claude Monet @ Giverny and Monet’s Garden, New York

Claude Monet (1840 – 1926) responded to the changes of seasons his whole life. He celebrated the real art of gardening in the creation of his now world famous garden at Giverney, in Normandy. He recorded many impressions of a region full of magic light and the charm that seduced and held him captive for the rest of his natural life. He was beguiled by the entire experience of Normandy from the springtime apple blossoms to the early snow, which is rare. All the colours of Normandy are featured in an impressionist’s palette; misty greens of the wheat fields in the mornings; blush pink and creamy white of the apple blossoms; the softly mottled blues, mauves and lavenders, the shimmering golden haze over an orchard at sunset in the autumn, and the pale iridescent sky providing a tableau that enchants on viewing and lingers forever in the memory. Monet’s Garden is a show at The New York Botanical Garden from May to October 2012.

ARTSLINK QUEENSLAND – Celebrating 50 Years Inspiring Arts

Casa Tres Chic by talented Queensland Artist Susan Schmidt

In the scheme of things fifty years doesn’t seem a very long time these days. For the Queensland Arts Council however, it is an achievement worth celebrating with a fundraising dinner. There will be great entertainment, good company, fine food and wine as well as an auction of work by leading Queensland artists from their collection. Building on their fifty year history with a change of name the Queensland Arts Council has become ARTSLINK QUEENSLAND, which aims to be the ‘go to’ organisation for regional arts. They want to connect, represent, add value and be the engine room for innovation and creativity in Queensland. It is a big call in a big state where the tyranny of distance and scattered populations make their big job even more difficult. Oscar winner and Australian of the Year, Geoffrey Rush and The Kransky Sisters will be contributing to the success of the evening along with live entertainment hosted by Paul Bishop, including William Barton, Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre, Homunculus Theatre, Bentley Strings, Collusion Ensemble and my favourite, the David Hamilton Marionettes. Click for Link to Artist Susan Schmidt   Celebrating 50 Years ARTSLINK QUEENSLAND  – Date: Friday 23 March 2012 Venue: The Tivoli, 52 Costin Street, Fortitude Valley Time: 6pm for 6.30pm till late Dress code: Black Tie. Cost: $175 per person, $1400 per table of 8 CLICK TO BOOK ONLINE or Phone (07) 32264001

Innovative Flowers

When Constance Spry released her first book of flower decoration in 1934, two years after opening a flower shop in Burlington Gardens. ‘She caused flower arranging to become an art form’ and taught pupils who enrolled in her flower school at South Audley Street in 1935. She advocated the abandonment of ‘one kind of flower in a vase’ encouraging a revival of ‘mixed flowers’. Many stuck determinedly to single flower arrangements. Her innovations met great resistance; bare branches covered with lichen, branches of larch studded with cones, cabbage leaves and artichokes. The use of wooden bowls, baking tins, sauce boats and urns from the garden as containers was considered very strange however, she paved the way for a revival of interest in historical period flowers and their charms. The garden that set off such a style needed to be conceived as integral to its philosophy as a whole and designed to provide flowers that would fill the rooms of the house providing profusion and a sense of abundance, which was indicative of a ‘lucky country’ like Australia. Of all high end florists in Australia today Canadian born Susan Avery, with her unrivalled and formidable reputation for quality and excellence, continues Spry’s tradition. Since her early days in Woollahra at Sydney Susan has changed the face of floral decoration in Australia into that of being a high art form. She has achieved a cohesiveness and unity between Australian native plants and exotics that both inspire and inform. Her understanding of form, shape and texture, as well as her ability to lavishly mix colour from pastels to brights, in posies, bunches and arrangements constantly leaves her clients speechless at their beauty.

Weary Thought Hat Emblem

Renaissance goldsmiths were often trained, not only as jeweller and goldsmith, but also as painter and sculptor. Allegorical designs were incorporated into decorative devices and used in many ways including as an  enseigne, a type of badge worn on the hat or cap of a man of prominence. The charm of such an emblem is that its significance was only known to those already familiar with it. Biblical themes were popular, or a portrait, monogram or device of the wearer or his patron saint.

They were pinned on the underside of the rim of a turned up hat, or were sewn into a head dress. At a period where ‘melancholia’ affected brilliant minds, captured around 1542, this fine portrait is thought to be of scholar Count Fortunato Martinengo Cesaresco by Moretto de Brescia. He is resting his head on his hand, an expression of weary thought. He was known for wearing a hat badge inscribed in Greek translated as “Alas! yearn exceedingly!” Although perhaps pretentious, it is a fine portrait now in the National Gallery, London