Australians on the whole however, were not nearly as hard hit as their English counterparts.  The disruption of shipping saw the movement of foodstuffs around the world restricted when Japan entered the conflict in 1942. To manage the shortages, and in their attempts to control civilian consumption, those in power introduced the rationing system. Rationing meant a fair share for all, an orderly queue and about being patient and very polite.

In the food line tea was the most precious commodity. Tea leaves were saved and used twice and the left over tea ended up in the ice box to be served as ‘iced tea’ with a twist of lemon. For those without luxuries like soft drinks or alcohol it seemed entirely amazing. And, when the leaves were discarded onto the garden they helped the passionfruit vine (yum) and the choko vine (yuk) grow well on the wooden fence between us and the neighbours next door.

Cream off the top of the milk delivered each morning was another treat. I used to have this all the time while my brother was in hospital suffering the effects of polio, but when he came home we all had to make sacrifices to help him. One of mine was giving up this thick delicious daily treat as we all wanted him to be strong again.

Interestingly, real coffee was not something I remember as having existed at all in our daily family life. Bushells Tea was it. My mother did however have a bottle of Bushells coffee and chicory in the cupboard. She used  it to flavour cakes or to provide an occasional special drink for my father. My brother and I were fascinated, but it was a no go zone.

It was much later when we found out that at many points in history when coffee has become unavailable, or too costly roasted chicory, acorns, yams and a variety of local grains were used to make a substitute. This was because for coffee aficionados anything was better than going without coffee at all. The added plus for chicory fanciers was that it contained no caffeine and reputedly produced a more ‘roasted’ flavour than coffee itself.

I did not taste real coffee until, as a young married woman I went to Italy in the early ’70′s. I distinctly remember having my first cup of frothy coffee, sitting on the footpath at a smart cafe on the Via Veneto at Rome. This in itself for an unworldly girl from a beachside suburb down under, was a revelation and symbolic of going from rationing to riches.

My family grew up with the food my mother learned to cook from her mother as a child, when they lived in the country town of Scone in the mid north of New South Wales. They were all of English, Irish and Scottish extraction and had learned from their grandmothers who had learned from their great grandmothers who had migrated to Australia in 1844. Indeed great grandmother’s recipe on my mother’s side for the Christmas pudding has the secret ingredient of cold tea. It has come down through the family until today and my two puddings for Christmas 2011 are hanging in a cool place as I write this. Cooking the pudding on Stir up Sunday (last Sunday prior to Advent in the Christian calendar) is the way to go.

My mother’s side of the family came to Australia during terrible times of famine in Europe, when potato crops failed. The cuisine they served was a cross cultural mix of similar styles of food, hot and warming for a cold climate.  Food was a family affair and Sunday lunch the big meal, where many would just turn up to share.

My mother’s specialty was a roast lamb dinner with five veg, followed by apple pie and cream or bread and butter pudding. Didn’t matter how hot it was here in Australia, tradition prevailed. It wasn’t about good sense but about retaining a sense of security as well as bonds and ties to those still back home, as they used to say. My job was to gather fresh mint from the garden in the backyard and make the mint sauce. The lamb was roasted using dripping saved from the Sunday roast the week before and kept in a special tin. For our supper our mother would often use the dripping to make fried bread. Yum

Roast Lamb with Roast Pumpkin, Potatoes and Peas, a 50's Sunday treat

A big baked dinner was the culinary delight our mother served in our living room at Coogee Beach for some of the boys from the English Rugby Team staying nearby. They were on one of their first visits after the war and she was wanting to make sure they felt at home. After all we were English she would tell us. I was only very small, but distinctly remember one of the players Albert J Pepperell, lifting me up onto his shoulders so I wouldn’t be knocked over in the crush.

Fitting all those huge footie boys into my mother’s living room was quite a feat. Albert used to play rugby with my brother in law, who later went to England to continue his career at the same club in Northumberland. Albert was a favourite of my mothers, because he ate so heartily and those meals shared were entirely memorable. It was all about flavoursome food, traditionally designed to impart stamina for the men and boys when they came in from working in country fields.

Nana Margaret Schofield on the verandah at her cottage at Darlington aged 82 in 1957

Having Sunday lunch once when I was about eight years old with a young lady who lived next door to us at Coogee Beach for a short time, was a rarified culinary delight moment.  She lived with her guardian, although at the time I was never quite sure what that meant, and later she went away to boarding school so I did not see her again until she was all grown up. Everyone in that house was very proper and didn’t speak while the meal was served and only after that when spoken to. I was used to this regime, it was the same over at my house. No one was allowed to speak during meals because my father was a strict disciplinarian of the Victorian school. Family communication in his presence was zero.

Over at their house however, I remember vividly that the bread was taken without butter. Now I knew that they were rich, I had overheard my parents talking about them, so I couldn’t understand why they couldn’t afford to buy butter. When I enquired I was told it was not polite to ask, and was even more politely informed that ‘butter Carolyn is only something those who work with their hands require’. It all seemed very odd to me at the time, because all I knew was that I loved it, especially when it melted into my Nana’s still warm scones.

Boiled fruit cake with pineapple was another favourite, and a great specialty of my grandmother. Dear Nana, as we all called her, had belonged to the Country Woman’s Association (CWA).. She had won awards for her high, light and simply irresistible scones and sponges. When she came down to the city with her children before the war when my grandfather died, traditions lived on.

I can still remember the excitement my brother and I would feel as we got off the tram on a Sunday and came around the corner of Nan’s street at Darlington. There she would be outside her Aussie cottage waving to us with her apron on with flour all over her hands from the scones she had just made and popped into her early Kooka oven, hoping we were all coming. There was no way to let her know either way we were coming as neither household had a phone. I often wonder at it, even now, and how disappointed she must have been when we all didn’t arrive.

Just popping in without warning to visit family was an expected part of life in fifties Australia.  The culinary delights Nana popped in the oven were enough to motivate us to all be there most Sundays. Sometimes there were three or four families with all my numerous cousins, and we had to spill out into the side passage so that we could fit everyone in. No one really minded though, and I am sure now that the expectation of the laughter and chatter from all the young people was what kept her going until she was 90, cooking on that old Kooka gas stove in the corner. Well do I remember the day that she singed her hair, eyebrows and eyelashes, when it decided to play up.

From when I was about 10 years of age until I was married at 20 I would often go out and stay with Nana and my aunt Ivy, who lived with her. I would stay from Friday afternoon through Monday, when it was back to school or work. That meant I experienced her delicious cooking more regularly than anyone else in the family. When Aunty Ivy was killed, run over walking the dog at dusk when I was about 14, I went out there to stay more than often.

The highlight of holiday time was when, with my friends in the street where I lived and my brother, when he was able, we would go down the hill to the Boomerang Cinema near the beach with a bob in hand to buy a ticket, a packet of chips and an ice cream. Now this was not any ice cream. It was a passionfruit ice cream cone, loaded with my favourite fruit. Even today when I am staying with dear friends who live in northern NSW, we always head off to Byron Bay to enjoy an ice cream when I am there, because they also enjoyed this phenomenon of our youth, albeit in another place. It has become our culinary delight ‘ritual’.

Being taken to the Cahill sister’s famous Tea Rooms in Sydney for my mother’s birthday in May each year was a huge treat for her and also a family tradition until they closed down. Especially when my brother came out of hospital and could come too. He and I had both contracted polio. I was in hospital for 10 months, he for nearly five years. Our Mum would be so excited for days beforehand, taking her best dress out of the wardrobe to brush it and hang it on the verandah so that it would freshen in the sea air. I would wear my best dress too.  She was an accomplished seamstress my Mum.  The dresses I would wear to town, to church and to my Nana’s on Sunday afternoon had a huge hem, which she could let down as I grew.

There was the white voile with the blue sash or, the one with the pink polka dots and pink satin sash. It was my favourite and I was photographed wearing in celebration of my brother coming out of hospital. For the photograph they made him tuck his crippled left arm behind me and took the calipers off his legs. It was all about keeping up appearances, according to my Mum. Having a sense of occasion we were taught, was also very important. My mother would wear a hat, a signal to all of us that an outing was indeed expected to be a marvelous event.

The Miss Cahills whose fabulous tea shops were our families special place to go, were a Sydney fixture for a long time. As an aside, they built a weatherboard home in the Blue Mountains of Sydney because they were scared of the Japanese coming to Sydney during the War. It was Italian prisoners of war who helped to build their house Wynella Gardens, where each weekend they would visit from Sydney in a chauffer driven car accompanied by their maid. With a chain of tea shops all over Sydney they proved there was certainly money to be made in the taking of tea in style.

Then there was the biggest treat of all, one we enjoyed as a special treat once a year. Sitting up grandly for lunch in the Dining Room of Adams Hotel at Sydney, where my Auntie Ivy was head housekeeper. I would also go there quite often and stay behind the scenes with her in the kitchen and laundry while my mother shopped in the town. My aunt sat me up in the empty dining room and taught me all about how to set a table, what all the different knives and forks were for and also how care for silver and linen, a source of pride for her and the maids. It was certainly fun helping them and they would also take me into the pantry and give me an Anzac biscuit, which was indeed a true war time ration treat. I can still taste them now. In fact my friend in northern NSW still home bakes them. She recently gave me some to bring home when I visited. Hers are particularly delicious.  Shocking, I ate all six in one sitting.

Anzac biscuits were served on a plate with a paper doiley, a non negotiable decorative item

Eating out, unless you were super wealthy at least up until the time when I was married (1965) in Sydney was a rare event, reserved only for special occasions like a wedding.

It goes without saying that I was completely overwhelmed when a young man I had been dating, took me out to the very fashionable ‘Back of the Moon Room’ at the Oceanic Hotel at Coogee Beach and became my fiancee. My ring arrived with strawberries for dessert, following a fashionable meal of Chicken Maryland – a leg of roast chicken with a ring of Golden Circle Pineapple from a can on the top served with roast vegetables, We toasted with a glass of Lindemans Sparkling Porphry Pearl, which was the ultimate of chic and cool to serve with cuisine at Sydney in 1964. It certainly was about ‘making life more enjoyable’

We left feeling very rich indeed.

Carolyn McDowall The Culture Concept Circle 2010, 2011

Related posts:

1. Culinary Delights At Home & Abroad from School to The Savoy
2. Culinary Delights Abroad & At Home from Blake’s to Botanical
3. Sharing the delights of life…people have to eat!

As fertility is synonymous with survival it doesn’t take much imagination for us to endeavour to understand why allusions to everything associated with the act of procreation, were given prominence in their art and life and why they worshiped the goddess of love.

If you add to this the fragility of human life in a world without antibiotics or sophisticated surgical techniques;  one in which an infected wound, the drinking of contaminated water or a miscarriage meant certain death we can begin to understand a little more.

The city of Rome came into being when the seven hill towns became one to drain the valley floor and improve their collective future. The construction of the Cloacae Maxima, the great Roman sewer six centuries BC meant they could drain the area of low ground south east of the Capitol between the Palatine and Equiline Hills and then markets, and other trading activities could take place on the reclaimed land.

From 60 BC to 49BC a struggle for power played out at against a backdrop of a Senate of powerful men whose factions were all trying to gain control for their preferred leader. It eventually came down to a choice of three of its most prominent citizens and successful military leaders, who initially formed an unlikely alliance to try and govern together.

As in all such struggles it led to a stand off and to resolve the issue and one of the preferred, Gaius Julius Caesar, began a civil war in 49BC knowing that if he won he would become undisputed leader of the Roman world. Caesar came, saw and conquered and after it was over set about bringing order from chaos, enacting extensive reforms, emboldening others.

The Senate gave him the tile dictator perpetuo, ruler for life, and he set about great public works extending the Forum Romanum on the south side of the Palatine Hill, the site of Rome’s earliest settlement.

The Forum Romanum was marked by freestanding commemorative arches at its east and west end. Today very little is left because when migratory peoples overran the city centuries later the columns and other architectural elements were reclaimed and used to build churches and other new buildings.

During the reign of Augustus (31BC – 14ACE) Rome emerged as an economically successful city with a population approaching one million. To become a free citizen of Rome was considered a great honour.

Whoever you were if you were born within the boundaries of the Roman Empire you had the right to hold the highest office in the State. Under Augustus the concept of an eternal Rome emerged, revealing its link to the legendary past and its promise of a new era.

In the account of his own accomplishments he placed side by side two concepts, reflected in the design of Roman architecture: that of auctoritas, or inner weight, the authentic and the exemplary, and ‘potestas’ the powerful and the authoritative. A building with auctoritas had dignity, validity and authority and the use of marble in buildings like temples, led to evolving designs different from those of a previous age.

In Augustan Rome public models of propriety were a meaningful aspect of society and the life of the state. A statesman of consummate skill, Augustus legislated to mould the fabric of Roman society. Some saw his leadership as a return to a mythical golden age, one where there would be a place for everyone. This made it possible for each Roman citizen to devote himself to the creation of a better world by participating in public works on a grand scale.

Augustus empowered others treating people with dignity and respect so that everyone’s self esteem remained intact. Today we would admire him as an ultimate professional. His systems, once established were put in place in other towns throughout Italy and, also other countries as Rome’s influence spread and everyone became prosperous under centralized Roman rule.

The most famous image we have of him is in his military aspect and it was found in the remains of the house he lived in at Prima Porta with his strong willed wife Livia (58BC-29AD).

The sun represents the new day, which dawned for Rome when Augustus became its leader. This image set his personal style, for that of being a restorative figure above all else and the statue is a great piece of propaganda. It dominated the space it stood in. The right foot supports him a device that strengthens our perception of his coming to a halt to command what lies before him and, that he will challenge all those who enter his arena.

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2010, 2011

Related posts:

1. At the Beginnings of Art – Precincts of Power and Glory
2. CIVILISED – At the Beginnings of Art – Day 3 Precincts of Power and Glory
3. What Is: An Ancient Roman Villa, the cultural ideal of rural life?

Sensational Etruscan Jewellery - Metropolitan Museum of Art New York

900 years before the Christ event someone of unsurpassed literary ability wrote this superb line from the Song of Songs, a book of the Hebrew Bible,  Other evidence that jewelry and love were associated in the ancient world is found in the House of Vetti excavated at Pompeii from September 1894 to January 1896. On the house’s walls a detailed fresco depicts a goldsmith’s workshop in which a group of amorini, or cupids, whose very name means desire, are engaged in making jeweled ornaments intended to wound their victim’s heart. Jewelers had a ready market at Pompeii where the elite in Roman society went for a holiday and to enjoy the company of friends. The cameo technique thrived and they were made of different materials such as rock crystal, sardonyx, agate and glass and they were very popular.

Cupid and Pschye Cameo - British Museum

Subjects ranged from portraits to portrayals of deities and mythological episodes. One of the most famous depicts the family of Emperor Augustus. Down the centuries a naughty mischievous Cupid became an icon shooting his bow to inspire romantic love. Over time he became the personification of love and courtship in general.

In the fashionable world of nineteenth century England young ladies of the classical school of ornament wore Cameos. The fashion for them 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. Cameos were so popular they were set in all sorts of jewels such as tiaras, necklaces, bracelets and earrings, usually mounted in simple gold collets

Lady School of Ornament - Punch 1859

During the last 50 years of the nineteenth century, on the basis of a mounting interest in archaeology any lady of fashion visiting Italy would consider her tour of Rome incomplete if she did not call into the Castellani’s shop near the Spanish Steps to acquire one of the famous pieces of Italian archaeological revival jewellery offered there.

It was 1859 when an article appeared in England’s popular magazine Punch.  A satirical sketch, it had an amusing extract attached that made the point on how just hard it was for fashionable ladies to wear the jewellery inspired by the archaeological remains of ancient Roman culture.

‘You know the Randoms have just returned from their long residence on the Continent. I spent a day last week with Imogen Random, who kindly showed me her jewel casket. The only drawback to her classical arrangements is her small and diminutive stature… the weight of her gladiator’s necklace is positively distressing to the collar bones; her hair is visibly diminished since she took to wearing Greek daggers and Roman pins, both of which are so pretty and so antique, … and her poor little ears, well they suffer martyrdom with the weight of her earrings, exquisite flying figures of Victory, which are supposed to be constantly whispering joyful tidings of new conquests…employ every art with your Papa Maude to induce him to bring you to the Eternal city where we may have the inexpressible happiness of shopping at Castellani’.

When people today talk about jewels, jewellery, gemmology and gems it is clear the vocabulary has become confused. Gemstones are treasured minerals found in the earth. ‘Gems’ are the objects fashioned from them. Jewels are gems ready for mounting into jewellery, and other objects of art. And, jewellery – well it is the finished product that if its designer has succeeded, adorns its wearer well.

Be sure to read our four surveys about the evolution of love jewelry from Cupid to Cartier. They are Rome to Renaissance, Restoration to Revolution, Regency to Revival and Romantics to Retro.

Carolyn McDowall, The Culture Concept Circle 2010, 2011

Related posts:

1. Love Jewellery – Rome to Renaissance
2. Love Jewellery – Romantics to Retro
3. Love Jewellery – Regency to Revival

This meant it was not just a parcel of land surrounding a man made construction. It was a sacred place, embodying and reflecting the character of its deity. They believed within each part of the landscape existed a genius loci, or guardian spirit. Reaching out and identifying the sacred spirit fundamental to each location was the duty of the builder. Then, and only after the spirit was divined would the architecture become part of a partnership with the land.

This way of thinking or, system of beliefs, parallels some Asian cultures where building on different parts of a ‘dragon’s body’ may bring chaos or tempest upon those who breach such beliefs. Therefore the siting of a Greek temple was not a rational, but an explicit and well planned exercise. It was all at once intuitive, subtle, as well as being an emotional process. It had implications for the participator that scholars are only beginning to fully comprehend in our own time. A  temple was meant to collaborate, not dominate its surrounding. And it was believed that, wild though the elements may be at times, there was some yet unrecorded harmony and inner balance between man and nature.  A mixture of open and closed spaces provided a great contrast of light and shade promoting an element of mystery. Hidden views revealed themselves slowly along a completely calculated, but often-disguised progress. Greek civic spaces were meant for exercise, study and for sacramental purposes, part of the way of life that was intimately connected to their temples and shrines.

Design in architecture reached a zenith at Athens, the centre of the ancient Greek World, five centuries before the Christ Event. Sparseness moulded the enterprise of its people and it is the place where many believe that artists have never been more successfully caught between the meeting of the human and the divine.

The three classical architectural systems the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian were named for the different Greek peoples who developed them. They were adapted from construction in timber for stone, which was the local building material of Attica where many people migrated during its colonizing period (800 – 500BC).

The orders of architecture, as they are known, had a distinct political purpose and celebrated Greek civic power and pride. The huge stone Doric style columns on the Parthenon, the temple to the Goddess Athena, which stands on the acropolis (meaning high ground) at Athens gives the building a sense of security and calm.

It has a colonnade of eight columns at each end. Its structural and decorative elements were based on complex mathematical calculations, expressing in architecture the harmony of proportions codified in sculpture. Its underlying principles are to be found in philosophical debate regarding universal harmony.

Constructed from Pentelic marble its ‘optical refinement’ is much admired. One of the most puzzling features of the refinements is that most are too subtle to be noticed by the eye, including irregular spacing of the columns, the way they are designed to tilt inward while appearing straight and, the sheer quality and enrichment of its sculptures. This sets it apart from all other temples.

Every four years the Panathenaic procession in honour of Athena wound its way up to the Acropolis and to the Parthenon to pay homage and present the Goddess with a new peplum or robe. The decorative features on the Parthenon at Athens were completed in 432 BCE and they abound in political, civic and religious significance.

The event was recorded on an incredible frieze that was located up and in behind the pediment, which probably accounted for its survival as it was out of the light protected by the structure around it.  The sculptures were entirely designed and perhaps in the main, executed by Phidias assisted by some of Attica’s finest emerging artistic talents. Sculptures from the Acropolis survived the fury of Christian fundamentalists in AD395, Muslim iconoclasm after the Turkish conquest of 1456 and Venetian cannon fire in 1687 and can be seen today in the Acropolis museum nearby, the British Museum in London and at the Louvre in Paris.

The way of the winds was of primary importance to the layout of any city within its walls, as was considering the path of the sun when building. “When one means to have the right sort of house, must he contrive to make it as pleasant to live in and as useful as can be’ said C5 BCE Greek Historian Xenophon… and this being admitted “Is it pleasant to have it cool in summer and warm in winter?”.

This translated into building the side of the house facing south elevated in order to receive the winter sun and the side facing north lower to eliminate cold winds. Such houses are a hallmark of the civilized Greek, when compared to primitive man who lived in caves and…“had neither knowledge of houses built of bricks and turned to face the sun nor yet of work in wood; but dwelt beneath the ground like swarming ants, in sunless caves”.

The principle of orienting a house towards the south was perhaps not simply an empirical method of making the most lived-in parts of the house as comfortable as possible. As Xenophon implied it may also have been related to medical and philosophical theories governing the orientation of cities towards the ‘cleansing winds’ so that they could remain free of disease and pestilence.

Greek houses essentially presented high blank walls to the street, their inner courtyards being the most important source of light for its rooms, which opened onto them. This was the focus for family life. The main evidence for, and about Greek houses from late 5 BCE is from the excavated remains at Olynthus a town at the head of a strong confederacy of Greek towns known as the Chalcidian League. The grid plan of the remains of the ancient town reveal much needed material for studying the relationship between a house and the city, and between a household and its community.

The plan of a Greek house varied according to the size of the land, size of the owner’s family, his taste and wealth and there was a great diversity about the way its rooms were used. They were not so set in their ways of organizing rooms for only one purpose as we do. They were forever changing layout to suit the changing needs of an expanding and contracting household. This does not mean there was not a generalized layout plan or common house ‘type’ there was. Larger houses generally contained two courtyards (aulæ) one behind the other, each with its own circuit of chambers. The first courtyard was the Andronitis (Court of the Men) suitable for promenading and exercise and where visitors were received and women would sew, sit and talk although withdrawing if men arrived on the scene. The decoration was plain and the walls tinted with some kind of colour wash; the floor was of simple plaster, or, pounded earth.

Interior Roman Villa

A peristyle of columns surrounded it and there was an awning over it during the day when it was very hot. In the center was a small stone altar to the God Zeus the Protector (Zeus Herkeïos) and a sacrifice was offered from time to time by the head of the household acting as its priest.

Under the colonnade of columns at all four sides were various chambers whose door area was the only source of light. Some were storerooms, others sleeping closets for male slaves and grown-up sons of the household. Rooms at the rear of the house contained the kitchen and sleeping closets of the slave women

On the side nearest to the front of the house, but opening onto the inner court was the Thalamos, the great bedroom of the master and mistress. This was often decorated lavishly with costly furnishings and ornaments. Unmarried daughters slept in the anti-Thalamos a room much larger than the cells of the slave girls. Another room was set apart for the working of wool, the chief occupation of the woman’s household.

Directly behind the main courtyard was a passage to the inner house where guests gathered for dining. The Andron contained the family hearth, once a real fire for household cooking, which became a symbol of domestic worship. In the rear wall of the Andron was a solid door and to enter meant social ruination or disgrace, unless you were the father, sons, or a male kinsmen because it led to the Gynæconitis the hall of women, an Athenian’s holy of holies.

1st century Roman emperor Augustus (63BC – 14 AD) re-established social harmony and the new political order felt the need to make its mark through a building program intended to demonstrate the well being and prosperity, which the new Golden Age was bringing to the Roman world. He left a record of his deeds and actions (Res Gestae Divi Augusti) inscribed on bronze pillars in front of his Mausoleum at Rome. It was a monumental rotunda, built as a burial place for himself and his family. It also contained the remains of some of his successors as Caeser.

Cut through Reconstruction Pantheon still standing at Rome

In the Res Gestae Divi Augusti he placed side by side two concepts for Roman architecture from the late Republican period; that of auctoritas, or inner weight, the authentic and exemplary, and that of ‘potestas’ the powerful and authoritative. A building with auctoritas was one that had dignity, validity and authority. The bricks and mortar of the Republican architecture with its arcades, arches and vaults, are not as defined or clear and precise as those built of marble.

Augustan architecture is characterized by the combination of column, architrave, prop and load arranged with austerity and economy. Trees framed temples, civic buildings and amphitheatres, which echoed the universal form of Greek architecture. Gardens provided essential shade and a place for repose and were an integral part of town planning.

The city was decked out in marble and adorned with statuary. In the forum colonnades made of travertine were built and the pavement replaced with travertine flagstones on which inscriptions were picked out in bronze letters. The sewerage system and amazing system of aqueducts Romans built to carry water to there cities were revolutionary.

Reconstruction of an Interior inside the Domus Aurea

Excavated Room Domus Aurea

When Roman Emperor Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus entered his newly completed Domus Aurea or Golden House built following the great fire at Rome in 64 AD, he proclaimed to his entourage as he gazed upon its many splendours words to the effect…‘ah, now at last I can live as a human being’.

The Domus Aurea was, without doubt, a crazy, short-lived architectural wonder, which at its worst, reflected the material excesses of its most famous megalomaniac Emperor owner. At its best Nero’s Golden House showcased Rome’s outstanding contribution to posterity – the invention of concrete, the wonder building material of the ancient world. Developing concrete as a material adds to the considerable engineering achievements of the Roman people who realized that if a design conflicted with certain natural laws, the structure would fail and more than likely, fall. The recipe for concrete was lost, like so much other knowledge when the great Roman capital was overrun by the Goths in the fourth century. It would not be rediscovered until an Italian scholar found it during a fifteenth century search of monastery libraries.

The architecture of both Greece and Rome provide us with an insight into the cultural development and society of both cultures at any given time in their history. It is called ‘classic’, because it is of acknowledged excellence and the highest quality in both craftsmanship and materials.

Carolyn McDowall © The Culture Concept 2010, 2011

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1. CLASSIC: Artists & Artisans – Renaissance to Restoration
2. Classic: Artists & Artisans Complete Course
3. CIVILISED – At the Beginnings of Art – Day 2 An Arcadian Ideal

The image of Adam and God on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at Rome is one of the most powerful of images in all art we have. Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475 – 1564), more commonly known as Michelangelo painted it. He made few forays beyond the arts and his output was prodigious. The Sistine Chapel commission came from Pope Julius II (1443 – 1513). The ceiling has a complex scheme created by Michelangelo and it includes over 300 figures. At its centre is a representation of God’s creation of the earth; of Adam and Eve representing humankind; their fall from grace and proof of their human frailty. God is reaching out and offering Adam life, love and forgiveness. Michelangelo captured perfectly the essence of their divinity. While God is clothed and confident Adam is naked, displaying both his vulnerability and yearning need for communication and interaction.

When texts either sacred or secular from many different creeds speak of a deity or God they are not speaking about reality. They are speaking metaphorically. Which should not surprise us! After all, there is no other way to talk about something essentially spirit – invisible, indivisible, indestructible and indescribable. We are only left with metaphors, even if they are mostly inadequate. They are meant to help us unravel the real meaning of the story. Words often fail where symbolism succeeds. And, when taken together as here they frequently make spiritual things more fully grasped. This is as true today as it was in those times past, when education was not as general and printing unknown. Alpha and Omega, the first and last letters of the Greek Alphabet, signify the eternity of GOD, who, without beginning or end cannot be conceived of except under human limitations.

Some would say art can manipulate the perceptions of others through the addition of symbolism, because it adds a certain mysticism and beauty making communication more vivid and successful. Great Italian patrons during the age we now call the Renaissance recognized that artists, working under the direction of guilds or church were skilled technicians, creative thinkers, discoverers, innovators and inventors. The rediscovery of texts by ancient writers at this time also increased knowledge about the classical past. It brought forward a focus on humanism; a belief in the advancement of humanity through knowledge. And, of major importance was the family unit.

The rediscovery of texts by ancient writers brought forward a focus on humanism; a belief in the advancement of humanity through knowledge. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in Italy are recognized as one of the most brilliant periods in world art history with Florence in Tuscany, at its heart. The Florentines believed they were living in a golden age. A fourteenth century citizen did not display his wealth in a dangerous, uncertain world. By the fifteenth century a visual demonstration of a man’s achievements became a key to his social dominance.

Humanism, much under discussion at the time, is at its essence a belief in the advancement of humankind through enquiry. And, it was all about the hopes of a people whose visionary leaders looked to the future daring to imagine and plan for what it might be possible to achieve.

A great flame follows a little spark…it says in the (Canto 1:1.34) Paradiso – of the Commedia by fourteenth century literary giant Dante Alighieri (1265 – 1321). His symbolical use of a circle of light in his opus was meant to denote high dignity or power, to highlight ‘divine characteristics’ and inspire the loftiest sorts of humanity.

Many scholars are convinced Dante was endeavouring to paint a realistic picture of his own earthly life; conducting an intensely involved analysis of every aspect of it as an allegory of the evolution of an individual’s soul toward God; while also documenting the progress of societies attitude toward establishing and maintaining peace on earth. The impact of his work, which had the tag ‘divine’, added to it some 200 years later, helped establish the Tuscan dialect as the ancestor of modern Italian.

The works and words of Dante inspired the greatest of all Italian Renaissance architects Fillippo Brunelleschi (1377 – 1446). He ‘was given to us by Heaven to invest architecture with new forms’ said artist/author Georgio Vasari (1511-1574) in his book ‘Life of the Artists’ one hundred years after his death.

It was between 1420 and 1446 that Brunelleschi initiated a new epoch in the history of architecture at Florence by constructing the dome on its Cathedral, the first to be built since antiquity. Such was the power of the invention and vision in Brunelleschi’s oeuvre after the fifteenth century Florence, despite its basically medieval structure, would always be thought of as a Renaissance city a shining example of the ideal city, the first since antiquity. The Florentine’s believed they were living in a golden age.

Families whose lives were based on the wealth from expanded trade with each other and the middle and far east, added to the social layer. The way it all worked offered a glimmer of hope for those at the bottom that they might move up the ladder of success through opportunity, especially if they developed both patience and the necessary skills to do so.

The Medici family became the most powerful of the many merchant families living at Florence and were linked to its political and artistic development throughout the fifteenth century (the Quattrocento). Under the patronage of Cosimo Medici the Elder (1389-1464), who had studied the Greek classics and his grandson Lorenzo the Magnificent, (1449-1492) Florence’s fortunes and that of her artists and craftsmen flourished.

Bankers and merchants were benevolent rulers at the heart of society and its progress. Italian patrons began recognizing that artisans, who had always worked under the direction of guilds or the church, were not only skilled technicians but also creative thinkers, discoverers and inventors. They sought to acquire their works and use their talent to advance their own social agendas.

Subsequently the realm of painting, sculpture and literature was elevated away from being an aspect of the ‘artes liberales’ to become a ‘fine’ art form simply because individuals received acknowledgment from their fellow citizens. They symbolically ‘signed’ their wares, which became a measure of their success. This meant that increasing numbers of the expanding bourgeouise (middle classes) now sought to acquire their works as status symbols, which is how they became known as works of ‘fine art’.

Carolyn McDowall, August, 2011©The Culture Concept Circle

The National Gallery of Australia at Canberra will present its Renaissance exhibition 15th and 16th century paintings from the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo from 9th December 2011 – 9th April 2012  – For Tickets click here

*A passage from the Holy Bible  – Romans 1:20

NB The second part of our course Classic: Artists & Artisans – Renaissance – Restoration is now available. For more information follow our link

Related posts:

1. CLASSIC: Artists & Artisans – Renaissance to Restoration
2. CLASSIC Artists & Artisans, Days 13 & 14 French Renaissance
3. Classic: Artists & Artisans Complete Course

Every age evolves its own characteristics of a culture to project an image and an architectural framework in which to display it. Palaces are lavish, enduring decidedly posh monuments, developed during times of prosperity, expansion, peace and stable government. They certainly reflect, in architectural terms the personal tastes and self-gratification of wealthy, powerful potentates.

Many early civilised groups such as those based in the Nile and Euphrates Valleys, those who lived in the Mediterranean at Knossos, Phaestos, Malia and Zakros, the Andean civilisations of the Americas, the Imperial rulers of India, China and Japan all had vast ‘palace’ style complexes. However our contemporary custom of ‘thinking big’, at least in western modern terms directly descends from an image burned into our pschye for that of a 1st century Roman Palace.

The word Palace itself derives from the Latin word Palatine, which was the name of one of the seven hills on which the city of ancient Rome was founded.  It was also used to describe the complex series of buildings raised on that hill between the 1st and 4th centuries by successive Roman Emperors, the most famous being the Domus Aurea or Golden House of the Emperor Nero (37 – 68).

The word ‘palace’ has throughout history since been applied to royal or imperial residences, as well as to the official residence of a Prince Bishop or Cardinal Archbishop. Finally, with a touch of irony, the word palace was attached to a place of commerce, leisure or amusement. For example there was the Crystal Palace of 1851, which was built in Hyde Park London to showcase the products of England’s booming industrial revolution at the Great Exhibition of 1851. The People’s Palace  was sometimes used as a nom de plume to refer to Parliament as well as being a home for recreation and education, that opened in East London in 1887. Then there is a Gin Palace like the one at Bristol in England, which was in its heyday of the Victorian age entirely decadent and the very antithesis of what a ‘real’ Palace purported to be.

The ancient Romans controlled the area around the Mediterranean for over six centuries celebrating their victories with great triumphal processions and expressing their politics and cultural mores by holding grand festivals and banquets that were stupendous spectacles.

During the 1st century the first Roman Emperor Augustus (27BC – 14 AC) considered himself a ‘ first among equals’. According to documented accounts and the fashionable gossip of his day the grandnephew of Julius Caesar, was frightened of thunder, fond of virgins and completely opposed to ostentation of any kind.

As a supporter of the republic Augustus preferred to live in the comparative simplicity of a modest house on the Palatine Hill, the remains of which were discovered in 1961 and opened from 2008 onward for a few people at a time due to the fragility of its wall frescoes, which have been painstakingly restored.They are in vivid shades of blue, red and ochre and were painted about 30BC.

‘He could not bear gorgeous palaces’ writes Roman Historian Suetonius, in his biography of Augustus. ‘He ordered the demolition of an extravagant country house, which had been built by his grand daughter, Julia’.

Augustus slept in the same bedroom summer and winter for over forty years. Its furniture was as simple as the house itself, which it seems Suetonius’ did not believe was elegant enough for an average private citizen, let alone for an Emperor.

In Augustus’s time as Emperor concepts about family and household, whose ideas till impact on western society today were settled, including the power invested in the head of household, rules of inheritance and relationships between a patron, freedman or client. Like that of his neighbours the house Augustus lived in during his lifetime was rapidly overshadowed and overbuilt by the extraordinary architectural extravagances of his successors.

The showplace of one reign became the foundations for the next.

Since ancient times Rome celebrated her wealth of water . 1st century commentator of Roman life Lawyer, author, natural philosopher, military commander, provincial governor Pliny the Elder (23AC – 79AC) recorded in his Naturalis Historia that it flowed freely through its baths, in its fishponds, canals, villas, gardens and palaces. This was an incomparable technical achievement as its system of connecting aqueducts conveyed entire rivers into the town everyday. Pliny marvelled at the quantity of water his contemporaries used daily and by the time the Emperor Trajan (53 – 117) reigned 11 aqueducts fed more than 1300 fountains, which were not mere utilitarian drinking fountains, but were shaped like grottoes with cisterns, jet fountains and sculptured decorations.

It was the adopted son of Augustus the Emperor Tiberius (42BCE-37ACE) who built the first known Roman Imperial palace. His reign was darkened by conflicts within the ruling family dynasty and the oppressive gloom of his last years all but obliterated the memory of much good government earlier in his reign.

He raised The Domus Tiberiana on the northwest side of the Palatine, not far from where Augustus had lived. The Emperor Caligula then enlarged Tiberius’ work, and most of its rooms are still today underneath the Farnese Gardens that were laid out during the 16th century.

The Emperor Nero (37 – 68) seemingly knew no restrictions on his liberality or expenditure and was notorious for his ‘petulance, lechery, and love of luxury, cruelty and greed’.

It would have to be said Nero’s opportunities as a builder were entirely enhanced when, during the moonlit night of 18th July ACE 64 a fire broke out in some shops near the Palatine Hill and spread uncontrollably throughout the Imperial city. Whatever folklore decrees some scholars believe Nero was at the city where he had been born Antium (Anzio) 57km south of Rome when the great fire of Rome broke out. There he had built an imperial scale villa on the site where Augustus had received a delegation from Rome to acclaim him Pater patriae (“Father of his Country”). Each Emperor in turn up to the Severan Emperors who ruled between 193 and 235 used it.

Hurrying back to Rome to assist fire fighting efforts and to supervise the provision of shelter for the homeless, any credit Nero might have been given for his actions was dispelled by a rumour that when the flames were at their height he had mounted a stage and likened the dreadful calamity to ancient disasters by singing a tale about the Sack of Troy. The fire burned fiercely for six days, leaving Rome in smouldering ruins, with only four out of its original fourteen regions still intact.

In the wake of the fire Nero devised a new plan for urban development with houses built of brick facing out onto wide roads. His own palace, the Domus Transitoria had been utterly destroyed so he immediately appropriated 125 acres in the heart of Rome to replace it, an action that infuriated its citizens.

His Domus Aurea or, Golden House was completed 68 years after the Christ event and became the stuff of legends.

Today its excavated remains include a huge octagonal room, a central focal point from which many of the most important rooms of the palace radiated. Descriptions survive from those who either admired or resented it.

Roman Biographer and antiquarian, Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, known as Suetonius (75-160 ACE), left this description for posterity.

‘To have an idea of its size and its magnificence, it suffices to recall the following details: there was a vestibule in which a colossus was erected in Nero’s likeness, one hundred and twenty feet high. So vast was this vestibule that its interior had arcades with triple rows of columns for a length of one thousand paces, and a pond that looked like a sea, surrounded by buildings formed like cities. Furthermore, inside there was countryside, rich with fields, vineyards, pastures and woods with a great number of wild and domestic animals of all species. In the rest of the building everything was coated with gold and embellished with gems and mother of pearl. The ceilings of the banqueting halls were of moveable, perforated ivory so that the flowers and perfumes could be sprinkled over the guests. The greatest of these halls was round, and turned continuously all day long on its own axis, like the world.

Nero’s successors converted his palace to public use before it was finally swept away by a raging fire in 104 AC. Hadrian later demolished the fragments, which remained above ground and in 121 built his Temple of Venus and Rome on its site. The Colosseum was built over its vast lake, which was drained. Some of its surviving rooms were found below ground during the 15th century.

The walls were covered with delicately painted stucco reliefs by an artist known only to history as Fabullus (who lent his name to our term for works of indescribable beauty), which the palace in all its richness clearly was.

Nero was reported to have declared when it was finished….’Good, now at last I can begin to live like a human being.’

Following the fall of the Roman Empire in the fourth century the great palace complex of the Palatine Hill crumbled into a series of ruins for a thousand years and baffled people during the Middle Ages. Archaeologists have spent the centuries since the rebirth of Humanism in Italy unravelling the puzzle.

The link between the ancient Palace of an Emperor and a grand Palazzo’s built by Italian noble families during the Renaissance period at Rome from the14th to the 16th century is that they were both conceived as residences built to accommodate groups belonging to one family of some renown. Much of the interest in Rome’s history is tied up in their architectural vocabulary.

From the 14th to the 16th century cities throughout Italy underwent substantial urban renewal, setting a pattern for the future. A concentration on mathematics permitted men of the Quattrocento to approach works of art and architecture with a specific attention to formal structures, enabling them to see bodies in terms of volume and surface. Medieval scholasticism gave way to objective knowledge with a concentration on the surrounding world, represented as it appeared to the eye.

In the sixteenth century version of a Palazzo open spaces and courtyards were also placed inside the walls with an element of contact, such as a junction or passage the link between the macrocosm of the city and the microcosm of the Palazzo. In this way the contrast between outside and inside was diluted, the difference of sound and light and variations of mood attenuated. The longer the vestibule, the longer and slower the act of entry and a greater sense of purpose was created.

It was the Florentine architect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) who started a revolution in architecture and his ideas influenced the way all other architects would think in the future and the shape of buildings to come.

He took the various elements of its ancient architectural repertoire the column, the capital, and rounded arch and recombined them with a mathematician’s regard for proportion, but in a fresh new way. The style has since become known as Baroque.

The Baroque style Italian Renaissance Palazzo is about the application of new knowledge that helped reinterpret that which had gone before. The facade of the Palazzo Borghese has an entrance based on the form of an ancient Roman triumphal arches, with a giant cartouche for displaying the family coat of arms.

The blazon of the Borghese family has at its centre a crowned eagle over a winged dragon. It was after 1610 that the Borghese attained their princely rank by purchasing the feudal holdings of Sulmona in the Abruzzi, from the Spanish crown. This acquisition was a crucial step in establishing the family’s status at Rome. The Bath of Venus within the Borghese Palace complex was a vast nymphaeum with antique statues and three giant water displays set between large niches supported by gigantic caryatids against a boundary wall.

If you were a Prince of the blood or of the Church at this time, you more than likely travelled in a carriage that displayed some of the ornamental repertoire including frolicking putti, flower garlands and scrolling acanthus. Large console tables with matching mirrors in great halls became standard features of state apartments and together with sumptuous textile wall coverings gave any room a feeling of grandeur.

Made in sets of two or four they maintained the all-important symmetry of a room, dividing the walls into balanced arrangements of objects. They were rarely, if every moved, which is why so many have survived.

The private drawing room in the apartment of the Borghese family held grand parties and receptions up until the romantic 19th century when the last great fancy dress ball held in Papal Rome was given there on 7th February 1866. The most famous of all the Borghese princesses was Paolina Bonaparte, sister to Napoleon and the wife of Prince Camillo.

She was immortalised by an early 19th century worthy successor to Michelangelo, the sculptor Antonio Canova as Venus Victrix (Venus the Conqueror) and set against a background of Imperial splendour.

Her private apartments were furnished in 1803 in the Roman Imperial style, and were dominated by a sculptural group by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, (the Rape of Proserpine).

The room was filled with marbles, mosaics and stucco decorations, with those rendered on the ceiling taking their inspiration from the painted style of decoration discovered in the remains of Nero’s Golden House. Sculptural reliefs emanated from the walls, forming a frieze around the room. The walls are articulated with giant pilaster, flanking classical statues in niches that were then surrounded by alabaster and set with rare marbles in a room in the grand manner.

In Roman architectural history the open space in front of any building was important and considered an integral aspect of its design. It provided a clear view of the building as you approached, conjuring up images in the mind of the splendours to be revealed within. There is a strong relationship between the building of a Palazzo and a Piazza, the grand open space immediately in front of its façade and many of these took shape together.

Sculptor, painter, architect and all around genius Michelangelo, re-organised the Campidoglio or Capitoline Hill, paying particular attention between the partnership of the palazzo and the piazza with at its centre the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius.

During the Renaissance the creativity of sculptors and a homage to water as the bearer of life was incorporated into architectural design.

In front of the Palazzo Poli and on the Piazza di Trevi is a triumphant, theatrical conflation of architectural elements and sculpture placed on artificial rock, crossed by gushing showers of water and centred in a spectacular niche from which emerges Neptune’s winged horses led by tritons.

On Sunday May 22 1762, Clemens XIII offically completed and inaugurated the new Trevi Fountain. The population of Rome at that time was around 160.000 people.

The seemingly most accepted explanation for the word Trevi is that it derives for the Latin word Trivium, which indicates the crossing of three streets.

The Roman Goddess Trivia was protecting the streets and often her statue featuring three heads was placed at the point where they intersected.

The three streets of Trevi are Via De’ Crocicchi, Via Poli and Via Delle Muratte.

The Trevi Fountain was to be the climax of all preceding designs for fountains developed by the architect Nicola Salvi between 1732 and 1736 from sketches made by the sculptor Bernini more than a hundred years before.

It took over thirty years for it to be completed with the Palazzo Poli forming a monumental background as a metaphor for the palace of Oceanus himself who is standing in its central niche flanked by a statue of Abundance, holding the cornucopia or horn of plenty, and the statue of health, Hygieia. At the top of its central triumphal arch is the Papal Crest flanked by two goddesses representing fame. Today this sparkling image is one that all those who visit Rome today carry away with them when they leave.

The Quirinal Hill, the tallest of the Seven Hills of Rome is recognized as the most important among the seven hills that identify the city of Rome from its ancient past to the present day. The Palazzo del Quirinale with its Trumphal Arch Entrance overlooks a Piazza of the same name.

Pope Gregory XIII as a summer residence built the Palazzo del Quirinale on the site in 1583 although the project was halted when he died in 1585 and never completed.

When Pope Paul V (1605-1621) was in office the Palazzo Quirinal became the official papal residence for over two hundred years until the arrival of Vittorio Emanuele II who became King of Italy (1900 – 1946) in July 1871.

In 1947 the Palazzo Quirinal became the official residence of the President of the Republic and although presidents have lived in it on and off ever since, in 1992 it was returned to being used only for official receptions.

The colossal marble statue of the horse tamers, grouped with an obelisk and a fountain, dominates it. The figures had been found in the ruins of the Baths of Constantine and Pope Sixtus V (1520 – 1590) ordered the magnificent horses to be restored. The red granite obelisk was brought to Rome from Egypt by Claudius in ACE 57 and placed at the entrance to the Mausoleum of Augustus, and finally set up in the Quirinal Piazza in 1781.

For twenty centuries those seeking to demonstrate their wealth, social, religious and political dominance built in the grand manner. They wanted to either defend or increase their role within the limits of the community’s toleration, while seeking to win approval or to incite the envy of others. Their sweeping statements of art, design and style disseminated from Rome throughout Europe and then on to the rest of world.

‘Pale Death beats equally at the poor man’s gate and at the palaces of kings’.**

Carolyn McDowall July 2011 ©The Culture Concept Circle

**Ancient Roman Poet Horace

*English Playwright William Shakespeare

Related posts:

1. Ancient Rome – An Important Precinct of Power and Glory
2. A ‘Compleat’ Gentleman, more than a leader of style
3. Civilised: Mosaics at Ravenna

“Who loves not wine, women and song; remains a fool his whole life long” #

Bacchus the Roman God of Wine

Wine, Women and Song is a fine example of a tripartite motto originating in ancient times. It is when three words are used to express one idea, in this case a warning about the imminent danger of becoming a fool for those whose life was spent in the pursuit of pleasure. Wine, Women and Song (Wein, Weib und Gesang) also became a choral waltz written by Johann Strauss II for the Vienna Men’s Choral Association so-called Fool’s Evening held on the 2nd February 1869.

Wine was made before history was recorded and for thousands of years has evoked high spirits, given comfort and pleasure, as well as made fools of many different people in many different countries and cultures.

And in the autumn, when you gather the grapes of your vineyards for the winepress, say in your heart; “I too am a vineyard, and my fruit shall be gathered for the winepress, And like new wine I shall be kept in eternal vessels. And in winter, when you draw the wine, let there be in your heart a song for each cup; And let there be in the song a remembrance for the autumn days, and for the vineyard, and for the winepress*

In his witty and erudite study of antiquity’s larder, first published in 1853 The Pantropheon (History of Food and its Preparation in Ancient Times), renowned flamboyant French Chef Alexis Benoit Soyer (1810 – 1858) used Jean Anthelme Brillat Savarin’s (1755-1826) quote , Tell me what thou eatest and I will tell thee who thou art’. The Pantropheon was a cornucopia of food data dealing with the preparation of food for the table in classical antiquity. In it Soyer calls upon the ancient Greeks, Romans, Assyrians, Egyptians and Jewish peoples to reveal themselves and their traditional ways of eating and drinking. It was made available to an even wider public than ever before because of the invention in 1843 of the rotary printing press by Richard Hoe in America, which allowed millions of copies of a page to be printed in a single day.

Reform Club, London

Alexis Benoit Soyer (1810 – 1858)  was considered, in his time a gastronomic genius. Quite simply it seems he was the rage of stylish, mid nineteenth century England. He devoted his vast energies and resources to serving both the rich and poor. In 1846 he assisted architect Charles Barry to design the kitchens at London’s Reform Club in Pall Mall when it was founded and he was its celebrated chef for twelve years. However, on the opposite side of the coin if you like, he also designed and organized ‘soup kitchens’ during the Irish famine of the late 1840’s providing soldiers with nourishing food during the Crimean War in 1855. This was achieved in collaboration with nursing luminary Florence Nightingale and Soyer gave of his talents and money to aid social profit causes for all of his life.  Soyer describes wine as that ‘grateful drink’ one that ‘draws the ties of friendship closer’ and one that all ‘honest people, all generous souls’ are eager to taste.

Gates of Ancient Ninevah

In The Pantropheon he recorded that Livia, consort of Roman Emperor Augustus in the first century said when she was 82 years of age that she was indebted to Bacchus, the God of Wine for her long existence. But what of wine…what do we know about its evolution in terms of our cultural growth and continuing passion for it today…

…Amethyst it bore as its fruit,
Grape vine was trellised, good to behold,
Lapis Lazuli it bore as grape clusters,
Fruit it bore, magnificent to look upon.

If we are talking poetry in relation to wine then The Epic of Gilgamish is one of the oldest poems in the world, which mentions it. From Sumeria it dates from eighteen centuries BCE (Before the Christ event). Modern archaeologists have proved a great deal of relevance to ancient sites and cultural practices in its prose.

Cup Bearer from Persepolis

The poem survived because it was recorded on ceramic material, rediscovered between 1845 – 1851 by British archaeologist Austen Henry Layard 1817 –1894. A Victorian gentleman, diplomat, politician, art connoisseur and man of letters, Lanyard was many things but not what we would call a professional archaeologist. Layard and his Turkish colleague Hormuzd Rassam [1826-1910] discovered thousands of fragments of broken clay tablets, while excavating on the east bank of the Tigris River in modern day Iraq at the site of the ancient city of Ninevah. Capital of the Assyrian Empire, Ninevah was an important city in Persia in ancient times. It occupied a central position on the great highway between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, where east met the west.

Siduri, courtesy of Winemakers Adam & Dianna at Siduri Winery, Santa Rosa California

The fragments were shipped to England where pioneering English Assyriologist George Smith sorted classified and rejoined them. Smith discovered the narrative that filled twelve tablets was a poem, which recorded the collective wisdom of Gilgamesh historical King of Uruk [2750 -2500 BCE] who it is said saw everything, learned everything and understood everything. The text refers to a woman named Siduri as the ‘maker of the wine’ and Enkidu, a wild man of the woods, who is given his first experience of civilisation by a temple woman, or harlot, who shows ‘him human manners and gives him wine to drink’.

We are told he ‘drank seven times, his thoughts wandered and he became hilarious his heart full of joy as his face shone’… a condition many have had after drinking wine. The Persians in antiquity enjoyed the luxury and enchantments of the table. It was from Persia during the reign of their heroic King Jemsheed in the C6 BCE that a ‘poetic’ story about wine emerged. 

“It seems he was fond of eating grapes and kept vast quantities in jars so he would always have a ready supply. It is reputed he found a batch no longer sweet and labelled it poisonous. A woman of his harem, distraught with nervous headaches, desired to end her life so drank of the juice in the jar and was so overpowered she fell into a heavy sleep”

Not surprisingly after a long deep sleep our lady of the harem awoke refreshed and revealed all to Jemsheed, who then distributed the drink to his courtiers. In light of this story is perhaps feasible for us to presume grapes kept overlong in ceramic storage bowls, in the right conditions of temperature would have fermented… and that the first style of wine could have been fermented from raisins, grapes dried in the sun and stored. If this is so they would have produced a very tasty wine, something in the manner of a Tokay.

Rhyton, Achaemenid period 500 –330 BCE, Persia

Bucchero ware drinking-cup (kantharos) Etruscan, about 600 BC Inscribed with the owner's name courtesy British Museum, London

Our poet would have enjoyed drinking it from the Kantharos,  a deep drinking cup, which had a vase like bowl usually mounted on a slender stem with twin handles that curved up above the rim of the bowl.

Originating with the Etruscans in Italy in the seventh and sixth centuries BC, drinking cups of this kind were exported all over the Mediterranean and the form was also adopted by the Greeks (British Museum).

The other style of drinking vessel in ancient times was a Rhyton or drinking horn, such as this example of fine craftsmanship. In copper, silver and gold this example dates from the Achaemenid period of the Persian Empire 500 –330 BCE. Originally carved in the form of a bull’s horn, wine poured in at the top came out through a narrow stream between the griffin’s legs and poured into a wine cup or directly into the mouth.

The first book of the Bible, Genesis relates how Noah was a man of the soil, the first to plant a vineyard, drink the wine and become drunk. The grape vine was one of the first plants domesticated, although its nature required certain conditions of geography and climate for it to grow and produce its fabulous fruit.

Vitis Vinifera

There is an amusing Jewish legend recorded in Brewster’s Phrases and Fables that states the devil buried a lion, lamb and a hog at the foot of the first vine planted by Noah and that hence, we receive from wine, ferocity, mildness or, wallowing in the mire, or gutter as we would say …and there is also a biblical injunction that says ‘a little wine maketh glad the heart’. Modern research has revealed that wine, sensibly taken, may be beneficial to our health and well being. I don’t know about you but that’s the one I would prefer to believe when imbibing.

We would not have wine without the Vitis Vinifera, the famous vine of Europe and the Middle East. It emerged in the area around the Black Sea during the Quaternary, the period that runs from about a million years ago and includes the Upper Palaeolithic period, which ended about 8000 BCE. The Vitis Vinifera’s stock provided the basis for most historical wine.

Wine Jar Hajji-Firuz courtesy Universy of Pennsylvania Museum

Nearly all primitive tribes it seems developed some sort of intoxicant to help them face the harsher realities of life. Poppy juice, fungi and dried flowers of cactus are among such sources. However, none can compare in economic or social importance than alcohol, which is considered the most pleasant of all the benign poisons we consume.

Wine making developed, alongside a variety of food processing techniques, made possible when nomadic groups of peoples began permanent settlements. In Hajji Firuz in Iran, one Neolithic house dating from 5400-5000 B.C has yielded six wine jars with a residue of wine still in them.

In the ancient capital at Thebes in the Valley of Nobles archaeological remains bear testimony to Egyptian civilisation at its height. Wall paintings date from 1500 years before Christ and relate various stories about grapes and vines including men being carried from a drinking party. One graphically depicts a women being ill after consuming far too much wine. In another vines trained on horizontal trellises or pergolas were set into formalised gardens that were planted with figs, pomegranates and sycamores.

Treading the Grapes in Thebes, Ancient capital of Egypt

In Egypt as time progressed winemaking techniques advanced. The treading of the grapes took place in large tanks supported by an elaborate structure of poles with ropes or straps for the men to hold onto while they sought purchase with their feet. A light roof sheltered them from the heat of the sun while they worked. The grape vine served a triple purpose; it gave shade, provided food and drink and, was highly decorative.

Ancient Egyptian Wine Jar with Lid

In King Tutankhamun’s tomb found in 1922 by Howard Carter in the Valley of the Kings in the food provided for his afterlife some grapes had been kept for eating; the rest made into wine. Wine jars were filled and stoppered with mud on a pad, or a wad of palm wood fibres. They were sealed, the contents labelled, some of which have remained intact for archaeologists to interpret. These include the royal seals of Tutankhamun. Because of the excellent preservation of the objects in his tomb we know that his ‘wine list’ contained a choice of some thirty varieties; the jars still labeled with wine, year, vineyard and vintner.

Dionysus Greek god of wine, agriculture, and fertility of nature from Les Dieux Antiques, nouvelle mythologie illustrée. Paris, 1888

The wine of the grape became a medium through which alcohol could be enjoyed in a air of conviviality and companionship. In primitive, and later Christian tribes, wine also became an instrument of religious experience, a practice that continues unabated to the present day but more on that later. It was the rise of civilisations around the Aegean and Mediterranean that first gave a European meaning to the drinking of wine.

The introduction of viticulture to ancient Greece is both prehistoric and a subject for conjecture. The ancient Greeks took grape growing and wine making seriously.  Six centuries before Christ there were vineyards spread all over Attica, where the pattern of life was, to some extent shaped by its proximity to the city of Athens. By the seventh century before Christ vineyards were also all over Arcadia,  the region of Greece in the Peloponnesus, which takes its name from the mythological character Arcas.

Silenus with the infant Dionysus

On On Run, dance, delirious, possessed!
Dionysus comes to his own;
Bring from the Phrygian hills to the broad streets god, child of a god,
Spirit of revel and rapture, Dionysus

Dionysus was the ancient Greek god of wild and fertile nature, of the vine and wine and a great many festivals grew up around his cult. As a child he was fed the wine, he was reputed to have invented from a cornucopia, or horn of plenty. Raised in a cave on Mount Nysa, as a baby Dionysus was tutored by Silenus a rural god whose statue of the two of them is attributed to one of the most famous sculptors of his day, Lysippus. Dionysus is said to have had many adventures, including introducing viniculture to India. However, it was mostly because of the popularity of wine based worship, that he grew in stature to become one of the ruling Greek Olympian Gods seated at the right hand of his father Zeus, the father of Gods and Men

The bleating lambs, the ivy leaf, the vat,
Full-bosomed matrons hurrying to the farm,
The tipsy maid, the drained and emptied flask,
And many other blessing

Dionysus and his followers on a Sacrcophagus Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Greek wine drinking party, or Symposium had an etiquette that had, over time been perfected to a fine art form. Music was provided by flute-girls, garlands of flowers were worn and there were competitions for songs and riddles.  It was a night when men of culture, philosophers and scholars held elevated discussions and enjoyed the charms of male friendship. The cost of getting together, talking and drinking was shared by all those who attended.

The ideal Symposium was also a framework for a debate on love, especially ‘Platonic love’ which referred to an argument for the supremacy of non-sexual love between people of like minds what we would call today, ‘soul mates’. However it is a fact the very same ‘flute girls’ who played the music, were also called upon to exercise their talents in other ways for men of power and influence.

Of the gay danseuse of ripened charms
I’ve told you; hear me, pray,
Of the budding flute-girl who saps the strength of the sailor man for pay’

Dionysus painting on the interior of a Kylix

Kylix by the Euergides Painter, courtesy British Museum

The most usual style of wine drinking cup was a Kylix, a shallow two-handled bowl on a short stem whose beauty of shape was enhanced by the wonderful art of the vase painters. One of the great masterpieces of black figure painting is by Exekias is a famous kylix, which depicts Dionysus on a ship with Pirates, who had tried to abduct him. They were all transformed into dolphins and he made vine leaves spring from the mast to act as sails.

Dionysus was the personification of man’s earthly passions, the God of plant life whose vitality was renewed each spring.  He was linked to fertilisation, the life cycle and the mysterious and the potent forces underlying both life and death and that meant he also became a symbol for immortality.

Wine was mixed with water, one part to three, in a Crater, the large vessel at the back and it was used by the Greeks for that purpose; dilution with water was not only necessary but a much needed economy to make wine last from one harvest to another.

Gluttony, sottishness and stupefaction were considered ‘madness’ to an educated Greek as they dulled and distorted an active, appreciating mind and luxury was an extravagance worthy of ridicule, rather than admiration.

Some of the most exquisite craftsmanship of the Hellenistic age went into elaborate gold work now associated with luxury. This detail is from a gilded Crater was found at Derveni in Thessalonica depicts Dionysus seated under a sinuously trailing vine.

Ancient Greeks loved the delights of life and the pleasure considered the greatest and the expense the least.  This does not mean they would get carried away. The dignity of life and value of an individual lay in the exercise of his consciousness and diminishing this exercise would have meant diminishing the individual himself. A man’s intellectual and moral make up demanded a very high personal standard of attitude, stance and behaviour, or we could say his words, deeds and actions needed to be in harmony with each other.

Nobody would take mulled claret;
Everybody chose, you know,
Wine that had been ‘welled’ or mingled not with water but with snow

It was expensive, but snow was used in hot weather to cool wine, or for economy, the wine was chilled by lowering it down a well

If I’m no fool, Dad’s put us down the well, like wine to cool

Bacchus Roman God of Wine, Musée du Louvre

At Imperial Rome the centurion’s staff of office was the sapling of a grape vine. During the first century, inspired by descriptions of Dionysian worship, a cult spread among the youth of Rome. The festivals of Bacchus, the Roman God of Wine, or Bacchanalia as they were called, were scenes of drunken revelry. According to that great documenter of Roman times, Titus Livius (59 BC – AD 17) or Livy, these occasions concealed aspects far more menacing than drunkenness and sexual promiscuity; he believed that they threatened total anarchy and served as a disguise for more horrendous crimes. There were rumours of human sacrifice and he suggested they were a sign that ordinary people had needs that state religion could not provide. This was well recognised by some of those in authority, who were struggling to prevent such rites taking place. By way of contrast the Roman banquet itself was a sign of civility,  the perfect occasion for a man to affirm his accomplishments and show off to his peers.

The Emperors of Rome kept no court, although most lived in a ‘palace’ on the Palatine Hill. The exception was Emperor Augustus in the first century. He lived, like his nobles, in a private villa with only slaves and freed men for company. When night came the Emperor dined with senators and others whose company he relished, as at table was one of the few places he felt he could relax. Reclining on a couch he partook of braised or roasted bloodless meat served sugared while drinking a wine with a flavour something like marsala, diluted with water. Early in the dinner they ate without drinking. Later they drank without eating. ‘Make it stronger’, the suffering erotic poet ordered his cup bearer, and the trickiest part of the evening and longest, was set aside for serious drinking. More than a feast, the banquet was also a festival with each man expected to hold his own. Guests expressed their views on general topics and noble subjects or give summaries of their lives and between dishes music, dancing and singing with professional musicians took place.

In the first century in Campania vines produced abundantly and the volcanic soil of the Bay of Naples brought forth some of the best wines of the Roman Empire. Spain and Gaul were its only main rivals, the wines of the south considered generally better than those of Central Italy, which were not greeted in Rome with great enthusiasm.

Vineyard in Tusca

Those produced in Tuscany were less favourable, a direct contrast to today where it is now considered one of the best wine producing regions. Perhaps it was a matter of ‘taste’ or the education of the palette that can only occur after consistent exposure to many different varietals. It was about the middle of the second century that wine growing in Italy became really important.The Romans were the first people to mature wine on anything approaching a modern scale.

Latin writers speak of wines with years of age.  Most however would have been categorised as vin ordinaire and drunk within the year after vintaging. A Roman legionary left a message stating ‘that while he lived he drank with a good heart and recommended his friends follow his example’.

Romans Harvesting Grapes from a Mural at Pompeii

The Romans compiled manuals of instruction dealing with the growing of vines and making of wine and they also provided a picture of Roman viticulture more complete than any other ancient peoples. The low vineyard was where the vine was un-staked and its branches sprawled over the ground. This meant ripening grapes were left to lie on the earth or raised off the surface by means of short props. It was simple and economical but sharing the grapes with foxes necessitated change. The high vineyard developed and vines grown up tall trees and looped from tree to tree like garlands. Elms and poplars, or willows were twined and hung with vines, a usual sight for poets.

Storing Wine in Ceramic Amphora

Jesus the Christ, Mosaics at Ravenna

‘Ash stakes of the forked uprights
Upon whose strength
your vines can mount and be trained to clamber
Up the high storied elm trees’

Following the conversion in the third century of Roman Emperor Constantine to Christianity,  the vine became an important metaphor for that of Jesus the Christ himself. He was the central root stock onto which all Christians, in their life of faith and spiritual growth, were grafted. It was used decoratively in wall painting and Byzantine mosaics,  to reinforce the message of St John’s Gospel -  ‘I am the true vine.

Trade in wine at this time was highly individualistic,  operated by merchants who acted singly, or in a small family partnership. Each ‘firm’ had its own ship to freight wine, along with other desirable goods, all over the Mediterranean and Aegean areas. Often a family villa had a wine shop attached to it. Called a Taberna, it also sold food and you could buy your wine at the door, just like you can at boutique wineries today all over Australia.

There were some entrepreneurial merchants who expanded to have two or three ships , although they were generally an exception to the rule. There appears to have been no dominating network of middlemen, the enterprise of the individual remained the active factor; wine had become essential to the diet for everyone and, in the better and more productive districts reasonably good wine was, well like now both plentiful and cheap.

Ancient Grape Vines in Campania

Historians, archaeologists and scholars are still endeavouring to grasp the enormity of change in Europe between the fourth and sixth centuries. Migration, expanding settlements and nomadic warring tribes, whose culture was considered barbaric overran what was left of the Roman Empire in Europe, Gaul and Britain.

Every part of the former Roman world was vulnerable and the target of  predators. During these so-called ‘dark ages’ in Britain the Scotti, or Irish were the peoples who came from the west, the Picts came from the north, in the area we now know as Scotland. From the east you had the peoples of the north German coastlands known as Angles, Saxons and Jutes.

Over on the European continent, Burgundians, Ostrogoths, Huns, Goths, Visigoths and Vandals, among others, all came, saw and conquered. An interesting aspect of all of this change was that as a general rule many of the different tribes converted to some form of Christianity, either Arian or Catholic.

The modern imagination has long been captivated by the very European idea of a merry medieval monk, well fed, content and gossiping or carousing at the refectory table. So much did he drink that his skin became impregnated with wine, his body immune from corruption

Never did a day or night go by,
But it found him wine soaked and wavering

Welsh churchman Giraldus Cambrensis noted acidly, when he dined with monks at Canterbury, that the refectory table carried ‘wine, mead, mulberry juice and other strong drink in abundance’. The spread of monastic culture and establishment of community religious houses certainly assisted wine evolution and at the same time added to the legends about the clergy and wine drinking. Consider the fate of the Abbot Piro of Caldey Island who, while stumbling about the monastery one night the worse for drink fell down a well and died. He had clearly not followed St. Benedict’s rule which in Chapter 40 said: ‘We do, indeed, read that wine is no drink for monks; but since nowadays monks cannot be persuaded of this, let us at least agree upon this, to drink temperately and not to satiety; for wine maketh even the wise to fall away. But when the circumstances of the place are such that the aforesaid measure cannot be had, but much less or even one at all, then let the monks who dwell there bless God and not murmur.

John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, Duke of Aquitaine entertaining the King of Portugal

It would be easy to assume the spread of vineyards went hand in hand with the building of Christian churches; if there was a church there was a mass and wine was a necessary element. Perhaps it would be fairer for us today to assume that a combination of monasticism and private enterprise together ensured that viticulture’s traditions were well preserved during difficult times. Nineteenth century historian James Campbell in his thesis on the Elements in the background to the Life of St. Cuthbert and his early Cult suggests late seventh and eighth century monasteries had many of the aspects of a special kind of nobleman’s club. This was an earthly reality of early medieval monasticism. While the lives of monks involved personal sacrifice and rigorous religious discipline, the environment of monasteries was not necessarily as spartan as one might suppose.

Yizhar Hirschfeld, a scholar carrying out research on monastery sites today suggests the standard of living was far higher than that of most people in the Byzantine Empire. Mixing wine with water in the chalice during the Eucharist, or great thanksgiving of the Christian faith is pre-supposed. The Book of Common Prayer in 1549 directed continuance of its usage, although it seemingly went out of favour again by 1552 to be revived during the nineteenth century by Anglo Catholics following the lead of the Oxford Movement (1833 – 1845). Its main aim was to restore the principles of High Church to the Church in England, which emphasized its historical continuity as a branch of the Catholic faith.

Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry - October

The Oxford Movement upheld ‘high’ conceptions of the rights of the monarchy, episcopacy and nature of the sacraments. It has been a matter of ongoing dispute between different factions of the Church, and still is today around the world, where some branches of the Christian faith substitute grape juice for wine. The development of viticulture was less widespread in the area we now know as France, even though there were vineyards at Bordeaux from the first century they were never really famous under the Roman Empire. Vines were introduced into that gateway to the South, Provence by the ancient Greeks and were extensively cultivated by the Romans and the Avignon Papacy during the period from 1309 to 1378 during which seven Popes resided in Avignon.

Provence is a vital cultural and commercial link between northern and southern Europe. It was a key area of the Mediterranean world in ancient times because of its position at the foot of the great thoroughfare of the Rhone valley. It was also overrun by the Normans, Goths, Visigoths, Moors and other barbarian tribes. However they were not hostile to viticulture.  What we do know is that most of the vineyard areas of Europe were maintained, and even expanded under their influence.

By the late sixth century the forests of Burgundy were being cleared, vineyards fenced and planted with grape varieties such as Gevrey, Vosne, Beaune and Aloxe and it was those vines that would provide a foundation for modern vintners. Private enterprise was a huge contributing factor in the popularising of wine during the Middle Ages. Perhaps it would be fairer for us today to assume that a combination of monasticism and private enterprise together ensured that viticulture’s traditions were well preserved during difficult times.

Dining in Style with the Duc du Berry

Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry - September

Jean, Duc de Berry was a son, brother and uncle of the Kings of France. He was also an outstanding patron of the arts and loved beautiful books.

In his sumptuously illustrated Book of Hours, one of the most popular style of devotional books of the later Middle Ages, the illuminated images record representations of the months.

September is the month of the grape harvest where in the Angevin vineyard below the Chateau de Saumur aproned women and young men pick the purple coloured clusters of grapes.

The standard of food at the court of Henry II (1154-1189) of France was renowned for its poor quality. In fact it was described as atrocious, the tables piled high with putrid food and the wine not reported to not much better. Peter of Blois described the wine as being so full of dregs the noblemen were compelled to close their eyes and filter it through their teeth. A pretty horrible prospect. He concluded that the only way courtiers kept healthy was through vigorous exercise in the fresh air so that many more of them did not die of food poisoning. 

Eating in Community in Tudor Times

During the Tudor period in England Henry VII (1485-1509) was most anxious to be an hospitable and impressive host. The regulations recorded in his household book ensured that the butler and keeper of the spicery were warned in advance if anyone was going to stay for the voidee, which was the final hospitality offered before the house was ‘emptied’ of its guests. The drink offered was named Hippocras for the so called ‘Father of medicine. Fourth century BCE Greek physician Hippocrates believed spices were medicinal and aided digestion. He mixed cinnamon, ginger, galingale, cloves, cardamom, pepper and aniseed together with sometimes sugar and dried fruit and this concoction was added to wine, which was left in a warm place overnight and then filtered before serving. During the latter stage of the Middle Ages the development of a vineyard, whose vines were tied to upright stakes and kept to a height of about 4’ made its appearance.  The spread of knowledge and advice was slow and it is not until the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries in Europe that we have clearer documented evidence of technical improvement in viticulture.

Dragon-Stem Goblet - Façon de Venise, Venice, 17th century

This came about with a growing stream of commerce, fed in no small measure by the energy and enterprise of the Genoese, Tuscans and Venetians. The latter were for centuries the masters of glass manufacture, producing their celebrated glass on the Island of Murano in the Venetian lagoon. From the 12th century onward Venetian glass had grown in prestige and many countries copied the shape and form of their glasses because, as a selling line, the so called á la facon de Venise (Venetian fashon) was much in demand.

One representative of Italian commerce Francesco di Marco Datini, a merchant of Prato in Tuscany, wrote in his great ledger ‘In the name of God and of profit”. This was at a time when the now steady traffic of wine up and down the Atlantic coasts of Europe expanded dramatically. With the increase in trade came a gradual increase in luxury and from the fifteenth to the seventeen centuries in Europe as the spiritual and physical frontiers of the known world expanded so did luxuriant living become an established way of life. Clothes were made of sumptuous textiles, wigs were in high demand and banqueting was important aspect of status.. The battle to keep wine drinkable and prevent it going sour, or turning into vinegar was continual. Cloudy, discoloured evil smelling wines became a common disappointment of life.

In England the court of James 1 became notorious for its drunkenness and unattractive characteristics. The English palate loved Mediterranean wines shipped through what we now know as the Straits of Gibraltar.

What is the use of Muscadell, Malmesie and brown Bastard
These kinds of wines are only for married folkes, because they
strengthen the back…

Caravaggio (Italian 1571-1610). Bacchus, 1595 Uffizi Gallery, Florence

In 1556 at Oxford in England ‘poor scholars preferred wines were Gascony, Sack and Malmsey’. Muscadell, which was made basically from Muscat grapes was another sweet wine with an excellent bouquet. Gascon white wines were the mainstay of English cellars.  Rhenish red wines were made near Bonn and were becoming increasingly popular.

Rhineland vineyards established in the middle of the fourth century had developed the properties of wines grown in colder climates. For centuries they maintained a high reputation making it possible for them to continue to sell at prices, which made the vineyards viable.

Malmsey originally came from Crete and was a rich sweet wine. Sack was a rich, sweet and white, gold or tawny and rarely, if ever, red wine. It was sometimes dry, more often sweet and, on occasions harsh and strong. It appeared about the beginning of the sixteenth century from Iberia and the Canary Islands.

We would today think it was very similar to a sherry, which emerged from Jerez in Spain, one of the prettiest wine making towns of Europe.

Sherry, while sometimes sweet through blending, if left to itself, will ferment into a dry white wine. It became one of the great mainstay wines of the English and Irish tables for centuries and it became customary to drink it with soup, a tradition that has retained its popularity, at least in England, to the present day.

Well, saints may babble at the fount
And peers at the pump make free, but
Whisky, beer and most especially wine,
Is certainly good enough for me…

In Italy during the sixteenth century controversial painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio depicted an erotic fleshy boy on the threshold of sensuality, dressed as the Roman God Bacchus. There are touches of corruption – the apple is spoiled, hence the wormhole. The pomegranate is bursting with over-ripeness and, there is a hint of Vanitas; the boy triumphant in a youth that will quickly vanish, much like the bubbles in a carafe disappear. The glass cup of pleasure holds a rich red wine and the glass itself an example of a very rare Venetian glass Facon de Venise.

In England following the execution of Charles 1 Puritan disapproval of the indulgence in drink led to heavy fines on the tavern keeper, as well as offender. Cromwell’s commissioners were more than likely looked upon as ‘wowsers’ by the populace at large and would have contributed to their disillusionment of him and his régime, one in which an undercurrent of sex, sedition, and sacrilege was the reality in the public sphere.

Charles II

Fizzy Drink from France

After being governed by the Lord Protector for five years there was a great sigh of relief when Charles 11 was finally restored to the English throne in 1660. Charles had spent much of his time at exile at the French court, where he enjoyed the fashion, food and fine French wines, which he brought back into fashion in the commercially driven London market. He wore his petticoat breeches very prettily indeed leading a revival for luxury living supported by people who had suffered long and hard under puritanical restraint.

One wine from the Champagne region, disparaged by French wine drinkers for its faulty bubbles, was enthusiastically received at the English court. The development of stronger, thicker bottles by British glass makers encouraged wine makers in Champagne to produce this fizzy fashionable French wine for the lucrative British market.

In the process over the next two centuries the French would become famous for benchmarking the standard for a particular style of wine. Up until this period there had been no real tradition of great and fine wines for 1200 years; men had to drink what they could get. From now on an interest in refined table manners and gourmet food began. Nasty habits like belching at table and rudeness to foreigners was abolished and the stage was set for massive change.

A refinement and advancement in distillation processes in a technique known as ‘fortification’ would have an important effect on the making and maturing of wine. By 1680 in the cellar of the Earl of Bedford at Woburn Abbey a liquor distilled from wine called Brandy was achieving aristocratic status.

Brandy is shortened from a Dutch word brandewijn meaning “burnt wine”. During the last two decades of the century the brandy was being divided into quality; 1686 best brandy; 1693 inferior brandy. The English became noted at this time for being well mannered, sober and remarkably friendly and there was much kissing when meeting and parting.

Society of Diletannti a Drinking Club for men who had completed their Grand Tour.

The eighteenth century Age of Reason was a tumultuous time  which was also preoccupied with self examination. In salons multiple mirrors reflected with merciless clarity a world, which amused or intrigued. There were continual changes afoot and in order to move with the times and avoid revolution the need to acquire flexibility was dawning on many a noble English grand tourist mind as it soaked up the local European scene. Reflecting light became an obsession via glass, which could now be made in larger pieces than ever before,  on the table, walls and hanging from the ceiling.

An admiration for a new wonder lead glass went hand in hand with an improvement in wine processes and a distinct desire to appreciate wine for its own sake.

Eighteenth Century English Drinking Glasses of Lead with Cobalt Blue Twist Stems

This became an important aspect of every eighteenth and nineteenth century English and European gentleman’s broad ranging education, which also required him to understand and gain knowledge about such things as historical events, intellectual ideas, architecture, music, gardens, interiors, paintings, sculpture, silver and objet d’art.

In England connoisseurship became an increasingly important concern. Men’s clubs, devoted to pursuing a passion for priceless possesions and toasting exalted beauties and life sprang up. English wine drinking glasses of lead became such great objects of beauty, and delight, that today they are highly sought after by collectors the world over.

Decanters were custom made along with other wine implements such as, labels and funnels, coolers, corkscrews and coasters became necessary equipment and and a subject for much inventive refinement. The elite drank clarets from Burgundy as well as fortified port, which was considered a perfect beginning and end to a meal, well at least according to Dr. John Campbell who boasted he had drunk 13 bottles of the stuff at one sitting. Temperance was not a notable virtue of the English Georgian gentleman, no matter what their social status.

English Cordial Glass Selection 1745-1765

Far and away the emergence of the cylindrical bottle made possible by the proper maturing of wine became the greatest success story of all and by 1790 in Bordeaux two million bottles a year were being made.

The way dinner was served in noble houses changed gradually throughout the eighteenth century as it moved from the middle to the end of the day. The serious business of eating lasted for at least two hours with a servant for every guest. However dining practices distressed foreign visitors who were compelled to extend their stomachs to please the host.

Manners were not admired …it was vulgar to eat your soup with your nose in the plate and exceeding rude to scratch certain parts of your body, to spit, or blow your nose on your sleeve or lean your elbows on the table. Picking your teeth before the dishes were remove, not to mention washing your gums in the wine glass rinser…goodness none of these were acceptable at all.

Louis XV and his Friends enjoying Champagne by Jean Francois de la Troy

The English throughout the eighteenth century and in the first thirty years of the nineteenth century provided their guests and the French with great entertainment. The French regarded them before, and after the revolution as greedy, drunken, melancholic and un-stylish, a subject which was made clear in the publication of L’Apres-Diné des Anglais in 1814.  Emperor Napoleon also disparagingly called them a ‘nation of shopkeeper’s.

Foreigners were shocked by the fact chamber pots were provided in the dining room sideboard, although there was seemingly no embarrassment on the part of the English in this performance. After dinner the ladies retired to tea and scandal in the drawing room, while the men discussed politics, love affairs and drank themselves quite literally under the table, appropriately decorated with grapes.

Manners would improve eventually and from the mid nineteenth century English Country House life would become the most envied lifestyle in the world. Everyone would clamour for an invitation to the country for the weekend so they could enjoy superb vintage wines many of which were being laid down for years to come in purpose built cellars.  Perhaps renowned English Romantic poet, satirist and traveler George Gordon, Lord Byron should have the last word in this dissertation.

‘Man, being reasonable, must get drunk;
The best of life is but intoxication
Glory, the grape, love, gold, in these are sunk
The hopes of all men, and of every nation.

Carolyn McDowall © The Culture Concept 2010, 2011

With Special thanks to Adam & Dianna Lee, Winemakers, Siduri Winery, California

* The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
#German Poet and Translator of the Greek Poets Homer, Virgil and Horace, among others, Johnann Heinrich Voss 1751 – 1826

Related posts:

1. CIVILISED: At the Beginnings of Art
2. The Culture Concept Circle – You Tube Channel
3. French Country Style – Provence is c’est magnifique!

Onward Christian Soldiers, mosaics at Ravenna

In the Old Testament, the Prophet Isaiah proclaimed his message to Judah and Jerusalem between c742 – 701 BCE, before the Christ event. His words, not only foretold many of the events of the life of Jesus the Christ, but also provided a vision of the assured hope about what those words would mean to a vast majority of people. Christianity, Judaism and Islam all share one thing in common, a monotheistic faith in other words, a belief in one supreme God of all.

Christianity arose out of a collective experience of Jesus the Christ as God by a great many people who met or listened to him and heard his words first hand. It is an experience that has been enriched and enlarged over a very long time. The faith of Judaism was expressed in the teachings and writings of the prophets of the Old Testament. They ultimately found fulfillment in those of the New Testament. Christians, unlike their Jewish colleagues who did not convert to the new religion, believed they had ‘witnessed’ the fulfillment of a prophecy written in the Old Testament that God would become flesh and dwell among us.

The image of Christ Pantocrator (Almighty, All Powerful) in the Byzantine Church of St. Saviour in Chora (now a mosque) in Istanbul, presents Jesus as the saviour of mankind, the bringer of a new law one he holds firmly in his left hand, with his right hand raised in a gesture of blessing. Jesus was human. He lived and was subject to our human frailty, which was reflected in his humanity while at the same time embodying his divinity. The scriptures had said ‘that in him the fullness of humanity and divinity was pleased to dwell’.

Jesus’s complete obedience to the divine put him on a direct collision course with the authorities of his day and ultimately led to his execution by crucifixion on the hill at Calvary, the cities garbage tip. On the walls and ceilings of the Catacomb of Priscilla at Rome, where the early followers of the way gathered to retell his stories and talk about the miracles he had performed there are many painted images and they constitute the beginnings of Christian Art. Jesus the Christ proclaimed, by his actions, that God’s love and forgiveness was available to everyone and unconditional. This great revelation gave intense impetus to the founding of the early church and the style of Christian art it produced.

In the catacombs of Priscilla at Rome there is also a faded image above an arch of the ‘Adoration of the Magi’, the three ‘wise’ men, who came to witness the birth of the promised ‘Son of God’.  It is symbolic of how important was this message of love and hope,  representing the community of the faithful coming before the throne of God.

The gifts they brought were the key to their identity in the ancient texts….‘The Kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring presents; the Kings of Arabia and Saba shall bring gifts’.

When the Roman Emperor Constantine embraced Christianity and located his new capital in the East at Byzantium he determined to make it another Rome, although far more magnificent if possible, than the old one. Under his direction Constantinople became unquestionably the leading centre of a culture that while it paralleled the Middle Ages in Europe in the East it provided ‘a golden bridge joining East and the West’ and this refers to art, no less than to any other sphere of activity.

Constantine and his successors saw Christianity as vital to the unity of the Empire and their determination to dominate the Church set them eventually on a collision course with the Popes who were now the spiritual leaders of the Church at Rome.

However, we digress, Constantine had works of ancient art transferred to his new city. He introduced Christian emblems such as crosses and relics and, it was during his reign that the Virgin Mary became official protector of his city, which became an enormous repository for Christian art works.

An image of Gregory the Great (590-604) at his writing desk depicts him as an inspired teacher and guide – the bird whispering in his ear represents the holy spirit while a bevy of scribes copy his words.

During the three centuries between the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ and the official recognition of the church by the Roman Emperor Constantine, Christianity acquired the main elements that still characterise it today.

Vines heavy with bunches of grapes were a symbol of the former Greek God of Wine Dionysus and they writhe and intertwine through early Christian imagery in every medium, including mosaics. Jesus had said of himself, ‘I am the true vine‘.   So if he was the vine then the faithful were the branches and the vine becomes an image that represents, or is symbolic of the Church.

The early church was blessed with many brilliant minds with a genius for organization, including St. Paul, who was perhaps the greatest organizer of all.

Men of power and influence’ they could not only inspire and motivate their communities, but also were able to put in place a mechanism of administrative skills that would ensure the traditions they established would continue for two thousand years, an impressive result by anyone’s definition.

They also established an iconography so that Christians were able to express their faith in visual terms, drawing at first for that purpose upon imagery already available to them from the pagan society and culture they had lived most of their lives within.

This was important, because the major proportion of the population was illiterate, which was another barrier to spreading the words stories of Jesus, and the gospels written by his apostles.

A mosaic in the Church of SS Cosmas and Damian at Rome dates from the mid sixth century.

It depicts the Lamb of God raised in the centre on a small mound from, which issue the four rivers of Paradise.

Many were able to ‘read the pictures’ and receive the message because they knew the stories so well because they had been passed on in an established oral tradition.

As time went on however, to do this would become increasingly more difficult.

…This is an excerpt from Day 6, Part 1 of At The Beginnings of Art – Mosaics at Ravenna, the first part of our online course The Evolution of Art, Design and Style

Carolyn McDowall ©The Culture Concept Circle 2011

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Related posts:

1. CIVILISED – At the Beginnings of Art – Day 6 – Mosaics at Ravenna, One Part Only
2. At the Beginnings of Art – Conversion, Cornerstones and Civilised Life
3. CIVILISED – At the Beginnings of Art – Day 5 At the Meeting of Heaven and Earth

Cupid and Pschye - Sculptor Antonio Canova in Le Louvre at Paris

The story about the classical pairing of Psyche and Cupid is about the soul being pursued by desire. What more inspirational work of art could we have for artisans making love jewellery than this superb sculpture in the Louvre at Paris. Commissioned by Colonel John Campbell in 1787, purchased by Joachim Murat in 1801 and carved at Rome by sculptor Antonio Canova in 1793 when he was 36 years of age, this amazing work captures our imagination provoking an emotional response. Surely his skill at injecting stone with human emotion is rivaled only by that of old master sculptor Michaelangelo.

Realism is the antithesis of Romanticism. Romance is not about being ‘rational’. It is all about being ‘emotional’, which was at the heart of most aesthetic creative experiences during this time. The arts, architecture and timeless traditions from many other cultures were also held up to scrutiny for their noble and uplifting characteristics, as well as for exploiting their picturesque qualities.

Brooch by Rene Lalique 1904-6 Gold, enamel and fire opals. V & A Museum at London

The Romantic era originated in the second half of the eighteenth century in Europe, peaked around the middle of the nineteenth century and then petered out, albeit slowly until the advent and establishment of the movement known as Modernism. This gained momentum in the latter part of the nineteenth century, had its first creative climax in the Edwardian period and again in the 20′s and early 30′s following World War I, especially in America.  There it evolved into becoming an important aspect of pop art and the advertising world set around Madison Avenue, New York where in the late 40′s and early 50′s there was a great need for graphics that were easy to produce, eye catching and simply stylised.

Style movements in the evolution of creative art, design and culture do not neatly end one day so that the next one can start a day later. The late eighteenth and nineteenth century in England, across Europe and America was a period overlaid with many complex movements in art, literature and music. Intellectual ideas and social change also impacted on their development and ensured that the whole period was a melting pot of creativity. The revival of the ‘classical’ ideal with the acceleration of considered archaeology during the latter half of the nineteenth century, elevated notions of goodness, unrequited love and the pursuit of perfection. An admiration for the ancient Medieval past in England espoused Gothic notions of horror and awe of vampires and the undead.

Embracing the exotic had a boost, especially following the opening of Japan to the west by American Commodore Perry (confirmed with the Treaty of Kaagawa in 1854). Designer Rene Lalique researched mediums of glass and enamel, producing a design dialogue exclusively his own. He worked in a new stylistic languaged, which was based on sinuous interpretations of forms in nature we now know as Art Nouveau. He also championed non precious materials, producing dramatic pieces that influenced and inspired others

Rene Lalique’s early production was retailed by famous jewellery houses, including Boucheron and Cartier and he dedicated himself to developing a personal and completely original style. Art nouveau was short lived in jewellery design lasting from about c1895 to c1910 and his pieces clearly prove that he had a complete grasp of the style in which nature and its association with femininity was the leitmotif-  the aim was to evoke, rather than realistically portray or copy nature.  The human form, minutely sculpted in gold, was an important theme and personifications of the idealised female beauty were particularly popular meant to portray carefree elegance.

Love Jewellery in the V & A Museum at London

Romanticism was all about escaping the mundane aspects of real life and burgeoning industrial ugliness, especially in England. There the sleek tenets of Modernism were trying to take hold amongst the confusion. Led by luminaries such as arts and crafts genius William Morris and his Pre-Raphealite associates, jewellery design used materials that provided an alternative to what many believed were flashy diamonds.

The delightful ring illustrated was a romantic present donated to the V & A by authors Geoffrey and Caroline Munn. Curators tell us the French word ‘pensées’ means both pansies, as painted on the bezel of this ring, and ‘thoughts’, although in this case the pansies stand for ‘pensez’, meaning ‘think’. The flowers and words taken together read ‘Pensez à votre ami’, ‘think of your friend’. Geoffrey is the BBC’s expert on Jewellery for the Antiques Roadshow and has written many definitive books on jewellery.

Cupid & Pschye Cameo British Museum

This final in our series about Love Jewellery has us now entering a world well on the way to becoming global …

…one in which cameos had yet another revival. Carved from various materials  lava, conch shells, coral, various man made materials as well as sardonyx and chalcedony – comprising of semi precious gemstones such as moss agate, carnelian, heliotrope and onyx they were surrounded in a gold frame to be worn as a brooch or pendant on a gold chain. They were an indispensable aspect of any lady of quality’s costume.

Stunning Collection 19th century archaeological Jewellery V & A Museum London

During the last fifty years of the nineteenth century any lady of fashion visiting Italy would consider her tour of Rome incomplete if she did not call into Castellani’s shop near the Spanish Steps to acquire a piece of archaeological revival jewellery.

Early in the eighteenth century a retail premises for fine archaeological jewellery had been founded by Roman antique dealer, goldsmith and designer extraordinaire Fortunato Pio Castellani (1794-1865). He pioneered the classical revival in his Roman workshop and he and his sons would inspire others to produce stunning examples throughout the century.

Detail of Brooch by Castellani, Glorious Antique Jewelry NY

Superb Bracelet by Castellani Glorious Antique Jewelry NY

Castellani approached antiquity with an open mind and together with his sons, Alessandro (1822-1883) and Augusto (1829 – 1914) became world famous. Their jewellery was enormously popular in England, extensively imitated there as well as in Italy, France and the United States.

Concerned at declining standards of craftsmanship Fortunato Castellani had become interested during the late 1820′s in Etruscan jewellery, seeking to learn the method of producing its granulated gold.

This was gold used as decoration on the surface of jewellery by fixing minute round grains to the metal base. The grains were made by pouring into water molten gold, which formed drop like granules. An alternative method was placing gold cuttings in a crucible with charcoal and heating and rotating it so the gold formed small spheres.

They were then soldered onto the object by a technique that meant the soldering was invisible. In the finest Etruscan examples minute gold granules sometimes only 0.25 mm were sprinkled on the surface. The technique had been long forgotten and people were fascinated with its rediscovery.

Pendant by Carlo Giuliano V & A Museum London

Agate Scarab Pendant by Giuliano in the Egyptian taste

In his workshops Castellani trained many new goldsmiths and they produced outstanding works. It is disputed by some scholars that Carlo Giuliano was perhaps one of them.

Curators at the V&A Museum at London, which has a collection of Giuliano jewellery, have published that he accompanied Castellani to London after probably training in his workshop at Rome. Whatever the story about these two jewellers they are now renowned for the superb quality of the objects they produced and collectors clamour to find them.

Carlo Giuliano and his sons Carlo Joseph and Arthur Alphonse arrived in London c1860 and at first opened a manufactory in Soho before opening a retail premises in 1874 in Piccadilly, producing exquisite jewels in the neo-Renaissance and archaeological revival taste.

One of his most colourful English patrons was the wife of the Prime Minister.  Margot Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith was a socialite, wit and author whose works were not always critically accepted.

The most famous review of Asquith’s work came from New York wit Dorothy Parker, who wrote, “The affair between Margot Asquith and Margot Asquith will live as one of the prettiest love stories in all literature”as well as wife of the Prime Minister. She certainly horrified Giuliano’s London staff by sitting on the table swinging her legs when considering new additions to her own jewel collection.

An interest in Egyptology was greatly enhanced in England at this time by the work of the indefatigable Miss Amelia Edwards, who founded the Egyptian Exploration Society. Carlo Giuliano and his sons over the years brought vast numbers of impressive antiquities to London, including Egyptian scarabs and faience, which were collected by Carlo Giuliano and mounted in jewellery.

Art Nouveau Snake Motif Locket

Arthur Alphonse Guiliano not only inherited his father’s business but also left his wife to live with the woman he loved and whose children he had fathered. When Carlo Giuliano died (1895), the business was handed down from father to sons, remaining open until 1914.

For many of the jewellers of this time the return to nature resulted in a rejection of the antique and metaphors for love rejected in favour of an often morbid eroticism, in which women were associated with the insect world, sleep and death, metamorphosis and sapphism. These were considered at the time extremely risque and quite without precedent in the history of jewellery design.

Bow Brooch in the Garland Style by Cartier

Louis Francois Cartier (1819-1904) opened his shops in London and New York in 1902 and 1909 respectively. His jewels were delicate, had finesse and complemented the clothing designed by the Worth Brothers, the most fashionable of all the Parisian couturiers. They dressed all the most fashionable women of their day in delicate softly coloured silks; lilac, pink, yellow, mauve, straw and hydrangea blue.

Cartier encouraged his designers to consult original eighteenth century pattern books and also wander through the streets of Paris taking sketches of eighteenth century architectural detail.  This type of inspiration resulted in the garland style, one he made his own and others copied, with swags, bows and trails of diamond set flowers characterize it.

Platinum was also coming into wider use. It didn’t tarnish, was useful in that it contributed to the development of jewellery that used a minimum of metal as it was quite a bit heavier and stronger than gold. It maximised the use of diamonds as in Cartier’s Bow Brooch, which was inset with panels of carved quartz crystal

Edwardian Garland Paste Necklace

Garlands, laurel wreaths, bow knots, tassels and lace motifs were among Cartier’s most favourite decorative devices and his royal, aristocratic articulate, light and insubstantial creations were received with great enthusiasm by his clientele on both sides of the Atlantic and copied by others in semi precious stone and paste.

World War 1 began in 1914 and profoundly changed society. A new mode for living emerged – lets live and forget the past, The fashions and values of pre war society changed with freedom of expression a new rule. When the war ended women, proud of their emancipation also stayed on in their jobs favouring a masculine look, characterised by a thin, flat silhouette and short hair cut. Cutting a woman’s hair at this time was a dramatic social change, as they were encouraged to keep it long until they were married. Accompanied by the emergence and flourishing of a revolutionary style of fashion, design and illustration the reality of this change was a great deal for many people to deal with.

Actress Gertrude Lawrence

Gone was the overpowering opulence of the late Victorian period and the quiet gentle elegance of Edwardian times. In its place were clear, clean lines of angular geometric shapes, refined detailing and super draftsmanship and craftsmanship. It was the beginnings of the jazz age with racy music, retro design and the emancipation of women now looming large.

Brooch by Cartier Rock Crystal, platinum and diamonds

The ideal jewel of the 1920′s  had to complement a particular dress, or a particular woman and was chosen to suit her tastes, lifestyle and features. Actress Gertrude Lawrence was photographed by Cecil Beaton revealing the sense of drama and confidence women of the age exuded. The popularity of pearls encouraged a group of Japanese scientists, led by Mikimoto, to develop the technique of pearl cultivation.

The first cultivated pearls appeared on the market in 1921 and notwithstanding the strong  opposition from natural pearl merchants, quickly became a typical feature of the 1920′s. Worn both day and night either alone or combined with precious or hard stones important technical advances facilitated superb combinations of surfaces, metals, gems and colours. Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Moderns in Paris in 1925  lent its name to the terminology Art Deco.

The aim of the exhibition was to promote a ‘social art’ or better still, establish a closer working relationship between art and industry. The war effort advanced technology quickly so designers found many new avenues for surmounting the challenges of production, paving the way for imagination and innovation. While Cartier always embraced new fashion the aim was at maintaining moderation, style and balance to meet the tastes and requirements of a privileged elite, their target market

Coco Chanel Fashion Leader

An avant-garde woman during the 1920′s and 1930′s wanted a style of jewellery inspired by designs such as those of the exciting Ballets Russes, exotic forms of Oriental, African and South American art and other contemporary movements in art that reduced each object to utilitarian lines. The new standard for excellence in jewellery design was led triumphantly by the trusted and established firm of Cartier. Coco Chanel was the rage designer in France at this period. Her classical two piece suits were accompanied by yards of strings of pearls, natural or imitation.

Gold and gilt chains also became the indispensable accessory for all fashionable women. In some ways the modern movement that began c1880 was endeavouring to correct the retrospective phase of the nineteenth century but in the end ended up inspired by finds from antiquity began returning to it.

Fueling the change was the discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb in November 1922, which set the western world on fire. Carter’s excavations would reveal stunning jewellery especially his famous gold mask, gold pectoral, armlets, diadem and rings among all the other wonderful objects.

Cartier, Boucheron and Van Cleef and Arpels were all firms strongly influenced by a fascination with Egypt and they inspired gem cutters to experiment with new shapes.

Silver and Lapis Lazuli Sautior

The favourite necklace of the 20′s was the sautoir, a long rope decorated with a tassel of a pendant. Produced in many materials; diamonds, pearls, coral and so forth and it was the ideal accessory for the low waisted dresses of the time.

This stunning example is silver, with lapis lazuli beads, silver scarabs moonstones, sapphires & diamonds.  The pendant opens to reveal a watch

Silver and Lapis Lazuli Sautoir Open to reveal Watch c1920

Lapis Lazuli is a gemstone with a grand past. Archaeologists have established that this deep blue stone was popular thousands of years ago with the people of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, Greece and Rome. In the Middle East it was thought to have miraculous powers. It was among the first gemstones worn as jewellery.

The Egyptians loved it and even crushed it to a powder that when mixed with water could be painted on the ceiling of their tombs with the addition of gold stars. The Far East, India and Persia continued as very strong influences on Jewellery throughout the 20′s and 30′s and Chinese mother of pearl inlaid plaques were often used in creations of oriental inspiration. American socialite and divorcee Mrs. Wallis Simpson married her King in 1937 and became the Duchess of Windsor. An enthusiast of jewellery, fashion and the prevailing modern style she led fashion the world over.

Duchess of Windsor

He had stunning jewellery fashioned for her by Cartier, Van Cleef and Arpels, Belperron and Harry Winston and gave it to her in love.  First as a Prince, then as King, and finally as a Duke the inscription ‘My Wallis from her David’ says it all. What more could any woman want than a man who would give up being a King for love.

The Wall Street crash of 1929 in New York and the consequent economic crisis changed life dramatically all around the world. The creations of the mid 1930′s before World War II exhibit an opulence of gemstones and designs unknown in the previous decade as jewels became larger and bolder as consumer confidence returned. After the War designer, wholesaler, retailer and diamond cutter Harry Winston became the world’s largest individual dealer and leading connoisseur of diamonds.

Elizabeth Taylor wearing the Taylor/Burton Diamond set by Cartier

Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor set the world on fire when they met on the set of the movie Cleopatra. They became a world famous celebrity couple when they met, and married, divorced and married again with Richard showering Elizabeth with jewellery, including a wonderful array of diamonds, some purchased from Harry Winston.

The most stunning single 69 carat stone that became known as the Taylor/Burton diamond was originally owned by Cartier Inc. who paid the record price of $1,050,000 for the gem at auction. Richard Burton bought the stone the next day for Elizabeth Taylor as he wanted to give to her with love for her 40th birthday present.

Renamed the Taylor-Burton diamond she first wore it publicly at a party for Princess Grace’s 40th birthday in Monaco. It just had to be diamonds…as they are forever and,  after all, everyone knows they are a girl’s best friend. In 1978 Elizabeth Taylor sold the Taylor/Burton diamond to build a hospital in Botswana.

…and if I give away all I have and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing…Love is patient and kind; it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things…faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love…1 Corinthians 13

Carolyn McDowall©The Culture Concept Circle, 2009, 2010, 2011

This is the final part of a four part series. Read the rest of this series.

Read the 4 Installment Series in Chronological Order

Love Jewellery – Rome to Renaissance

Love Jewellery – Restoration to Revolution

Love Jewellery – Regency to Revival

Love Jewellery – Romantics to Retro

Bibliography

The Bible
Memoirs of the Private Life of Marie Antoinette by Madame Campan 1823 Henry Colburn & Co & M Bossange & Co
The Last Medici Harold Acton Macmillan 1980
The Triumph of Love Geoffrey Munn Thames & Hudson 1993
Louis and Antoinette Vincent Cronin Harper Collins 1974
Works of Jane Austen Jane Austen Folio Society 1975
Mme de Pompadour Nancy Mitford Hamish Hamilton 1968
Six Wives of Henry VIII Antonia Fraser Weidenfeld & Nicolson1996
Folio Golden Treasury Various Poet Folio Society 1988
Madame du Barry Joan Haslip Grove Weidenfeld 1991
Understanding Jewellery David Bennett David Mascetti Antique Collectors Club
All the Queen’s Men Neville Williams Cardinal 1974
Elizabeth 1 From Contemporary Documents Maria Perry Folio Society 1990
Treasures of the Medici Anna Maria Massinelli Thames & Hudson 2000
Gem Kingdom Paul Deautels Grossett & Dunlap 1971
Henry VIII and his Court Neville Williams Chancellor Press
Splendors of the Roman World Anna Maria Liberati Thames & Hudson
Civilization Timothy Potts Australian National Gallery 1990
Meditations on Love Sister Wendy Beckett K Publishing 1995
V & A Museum Website

Related posts:

1. Love Jewellery from Cupid to Cartier
2. Love Jewellery – Rome to Renaissance
3. Love Jewellery – Restoration to Revolution

Venus and Adonis by Rubens

This rather erotic love language comes from the Old Testament of the Bible, an edited extract from the Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s. Love! I am sure everyone has experienced that most frustrating, captivating, exquisite, infuriating, but enduring of all human emotions called love.

An important aspect of every human society yet recorded is a belief that gold and gemstones had an enormous effect on the affairs of many. This has not been limited to any age or culture and tokens of human affection have been treasured throughout the ages. If you bring gold and precious or semi precious stones together skilfully and make them symbolise romance and reflect true love then you have a ‘tour de force’, a triumph of Cupid’s D’art! Excavators at Pompeii found a variety of gem stones in one shop, some only partly cut along with the tools for working them.

Amorini, or cupids in a wallpainting in the Casa Vettii at Pompeii

In another shop a note left by a visitor on that fateful day in the year ‘79 saying. ‘I should like my jewel to be ready at three o’clock’.Pompeii was the place where the elite in Roman society went for a holiday and to enjoy the company of friends. A modern day Australian comparison would be Noosa on the Sunshine Coast. Jewellers had a ready market in Pompeii forming an active profession the Aurifes universi, which supported local candidates for political office. The level of business was such that even very special gem cutters and engravers were drawn to the town and made a living there.

Evidence that love and jewellery were associated in the ancient world can be found detailed in a fresco adorning the walls of the House of Vetti in Pompeii. It depicts a goldsmith’s workshop and a group of amorini, or cupids engaged in making jewelled ornaments, intended to wound a victim’s heart. According to first century documenter of Roman times, author, naturalist and natural philosopher Pliny the Elder ‘People nowadays go to buy clothes in China, look for pearls in the depth of the Red Sea and emeralds in the bowels of the earth…moreover, the practice of piercing the ears has been invented. It did not suffice to wear jewels round the neck, in the hair and on the hands; they also have to be stuck in the body!’

When people today talk about gems and gemology the basic vocabulary seems to have become confused. So just for clarification. Gemstones are minerals found in the earth. ‘Gems’ are objects fashioned from them. Jewels are gems prepared for mounting in jewellery or other objects of art. And, jewellery is the finished product that adorns the wearer.

In ancient Greek mythology Aphrodite, the Goddess of  love and desire rose naked from the foam of the sea and was reputed to have stepped ashore at Cythera in the Ionian islands where grass and flowers sprang up wherever her feet touched the earth. Her divine duty was to make love and inspire others to do so.  In an early manifestation as the familiar of Aphrodite you could describe Eros, the God of Love, perhaps as being bittersweet. Greek lyric poets and tragedians stressed his omnipotence and cruelty. What thing is love for (well I wot) love is a thing, It is a prick; it is a sting, It is a pretty, pretty thing, It is a fire; it is a coal, Whose flame creeps in every hole.’

As a companion of Venus in her Roman manifestation, known as Cupid he could be both young and beautiful. Cupids were widely used emblems of prosperity belonging to the worlds of both Venus and the God of Wine, Bacchus. As time progressed he turned into a rather chubby mischievous little boy.

Venus and Cupid by Cranch

A well-known painting of him with Venus 1531 by Lucas Cranch depicts Cupid complaining to his mother Venus. He is suffering loudly from bee stings – a warning of the pain, which so often accompanies the pleasure of love.

The history of ancient Italy does not just reside with the Romans. Long before Rome became the centre of a Roman Empire, Rome was but a town on the coastal plain tucked between the Latin tribes in the hills to the east and south, with in the north, the mysterious and very colourful people known as the Etruscans. They ruled the lands of Etruria, broadly corresponding to the modern region we now know as Tuscany.

The people called themselves Rasenna, it was the Romans that gave them the name Etruscan (Etrusci or Tusci) and the Greeks called them Tyrsenoi, rendered in English as Tyrrhenians, the name of the sea to the west of the Italian Peninsula. They had a reputation in the ancient world as  consumers of good things and were particularly famous as jewellers.

Etruscan Grape Cluster Earring V & A Museum at London

They crafted gold and silver jewellery and engraved gems, which they traded all around the Mediterranean world. Etruscan goldsmiths produced objects technically very difficult to make. Etruscan grape-cluster earrings of the 4th century before Christ are often shown worn by women on Etruscan terracottas and tomb paintings.

Some terracotta heads show they were very large and nestled behind the curls of the wearer,  tucked into the side of the neck.  Shaped from thin sheet gold clusters of gold globules they were attached and the whole decorated with filigree – attached gold wire – and granulation.

The technique of granulation developed by the Etruscan goldsmiths was brought to an extraordinary standard of perfection and was often extremely fine. It reached its height at Etruria in the seventh and sixth centuries before Christ and has never been surpassed.

Young Woman Mummy Portrait from Fayum

It was necessary to produce first tiny pellets of gold, then using a copper solution mixed with vegetable or fish glue diluted with water, the pellets were then applied in selected patterns onto the object. As copper has a lower melting point than gold, the copper, when heated, joined the pellets to the background, In this way fusion of the pellets and background was prevented and the granular effect was not lost. Granulation is often combined with filigree, which was the application of gold wire to the surface.

1st Century Roman Woman wearing an outstanding collection of Jewellery

Mummification continued to be practised during the Roman period after the year 30 BC in Egypt. Painted mummy portraits like our young lady reveal their jewellery preferences. She is wearing a stunning brooch, with complementary earrings and hair jewel. These paintings are among the most remarkable historical and cultural documents of outstanding interest found in the cemeteries of the Fayum district of Egypt by archaeologist Sir Flinders Petrie (1853–1942).

What archaeologists call true Roman jewellery was first made in the first century BCE. Any Greek or Roman travelling through the Medietrranean area at that time would have been confronted by a cultural mosaic composing elements from many different periods.

The preference in the first century was for colourful, though not very elaborate pieces and pearls, gems and glass paste contrasted with the bright yellow gold to produce jewels of great effect and ostentation, beloved by the nouveaux riche.

Our second portrait was also excavated by Petrie who dubbed her Jewellery Girl. ‘In the top of her bun is a pin set with pearls and garnets. The bun is gathered with a gold chain with a central medallion and decorated gold boxes at either side. Above these a long pin is worn across the back of the head.

She has four necklaces, the uppermost matching the pin in the bun with pale stones, perhaps aquamarine in gold settings between small pearls and garnets. Beneath is a necklace of squared emeralds separated by gold beads, and below that a chain of gold beads with a gold pendant. Hanging low on her breast is a plated gold chain with a large oval stone, perhaps an emerald intaglio in a heavy gold setting.  She is also wearing trident earrings with a central pearl set above the bar and three pendant pearls.  Pearls were highly prized, the most valuable usually imported from the Red Sea could fetch exorbitant prices. Drop earrings consisting of two or more pearls were called crotalia, by analogy with the tinkling sound of the simple percussion instruments played at that time called crotali’.

Roman garnet intaglio, c. 1st century AD, engraved with a nude Apollo, his right arm raised holding a bow, his left arm reaching for an arrow from his quiver, a wreath in his hair, in a classic 22ct gold setting. Anne Schofield Antiques, Sydney

Fragment of a 1st Century Cameo

Women during Roman times wore a great deal of ancestral jewellery handed down, so dating them stylistically from mummy boards doesn’t always work for some scholars. As the Roman Empire collapsed between the fourth and sixth centuries after Christ fragments of precious jewels were preserved and today collecting them has become a favourite pastime for many.

Two of the most favoured jewels in ancient society was an Intaglio,  that of an image created by cutting, carving or engraving into a flat surface and the Cameo, where the image is what is left when the background has been cut away to leave the image above the back ground.

The measure of a cameo of great quality is the depth of its carving.

The Ancient Cultural mosaic was shattered between the fourth and sixth centuries AD as the borders of the Roman Empire collapsed and today fragmens of the Greek , Etruscan and Roman cultural mosaic are spread throughout the world. The Lady and the Unicorn (La Dame a la Licorne) is the collective title for six tapestry panels, hung originally in the Castle of Boussac and now in the Museum of the Middle Ages (Museé de Moyen Age) at Paris.

Lady and the Unicorn - Sound

The colours of the clothes, flowers (mille fleurs) and jewellery were rendered in wool and provide a superb documentary record of the style of costume worn in fourteenth century Europe. Costume encompasses all that we wear, including objects for personal adornment such as jewellery, hats, gloves, shoes, accessories and undergarments.

All these various aspects of costume have an interesting history and reflect our social growth. They also project our beliefs both religious and spiritual, while aesthetically convey an image purely for purposes of personal status or, to accommodate a desire to be distinguished from others in a culture and its society.

Henry VIII in a typical power pose

As the feudal system, that had been in place throughout the middle ages disintegrated a burgeoning of luxury in the royal and princely courts of Europe and England began.  At this level costume is subjected to politics; the preening extravagances of exotic charismatic emperors, princes, potentates or dictators was from antiquity right through until today

The Tudor monarchs of England perceived that visitors to the court equated lavish display with national strength and power. No other period in history was to give men more precious adornments to project their beauty and status and Henry VIII (1491-1547) just loved flamboyant display,  apparent in all familiar depictions of him.

19th century reproduction Renaissance Hat Badge by Castellani courtesy V & A Museum London

His chest measured 45 inches in his youth and he wore lavish clothes on which jewels were abundantly applied. By 1540 Henry’s chest had grown to 58 inches and was a perfect display area. (Who would have needed a jewellery shop with a client like Henry. He is a display case in himself). He strived to keep, forgive the pun, abreast of all the latest developments in the arts. When viewing his portraits however, we would have to believe that his elaborate codpiece protected, what he more than likely would have considered, after having had six wives, his most precious jewels of all.

At this time aesthetic and ethical ideas could not be considered a mere imitation of the classical world for it was believed that if the ancients were to be revered and admired at all it was because they were thought to have found their wisdom and art at the same source as that of knowledge and beauty. This was an ideal Henry VIII turned to in his quest for a new life.

One of the most popular adornments he wore was called an Enseigne (hat badge). Made of gold and jewels and worn on the hat or cap of men of prominence, their design was mainly allegorical accompanied by an explanatory motto. These devices, as they became known,  led to a delight in anything ingenious or unusual even if it had no secret meaning.

Artists rendering them in many mediums chose the better known mythology of the ancient world and as a result,  their works were rich in amatory illusion. The intent of any device was to teach an intuitive form of moral truth.

Their real charm however lay in the fact it was only those who could read their visual message that knew their real significance so if you particularly want to understand jewellery design of this period you need to be well versed in your mythology and legend.

15c Italian Gold Signet Ring

The Venetian ambassador to his court described Henry VIII’s fingers as ‘one mass of jewelled rings’. Rings on the finger, and indeed on other parts of one’s person, have been worn continuously since the 3rd Millennium BCE by all civilisations. The ring, being a circle, has no beginning or end so perfectly represents the enduring qualities of true love. A diamond inset into a marriage ring was, by the C15, a symbol of conjugal faithfulness because of its resistance to fire and steel. It was also used in its natural crystalline structure and set, although it did not sparkle like today’s highly polished jewels. Its hardness however was admired and it came to symbolise the durability of marriage and an important aspect of the ritual surrounding weddings. Anne of Cleves when she married Henry VIII had a very optimistic inscription on her wedding ring: ‘God send me well to kepe’.

Jane Seymour by Holbein

Henry encouraged foreign artisans to England. In 1526 German painter Hans Holbein the Younger arrived and by 1536 had become the King’s painter. As well as rendering series of portraits of eminent people of his era Holbein embraced jewellery and metal design, books illustration and decorative schemes.

Early eighteenth century British physician, naturalist and collector Sir Hans Sloane bequeathed 179 of Holbein’s jewellery designs to the British Museum and they provide a fascinating study.

Jane Seymour, who gave Henry his long awaited son and heir, was painted by Holbein wearing some wonderful jewellery given in love by Henry to her. Her selection includes a popular form of pendant made of a large emerald, emblematic of love, together with a ravishing ruby, representing his passion.

The sixteenth centuries luxurious materials, rich heavy stuffs, thick embroideries, sumptuous silks and velvets, as well as fragile lace, provided perfect settings for, or enhanced the wearing of, superb jewellery.

For many it was far more important to have seen Queen Elizabeth 1 (1558 – 1603) in person than to have seen England.

Coronation Portrait Elizabeth 1

At her coronation, which took place on a crisp winter morning with just a hint of snow in the air, ‘she wore her hair as her mother had done, unbraided… hanging loosely about her shoulders’ symbolic of her unmarried state. The congregation in Westminster Abbey went wild with enthusiasm.

She was clothed in a gown made from one of the extraordinary textiles of the time, known as the cloth of gold, holding a bejewelled orb and sceptre her hands as well as the objects being symbols of her authority . Her gown was trimmed with ermine, symbolic of her purity as a Virgin Queen as were the pearls in her crown.

Elizabeth 1 was given a great deal of jewellery as a ‘love gift’, however none more acceptable to her than that from her favourite the Earl of Leicester. She was well aware of what image and marketing, supposed modern concepts, were all about and revelled in the business of courtship, a game at which she excelled. It is evident, from all the writings about her Elizabeth loved the rich gifts of jewels showered upon her as well as the flattery and protestations of the various envoys all striving to outdo each other for her favour.

Elizabeth 1

Baron Zdenek Waldstein of Moravia visited England in the summer of 1600 and prayed for nothing so much as that he ‘might come face to face into the presence of your majesty…the greatest object of my journey ‘the figure of the Queen’ glittering with the glory of majesty and adorned with jewellery and precious gems’.

Erik XIV of Sweden declared he would ‘rush through armies of foes to protect her’ and had a superb portrait of her painted for his personal pleasure. In it, sewn to her very chic red coat and hat are clusters of gems and pearls and the sleeves of the jacket are encrusted with pearls all the way up to the elbows.

Sir Francis Bacon recorded that Elizabeth imagined people … ‘would be diverted by the glitter of her jewels from noticing the decay of her personal attractions’…and surviving contemporary portraits reveal the extent of her ability to influence people’s perceptions of her.

Artists and artisans of the Renaissance in Italy took full possession of their classical heritage and it inspired them toward new creative endeavours.

Bia de Medici (Uffizi, Florence)

The House of Medici was a new type of patron. This prominent banking family was very passionate about the antique and it had the wealth to patronise artists with great creative gifts.

The remaining Treasures of the Medici, although plundered over the centuries were a triumph of the jeweller’s art and for as long as the duchy lasted the creation of beautiful objets d’art was a focus and boast of the Medici Court.

During the Middle Ages Venus had come to represent fear of nudity, luxuria, or sensuality, as well as paganism. During Europe’s rebirth she returned to her original role as universal mother and creator of all living things.

Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) painted her as a contemporary lady and placed her before a mirror, a symbol of truth (it does not lie), which reflects pride (Satan’s image), as well as the two dangers of vanity and lust. Ruben’s Venus is a truly luscious lady wearing, well nothing at all really, except a stunning gold bracelet decorated with arrows.

This is a sign that Cupid, now reduced to a winged youth or chubby infant flying about on golden wings randomly shooting arrows to make his targets fall in love, or setting their hearts on fire with his torch, has been around endeavouring to use the power of love to disarm her strength….continued

This is part one of a four part series.
Love Jewellery – Cupid to Cartier

Read the rest of this series

Author Carolyn McDowall ©The Culture Concept Circle 2010, 2011

Read the 4 Installment Series in Chronological Order

Love Jewellery – Rome to Renaissance

Love Jewellery – Restoration to Revolution

Love Jewellery – Regency to Revival

Love Jewellery – Romantics to Retro

Related posts:

1. Love Jewellery from Cupid to Cartier
2. Love Jewellery – Regency to Revival
3. Love Jewellery – Romantics to Retro