Friends of Versailles

Tags

art., artists, Chapelle royale, history, palace, Versailles

Friends groups exist everywhere and they are useful to raise funds and promote a site. Friends of Museums, Opera Houses, Theatres, Palaces, Gardens, etc. All have in common raising funds and promoting a place and attracting others to their project.

The Palace of Versailles was built between 1631 and 1715. Then after 1792 when it was closed by the Revolutionary government, it’s furniture and all its fixtures where sold off to foreign collectors. The Wallace Collection in London has an incredible array of furniture and objects from the Palace and it is all beautifully presented at Hertford House in Manchester Square, the former townhouse of the Seymour family, Marquesses of Hertford. It is named after Sir Richard Wallace, who built the extensive collection, along with the Marquesses of Hertford.

During the 19th century the Palace was remodelled to accommodate the French Senate and Legislative assembly. Great painting galleries were built from the former apartments of the Great Princes. Other buildings like Trianon and Le Hameau de la Reine were left to decay, this including the fountains and the extensive gardens and statuary.

When I first visited Versailles in 1969 with my parents, the palace looked a little sad and neglected. Yes, you could see the great rooms of the palace like la gallerie des glaces and the royal bedrooms, but they were empty of furniture, no candelabras or curtains on the windows. It was difficult to imagine how the King lived in such a place surrounded by a large number of Courtisans. The guided tours only gave the most perfunctory information mostly the major dates and details well known to all. My father remarked that the way the tour was given you had the impression that everything had been sent out for cleaning but would be back next week.

Les Amis du Chateau de Versailles is more than 100 year old association. In 1998 a group of wealthy Americans formed what is known as the American Friends of Versailles. Their goal was simple, raise funds to promote and support major restoration projects for the Palace and gardens and to support the French group of Les Amis, promoting friendship between France and the USA.

It goes without saying that any restoration work at Versailles requires experts in many fields, including archeologists, artists, historians and scholars plus artisan builders. The cost is always in the millions of Euros and the French Government and the European Union participate financially. Versailles is a UNESCO site.

The American Friends of Versailles being hosted at the Elysée Palace by Madame Macron, wife of the French President.

In the last few years restoration projects were done or are under way at Le Hameau de la Reine, which is this little farm built for Marie-Antoinette so she could play the Bergère and pretend she lived a simple life. The Royal Gate was rebuilt in front of the Chateau, it had been torn down at the Revolution, the roof top of the entire palace was re-gilded in gold leaf as it was in the 18th century. Major fountains in the park were totally restored. Now the Royal Chapel completed in 1715 is being restored and repaired, this multi-year project should be completed in the Spring of 2021. It is the first major restoration of the Chapel since its construction. The roof with its giant wood beams and slate roof had not been touched in 300 years.

These are only some of the numerous projects underway at Versailles. The last time I visited was 1989 for the sad anniversary of the so called French Revolution which now is called a Civil War by historians, at that time some furniture had returned and some restoration had been done.

In recent YouTube videos you can see the work being done on the Palace. It is nothing short of breathtaking. There is also an active program to recover some of the original furniture of the Palace, however the Wallace Collection in London is not parting with any of its royal furniture.

Restauration de la Chapelle Royale de Versailles.

Homage à Juliette Gréco

Tags

art., culture, France, Greco, Paris, Sartre, Songs

A few days ago Juliette Gréco (1927-2020) described as the Muse of St-Germain-des-Prés and a figure of the après-guerre and the Existantialism Mouvement died in Ramatuelle in the Var region of France, age 93.

It was Jean-Paul Sartre, writer philosopher, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic (1905-1980) who encouraged her to go into a singing career. His books on the topic fascinated a whole generation and was a way of looking at the world after the Second World War. I remember in school in Montreal we heard a lot about Sartre and our teachers would often quote him. My mother read his books and those of Simone de Beauvoir. It was the thing then and it all seems so long ago now. Though I think that revisiting Existentialism today while this pandemic is here might be helpful.

Existentialism is a form of philosophical enquiry that explores the nature of existence by emphasizing experience of the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual.

Juliette Gréco is just one of those artists whose fame makes them immortal. She sang songs with lyrics written by French poets such as Jacques Prévert and Boris Vian and singers like Jacques Brel and Serge Gainsbourg. All the greats of the XXth century French culture. She had a very long career and she left her mark.

I chose this song Il n’y a plus d’après which I think represents that era. St-Germain-des-Prés of course refers to the Paris neighbourhood where political activism was concentrated amongst the students and was the spot to be for anyone who sought to be involved in politics, mostly left wing, socialist, communist. In the song she refers to her lover who has moved to the other end of Paris away from St-Germain-des-Prés, meaning away from life from real existence, from what matters.

final touches

Tags

art., culture, Empire, Germany, Hohenzollern, palace, Prussia

Daily I follow the changes around the final touches in the re-building of the Berlin City Palace now known as the Humboldt Forum which was set to open this September 2020, but now it has been postponed to October 2021. The Pandemic cut the working construction crews by 25% many unable to return to work after Easter. There is a lot of details to attend to in terms of landscaping and installing new central heating system which runs in huge pipes along the street on the South side of the Palace. On the North side facing the Lutheran Cathedral and the Museums, gardens and trees have been planted. The East facade looking at Alexander Platz across the Spree River is being completed. On the West facade which is the main gate of the Palace the last scaffolding is coming down on Portal III, one big element that is missing is the bronze cartouche at the top of the triple gate, which according to plans is in the making by the same group of artisans who made the lantern with the dancing angels for the dome of the palace. It is truly work requiring a lot of attention to detail and the artisans belong to another era. Lucky that such artists like Andreas Hoferick can still be found. He is responsible for all the baroque elements of the palace, the numerous statues and cartouche that can be seen. He has worked on many projects all over Germany involving historical reconstructions. www.hoferick.com

The draft design on paper before the casting in bronze.

the cartouche will be attached to the stone facade with hooks. Below is a photo of what it looked like in 1920.

The final recreated cartouche will also be embellished with gold leaf. It is a fairly large element and is part of the 105 million Euros raised through public donations for the portion paid by the public. Total cost of this project is 750 million Euros.

This Summer as the palace was approaching the final phase, a Court case made the headlines in newspapers in Germany. It turns out that the former Royal Family of Germany and it’s head, Prince Georg Frederich of Prussia are asking the German Government for the return of their palaces and art collections which includes art work in several German Museums some of which are just across the street from the Palace. In Potsdam alone there are 5 palaces of various sizes. In Berlin one is now the Presidential Palace, Bellevue, the other would be the Charlottenburg Palace. The City Palace was the main one but in its new incarnation it is a vast conference centre, library, museum and restaurant. The German Government have won the latest round in Court. The legal argument is in the German Constitution of May 1949 which establishes the new German Federal Republic and its basic Law. In it the text states that any claimant of former properties must prove that their family had no connection or did not belong to the NSDAP (Nazi Party). Though the Prince who was born in 1976 and his father had no links whatsoever, his grandfather the Crown Prince and his great grandfather the former Kaiser in exile, uncles and cousins had links or were members of the Nazi party until 1942. So the Court rejected his claim which was seen as an over reach by the public. The family is quite wealthy and has the ancestral Hohenzollern castle in Southern Germany including the Prussian Crown Jewels and many other assets.

Castle Hohenzollern in Baden-Wurttenberg. It is open to the public https://www.burg-hohenzollern.com/startseite.html

Sunday morning

Tags

art., Italy, kaufmann, life, sunday

Another beautiful quiet sunny Sunday morning. Listening to Marc Hervieux who is a Canadian Opera singer and he has his radio show on Radio-Canada.

This morning he was playing this Italian song Parlami d’amore Mariu.

Come sei bella più bella stasera Mariú!
Splende un sorriso di stella negli occhi tuoi blu!
Anche se avverso il destino domani sarà
Oggi ti sono vicino, perché sospirar?

Sung by Jonas Kaufmann, who has a clear pronunciation in Italian.

https://youtu.be/pMgbDt31wnM

Melina Mercouri 1920-2020

Tags

art., ATHENS, Mercouri, parthenon, Piraeus

Melina Mercouri would be 100 years old in 2020, she died of cancer in New York in March 1994. She was a figure in my childhood, the movie Never on Sunday made her world famous. She was a women of great talent and became a vocal politician and defender of culture. She spoke well and with passion, her life long dream was the return of the Elgin Marbles taken from Greece during the Turkish Occupation by the British Ambassador Thomas Bruce Lord Elgin in a bid to make a quick profit, he was unlucky and despite bringing the marbles of the Parthenon to London, the British Museum refused to pay much for them. He lost his shirt in the process. The British Government to this day refuses to return the marbles, despite the fact that the New Acropolis Museum has a special room built on purpose for them. When I was accredited to Greece, I remember a plan where the British proposed to loan back the marbles at cost to the Greek Government, how cheeky!! They stole them from the Greeks in 1801.

Melina Mercouri came from a politically prominent family. She graduated from the Drama School of the National Theatre of Greece. Her first major role, at the age of 20, was Lavinia in Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra, but perhaps her most memorable parts were Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire and the good-hearted prostitute in the film Never on Sunday (1960). This film gained her an international reputation that would serve her well in politics. Her involvement in politics was triggered by her indignation over the military coup that brought a handful of army colonels to power in Greece in 1967 forcing King Constantin to go into exile.Married to the French-born film director Jules Dassin (1911-2008) (who directed most of her films), she was abroad when the coup d’Etat occurred. She dedicated herself to stimulating opposition against the military junta in Europe, to the extent that she was deprived of her Greek citizenship by the colonels’ regime.After the collapse of the dictatorship in 1974, she returned to Greece and promptly joined Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou’s Panhellenic Socialist Union (PASOK). She ran unsuccessfully that year for Parliamentary deputy from the same Piraeus district that had made her famous in Never on Sunday, but she was elected when she ran a second time, in 1977. Reelected in 1981 when Pasok won a general election, she was appointed by Papandreou to be his minister of culture.As Greek minister of Culture, one of her major efforts was an attempt to persuade the British government to return the Elgin Marbles stolen from the Parthenon to Greece; she also increased government subsidies for the arts. She served in the post until 1989, when PASOK lost power; she was reappointed after their electoral victory in 1993.

In 1971 Mercouri published an autobiography, I Was Born Greek. In 1997 UNESCO created the Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes; the prize is awarded every two years.

White marble monument to the memory of Melina Mercouri on Andrea Siggrou street across from the Olympian Zeus Temple in Athens. In Athens I would pass her monument every morning on my way to work, hello Melina!

Manos Hadjidakis (1925-1994) won the Oscar for Best Original Song for “Never On Sunday” at the 33rd Annual Academy Awards® in 1961. He was one of the greatest Greek Composer of the 20th century. The song is actually entitled in Greek Ta Paidia tou Peiraia, les enfants du Pirée, the children of the Piraeus, the film was titled in English,  Never on Sunday. A great classic, a movie I love to watch, though the Greece presented in this movie no longer exist.

 

 

Montreal Baroque

Tags

art., life, Montreal

 

 

Music by J.S.Bach adapted from Hymns.

Brandenburg Concerto No. 7: III. Allegro (After J.S. Bach’s Der Himmel lacht, die Erde jubilieret, BWV 31: Sonata for orchestra) ·

Montréal Baroque:  Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 7-12 ℗ 2012 ATMA Classique Released on: 2012-05-01 Conductor: Eric Milnes Ensemble: Montréal Baroque Composer: Bruce Haynes

Kojo-no-Tsuki (荒城の月)

Tags

art., Hakone, Japan, Jazz, lalique, life, Tokyo, train

The title is Japanese and means Ancient Moon. This is a jazz piece by Koichi Sugii and is part of  Japanese Jazz and Salon Music from 1936-1941. It was very popular in Japan and even the Emperor HiroHito would request it be played by the Imperial guard, old 78 rpm exist out there for those who might like to hear it. Koichi Sugii (1906-1942) was a Japanese bandleader, composer, arranger, conductor, singer, accordionist and recording artist. He skilfully bridged Eastern and Western styles, combining American orchestral jazz with Japanese pop and Chinese folk music to create a sophisticated and melodic hybrid with broad appeal.

Sugii was born in Tokyo in 1906. His mother sang traditional Japanese music while accompanying herself on the samisen, a three-stringed instrument. An early familiarity with his country’s native folk songs later inspired Sugii to arrange these melodies in jazz settings.

Sugii took piano lessons from a Canadian teacher, and became an ardent admirer of Western classical traditions, jazz, and film music. In 1930, after graduating from Tokyo Imperial University, he was hired by the Osaka merchant shipping company, which assigned him to Buenos Aires. In Argentina the young business executive became fascinated by musical trends, especially the tango. Convinced his true interests were in music, Sugii returned to Japan in 1932 and found work composing and recording for a film studio. In 1935 he joined Sakurai Kiyoshi’s Sakurai y Su Orquesta, a Latin-influenced band which specialized in tangos.

Those years prior to the Second World War were years of great development in Japan and the wealth people enjoyed brought luxury products to Japanese markets and a fascination with Western habits. The brother of the Emperor had a complete Lalique Museum built after a visit in France where he and his wife had René Lalique’s house dismantled and rebuilt in their museum. If you visit Tokyo you can see it, fascinating.

This Art deco building built in 1933 is part of the The Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum. The museum is located in Minato ward, just east of Meguro Station. The Art Deco building interiors were designed by Henri Rapin and features decorative glass work by René Lalique. It was pure delight to visit it and showed how sophisticated Japanese society is and was then.

Another spectacular area is the open air museum in Hakone outside Tokyo is easily reach by train. Japanese trains are a dream, never seen anywhere anything like it. The  open air museum presents sculptures by Henri Moore, Constantin Brancusi, Barbara Hepworth, Rokusan Ogiwara, Kotaro Nakamura and Niki de Saint Phalle, 120 works in all, the green space was well thought out with trees, and shrubbery designed to bring peace and facilitate reflection for visitors, very much in the Shinto style.

There is more and another incredible find is the Lalique museum, yes more Lalique and  Le Train café restaurant, the actual train transported from France, it was in service until 2001 and was part of the Orient Express line. I was trying to imagine how do you transport a train car from Europe to Japan. You can have tea on board with all the actual dishes and linens, absolutely exquisite, very high quality. Again the train car is decorated by Lalique panels and is exquisite in terms of luxury. Reservations are a must.

 

No washing machine

Tags

art., beijing, Berlin, history, life, Rome, St-Petersburg

Our washing machine died with a clunk and a whine last Thursday, we were able to secure a new washing machine almost within one hour. The drawback delivery takes 7 days, oh my! So the clothing has been piling up as well as sheets and towels. We are really dependent on this machine, now we know. But the delivery will be made by Friday so patience and no panic.

I really miss good conversation with friends face to face and the laughs and gossip. Zoom is NOT the same thing.

Scaffolding coming down this week at the main gate portal of the City Palace. Friday is the capping off of the building which can be followed on webcam. Starting at 6 am Berlin time, weather permitting.

https://cam01.berlinerschloss-webcam.de

For the last few postings I have been writing about the City Palace in Berlin and its final phase of re-construction. You may have wondered why so much interest in this one building. In fact I have been following several other projects in Europe.

One such projects is Buckingham Palace in London, the Official Residence of the Queen. There is little info on what is going on, but it is a major refit of the place from plumbing to electrical system to cleaning and painting and general repairs. Rooms have been dismantled and furniture and paintings removed for safe keeping. The Queen left London because of the pandemic but also because her London Residence was under repair and not fit to live in due to all the noise and workmen etc… Windsor is her real home, private and comfy. She and her husband only live in a suite of rooms in one wing of the Castle and not in the entire place as you might see it from the outside, still it is pretty grand. Many other people live at Windsor in what is term Grace and Favour apartments. The Queen also has other relatives live in London at Kensington Palace and St-James Palace again in apartments, all are at the pleasure of Her Majesty.

Another project is the Alexander Palace built in 1793 in an Italian/Palladian style in Tsarkoye Selo outside St-Petersburg, the work is now reaching completion after many years of complete reconstruction of what was essentially a ruined building. The last private home of Tsar Nicholas II and his wife and children before their arrest and deportation in 1917. This has been a massive work of research and archeology, restoration of furniture, original fabrics, flooring, tiling, etc. all this made possible because of voluminous archives kept on the building. This site has a huge following in Russia and around the world.

The Roman Forum is another place I love to explore and read about, about 95 years ago it became the pet project of Benito Mussolini who poured financial resources and had the best academic work on unearthing this area of what was ancient Rome. To this day several Universities and team of archeologist work for years and sometimes a life time on one area. Even now with the building of the new Metro Line crossing the Forum under Via Dei Fori Imperiali more treasures are discovered. I had the good fortune to visit some of those sites being under study and excavation, it is a real marvel.

While in Beijing, I visited various sites around the former Imperial Capital, temples, palaces and the Forbidden City compound. I lived there about 3 years prior to the Olympics. The City itself was under massive construction and re-building. Entire neighbourhoods of 3 million people each would be vacated in a matter of 48 hours with the help of the Police and Army. The Temple of Heaven and the great park around it was a favourite site. The Communist Party with the increase in tourism re-discovered the roots of Chinese culture and its historical past. So recreation was the name of the game, unfortunately so much had been lost between 1967-1976 under Mao ills advised but politically convenient cultural revolution, that doing studies and repairing the damage proved difficult, so the repairs were done very quickly and often of poor quality. What really mattered to the Communist party was money from Western tourists and pushing a re-written history of China always glorifying the Party and the leadership.

In Jordan, I would visit just outside Amman about 35 km away the antic city of Jerash or Gerasa in the Bible. Built by the Romans and prospering as an important commercial link and military city, the Jordanian Government had archeologists work at restoring the extensive ruined city, its temples and theatres. There was a lot of archeological material artefacts just lying on the ground forgotten by time.

Istanbul and the Topkapi Palace grounds is also well worth exploring and how well preserve it is, including the treasury with its incredible amounts of precious stones. If you take a look in the once private areas you will discover a Polo Pavilion and grounds enjoyed by the Sultan, the entire place as a very Oriental feel. The Turkish people migrated from Central Asia one thousand years ago, keeping their Oriental culture.

I am endlessly fascinated by architecture, archeology and factual history. It has always been a hobby of mine.

23:45 Berlin time

Tags

Architecture, art., City Palace, Hohenzollern, Humboldt Forum, Prussia

Because of the size of the lantern to be hoisted on top of the dome of the City Palace as of 6am on Friday 29 May, if the winds are calm, it was transported late this evening in 2 sections, bottom and top on large flatbed trucks through the streets of Berlin. It will stay in the front yard of the City Palace until Friday.

Here is a webcam shot take as it arrives at the Palace. This is the top part which is shame like Palm leaves.

this is the bottom part with balustrade, missing here are the 8 winged angels as caryatid holding up the top part with palm leaves and the gold plated cross. Probably will be brought tomorrow for the final assembly of all parts.

Will look for it in day light tomorrow to have a better view of the area.

I also found this photo of the artists/workers applying the gold leaf to the lettering around the blue ring at the base of the dome which is visible from afar. Friedrich August Stüler (28 January 1800 – 18 March 1865) was an influential Prussian architect and builder. The dome of the palace is his creation.

King Frederich Wilhelm IV was an evangelical Lutheran and a staunch conservative, unlike his uncle Frederich II the Great, who did not bother much with religion, his political decision in 1845 had repercussions on the history of Prussia and Germany for 100 years. This is an amalgamation of passages in Acts 4:12 and Philippians 2.9-11 the inscription says:

There is no other salvation, there is no other name given to men so that at the name of Jesus, in honor of the Father, every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth.  

 

Ακρόπολη

Tags

art., ATHENA, Greece, humanity, parthenon

In the period 2007-2011 I often went to Greece for work and lived near the Acropolis. I always made a point of going to the Acropolis to visit the sight. I was also in Athens when the new Acropolis Museum opened, truly a marvel of architecture with its glass floors where you can admire the subterranean area, the South side of the Acropolis hill was a sacred precinct with many shops and houses serving the pilgrims coming to the Acropolis. There were also two theatres, the Herodion which is still in use today, the other is the Sanctuary and Theatre of Dionysius built in 580 BC saw the performance of the first plays in the Western World, it had a capacity of 17,000 people.

This photo taken by a worker standing on a scaffold on the East side of the Temple. This area is not open to visitors.

Inside view of the Parthenon, looking West, (main door), to the left is the South side and the right is the North side. Between 2003 and 2020 major restoration have been undertaken to restore the second Parthenon Temple built by Pericles, it replace the one destroyed by the Persians some 2500 years ago. The Temple was dedicated to Athena Parthenos,(virgin) goddess protecting Athens. Her statue inside the Cella was a work by Pheidias, made of ivory and solid gold.

I remember the Parthenon prior to the undertaking of this restoration, it was much more ruined then. Modern techniques allowed for titanium rods to replace the old steel hooks locking the marble blocs into place. As can be seen on this photo the new white Pentelic marble in the columns replace the missing parts, it will eventually take the same golden hue of the original blocs. Recently the final phase of the restoration was undertaken with the decision to rebuild the North wall of the cella (chamber). The cella walls represent an amazing restoration challenge. A total of 360 ancient stones, many of them with new marble attachments, will be reinstalled, along with 90 completely new marble members. On the photo we can see on the North side a group of workers placing a white marble bloc . The cella or chamber contained the statue of Athena Parthenos which measured 11.5 meters tall.

Why is it that the Parthenon needs to be rebuilt in the first place? It all began in 1687, with the bombardment by the Venetian fleet under the command of Francesco Morosini, when large parts of the Parthenon’s cella walls collapsed. They remained in that state until 1822, when the Greeks, in the struggle for their independence, besieged Turkish troops on the Acropolis. The Turkish soldiers, running out of bullets, discovered that there was lead between the marble blocks, and so they knocked down the rest of the cella walls. The lead had been used by the ancient architects to protect iron clamps from corrosion.

To me the Parthenon is the symbol of Western civilization, from ancient Greece we received the notions of democracy, theatre, philosophy, citizenship. So the accidents of history and war should not deprive us of this beautiful monument.

On the acropolis in the restoration program, the entrance gate or Propylaia saw extensive rebuilding, the Erechtheion was also restored as was the Temple of Athena Nike (victorius), the effect is visually magical.

Temple of Athena Nike, Acropolis