Archaeology
Hector Guimard and art nouveau in Paris
The Palais Royale, Paris
Place de la République, Paris
Villa Demidoff and Giambologna’s Il Gigante
As I sit in Denver on a very cold February morning, my mind wanders back to Tuscany and warm weather. I’m almost always behind in my posts and so I take this moment to post about Villa Demidoff.
In 1568, Francesco I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, purchased a great estate in the hills outside of Florence and commissioned the famous architect, Buontalenti, to build a splendid villa as a residence for Bianca Cappello. Bianca was the Grand Duke’s Venetian mistress. The villa was built between 1569 and 1581, set inside a forest of fir trees.
While very little of Buontalenti’s villa survives, at least we still have this fabulous and very large statue of Il Gigante, set facing a pond filled with water lilies.
The lilies are absolutely gorgeous in late August. I had never seen anything as magnificent as the first time I saw this lake of waterlilies in bloom! And, the statue ain’t bad either.
OK, ripping my eyes away from the pink flowers, I walked around towards the back of the statue:
Giambologna was the creator of this amazing sculpture:
Il Gigante, also known as “the Colossus of the Apennines,” is an astounding work of art. Giambologna designed the lower part as a hexagon-shaped cave from which one can access, through a ladder, to the compartment in the upper part of the body and into the head. The cavity is filled with light that enters from the eye holes in the head.
The exterior of the statue is covered with sponges and limestone pieces, over which water pours into the pool below.
We know that originally, behind the statue, there was the large labyrinth made from laurel bushes. At the front of the giant was a large lawn, adorned with 26 ancient sculptures at the sides.
Later, many of the antique statues were transferred to the Boboli Gardens, and the park became a hunting reserve. As a part of the Pratolino estate, it was abandoned until 1819, when the Grand Duke Ferdinando III of Lorena changed the splendid Italian garden in the English garden, by the Bohemian engineer Joseph Fritsch. The part was increased from 20 to 78 hectares.
The park, which had been owned by Leopoldo II since 1837, was sold upon his death to Paul Demidoff, who redeveloped the property. Demidoff’s last descendant bequeathed the property to Florence’s provincial authorities.
And I feel better already. I can feel my cold, clenched muscles relax under the spell of the Tuscan sunshine. Soon I will be there again.
A Parisian miscellany, including The Bataclan Theater and
I’ve got so many great pictures from my trip to Paris in January of 2020, and some of them don’t fit neat categories. So, here, at random, are some of them:
Shots taken from the terrace above the Galleries Lafayette
The Place de la Bastille:
These plaques are all around Paris, marking key places of WWII. I hope I am not the only person who stops to notice them.
A wallpaper store with absolutely gorgeous wallpapers!
The doorways, oh, the beautiful doorways of Paris…
But, I’ve never seen a boar as the key motif! Would love to know the genesis of this!
But, then again the motif below is a bat. Weird!
I love seeing the architects and sculptors signatures inscribed in the stone on the facades of beautiful buildings.
What the flower?
I’d never hear of the Bataclan until the hideous terrorist attack a few years back. It is quite a theater.
Winter is a great time to view the architecture.
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Another WWII plaque:
The amazing door-knocks of Paris
Pictures of a random selection taken in one afternoon in the Rive Gauche:
The serpent above is my all-time favorite.
Underwater marble sculpture amuses and protects Tuscan fish
Here and there in Paris, January 2020
It’s a fine thing to view Paris in the winter. I love the views of the architecture through the bare tree branches.
Suddenly, the Flatiron building in New York doesn’t seem to be so unique!
I believe that this church is the first time I have seen a Biblical story played out in a sculptural neoclassical architectural pediment. It strikes me as funny.
Streets still decorated for Christmas. That’s a bonus!
Chinese New Year is also on view:
Oh, hello, you!
Above:
Mon intention du jour me féliciter, bravo, bravo, bravo, bravo.
My intention of the day congratulate myself. Bravo, bravo, bravo, bravo.
Below:
Mon intention du jour faire un truc plus grand que moi.
My intention of the day to do something bigger than me.
The Pierre below is not the one I grew up with!
The light on my first morning in Paris was stunning. So happy to be here!
Many churches still had their creche scenes on display.
The font below is very different from the marble fonts I see in all the churches in Italy.
The famous Dehillerin store:
And every neighborhood has a great floral shop:
And this landmark:
Every neighborhood also has its own boulangerie. Some have incredible architectural design:
La galette des rois est une galette traditionnellement élaborée et consommée dans une majeure partie de la France, au Québec, en Acadie, en Suisse, au Luxembourg, en Belgique et au Liban à l’occasion de l’Épiphanie, fête chrétienne qui célèbre la visite des rois mages à l’enfant Jésus, célébrée le 6 janvier de chaque année.
Sacré-Cœur Basilica, Paris
The best way I know to spend a Saturday afternoon on a spectacular sunny winter afternoon in Paris is to climb to the top of hill to visit the beautiful Sacré-Cœur Basilica and look out at the panoramic view of Paris. It’s a hike, but it’s well worth it!
Look at that sky!
A talented musician serenades the crowd:
The interior:
This church has figured out how to hold mass and let visitors circulate around the church at the same time. It feels right.
Although it isn’t obvious in my pictures, the statues of Mary and the other one of Jesus are both in silver. They remind me of the statue I saw in the Musee d-Orsay.
Even though it was well past Christmas and Epiphany, the creche scene was still on display. Very modern and simple rendition. I guess I’m very accustomed to the more elaborate Italian mode!
The mosaics are splendid. The Holy Trinity in one shot here:
Wait a second, for a minute I thought I was in the Vatican!
get back, lauretta! 
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