Work takes me to Paris to view the new Paris shop on Rue Saint Honoré. As I sit at lunch in a 21st Century Paris I muse the Belle Epoque that continues to haunt the city. The tourist postcards gratify the nostalgia with early posters of the Can-Can, Jane Avril and Toulous-Lautrec.
This morning we were in the Tudor Galleries this afternoon we are in with the Stuarts. Only one generation separates the Tudors from the Stuarts, the protestant from the Catholic but England had to do a lot of catching up between the two periods. The Renaissance had been in Europe for some time, both science and art had made huge leaps forward and along with this were changing social attitudes. Here this is all beautifully expressed through fashion.
The clothes of the Tudors posed many interesting problems. At one level clothes are a political armour with a strict hierarchy of colour and material used linked to status. At another they need to serve the basic function of keeping warm. The clothes often wool based, heavily embroidered and backed. When worn in multiple layers, these make for a stiff material that does not hold shape. The techniques used to achieve free movement are the cut, the fold, the hinge and to add volume. The sleeve for example uses many variations on the theme to both bend at the elbow and allow movement at the shoulder. These include adding volume to the area of movement, sleeves splayed from the elbow or shoulders puffed and ruched. Or by cutting slits and vents that allow movement and allow a stiff fabric to hold a double curve. The outer garments can often be heavy and course so the under laying garments are in softer cottons and linen. This develops into and aesthetic that pulls fine materials through the slits on the outer layers and is a technique unique to this period. It also makes for unique juxtapositions when using linen, leather, tapestry and fur. A wonderful way to spend the morning and the counter point will be the Stuarts planned for the afternoon.
I have been invited by friends to the Ascot King George Weekend on a day filled with blue skies and sunshine. In a box on the 6th floor, the canopy overhang and air conditioning made for a relaxed and pleasant day. As someone who has no idea about horse racing (apart from the weekly riding classes when young) and a non-gambler, I relied on the help of an expert via a quick phone call and placed my bet. The main race of the day King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes was won by Taghrooda.
Image – George Stubbs, variations on – Mares and Foals Without Background.
Work today leads to the researching of textures for use as a framing device and where better to start than the vegetables in the oil paintings of Sir Nathaniel Bacon’s Cookmaid.
In the 17th Century the aesthetic excess of the Baroque and Rococo were an expression equally of the excess of the Catholic Church and Divine Sovereign. The Baroque came to represent the abuse of power and consolidation of national wealth into the hands of a corrupt few. Painting the ordinary was a Liberal and Protestant protest to this excess and with this the genre of the still life was born. So these are some of the numerous vegetable revolutionaries.
