Category Archives: Art

Portmeirion 3. How Serious is Portmeirion?

Posted on December 7, 2017 by Montacute Pavilion

The trauma of the First World War seems to have manifested itself in the ‘silly ass’ artistic culture of the 1920s. Novelists like Margery Allingham, and even Dorothy L. Sayers, created their detective heroes as upper class twits who took … Continue reading →

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Portmeirion 2. Portmeirion and the Picturesque

Posted on November 12, 2017 by Montacute Pavilion

The most useful way of approaching Portmeirion is through the concept of the picturesque. Williams-Ellis (or, as everyone calls him, Clough) explains how he liked sailing around the Mediterranean and enjoyed the view of coastal towns from the sea. He … Continue reading →

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Portmeirion 1. Introduction

Posted on November 12, 2017 by Montacute Pavilion

People don’t always get Portmeirion (Fig. 1). For example, it has been argued that it is a proto-Post-Modernist work, created by an architect trying to subvert the modernist norm long before Venturi and Scott-Brown came on the scene. But this … Continue reading →

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The Bed in the Marriage of Alexander and Roxane in the Villa Farnesina (1517)

Posted on October 9, 2017 by Montacute Pavilion

  This fresco is ground upstairs in the Villa Farnesina, Rome. The Villa Farnesina was the villa of Agostino Chigi, the banker to Julius II and the richest man in Rome. His first wife had died childless and his mistress, … Continue reading →

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On Garden Gateways: Part 1. Serlio’s Libro Estraordinario

Posted on October 5, 2017 by Montacute Pavilion

Sebastiano Serlio’s Libro Estraordinario (Lyons, 1551, also 1558 and 1560) contrasts thirty rustic gateways with twenty ‘delicate’ ones. In a well-known passage, Serlio describes how he came to conceive them: ‘… finding myself continually in this solitude of Fontainebleau, where … Continue reading →

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A Baroque Villa Garden in a Painting by Passeri

Posted on September 24, 2017 by Montacute Pavilion

There is an interesting painting by G. B. Passeri in the window of Apolloni in Via del Babuino. It shows the ‘ottobrate’ (autumn festival) at a villa outside Rome, with a view of Rome in the distance. It shows two … Continue reading →

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More Dragon Spouts: Schwäbische Hall

Posted on December 16, 2016 by Montacute Pavilion

The Rathaus at Schwäbische Hall has some splendid dragon spouts (Fig. 1). The main channel is only half-round, with the top of the jaw completing it. It clarifies the ornamental ‘ears’. At Krakow there are both ‘ears’ and wings.  Here … Continue reading →

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Quentin Matsys Fence with Heraldic Animals

Posted on December 15, 2016 by Montacute Pavilion

This is a detail of Quentin Matsys (1456/1466–1530), the Virgin Enthroned in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. It shows a paling fence with polygonal posts. There is a bottom rail on the ground, a top rail, and a rail above the half-way … Continue reading →

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Heemskerck Dovetail

Posted on December 15, 2016 by Montacute Pavilion

Irrelevant analogy of the week. In this detail of Marten van Heemskerck’s Momus Criticising the Works of the Gods in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, there is a butterfly dovetail joining two panels. It seems that C. F. A. Voysey liked to put … Continue reading →

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The Scale of Schloss Luisium in the Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm

Posted on May 4, 2016 by Montacute Pavilion

Looking at Montacute through the autumn leaves I was reminded of Schloss Luisium near Wörlitz. I have always like the way this little vertical building is tucked away in the woods. It struck me as a delightful miniature building, and … Continue reading →

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