The Queen's Gallery, London

Oriental Room 

Gallery Interior

The Queen's Gallery, London: Designed by perhaps Britain's most famous architect John Nash, the gallery was originally one of Buckingham Palace's three identical conservatories and pavilions executed in the form of Ionic temples. The conservatory was converted into a private chapel for Queen Victoria in 1843, but after the Air Raids of 1940, the Queen & Duke of Edinburgh redeveloped the space into a gallery in 1962. In 1997, a 20 million dollar expansion was done to the gallery; the most significant addition that had been done to Buckingham Palace in 150 years.
The Royal Collection 

The Queen's Gallery

Gallery Exterior

I have been to the gallery, let alone London, more times than I care to admit (thanks to my mother, an English teacher who is an avid Anglophile, despite being of Irish ancestry).
While the gallery houses a pan-European collection filled with the works of Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Greco-Roman sculptors, my favourite part of the gallery is the section filled with colonial treasures. Ranging from snuff boxes to swords, this part of the gallery features gifts from the imperial colonies to British monarchs. The most impressive gifts in my opinion, are those from India-Britain's largest and likely most profitable imperial colony. The Indian treasures are fascinatingly ornate in their use of emeralds, rubies and diamonds, intricately woven in amongst botanical carvings and Hindi script.
Yes, the gallery can be critiqued from an anti-imperialist, anti-Edward Said like perspective for it's invocation of a "Rule Britannia" sensibility, but regardless of your standpoint-one cannot deny that this gallery is certainly gilded and grand.

State Opera House, Prague

Balcony & Private Boxes

Opera House Interior

Prague...Prague...Prague....A city of contradictions: an ex-Soviet Block capital, and also an ex-Hapsburg Empire capital. The city houses some of the ugliest architecture I've ever seen (Soviet style apartments and municipal buildings that are essentially pallid yellow and green boxes with tiny out-of-proportion windows) and some of the most ostentatious (Hapsburg Palace, Opera House, Cathedral, etc all designed at the height of the Baroque era). Prague is also a 'Bohemian' city both in origin and atmosphere. It was the historical capital of Bohemia proper during the Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance eras, and then became a haven for some of Europe's greatest musicians and artists during (and after) the Hapsburg-Baroque era. It was Mozart's second home, and the original home of the Czech-Republic's greatest musician Antonin Dvorak. Alfons Mucha, Franz Kafka, and Albert Einstein also chose to spend much of their life in the city. 

Exterior Entry to Opera House

Opera House Exterior

To me the State Opera House (Opera Statini in Czech), encapsulates what Prague is today-an old European capital infused with a new beginning against the backdrop of a Stalinist canvas. That said, the State Opera House as a context versus a building, also demonstrates the less savoury side of Prague-on any given weekend, one can find a mix of Russian and Ukrainian gangsters with their wives and girlfriends dripping in fur and diamonds (despite it being August, the attitude seems to be "I have a 12 minks, so why not wear one every month of the year") blended with a collection of corrupt politicians, and those who scraped a month's earnings together to afford a single performance.
From a North American perspective, it isn't really that expensive-a dress circle seat will cost about $40. But for an average Czech worker, this is still very costly and something only purchased on very special occasions. To further emphasize the disparity between the 'new' and 'old' Prague, one merely needs to look at the old lady standing on the Opera House steps selling wilted roses in news paper begging for a few Crowns (local currency 1 Crown = .055 CAD) for a single rose.


Opera House Salon

I was last in Prague in 2007 and still remember the city, and Opera House vividly. I was alone, and to quell boredom in the evenings, I would attend a ballet or opera. The opera house, like many others in Europe is replete with red velvet seating and curtains, and gilded ceilings; however what sets the State Opera House in Prague apart is it's many salons which are used for intermission cocktails and aperitifs. The salons are just as sumptuous as the theatre, and provide an ideal place for people watching. If I had the chance again, I would not visit Prague without a visit to the State Opera House-it's like stepping into a James Bond movie: gangsters, beautiful women dripping in diamonds, Lamborghini's in the valet lot, all against the backdrop of Puccini's Tosca-now there's an ironic Opera to play in a theatre like this!

The Long Room, Trinity College, Dublin

The Long Room Interior

Long Room

The Long Room, also known as the Trinity College Library in Dublin, Ireland, is to me the most amazing library I have ever visited. It beats the British Library, Le Bibliotheque du Sorbonne in Paris, and easily all the North American libraries I have ever been to. It was built between 1712-1732 and contains 200,000 of Trinity College's oldest books. The Long Room also contains one of the last remaining copies of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic. Because it houses the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, the Long Room is a also a treasure of the Irish people, and for that reason is not 'just a library'.
Lined with marble busts of famous philosophers, academics and writers (both Irish and not), the atmosphere in the long room is one of weight-weight of centuries of knowledge, findings, and analysis of philosophy and theology. 

The Long Room: Detail of Statuary and Books

Detail of Long Room

I have visited the Long Room twice-once in 2007 and once in 2012, and I would go back again and again. I have been few places that inspire the mind to reach to such heights as the Long Room. The space is infused with politics, theology and prose and also a bit of humour-if you ever have a chance to go, seek out the bust of Jonathan Swift. When I saw it, it made me laugh-although it's very staunch and artistically traditional, it is also of Swift-the man who wrote Gulliver's Travels and A (not so) Modest Proposal. If you are familiar with his writings, you too will understand why there is a bit of humour injected into the Long Room through his bust (it is Irish after all, and the Irish are a cheeky lot). Although the Long Room is not gilded to the extent of other places I have featured in my blog, it is without question very grand, and will forever remain a mark of pride for the Irish people. 

Hertford House (The Wallace Collection Gallery), London

Hertford House, London

Hertford House Interior

On a cold and damp London day in 2008 (honestly, what London day isn't damp) I decided to seek out Hertford House. This small gallery in the heart of London happens to contain some very famous artists, but with their lesser known works of art. The one work I was particularly set on seeing was Fragonard's The Swing. The Swing had always been a painting that I came back to, it either served as a frontispiece for assignments or as wallpaper on my desktop. I liked this painting, in fact I liked it alot and still do-it's cheeky, playful, feminine and oh-so-rococo.

Jean-Honore Fragonard, The Swing, 1767

Although the above image of the gallery interior does not feature The Swing, it does give a sense of the grandeur of the gallery despite its small size (in comparison to the Queen's Gallery for example).
At the time, I tried desperately, as always, to take a photo of my preferred work of art, but as always a little old man in a navy blue jacket and grey slacks would walk up to me and in the language of his native country say "NO photos madame". For some reason, regardless of country, museum 'guards' always seem to sport the same attire-blue jacket, grey slacks.
Anyhow, museum 'guards' aside-you can see I have a bit of a bone to pick with them....Despite my art history education (yes, yes I know, a flash ruins the paint quality over time) I don't think a smartphone photo without a flash is that harmful, and do they really think that I'm going to be capable of replicating the painting and selling it at Sotheby's for 10 million?!!? But like I said, anyhow...
Hertford House was originally built for the Marquesses of Hertford and eventually was the home of Sir Richard Wallace. When Sir Wallace died, it was bequeathed to the British nation by his widow in 1897 and became a gallery . The collection and gallery, is both sumptuous and approachable. It is sumptuous because of it's rococo and neo-baroque décor, and approachable in its scale.
As a whole, it is both very gilded and grand. 

Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris

Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris

Where do I start with this one....Grand? Glamorous? Regal? Resplendent? All of the above? 

This is the Jardin du Luxembourg (Luxembourg Gardens)-also known as my favourite place in the whole world (I'm quite serious). The Luxembourg Gardens are for me a very special place, not only because of their beauty and Baroque architecture, but because I used to live a block away, and would walk through the gardens to catch the metro on most days. 

The garden is filled with an array of flowers and emerald green topiary in the summer, and is dotted with chestnuts that have fallen and pony rides for children in the winter. It's its own ethos-a garden with a palace that was once home to Marie D'Medici, and is now the seat of the French Senate; a place that was exclusively built for a queen and is now open to the public. Regardless of it's official function, it has been and (I hope) always will be a place of tranquillity, civility, play for children, and in true French form-a place where lovers can meet on a secluded bench. 

The garden & palace were begun in the early 1600s, and since then have featured a large pond where children today float miniature sail boats, a series of balustraded terraces, and a collection of statuary meant to recall queens, saints and deities. At the turn of the 19th century a marionette theatre and apple orchard were added, in addition to an apiary and orangerie used for displaying sculpture and modern art.
History of the Jardin du Luxembourg

Child with Model Sail Boat

Pond in Jardin du Luxembourg

Sign for Marionette Theatre

Gates of Jardin du Luxembourg

San Vitale, Ravenna

San Vitale (interior, detail of nave), Ravenna

When I found out that I was going to be in Venice, which is 2 hours north of Ravenna, I made a firm proclamation that "we must see San Vitale". The reason I was so motivated to see this church in particular, was not only because it is a pinnacle example of late Roman era architecture, but because I had studied this church every year since the 12th grade since it popped up as an example in almost every Art History course I had ever taken. The 2 hour drive to the sleepy town of Ravenna was most definitely worth it (the town had an oddly good selection of quality shoe stores for a obscure location, which made my boyfriend very happy and worth the drive for him). 

Perhaps one of the most important, and talked about examples of Byzantine-Christian architecture is the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Northern Italy. The basilica was built in 547 A.D., and remains one the most well preserved, and intact pieces of Byzantine architecture in Western Europe. The church is most famous for its plethora of Byzantine mosaics, which according to sources is the largest and best preserved outside of Constantinople (modern day Istanbul).
Basilica of San Vitale

Sketch of San Vitale, Ravenna
Rendering

View of Gilded Dome Interior
Basilica Interior

Santa Maria della Salute, Venice

Canal & Dome of Santa Maria della Salute, Venice 

Ah Venice....A city of meandering streets, little bridges, large piazzas, and some seriously grand architecture! The thing I love most about Venice is it's juxtaposition of scale: tiny island + massively important and massively scaled buildings. Venice was historically known as a city that joined the east and the west through it's position as a port city, and mark along the silk trading route, so with that in mind, we can see how with that many visitors over the centuries it would need some rather monumental buildings to underscore itself as the famed capital that it was know to be. 

On the right side of the photo is the dome of Santa Maria della Salute-an important addition to the Venetian skyline that was added in 1681 (which can be found in the Dorsoduro district of Venice). Although it is a large basilica by contemporary standards, it was seen as a minor basilica by old world European standards. The basilica was originally built to commemorate Venice's survival of an outbreak of a devastating plague. The church was built in the honour of 'Our lady of health/deliverance'-"salute" in Italian.
Santa Maria della Salute

This photo is one of my favourite travel photos that I've taken without question-partially because of the sunrise (yes, sunrise, not sunset), and because it was taken on a romantic stroll through the city at 4:30 a.m. with my boyfriend. It felt like we were the only people in this amazing city. 


Antique Print, W.L. Leitch, 1841
Antique Rendering

Welcome to Gilded & Grand

"Le Train Bleu" Restaurant, Gare du Lyon, Paris

Hello and Welcome to Gilded & Grand!

The purpose of this blog is to highlight, inspire, and expose people to all things architectural (interior and exterior) that are gilded, grand, or gilded and grand. My passion for these 2 things come from my travels throughout Europe, particularly in France and Italy. I truly believe that 'they don't make'em like they used to' and that the craftsmanship found in the images I feature is unparalleled in quality and detail to that of today.  

I will try my best to principally use photos I have taken on my trips.

Now that you have an idea of what my blog is about, allow me to explain why I chose the above image: This is "Le Train Bleu", a Belle-Epoque era (circa 1900) restaurant that is on the second floor of one of Paris' largest train stations-the Gare du Lyon. The restaurant was originally designed for the Universal Exhibition of 1900 and was intended to showcase the splendour of Paris to guests arriving from all over the globe.

I think they did a pretty outstanding job! And if you disagree, maybe you'll be persuaded by whom some of the restaurant's regular patrons were: Coco Chanel, Brigitte Bardot, Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dali and jean Gabin. I chose this image because it represented what in my mind is wholly gilded & grand.

View from Platforms at Gare du Lyon, Paris

Le Train Bleu Exterior

Le Train Bleu Restaurant History