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| Alexandre-Isidor Leroye de Barde 1777-1828 |
Magpie instinct made me pick up this painting yesterday. Cabinets of Curiosity. Just love the fine detail of the artwork and the layers of thought the extraordinary shaped shells bring to the mind. It mirrors a picture of a wonderful exuberant world at the bottom of the sea. Seventeenth century and men were travelling to far distant lands to bring home these exotic specimens.
No television you could just look at these cabinets and think about the wonders of the world, no wonder Darwin came forward with good scientific conclusions.
This painter seems to have been someone who only painted cabinets, the odds job man who painted pictures for your wall. No cameras, still to be invented of course. But compared to the trivia we are offered today in our very visual world, his detail is immaculate.
I have always fancied a Cabinet of Curiosities, we have enough stuff of Paul's littered on every available window sill, but the one overriding feeling of a cabinet is death I think, something that has gone.
So I collect dried flowers to see them gather different shapes and colour.
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| Dried flowers, tulips |
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| The above tulips once picked |
Those shells are so beautiful. Some of these early works almost make one wish photography hadn't been invented. I hope you had a shower or two yesterday - at least our plants got a bit of a drink - better than nothing.
ReplyDeleteYes Pat we had plenty of rain overnight, the garden is beginning to soak it all up.
ReplyDeleteCabinets and natural items collected long ago. This reminded me of a visit we made to Burton Constable Hall two or three years ago. Fascinating. It would, perhaps, be a nice traditional way of keeping and presenting some of Paul's treasures.
ReplyDeleteYes Y/P you have sparked a thought in that direction. But, Paul has a grandson, so it would have to be passed on to him I think.
DeleteThe painting is so realistic I thought at first it was a photo of a 'real' cabinet. A great find.
ReplyDeleteStrange isn't it the whole country is daubing away, and then these draughtsmen show us all up in the way they can paint.
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