Went to a lecture at the Carnegie Library Lecture Hall here in Pittsburgh and listened to Mr. Philbrick talk about his new book “Bunker Hill” that will actually be on the NY Times bestseller list next week. I got 2 copies signed, one for me, and one for my former college advisor.

But the best part was the Q&A. I raise my hand subtly and I’m told there’s a gentleman before me who will ask a question, then I can. I settle back but I whip around when the voice I hear is none other than my old high school history teacher!! I get the mic, stand up, and say “is that you Mr. Jacoby?!” He’s amazed and nods. And I’m like “That’s my old history teacher!” And everyone in the room applauds him. It was awesome. There were hugs :3

a-l-ancien-regime:

Clam-Gallas Palace, in the Old Town of Prague, built between 1713 and 1719 by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach on behalf of, descendants of Matthias Gallas.

a-l-ancien-regime:

In 1772, Madame Victoire, one of the daughters of Louis XV, acquired these three vases for her bedroom in the Palace of Versailles.

© Château de Versailles, Dist. RMN Grand Palais/ Christophe Fouin

a-l-ancien-regime:

Georges Jacob (1739–1814); gilder: Louis–François Chatard (ca. 1749–1819). Armchair from Louis XVI’s Salon des Jeux, Château de Saint-Cloud. French (Paris), 1788. Carved and gilded walnut; gold brocaded silk. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

a-l-ancien-regime:

Francesco Zugno (c. 1708–1787) 

1773 

“Apotheosis of St. Lawrence Giustiniani” fresco on the ceiling of the “piano nobile” of the Episcopal Palace Giustiniani (auj.musée Glass) in Murano, near Venice.

Francesco Zugno  was an Italian painter of the Rococo period born in Brescia. Among his masterworks is a series of wall frescoes of figures in quadratura balconies—part genre, part courtly conceit. He  had collaborated with Tiepolo in the frescoes for Palazzo Labia. 

a-l-ancien-regime:

Nicolas Lancret

Swing

Painting, Oil on canvas, 99x132 cm

France, 1730s

A follower and imitator of Antoine Watteau, Lancret mastered the outer manifestations of his style and took up the theme of “fetes galantes”, which Watteau had introduced. He was one of a number of artists often described collectively as the School of Watteau.

a-l-ancien-regime:

Overdoor with a painting of a woman in a straw hat

Frame by Jacques-Charles-Denis Chartier (master in 1760, d. before 1782)

French, 1770–80

Painted and gilded wood, oil on canvas

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

a-l-ancien-regime:

“Reading”

Charles Vanloo

Painting, Oil on canvas

France, 1754

a-l-ancien-regime:

Fragonard, Jean-Honoré

French, 1732 - 1806

A Game of Horse and Rider

c. 1775/1780

oil on canvas

a-l-ancien-regime:

Antoine Watteau

(1684 - 1721) 

The Italian Comedians, probably 1720

oil on canvas

Antoine Watteau’s The Italian Comedians presents fifteen figures arranged on stone steps and dressed in costumes typical of the commedia dell’arte theater. The Italian comedians were extremely popular performers whose fame rested on the audience’s recognition of stock characters. Their plays were often greatly exaggerated by pantomime, gesture, and innuendo. Pierrot, dressed in shimmering white satin, stands in the center of the composition. Pierrot was a naive clown whose declarations of love were rejected by Flaminia, the heroine, placed to his left. Other well–known characters are Scaramouche, dressed in yellow and black, whose sweeping arm gesture presents Pierrot to the audience; on the left are Mezzetin, another clown who flirts with Sylvia, the ingénue, and Harlequin, the adventurer, shown with a black face in his red and green diamond–cut costume.

The garland of flowers in the foreground steps suggests the actors are taking a bow after their performance; however the members united here were probably Watteau’s own invention, and connected to a specific play or troupe. This tension between illusion and reality is typical of Watteau and influenced a generation of his followers to explore the relationships between painting and theater.