Enlightenment

British Museum. 

There is a magnificent room containing an exhibition about  the Age of  Enlightment (18th century), a time when people used reason and first-hand observation of the world around them to understand it in new ways.

There is a section in the room that talks about ancient scripts. The search for knowledge about the past led to renewed interest in deciphering the mysterious forms of Egyptian hieroglyphs, Sanskrit and cuneiform. This scholarly activity eventually led to the "cracking" of their codes in the early 19th century, and thousands of years of history were opened up to research. 

The most important piece discovered: the Rosseta Stone, carved in Egypt in 196 B.C and found by the french in 1799.

Its written in 3 scripts:

Hieroglyphic: the script used in Egypt for important documents.

Demotic: the common script of Egypt.

Greek: language of the rulers in Egypt at that time.

After many years of studying the Rosetta Stone and other examples of ancient Egyptian writing, Jean-François Champollion deciphered hieroglyphs in 1822. :-)

Living in the city. Roots in the countryside.

Nostalgia sobre campos de Castilla, Antonio Machado:

....Por las colinas y las sierras calvas,
verdes pradillos, cerros cenicientos,
la primavera pasa...

...el caminante lleva en su bufanda
envueltos cuello y boca, y los pastores
pasan cubiertos con sus luengas capas....

...Las tierras labrantías,
como retazos de estameñas pardas,
el huertecillo, el abejar, los trozos
de verde obscuro en que el merino pasta..

...Es el campo undulado, y los caminos
ya ocultan los viajeros que cabalgan
en pardos borriquillos,
ya al fondo de la tarde arrebolada
elevan las plebeyas figurillas,
que el lienzo de oro del ocaso manchan...

...Bajo una nube de carmín y llama,
en el oro fluido y verdinoso
del poniente, las sombras se agigantan...

Photos taken at Medina de Pomar, Burgos, 2011

Hello! Today I have assembled some photos that symbolize one of my favourites styles of art : The Art Nouveau, a philosophy of art and applied art that were very popular between 1890-1910.
We can find it in architecture, glassware, furniture, drawings, etc. and it is said to have started in France and Belgium.

Architecture: Hector Guimard (France) and Victor Horta (Belgium). Guimard designed the Parisian Metro subway entrances in 1898-1901.

Hotel Tassel, bruxelles. Victor Horta

Solvay House, Horta

Castel Beranger, Paris

Furniture, Guimard and Louis Majorelle.

Furniture, Guimard

Meuble Bibliothèque, Majorelle, 1905

Salle à manger, Petit Palais, Paris

 The famous French glass artist Emile Gallé.

I particularly like the paintings of Alphonse Mucha. He produced posters, advertisements, and book illustrations, as well as designs for jewelry, carpets, wallpaper, and theatre sets. 

I hope you enjoyed the images. Have a nice evening!

Romance and bucolic scenarios and how they make me feel. These two first photos are taken by my favourite photographer, Elliot Erwitt, the first one in California in the 50s, the second in Paris in the 80s.

Elliot Erwit

Elliot Erwitt

Old Paris...le  romantisme du vieux Paris....

I have assembled some old pictures taken at the turn of the century. Some of them by the photographer  Eugène Atget, who created a great visual catalogue of Paris and the french culture for more than 30 years. We admire the vanishing remnants of the city's past preserved in the architecture, streets, shops, etc. Atget wanted to perpetuate the Paris at the end of the XIX, a Paris that was about to dissappear with the renovation proyects of the Baron Haussmann. He rejected modernity.

Cour de Rouen, 6ème arrondissment

Gobelins in the 20s

 

Rue des Ursins, 1923.

Quai d'Anjou. 1924. 6am

.

rue de Turenne, 1911