Monday 21 September 2009

Fantastical Fontainebleau

I think you are probably going to have to enlarge these pictures to see them properly. I took them today when I visited Fontainebleau and couldn't resist showing a couple of oddities. The more normal, if you can call such opulence normal, will have to wait until a later post.



I can't find out anything about this painting, but it looks as though it must be Diana the Huntress. It's a fairly safe guess because Fontainebleau is full of Diana, in deference to Diane of Poitiers.  Am I the only person to find the picture odd?  Don't you think she looks rather, umm, manly?



A statue entitled "Nature" by Nicollò Pericoli.  360 degrees of breasts and in triplicate.  He must be a breast man.  It is intended to illustrate the endless productivity of the earth.

8 comments:

  1. Very much looking forward to the rest of your pictures. Yes, Diana (if that is who is in the painting) seems very much out of proportion. Better than I could do, though.

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  2. 'Nature' is like a version of 'Diana of the Ephesians,' who also appears to be overloaded with breasts, although they are actually eggs I believe.

    Diana does look a bit of a feminist right enough. The figures at the side seem happy to ignore her and play with each other. I suppose having no TV and no soap opera to take your minds of things led t such paintings?

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  3. @Max, give me time, and a new computer.:) It wasn't only Diana's proportions that bothered me, but her hair distribution. I've never seen a nude woman from that sort of era anything other than totally free from body hair.

    @Adullamite, I see, yet another Diana then. Very much an overload of breasts. Now there's a thought, TV watching takes your mind off .... strange women? A first positive for soap operas.

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  4. Maybe the artist couldn't find a female to pose for the painting?! :D

    Re Fontainebleu: aaaah, memories... of my visit there (on the same day as Versailles -- talk about royal luxury overload!). What I remember being most envious about was the library... ;b

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  5. Now that's a very good point YTSL! A man was the model, clearly. :)

    Versailles and Fontainebleau on the same day must have been an endurance feat too. They don't allow you into the library any more - do I gather that you could go in? As it was deserted while we were there, I leant over the barrier as far as I could to take a picture, and was just about to climb over when an official looking person came running along towards me. I beat a hasty retreat, but I do wonder if I disturbed a sensor.

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  6. Hi again A. --

    No, alas, I too could only view the library from a difference behind a cordon. But that made it seem all the more tempting! ;b

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  7. I agree the thigh is rather on the large side. Still the pictures are wonderful.

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