Isotta Brembati Grumelli, attributed to Giovanni Battista Moroni, 1550-1555

For all the model's beautiful finery, there is something about her hairline and her badly plucked eyebrows that, to me, strongly suggest "drag queen".

Four studies of Frederiksborg Slot, by Christen Købke, circa 1835

Frederiksborg Slot (Frederiksborg Castle or Palace) is a royal residence in North Zealand, Denmark, built between 1560 and 1620.  It is now a national history museum.

(I thought that this image and the first one were differently cropped versions of the same painting.  They're not.  There
are several small variances in the figures in the far distance and, most obviously, the position of the weather vane.)

Yale Varsity Four, 1913

When was elastic invented, anyway...?

Alexandra Petrovna - from Grand Duchess to nun

Grand Duchess Alexandra Petrovna (2 June 1838, St. Petersburg – 25 April 1900, Kiev), born Duchess Alexandra Frederika Wilhelmina of Oldenburg, was the eldest of the eight children of Duke Peter Georgievich of Oldenburg and his wife Princess Therese of Nassau-Weilburg. The Oldenburg family was closely related to the Romanovs; Duke Peter, a scholar and philanthropist, was a grandchild of Paul I. Alexandra grew up in a happy home and was well educated, showing an early interest in medicine and the problems of the poor.

Portrait by Carl Timoleon von Neff (1804-1877), circa 1850s.

At Peterhof, on 6 February 1856, she married Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolayevich, Senior (1831-1891), and together they had two sons, Grand Dukes Nicholas Nikolayevich, Junior (1856-1929), and Peter Nikolayevich (1864-1931). The marriage was not a happy one as the couple had little in common. Alexandra was religious and serious-minded, and her great interest was caring for the health of the poor. Her husband financed a hospital for her in St.Petersburg where the poor could cared for without charge, and she eventually founded a training school for nurses.

In the meantime, her husband, a well known gourmand, sportsman, and womanizer, began a relationship with a ballet dancer. She bore the Grand Duke five children, essentially creating a second family. He mismanaged and squandered his fortune - in 1882 he had to be put under a kind of financial guardianship - and his magnificent palace had to be sold after his death.

His wife had left him for good in 1881, moving to Kiev. But she refused to grant him a divorce. She remained close to her sons, who had sided with her in the family's dissolution. Alexandra became a nun in 1889, taking the name "Sister Anastasia". She founded a monastery in Kiev, a convent for nursing nuns with its own hospitals, asylums, and dispensary to provide free treatment for the poor. She died of stomach cancer in 1900, at the age of sixty-one. She was buried in the monastery graveyard in a plain coffin, wearing her nun's habit.

"Sister Anastasia" near the end of her life.

Le Petit Théâtre de la Reine, and a brief miscarriage of color

The Petit Théâtre de la Reine, which is situated adjacent to the Jardin Français of the Petit Trianon, was designed by Marie Antoinette's achitect, Richard Mique, and constructed in 1780.  The building is quite austere on the exterior, but the interior - which only seats, at maximum, one hundred - was lavishly decorated in the height of the current, delicately neo-classical style.  The décor, giving the appearance of being constructed of marble and gilt bronze, is actually all made of wood and papier maché.  Remarkably, this beautiful and fragile structure has survived intact; most remarkably, so has its extensive stage machinery.

***

For a time, during the reign of Louis-Philippe (1830-1848), the blue wall hangings and drapery were changed from the original greenish-blue to a vivid red.  An unfortunate choice which was later, thankfully, undone.

Vue du petit théâtre de Marie-Antoinette au Petit Trianon sous Louis-Philippe, by Antoinette Asselineau, 1838.

Giovanni Battista Moroni, male portraits

Giovanni Battista Moroni (circa 1510-24, Albino – February 5, 1579, Albino), Northern Italian painter of the late Renaissance period.  He is best remembered for his elegant, psychologically insightful portraits of local (Bergamo) nobility, scholars, soldiers, and clergy.  His religious paintings were not successful, but he is considered one of the greatest portrait painters of sixteenth century Italy.

The View of the Plaster Cast Collection at Charlottenborg Palace, Christen Købke, 1830

I find this painting of an attendant or servant dusting down the oversize casts both classically beautiful and droll; my favorite combination.

Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna and her niece, Anastasia, circa 1910-12

In this rare and unusual image, the Tsar's sister, Olga, looks up from her knitting, while her niece, Grand Duchess Anastasia - who has been the subject of so much controversy, ever since her death in 1918 - holds a book open to her.  This photograph very well may have been taken by the Empress - they were a family of avid amateur photographers - and the setting was probably the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoe Selo, or the Tsar's dacha at Peterhof.

Portrait of a Gentleman with a Wig, by Carlo Ceresa, circa 1665-1670

In spite of the very fashionably foppish attire, this gentleman's masculinity survives intact.  He seems very self-assured, even aggressive; not a fellow one would want to tangle with.  Or perhaps one would....

Carlo Ceresa (January 20, 1609, San Giovanni Bianco – January 29, 1679, Bergamo), Italian painter of the Baroque period.  Known for his religious works and portraits, most of his work was completed in the vicinity of Bergamo.

It appears that the name of the portrait's subject has been lost to time, but I love that the title now affixed to it is "Portrait of a Gentleman with a Wig" - as if we needed that fact pointed out to us.  The painting is stiff and almost crude, but the details are delightful nonetheless.

Ava Gardner redux

Ava Gardner in her sixty-second year, by Helmut Newton, London, 1984. 

I think the very beautiful Gardner only became more so as she aged.  It's very difficult for a woman celebrated for her physical beauty - and she was, more than anything else; she was rarely a terribly compelling actress - to be allowed - to allow herself - to gracefully, naturally age.  But I think the lines that eventually appeared on her face and the life experience that showed through her graceful, sensual features made her more beautiful than she'd ever been.