gesso sketches

gesso sketches

snatches of influence

sneak peek at the research files

JAMR Sketches

oil and house paint on mdf

pages from the project sketchbooks

Studies for Chapter 27

Three studies for the Mirror chapter. Trying my hand at a loose allegory. Struggling with how much detail to include.

Schloss Schönnbrunn - Johann Wenzel Bergl

Crown Prince Apartment, suite of rooms with exotic and native landscapes.

 Walls and ceilings at the Schloss Schönnbrunn palace in Austria are covered in wild and exotic landscapes, commissioned by Empress Maria Theresa and executed by Johann Wenzel Bergl around 1766.

In 4 garden rooms on the ground floor of Schönbrunn palace Bohemian Baroque painter Johann Wenzl Bergl (1718-1783) expressed Empress Maria Theresia’s fondness for exotic art, her longing for an idyllic world far away from the court´s etiquette and for Rousseau´s “back to nature” philosophy. In his “Indian landscapes” he mixed three-dimensionality with wild, untamed nature. His fantastic frescos bring India to Schönbrunn; the walls are decorated with palm trees and exotic plants, colorful parrots fly under tropic skies. These wall paintings, which were created around 1777, were rediscovered under a layer of paint in the year 1891. They are a document of the Habsburgs´ interest in exploring foreign cultures. Bergl modelled his paintings on exact drawings of the exotic fauna and flora discovered on scientific expeditions. via rococo revisited

I love how over the top these walls are. The whole history of wall design seems to be encompassed in there, from the triumph of ornamental design around the doors and trimmings, to the adventure panoramique that was popular at the time. 

detail

Kronprinzenappartement

Goess Apartment, the summer apartments of Empress Maria Theresa

A Journey Around my Room - 25 & 16 sketches

You can train the human beast to play the harpsichord; and when it is trained by a good master, the soul can travel at perfect ease...converseley, it is impossible to paint even the simplest thing in the world unless the soul deploys all its faculties to the task.

Wretched Girl! Didn't you know that Raphael had announced he would paint a picture even finer than the transfiguration? Were you not aware that you were holding in your arms nature's favourite?

-old XdM

A Journey Around my Room - Chapter 18 & 19

A Journey Around my Room - Day 12

................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................the mound............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

-Xavier de Maistre

A Journey around My Room - Day 5

One you've left my armchair, walking towards the north, you come into view of my bed, which is placed in the far end of the room... It is situated in the most pleasant spot imaginable: the first rays of the sun come to disport themselves on my bed curtains... 

Is there any theatre which arouses the imagination more, or awakens more tender ideas, than this pieceof furniture in which I sometimes loose myself? 

A bed witnesses our birth and death; it is the unvarying theatre in which the human race acts out, successively, its captivating dramas, laughable farces, and dreadful tragedies. 

-Xavier de Maistre

A Journey around my Room, Day 2

Sneak Peek

What a grand resource this way of travelling will be for the sick! They won't need to fear the inclemency of the air and the seasons. - As for the cowardly, they will be safe from robbers; they will encounter neither precipices nor quagmires... 

Would even the most indolent of men hesitate to set off with me in search of a pleasure that will cost them neither effort nor money?... 

So buck up then: Let's be off.... 

Let the lazy arise en masse!... 

We will travel in short marches, laughing all along the way!

-Xavier de Maistre

sketches; a journey 'round my room