Autumn leaves me happy

photo of an unsigned painting; Le style et la matière

The season is still green, but the gold is coming along crisply. 

I went out in search of scenes like the one in my painting last week in the country... 

photo: Le style et la matière

where a sun low-hung plays among the leaves and shadows stretch out as days get shorter.

It's a time for long walks in the counryside, gathering chestnuts and mushrooms then
huddling around the fire. Simple things.

photo: Le style et la matière

I love the colors of Fall, probably more than in all the other seasons.
So glad I don't have to choose though.

photo: Le style et la matière

Toulouse -Lautrec called autumn "winter's spring."

Like a spider on the ceiling

photo: Le style et la matière

Seen in a waiting room for guided tours at the château of Versailles. 

Did that just happen - or did the designer do it on purpose? The spider is the very symbol of waiting. Happily, not one visitor was wrapped up as a meal before, during or after the tour.

Man Ray

No arachnophobe, but I'm not always completely relaxed around these creatures. 

nusch eluard par man ray

It's largely a question of their size, pilosity and proximity. 

late Victorian brooch from Pinterest

chanel brooch

monster Spider, sometimes called Maman by Louise Bourgeois
source

I can nonetheless appreciate what their form inspires in art 

Gallé vase Pinterest

Woodcut illustrations by GW Dijsselhoffrom
BibliOdyssey

Victorian purse Pinterest

Gareth Pugh

and very definitely, their own woven art form and its imitations.

black sprite flowers

There are spider-like flowers

golden orb spider posing as a flower

and flower-like spiders.

Odilon Redon

What are you, my friend?

odilon redon

"Why, just that, your friend," she grinned.

Bruno Freire ignat

Have you seen?

There seems to be a greater appreciation

Erik Griffioen Ragno

of arachnian geometry recently -

Romain Duclos Mini Ragno

and of the intricacies

© Studio Bouroullec
lighting in the escalier Gabriel
palais de Versailles

and ingenious harmony of their webs.

Friend or foe, it's their season now. They come in to warm their legs.
Everyone tells me that a house with spiders is a healthy house.
Shouldn't we celebrate?!


Pinterest photos here

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulnes: Vertumnus and Pomona

Did you notice the image of a tapestry Vertumnus in my post on Teixidors? I found some better illustrations of this tapestry from 16th century Brussels. 

I find him a very attractive fellow, this Mr Change/Sir Seasons. Yes, I like change and all four seasons. Roman legend tells that Vertumnus changed forms seven times in order to win over lovely Pomona, goddess of  fruitful abundance. By turns harvester, labouer,

 pruner, gardener, soldier, fisherman, it was finally it was disguised as an old woman that he won Pomona's trust and convinced her to accept his love.

(I've been planning to disguise myself as Pomona this Hallowe'en and this dress inspires me.
Hallowe'en isn't a holiday in France and is really not understood,
but that won't stop me from having fun!)

These improved illustrations of the tapestry located in the Royal Palace of Aranjuez south of Madrid come from the site Flandes en Hispania, a beautiful place to view many Flemish tapestries on-line.
The description explains:

"The tapestries of Vertumnus and Pomona are, without a doubt, the greatest artistic representations of the tale as told by Ovid in his Metamorphoses (Book XIV, 623-771). According to the poet, the goddess lived a reclusive life in her land, where she devoted herself exclusively to her duties: the tending of her gardens. She was distrustful of the creatures of the woods and did not let outsiders – especially male ones – into her orchards. Ovid tells how Vertumnus, the god of the seasons who fell in love with Pomona, manages to approach the goddess and seduce her using his special power, the ability to transform himself into whatever form he desires. The Habsburg tapestry collections contained at least four series of the story of Vertumnus and Pomona, woven in gold, silver, silk and wool. The series currently on display in the Royal Palace of Aranjuez is one of these, series 18 in the National Heritage catalogue."

The pruning knife is Pomona's attribute.

                                                             Mouth watering seasonal fruit

"In the tapestries, the setting of the tale is Pomona’s marvellous garden, which is notable for the way it is innovatively depicted: a sort of stage with a sense of perspective. When all the tapestries are displayed together in one room, one beside another, they form a monumental interior garden – about 40m x 5m – in which figures of hot baths and caryatids stand out, holding up the exquisite pergolae. The compositions of these tapestries reflect the interest which was sparked by gardens in Renaissance courts, and the influence of iconographic programs first used on frescoes in northern Italy. However, the spectacular and luxurious settings in which the loves of Vertumnus and Pomona are told are related to the new forms of the 'architectural” garden which appears in literature such as the Poliphilo’s Dream, written by Francesco Colonna and printed by the celebrated Aldo Manucio in Venice in 1499.' "

for more: Flandes en Hispania

Seasonality

Low sky days and the comfort of a croquet à la cannelle with tea. I used to hear people speak with incomprehension about how Americans put cinnamon in EVERYTHING, but I've been seeing it around more often. Even cinnamon and spice tea is considered more palatable here if it is called Thé des amants, lover's tea....

Autumn tea

Le rituel du thé, cette reconduction précise des mêmes gestes et de la même dégustation, cette accession à des sensations simples, authentiques et raffinées, cette licence donnée à chacun, à peu de frais, de devenir un aristocrate du goût parce que le thé est la boisson des riches comme elle est celle des pauvres, le rituel du thé, donc, a cette vertu extraordinaire d'introduire dans l'absurdité de nos vies une brèche de harmonie sereine. Oui, l'univers conspire à la vacuité, les âmes perdues pleurent la beauté, insignifiance nous encercle. Alors, buvons une tasse de thé. Le silence se fait, on entend le vent qui souffle dehors, les feuilles d'automne bruissent et s'envolent, le chat dort dans une chaude lumière. Et, dans chaque gorgée, se sublime le temps.

The tea ritual, this precise renewal of the same gestures and of the same savoring, this accession to simple sensations, authentic and refined which grants a pass to each of us at little cost to become an aristocrate of taste. Because tea is the drink of the rich just as it is of the poor, and thus the tea ritual has the extraordinary virtue of inserting a breach of serene harmony into the absurdity of our lives. Yes, the universe conspires to vacuity, lost souls morn beauty, insignifiance surrounds us. So, let us drink a cup of tea. Silence comes upon us, we hear the wind blow outside, Autumn leaves rustle and fly away. The cat sleeps in a warm ray of light. And in each sip, time is exalted.

L'élégance du hérisson/The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel BARBERY

The beauty and the rigor of a Japanese school of tea where each gesture of the tea ceremony is part of a meditation.

This has long been one of my favorite paintings of an interior. Isn't it inviting with the tea tray
just barely perceptible on the left? It was painted in 1898 by Thomas Matthews Rooke,
assistant to Burne-Jones.

En prenant le thé by David Emil Joseph de Voter 1825

Thé by Gérard AuburganWhy is tea often associated with melancholy or pensive states?

Silence comes upon us, we hear the wind blow outside...

A book to explore: a French-English bilingual guide of some nice places to explore for tea time.

Salons de thé are more worldly but they are still places where

you take time to savor your steaming cup.