Friday, October 30, 2009

The Royal Beginning 1581-1681




Catherine de Medici, born in Italy in 1519, was a member of the Italian nobility but became Queen of France when she married Henry !!. Catherine is known to have been an excellent dancer and is said to have commanded the first ballet - the Ballet Comique de la Reine. This first ballet, performed in 1581 for ten thousand guests, was not what we now think of as ballet, but it was the beginning. Queen Catherine separated the eating from the watching, and her dance told a continuous story - that of Circe, the pretty witch. It took five hours to play this tale in dancing, music , and poetry.

It always fascinates me to hear how things came about..don't you agree? Can you imagine sitting through five hours of a performance? I wonder how many intermissions they had?

One of my pieces also incorporates the love of music.. It's entitled "The Song of the Reine Daughters" It's an opera by Wagner. I felt the decorative metal element that the images are staged on gave the impression of a musical score. The images depict the 3 Reine daughters and their pot of gold. The fourth framed image is a musical score from the Opera and completes the story.





This is one of the images showing the pot of gold..




All of the Giclee images have been printed on fine watercolor paper and then layered
with layers of glazing to give them a luminosity.

5 comments:

  1. Lovely images here Elizabeth. Oh- five hours... that's a long time! I am so happy you have joined us.

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  2. Debra,

    Yes.. but perhaps with good food and wine you'd not notice the time as much...
    In terms of the blogging... Well, I'm still rather green, so you'll have to bear with me, as I get up to speed..

    Best,
    Elizabeth

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  3. Elizabeth-
    Ha, green, hardly- I love these stories, learning the history is fascinating...I hope you will share more of your work, the history and your home where you work your magic.
    I for one feel so honored to have my photo and it is time for a mod one...lets!
    pve

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  4. Patricia,

    You're too kind... I'm looking forward to sharing more. I just love
    visiting with all these wonderfully talented people..

    See you at Rooms with a View..
    Best,
    E

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  5. Great history lessons..I feel no one really knew Catherine ..when i shared this with face book..can't explain the responses i received..thanks for sharing this with me!


    Dancer CV

    ReplyDelete