ITS EXACT AND FULL NAME , “ POMPADOUR PIED GALBÉ ”, IS THE NAME OF THE MOST FAMOUS FIREPLACE IN THE WORLD.
BUT MANY, WHO, WHILE WELL ACQUAINTED WITH THE NAME “ POMPADOUR " (AND PERHAPS ALSO WITH THE INCREDIBLE STORY OF THE COMMONER HOLDER OF THE SAID NAME, A STORY THAT GOES FROM THE STATUS OF FISHWIFE TO THAT OF CASTELLAN AND MARQUISE, CROSSING THE PLEASURES RESERVED FOR THE KING'S MISTRESS), PERHAPS DO NOT KNOW THE EXACT TRANSLATION OF THE APPENDIX " PIED GALBÉ ”.
AND I, WHAT WOULD I BE DOING HERE IF I DIDN'T REVEAL THE ARCANE!
“PIED” DOES NOT STAND FOR FOOT, RATHER IT MEANS LEG, BUT ONLY LITERALLY AND FOR MATTERS OF DEMURENESS.... IN FACT, THE LITERAL TRANSLATION OF THIS VERY SPECIAL LEG HIDES THE REAL TRANSLATION, WHICH IS, INSTEAD, “THIGH.” IN FACT, COME TO THINK OF IT, THE WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS MISTRESS MAY NOT HAVE A LEG, BUT A THIGH, PRESUMABLY OF EROTIC LINES AND TEXTURES.
AND HERE I PAUSE SO AS NOT TO TRANSCEND INTO WHAT LUCIO DALLA CALLED “DISPERATO EROTICO STOMP.”
BUT THIS SPECIFIC SPECIMEN HAS A FEATURE THAT MAKES IT UNIQUE: WHILE THE PRIMITIVE MODEL (WHICH IS ALSO MORE WIDESPREAD) HAS A FRONTAL WITH TWO CASTS (TAKE A LITTLE TOUR IN THIS SECTION OF THE SITE AND YOU WILL FIND TRACE OF WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT) WHICH REPRESENT THE BREASTS OF OUR JEANNE ANTOINETTE POISSON (THIS IS THE BIRTH NAME OF THE MARQUISE DE POMPADOUR), THE FRONTAL OF THE SPECIMEN IN THIS CARD PRESENTED IS CHARACTERIZED BY A UNIQUE “CAST”, IN THE “REGENCY” FASHION (STYLISM THAT LIES SOMEWHERE BETWEEN THE STYLES LUIGI XIV AND LUIGI XV). IF AND WHEN YOU COME TO OUR EXHIBITION, COMPARING THIS EXCLUSIVE MODEL WITH ITS OTHER LITTLE BROTHERS, YOU WILL EASILY UNDERSTAND ITS HIGHLY ORIGINAL “DIVERSITY.
BUT. CAUTION. THIS FRIEZE ALSO HAS ANOTHER FEATURE, ALSO NEVER FOUND IN ITS BRETHREN: THE FRIEZE IS, ELEGANTLY, JUTTING OUT IN AN ARC TOWARD THE PERSON LOOKING AT IT ON THE FRONT, AS IF IT WANTED TO EMBRACE YOU.
AND THE DATE OF BIRTH OF THIS FASCINATING MANTEL LIES IN THE MOST FERTILE AND REFINED PERIOD IN THE FIELD OF FURNITURE (AT LEAST FOR ANTIQUE FIREPLACES IT IS, SURELY, SO, WHATEVER THE ANTIQUARIANS ALLOLOGISTS MAY SAY, PARTICULARLY THOSE WITH CASHMERE JACKETS AND A LISP) THAT HISTORY HAS GIVEN US, THE ONE CALLED NAPOLEON III° OR, IF YOU LIKE BETTER, SECOND EMPIRE.
SCULPTURE EXECUTED IN ITALY ON FRENCH STYLISM, EXCELLENT STATE OF PRESERVATION, PARISIAN FIND, BEAUTIFUL QUALITY OF “PURE” WHITE CARRARA MARBLE.
All these beautiful and so important qualities make me think that this fireplace has in it a sense of immortality, stylistic as much as physical.. And this thought that is going through my mind brings to my memory the passage of a writer dear to me, whose name I cannot now (because of my old age and relative dated cerebro) even remember:
One day some very important (I would say “vital” to all Humanity...) characters met for a game of cards. They were supposed to, playing poker with each other, in the manner of what our politicians do at “business lunches,” discuss the highest systems and, if possible, find the solution to the problems that most afflict every living being on the globe, such as their Happiness and Immortality...Each of them did his reckoning by examining the cards at his disposal and then, one after the other, made their statements:
THE TIME: “I pass.”
YOUTH: “I pass.”
LOVE: “I pass.”
LIFE: “I pass.”
WELL, WHILE I REALIZE THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF COMPARING THE TRANSIENT HUMAN EXISTENCE TO THAT OF A SCULPTURE, I CANNOT HELP BUT SEE THAT, FOR THE FIREPLACE I PRESENTED ABOVE, TIME HAS NOT PASSED (INDEED!!), (STYLISTIC) YOUTH IS STILL VERY MUCH ALIVE, THE LOVE OF ITS PRESENT AND FUTURE OWNERS IS (AND ALWAYS WILL BE) EVISCERATED, AND LIFE, WHO KNOWS HOW MUCH LONGER IT WILL (LITERALLY) BURN INSIDE IT.
P.S: I DOUBT VERY MUCH THAT THE SAME LUCK HAPPENS TO “MODERN” MANTELS, THOSE SIGNED BY NORDIC DESIGNERS (THE ONES WITH THOSE NAMES BRISTLING WITH H'S, J'S AND K'S..), AND MADE WITH MORE OR LESS POLISHED STEEL, COLD SQUARES OR RECTANGLES EVEN... SIGNED!!! (BUT EVEN ARCHIMEDES DID NOT ALLOW HIMSELF TO SIGN RECTANGLES!!) FROM WHICH NO BREATH OF LIFE OR LOVE CAN CERTAINLY FLOW.
