Almost always, when I sit down in front of the screen to comment on a fireplace of such importance, I feel disarmed, unable to find the right words to detect its many qualities and beauties, its stylistic history, its artistic birth, the meanings of its sculptures etc., not to mention the fear of boring you, given the amount of information I should line up and communicate to you.
In short, the first fifteen minutes are ... a stress.
Then, and it always happens because my fireplaces never betray me, a fil rouge of Freudian memory (my Talking Cricket: “Fil rouge..quelle finesse” You want to point out that you have studied upstairs, eh?!), in essence a conducting thread (Talking Cricket: That's better..) that will perhaps allow me to shed some light on the long and fruitful history I will have to travel through in order to illustrate to you as best and clearly as possible how this Ancient Work of Art was arrived at.
Here, the “Leading Thread” of the commentary I should write for this mantel is as follows:
Here one should not speak of Neoclassicism in general, but of a stylism definable as “Greco-Roman Neoclassicism,” a kind of stylism in the state of primitive Purity..
Its architectural structure consists of.
A) a pair of tapering columns “Roman style,” that is, widening from the bottom to the top;
B) a frame of Greek ovoli all around the mouth of the fire.
But, within this structure we have different (and converging between Rome and Greece) ideals, which are represented by the decorative sculptures..
The most important of its decorations is that row of snails (escargots in French) unfolding in the front of our fireplace.
Well, for both peoples (Roman and Greek) snails were associated with fertility, new life and wisdom. They were often depicted in art as symbols of slow progress and patience, reflecting their natural characteristics. The snail's spiral shell was also considered a symbol of the universe and the cyclical nature of life.
Another important decoration is laurel branches and twigs with berries attached..
Laurel is among the oldest plants, considered, especially in ancient Rome and ancient Greece, as a symbol of victory and peace. Its branches, both during sports competitions and in the military, were woven to create wreaths to be placed on the heads of victors as a sign of esteem and recognition. At the end of the games, those who had distinguished themselves received a laurel wreath that came from the Tempe Valley in Thessaly. The laurel was (another curiosity uniting the Greeks and the Romans) a plant dear to Apollo, one of the few deities who had the same name for both the Greeks and the Romans..
A (TO ME SYMPATHETIC) CURIOSITY:
A legend has it that during the siege of Carthage, a Roman soldier following the path of the snails he was trying to capture found a secret underground passage through which the Romans were able to penetrate inside the city walls. However, the destruction of Carthage had been resisted by the snails, which the Roman veterans brought back to the area of Alba Fucens (one of the oldest Roman colonies now in the province of L'Aquila) to raise in their gardens. Even today it is possible to find among the ruins of Alba Fucens, after centuries of generations, the descendant of the Carthage snail.
Sometimes I “get lost” in these stories that, perhaps, to readers may seem unnecessary.... So, before the tyrannical space ends, I must tell you some “practical” things:
THIS FIREPLACE MANTEL WAS BORN, IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, FROM THE PENCIL OF A FANTASTIC PARISIAN ARCHITECT- TRUE, VERY TRUE.... THERE WAS THE FINEST STYLISM IN THE WORLD THERE, LET'S GIVE CAESAR HIS DUE.
BUT KNOW THAT IT IS EQUALLY TRUE THAT THE SAME FIREPLACE WAS MADE IN ITALY AND PRECISELY IN A LAND THAT GOES, FLANKING THE SLOPES OF THE APUAN ALPS, FROM TUSCANY TO LIGURIA. IT IS IN TOWNS LIKE PIETRASANTA, CARRARA OR SARZANA THAT THIS MONUMENT TO BEAUTY WAS BORN, CARVED FROM MARBLE BOULDERS AND NOT THE SLAB OF A FEW CM AS HAPPENS IN 99% OF ANCIENT CHIMNEYS ON THE MARKET..
WE DISMANTLED IT IN SAINT DENIS, A SMALL TOWN A STONE'S THROW FROM PARIS THAT ONE CAN EASILY FALL IN LOVE WITH BECAUSE IT SEEMS TO HAVE REMAINED IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, WITH JUST A SPLASH OF ART NOUVEAU (WHICH DOESN'T HURT, I MUST SAY).
