I WOULD SAY THAT BEFORE WE BEGIN THE ACTUAL COMMENTARY, PERHAPS IT WILL BE CONVENIENT TO SATISFY THE CURIOSITY OF THOSE VISITORS WHO MAY BE WONDERING WHAT EXACTLY IT IS AND HOW IT WORKS THAT SORT OF BLACK GUILLOTINE THAT CLOSES THE HEARTH OF OUR MARBLE FIRE SURROUND.
It is called a rideau and it is a very useful and convenient closure that will protect your home from the risk of the escape of some spark from the hearth if and when no one is near the fireplace. But most of all, it will serve husbands well at times like this one I'm telling you about now: It's 11 o'clock on a Saturday night and your wife seems to be “in good...” You think it would be a good time to profit but ... you can't leave the fireplace burning, can you! In that case, yes you can, you just need to lower the shutter and you can, in peace, woo your wifey again.
HAVING SAID THAT SILLY THING (NOT SO SILLY, THOUGH..), LET'S GO ON TO TALK ABOUT THIS FANTASTIC SECOND EMPIRE PERIOD FIREPLACE WHICH ALTHOUGH BORN IN THE LUIGI XVI FAMILY, HAS STRUCTURAL AND DECORATIVE ELEMENTS THAT HARKEN BACK TO THE EMPIRE STYLE. INSOMME A VERY “SYMBIOTIC” MIX (you can tell I went to high school, can't you? BASICALLY I MEANT TO SAY THAT THE LUIGI XVI AND EMPIRE STYLES ARE CLOSELY RELATED, CLOSELY RELATED, AND IT'S EASY FOR THEM TO, AT TIMES, MARRY EACH OTHER).
The columns, first of all, the princely element of the EMPIRE STYLE, are the prima donna in this fireplace, they are the dominant physical and aesthetic element. Among other things, they are properly “Roman columns,” tapering from top to bottom and decorated at the bottom with a series of very tall and very fine “Pompeian flutes.” Roman columns represent victory and triumph as well as connecting earth and sky, translated, the Emperor with the Gods (mica could connect, what do I know, Apollo with the last of the slaves, right?! The divine connection was only with the emperor and his loved ones or the like, of course.
In the upper part, its front of the whole decorated with an “olive branch” sculpture (I don't want to bore you but I am forced, every time, to explain how the olive branch is called that even when the branch is COMPOUNDED OF... laurel branches!!! Do not ask me the reason for such strangeness because no one has the solution. What does this sculpture represent? Well, a myriad of features that would greatly please Putin: Glory, Immortality, Power, Victory, and you name it, as long as they are all WINNING and disastrous features for the eventual enemy. IN YOUR OPINION, DO THESE MEANINGS GO BETTER WITH THE LOUIS XVI STYLE OR THE EMPIRE STYLE!? Well, one would be inclined to vote for Empire but ... keep in mind that Louis XVI was also a nice guy and ... if the French Revolution had not guillotined him, he would have been an EMPEROR ALSO..
A little Peace and emotional tranquility is found in the last as well as important decoration at the top of the columns, those two capitals made from inverted acanthus leaves, elements carved by a master sculptor from Pietrasanta or thereabouts because in this sculpture it is easy for the insider to notice the use of the Violin, a very fine instrument that only in that specific and very restricted area was used, an instrument that allows otherwise unattainable finesse. Speaking of sculpture (the one from Pietrasanta is truly at the pinnacle of the world, and was even more so in antiquity) I forgot to mention the significance of the presence of the acanthus leaves: Immortality (that one, everyone would like it and, if only for superstition, you will find the acanthus leaf in so many ancient sculptural works), Virginity (also VERY difficult to achieve..) and, dulcis in fundo, Resurrection (if one really has to die, with an acanthus leaf in the house, extreme ratio, one will have the hope of resurrection..).
PARIS WAS HIS HOME WHEN WE STOLE IT.... EHM... DISMANTLED. OF HIS SCULPTURE AND HIS "BINARY STYLISM 'WE HAVE SPOKEN ABOVE, IT ONLY REMAINS FOR US TO CONFIRM, AS PER THE TITLING, THE VERY FINE (AS IN VERY WHITE) QUALITY OF HIS WHITE CARRARA MARBLE "JOY" QUARRY AND HIS EXCELLENT AND STURDY PHYSICAL CONSTITUTION.
