Well, I've shown you so many beautiful things from our Paris adventure, I thought I would add a few of the more macabre, darker images I noticed while in the City of Light. This more sinister side does not always mean there is less beauty here. Often, this means just the opposite. The artists rendered many powerful and bizarre images in quite beautiful ways.
This first batch if from Versailles, the apex of Beauty in that city. Yet in all this beauty, there is often an odd little detail that makes you sort of wonder what was going on.
This odd little scene is near the entrance to one of the main courtyards, over the gilded iron fence. I don't know if this statue was in place at the time, but if there's a revolution fomenting in the streets, it is probably not the best thing to have your goddesses and Royalty depicted as sitting on the backs of the downtrodden.
I could be wrong.
I actually hurried over to this statue, which is quite large, overlooking the Water Parterre, because I thought it would be a touching scene of a father holding his infant.
Is there anything touching about this father? I'm thinking this child needs to be placed in Protective Services, sooner rather than later!
I'm not always the best resource for the Greek Myths and Roman Myths, and German Myths, and Urban Myths. So this might not be as odd as it looks, if you know the story. Okay, I suppose this guy is really feeling guilty for having killed his lover in a hasty moment and decided to stick the sharp end of his sword into the breast pocket of his shirt for safe keeping. Of course, being a warrior, and not a geek, he was not wearing his pocket protector, and so he has inadvertently stuck his sword into his breast.
Anyone have any better ideas?
This is just a great, decrepit scene from Marie Antoinette's play village. I imagine this spiral staircase, made of wood with what was more than likely great skill hundreds of years ago, was something Marie was proud to show off to friends. And so was everyone else, which is why they have trouble admitting the old staircase needs to be torn down and an escalator installed for all the lazy, huge American tourists who visit daily.
In the Hall of Mirrors, this odd little scene was staring down over us from on high. I'm pretty sure that's Boromir staring out from the top center, probably saying "One Does Not Simply Paint the Hall of Mirrors with Dutch Boy Flat Black." (If you look close enough, you'll see this Boromir look-a-like is actually someone from Holland, according to the French inscription.)
I really like the shades on either side of the lower painting. They've got to be ghosts. I'm gonna be disappointed if the chief curator of Versailles comes on this blog and leaves a snarky comment that they are not ghosts but simply faded images that have not yet been restored to their original color.
Here's my favorite guy at Versailles. When you enter the War Room, from the diplomatic rooms, this guy is on your immediate left, just inches from you. He's a startling sight to behold. He is, in fact, a prisoner of war, who, along with his buddy on the other side, pull the chains that secure the great relief you see just behind him of King Louis the Some-Such (XIV, I'd guess, but I can't recall off hand and I'm too lazy to go look,) as he parades in the war room on his horse, gloating over his conquests and spoils.
The prisoner's expression is priceless.
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