Sunday, June 30, 2013

Les nautes

“Les nautes” (The Boatmen) by Gustave Michel, Pont de Bir-Hakeim (Bir-Hakeim Bridge), Paris

“Les nautes” (The Boatmen) by Gustave Michel
Pont de Bir-Hakeim (Bir-Hakeim Bridge)
Paris, July 2012

See also: Les forgerons-riveteurs

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Albergo Rosso

Lotto 42 or Albergo Rosso by Innocenzo Sabbatini, Garbatella, Rome

Lotto 42 or Albergo Rosso (Red Hotel) by Innocenzo Sabbatini, 1928
Piazza Michele da Carbonara, Garbatella
Rome, April 2013

Friday, June 28, 2013

Kaiser Napoleon

Napoleon Bonaparte, Kaiser der Franzosen (Emperor of the French), Deutsches Historisches Museum, Unter den Linden, Berlin

Napoleon Bonaparte, Kaiser der Franzosen (Emperor of the French)
Deutsches Historisches Museum
Unter den Linden
Berlin, September 2011

Thursday, June 27, 2013

75 Broad Street

ITT Corporation former headquarters, Broad Street, New York

“International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation” mosaic
ITT Corporation former headquarters
75 Broad Street
Financial District, Lower Manhattan
New York, September 2008

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile

Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile formerly Hotel Concorde La Fayette, Palais des Congrès, Place du Général Kœnig, Paris

Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile (Formerly Hotel Concorde La Fayette)
Place du Général Kœnig
Quartier des Ternes, 17th arrondissement
Paris, July 2012

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Lord Byron

Copy of the statue of Byron by Bertel Thorvaldsen, Villa Borghese gardens, Rome

Copy (recently vandalized) of the statue of Byron by Bertel Thorvaldsen
(Trinity College Library, Cambridge, 1829)
Villa Borghese gardens
Rome, May 2012

“O Rome! my country! city of the soul!
The orphans of the heart must turn to thee,
Lone mother of dead empires! and control
In their shut breasts their petty misery.
What are our woes and sufferance? Come and see
The cypress, hear the owl, and plod your way
O'er steps of broken thrones and temples, Ye!
Whose agonies are evils of a day—
A world is at our feet as fragile as our clay.”
(Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto IV, Stanza LXXVIII)

Monday, June 24, 2013

Corte dell'Albero

Corte dell'Albero, San Marco, Venice

Corte dell'Albero
San Marco
Venice, October 2012

“This irregularly shaped courtyard opens out among tall palazzi; among them are Casa Nardi, an interesting example of a housing complex in the Venetian-Byzantine style (by G. Alessandri and V. Fantucci, 1913) and, toward the Grand Canal, a. 3870, Palazzo Sandi, by Domenico Rossi (1720), with a splendid fresco, in the hall of the main floor, or ‘piano nobile’, by the young G.B. Tiepolo, Story of Orpheus.” (Corte dell’Albero, netguides.eu)

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Jamie's Italian

The terrace of Jamie's Italian Canary Wharf, London

The terrace of Jamie's Italian restaurant
Churchill Place, Canary Wharf
London, October 2009

“Jamie's Italian in Canary Wharf, opened in August 2009, was the first central London branch of his ‘Italian’ restaurants (there are others in Kingston, Oxford, Bath and Brighton), offering simple, rustic Italian fare and a speedy delivery - no dish takes longer than 10 minutes to cook. There's a no-booking policy at the large 200 seater restaurant which comes complete with a spit roast and a big outside terrace.” (Jamie's Italian, LondonTown)

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Les ailes de l'aurore

Les ailes de l'aurore, The Wings of Dawn by Antoine Poncet, place Jacques-Bainville, Paris

“Les ailes de l'aurore” (The Wings of Dawn) by Antoine Poncet, 2000
Place Jacques-Bainville
Quartier des Invalides, 7th arrondissement
Paris, July 2012

Friday, June 21, 2013

Three Chimneys

Three chimneys, Palazzo Borghese, piazza Borghese, Rome

Chimneys, Palazzo Borghese
Piazza Borghese
Rome, April 2013

Thursday, June 20, 2013

View toward Dircksenstraße

View toward Dircksenstraße, From Alexa Shopping Centre, Grunerstraße, Berlin

View toward Dircksenstraße from the Alexa Shopping Centre
Grunerstraße
Berlin, September 2011

See also: Alexa Shopping Centre

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Eyes

Eyes by Louise Bourgeois, Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Park, Battery Park City, New York

“Eyes” by Louise Bourgeois, 1995
Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Park, Battery Park City
New York, September 2008

“Eyes” marks a departure for the artist in that the subject, unlike previous treatments, is explored as two large units representing eyes separated from any suggested surrounding physiognomy. Resting directly on the ground a calculated distance from each other, they occupy considerable volumes of space between and around them which the viewer is invited to fill in with his or her own imagination. Thus a giant's head emerges in one's mind. The works are carved in granite with pupils suggested by large polished nodules. These are not inset but are an integral part of the whole granite “eyeballs.” (Public Art, Battery Park City Authority)

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Appel du 18 juin

Appel du 18 juin (Appeal of 18 June), Mairie du 16e arrondissement, Avenue Henri Martin, Paris

Appel du 18 juin (Appeal of 18 June)
Mairie du 16e arrondissement
Avenue Henri Martin
Quartier de la Muette, 16th arrondissement
Paris, July 2012

À tous les français

La France a perdu une bataille!
Mais la France n’a pas perdu la guerre!

Des gouvernants de rencontre ont pu capituler, cédant à la panique, oubliant l’honneur, livrant le pays à la servitude. Cependant, rien n’est perdu!
Rien n’est perdu, parce que cette guerre est une guerre mondiale. Dans l’univers libre, des forces immenses n’ont pas encore donné. Un jour ces forces écraseront l’ennemi. Il faut que la France, ce jour-la, soit présente à la victoire. Alors, elle retrouvera sa liberté et sa grandeur. Tel est mon but, mon seul but!
Voila pourquoi je convie tous les Français, où qu’ils se trouvent, à s’unir à moi dans l’action, dans le sacrifice et dans l’espérance.
Notre patrie est en péril de mort.
Luttons tous pour la sauver!
Vive la France!

Général de Gaulle
Quartier Général,
4, Carlton Gardens,
London, S.W.1
To all Frenchmen

France has lost a battle!
But France has not lost the war!

A makeshift government may have capitulated, giving way to panic, forgetting honour, delivering their country into bondage. Yet nothing is lost!
Nothing is lost, because this war is a world war. In the free universe, immense forces have not yet swung into operation. Some day these forces will crush the enemy. On that day, France must be present at the victory. She will then regain her liberty and her greatness. Such is my goal, my only goal!
That is why I urge all Frenchmen, wherever they may be, to unite with me in action, in sacrifice and in hope.
Our country is in mortal danger.
Let us all fight to save her!
Long live France!

General de Gaulle
Headquarters,
4, Carlton Gardens,
London, S.W.1.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Santa Costanza

The 4th century church of Santa Costanza, via Nomentana, Rome

The church of Santa Costanza (Saint Constance)
Via Nomentana
Rome, April 2013

“The 4th-century mausoleum of St. Costanza is a round brick building with a small west porch. The building originally had a forceps-shaped atrium at its entrance and an external colonnaded ambulatory (traces of which can be seen in the piazza).” (Santa Costanza, Rome, Sacred Destinations)

Sunday, June 16, 2013

San Pietro di Castello

Basilica of St Peter of Castello, Campo San Pietro, Venice

Basilica di San Pietro di Castello (Basilica of St Peter of Castello)
Campo San Pietro, San Pietro di Castello
Venice, September 2012

“From the ninth century until 1807, when Saint Mark’s Basilica became Venice’s official cathedral, the Church of San Pietro di Castello functioned as the spiritual and administrative religious center of the city. Erected on the island of Castello at the eastern edge of the Venetian lagoon, the Church of San Pietro underwent several renovations and reconstructions during its long history. In the 1480s, the architect Mauro Codussi (also known as Coducci) largely rebuilt the church’s bell tower with white Istrian stone. Andrea Palladio planned modifications to the structure again in the late 1550s, though his designs were not fully executed. At the end of the 16th century, the architects Francisco Smeraldi and Giovanni Grapiglia completed a new façade for the Church. Three hundred years later, after losing its preeminent spot to St. Mark’s, San Pietro fell into a state of relative neglect. The church was firebombed during the First World War and, though rebuilt, continued to decline due to insufficient funding and general neglect.” (San Pietro di Castello church, World Monuments Fund)

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Lime Street

Entrance of the Lloyd's building, Lime street, City of London, London

Entrance of the Lloyd's building
Lime Street, City of London
London, October 2009

“Lloyd’s of London pays £16 million a year in rent. Members have been grumbling about the high cost of maintenance, and their lease runs out in 2021. In March Lloyd’s said ‘there were no plans’ to leave the building.” (SOLD: Lloyd's of London HQ in Lime Street ‘to go for £290m’, Evening Standard)

Friday, June 14, 2013

Denis Diderot

Statue of Denis Diderot by Jean Gautherin, Paris

Statue of Denis Diderot by Jean Gautherin, 1886
Boulevard Saint-Germain
Quartier Saint-Germain-des-Prés, 6th arrondissement
Paris, July 2012

“This statue was created at the behest of a committee for free thinking (Comité pour la Libre pensée) in view of the 1884 centennial of the philosopher’s death. For the celebration, sculptor Jean Gautherin, the first to fail in the competition for the monument to the Republic, executed a temporary plaster model that was set up on Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The definitive bronze statue was inaugurated on 14 July 1886 on one of the boulevard’s median strips opposite Rue Saint-Benoît. Due to roadwork in 1940, the statue was transferred to its present-day location. It is one of the rare historical figures to have escaped the fury of the Occupation. What is most striking about this seated portrait is its dynamism and its pedagogical efficiency. The advancing quill and the leaning and out of line bust express the writer’s commitment which the Third Republic glorified as a precursor to the French Revolution rather than today’s more neutral remembrance of the man as an art critic and encyclopaedist.” (Diderot, Patryst - La culture à la carte)

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Sala Macchine

Sala macchine, Engine Room, Centrale Montemartini, via Ostiense, Roma

Sala macchine (Engine room) of the former Montemartini power plant
Centrale Montemartini
via Ostiense
Rome, April 2013

“Officially, Centrale Montemartini is a branch of the renowned Capitoline Museum - a place to display the Capitoline's recently acquired sculptures. Centrale Montemartini makes its home in what was once Rome's first electric power plant, which began operation at the very beginning of the 20th century. It provided the city with electricity until 1970. The effect of the vast space is immediate - as soon as you cross the threshold, you're confronted with two huge diesel engines that date to 1933, and across from them - sculpture from antiquity, the statues' marble garb made ethereal by the elegantly wrinkled, delicate details. You're seeing a robust monument to the era of industrialization at the same time as you are witnessing a lost, fragile world created with a lapidary precision.” (Centrale Montemartini, anothertravelguide.com)

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Centaur und Nymphe

Centaur und Nymphe, Centaur and Nymph by Reinhold Begas, Kolonnadenhof, Museum Island, Berlin

“Centaur und Nymphe” (Centaur and Nymph) by Reinhold Begas, 1886
Kolonnadenhof
Alte Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery)
Bodestraße
Museumsinsel Berlin (Museum Island)
Berlin, September 2011

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Waterfront Corporate Center

Waterfront Corporate Center I and II, River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey

Waterfront Corporate Center I and II, River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' DCV “Gelberman” (Drift Collection Vessel)
Seen from the Hudson River Park
New York, September 2008

Monday, June 10, 2013

From the Palais de Chaillot

Tour Eiffel (Eiffel Tower) against a cloudy sky seen from the terrace of the Palais de Chaillot, Paris

The Tour Eiffel (Eiffel Tower) against a cloudy sky
Terrace of the Palais de Chaillot
Quartier de Chaillot, 16th arrondissement
Paris, July 2012

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Monument to Goethe

Monument to Goethe by Gustav Eberlein, Villa Borghese gardens, Rome

Monument to Goethe by Gustav Eberlein, 1903
Villa Borghese gardens
Rome, April 2013

“In 1903 Emperor William II of Germany donated to the Italian State a Monument to Goethe by Gustav Eberlein; the poet is shown standing on a colossal Corinthian capital and is surrounded by statues portraying characters of his works Iphigenia in Tauris, Mignon and Faust. Two years later the Romans watched the arrival of a French reply to the German gift: a monument to Victor Hugo by Lucien Pallez; because the French writer's association with Rome was rather loose (he visited the city when he was six) the inscription quoted a speech he made to praise Garibaldi.” (Villa Borghese, A Rome Art Lover's Web Page)

Saturday, June 8, 2013

La vecia del morter

La Vecia del Morter, The Old Woman of the Mortar, Sotoportego del Cappello Nero, San Marco, Venice

La vecia del morter (The Old Woman of the Mortar)
Sotoportego del Cappello Nero, San Marco
Venice, October 2012

“Over the Sottoportego del Cappello (first left after the Torre) is a relief known as La Vecia del Morter - The Old Woman of the Mortar. The event it commemorates happened on the night of June 15, 1310, when the occupant of this house, an old woman named Giustina Rossi, looked out of her window and saw a contingent of Bajamonte Tiepolo's rebel army passing below. Possibly by accident, she knocked a stone mortar from her sill, and the missile landed on the skull of the standard-bearer, killim him outright. Seeing their flag go down, Tiepolo's troops panicked and fled back towards the Rialto. (Scores of other rebels were killed in the Piazza - those ringleaders who survived the carnage were punished with execution or exile.) Asked what she would like as her reward for her patriotic intervention, Giustina requested permission to hang the Venetian flag from her window on feast days, and a guarantee that her rent would never be raised; both requests were granted.” (Jonathan Buckley, The Rough Guide to Venice & the Veneto)

Friday, June 7, 2013

London Eye

London Eye with the Golden Jubilee Bridges in background, London

London Eye with the Golden Jubilee Bridges in background
Riverside Building, County Hall
London, October 2009

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Standing Figure

Standing Figure by Willem de Kooning, Tuileries Garden, Paris

“Standing Figure” by Willem de Kooning, 1983
Jardin des Tuileries (Tuileries Garden)
Quartier Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, 1st arrondissement
Paris, July 2012

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Fontana di Trevi

Fontana di Trevi, Trevi Fountain, Rome

Fontana di Trevi (Trevi Fountain)
Piazza di Trevi
Rome, May 2012

“Tucked away in a tiny piazza and almost always surrounded by jostling crowds, the fountain's creamy travertine gleams beneath powerful torrents of water and constant camera flashes. It's a magnificent rococo extravaganza of rearing sea horses, conch-blowing tritons, craggy rocks and flimsy trees, erupting in front of the wall of Palazzo Poli. Nobody can quite remember when the custom started of tossing coins in to the waters (as celebrated in Three Coins in a Fountain, with its Oscar-winning ditty). The city council made such a poor job of collecting the coins that for 30 years a self-appointed collector waded in every morning and saved them the trouble. Now the money goes to the Red Cross.” (Fontana di Trevi, Time Out Rome)

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Tilla-Durieux-Park

20-meter see-saws, Tilla-Durieux-Park, Linkstraße, Tiergarten, Berlin

20-meter see-saws, Tilla-Durieux-Park
Linkstraße, Tiergarten
Berlin, September 2011

“The Tilla-Durieux-Park is formed by two large parterres, 30 metres wide and 200 metres long, planted with turf and laid out longitudinally on the axis that joins Potsdamer Platz and Landwehrkanal. Two rows of linden trees, parallel to the facades of the buildings, line the parterres and separate them from the two streets with traffic that run longitudinally through the great gap. Both parterres have a gentle transversal slope that raises them to a height of more than four metres above the ground and then lets them fall down a steep 35 degree slope on the other side. Since they fall in opposite directions they are like two green beaches with different orientations. In the central part of the park, where the two parterres are located, there is a paved area that provides a route through the park to Marlene-Dietrich-Platz and which is equipped with five see-saws made of 20 metre long metal bars resting on a central joint.” (Tilla-Durieux-Park, Public Space)

Monday, June 3, 2013

New York City Waterfalls

One of the four New York City Waterfalls by Olafur Eliasson, Brooklyn Bridge, New York

One of the New York City Waterfalls by Olafur Eliasson
Brooklyn Bridge, East River
New York, September 2008

‘Together they form a mammoth work of shoreline land art called “The New York City Waterfalls.” It is the brainchild of the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson working with the tireless Public Art Fund and a host of public and private organizations and donors. Between 90 and a 120 feet high and up to 80 feet across, they cascade into Whitman’s beloved East River from four dense, plumbed scaffolding structures on or just off the coasts of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Governors Island, making some of New York’s most thrilling waterside vistas more so.’ (Cascades, Sing the City Energetic, The New York Times)

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Pyramidion

Gold-leafed pyramid cap, Luxor Obelisk, place de la Concorde, Paris

The 20th Century pyramidion of the Luxor Obelisk
Place de la Concorde
Quartier des Champs-Élysées, 8th arrondissement
Paris, July 2012

See also: Obélisque de Louxor

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Pope Gregory XV

Pope Gregory XV funerary monument by Pierre Legros, Ludovisi Chapel, Sant'Ignazio Church, Rome

Pope Gregory XV funerary monument by Pierre Legros
Ludovisi Chapel, Sant'Ignazio Church
Piazza di Sant'Ignazio
Rome, April 2013

“The Jesuits had a very large church which was completed before the canonization of Ignatius of Loyola and was therefore dedicated to the order (Chiesa del Gesù) Cardinal Ludovisi felt the need to dedicate a separate church to the founder of the order: S. Ignazio, the new church, was again a very large building which was completed after the death of the cardinal in 1632: it was also called Tempio Ludovisi and both Pope Gregory XV and Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi were buried there in a most lavish monument.” (The Age of Bernini, A Rome Art Lover's Web Page)