Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Pairs across the Centuries

George Baster (publisher)
Gems of the Great Exhibition, no. 1
1851
lithograph
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

George Baxter (publisher)
Gems of the Great Exhibition, no. 2
1851
lithograph
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Frederick Crace
Design for Painted Coach Panel with Rocaille Motif
ca. 1847
gouache
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Frederick Crace
Design for Rocaille Ornament
after 1829
gouache on blue paper
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

"Oh! There is a sweet æra in the  life of man, when (the brain being tender and fibrillous, and more like pap than any thing else)  a story read of two fond lovers, separated from each other by cruel parents, and by still more cruel destiny –  
                                        Amandus  He
                                        Amanda  She 
each ignorant of the other's course,
                                        He  east
                                        She  west
Amandus taken captive by the Turks, and carried to the emperor of Morocco's court, where the princess of Morocco falling in love with him, keeps him twenty years in prison, for the love of his Amanda
She  (Amanda) all the time wandering barefoot, and with dishevell'd hair, o'er rocks & mountains, enquiring for Amandus Amandus! Amandus! – making every hill and valley to echo back his name                             
                                        Amandus! Amandus!
at every town and city, sitting down forlorn at the gate – Has Amandus! – has my Amandus! enter'd?  going round, and round, and round the world – chance unexpected bringing them at the same moment of the night, though by different ways, to the gate of Lyons, their native city, and each in well-known accents calling out aloud,
                                        Is Amandus
                                        Is my Amanda      still alive?
they fly into each other's arms, and both drop down dead for joy."

– Laurence Sterne, from The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759)  

Pierre Ranson
Wall Elevation of Bedroom Alcove
ca. 1780
watercolor, gouache
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Pierre Ranson
Wall Elevation of Bedroom Alcove
ca. 1780
watercolor, gouache
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Charles Albert Lespilliez after Jean-François Cuvilliés
Design for Interior Niche with Fountain
before 1768
engraving
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

I.W. Meil after Johann Michael Hoppenhaupt II
Design for Grotto Room Wall
1753
etching, engraving
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous English Designer
Wallpaper
1765
block-printed and glazed
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Walter Crane
Wallpaper Frieze - May Tree for Jeffrey & Co, England
1896
block-printed
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

after Sebastiano Serlio
Corinthian Column Capital with Acanthus
1544
etching
British Museum

after Sebastiano Serlio
Corinthian Column Base
1544
etching
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

follower of Polidoro da Caravaggio
Frieze Fragment
ca. 1520-35
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

follower of Polidoro da Caravaggio
Frieze Fragment
ca. 1520-35
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York