Tag Archives: Jean-Honore Fragonard

perfide manon: still loved in spite of all

Perfide Manon and Abbe Prevost. She was the classic cocotte, he the classic dupe; first the Abbe wrote his famous story, and then he set out to live it… …Of all Prevost’s work, Manon Lescaut stands apart and above. It … Continue reading

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tencin: high wire act between rationalism and passion

“My menagerie,” Alexandrine Tencin called her salon; her guests were “mes betes.” Her Tuesdays she filled with good talk, high spirits, and low comedy involving chamber pots and such. Her leisure she filled with literature, the recourse of the bored. … Continue reading

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tencin: stockjobbing the abbe and others

It was the Regency period in France, beginning in 1715 and was a hey-day of cynical license in the last legs of the aged Louis XIV. And Mme Alexandrine de Tencin found no lack of companions. Her vows from the … Continue reading

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ages of water: pleasure over plumbing

Water and architecture. A highly arbitrary and artificial art that makes for an unparalleled instrument of grandeur and romance. The use of water with architecture has a long history and a universally seductive appeal. “Water-works” as the artful disposition of … Continue reading

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cool cool water

There is, perhaps no more solid , stable, and material art than architecture, and no more ethereal, evanescent, and volatile element than water. When the two combine, it is often for effects of singular magnificence and mystery. Water is spirit; … Continue reading

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