Lyon - Musée des Marionettes du Monde

Lillian: The Musées Gadagne are in 2 parts - the History of Lyon museum we saw in the last post - in this post we will see something of the Musée des Marionettes du Monde ... the Museum of the Puppets of the World.

Audrey:  Well, not wanting to disappoint people who really like puppets but the camera clicker found most of the puppets rather creepy so ...

Lillian:  Of course, creepy is in the eye of the beholder - you know, some people find Blythe dolls a bit creepy ...

Audrey: Well!  huff  there is no accounting for taste!


Lillian:  These Ballerina marionettes are quite lovely


as is this Lady from Venice and dating from the 1700s.







Lillian:  Our photographer is somewhat obsessed about historical costume and textiles - especially lace. 
The lace over-skirt on that marionette is very lovely - possibly hand embroidered on muslin.  Of course, puppets' clothes are like dolls' - often made from left-over scraps or cut-down from human sized garments.  So they can be a source for fabulous textiles.

Audrey:  Although the camera clicker didn't take many photos of the puppets - she did take some close-up pictures of the lace on their clothes.

Lillian:  This Don Quixote gent had a wonderful outfit - including this lace.  Had it been a human's cravat end or a cuff frill?   Definitely hand made but we're unsure what type of lace it is.
More research needed.

An expensively attired lady puppet

bobbin lace - would we call this Cluny style?

Lillian: This gent is wearing a lot of lace - a simple bobbin lace for his cravat and on his coat is some gold lace.

Audrey:  What - real gold?!!

Lillian:  Yes, thread with thin strips of real gold wrapped around it.  It must've been stiff & difficult to work with but they made bobbin lace from it - and it was sold by weight.

Now no museum of Puppets of the World would be complete without some Indonesian shadow puppets, Wayang Kulit ...

from Java, 1850

 
 Lillian:  And this chap is a Kasparek, from Prague, 1928.  Kasparek or Kasperle / Kasper is a German / Austrian tradition - he is rather like the English Punch (and Judy).  The French have their own version and he originated in Lyon and his name is Guignol. 

Guignol was created around 1808 by Laurent Mourguet -  like the English Punch he is rather violent and uses a split stick as a weapon (the split stick makes a loud noise - which is why it is called a slap-stick ... ) 

This Guignol puppet was made by Mourguet

All these puppets, Punch, Kasperle & Guignol have their origins in the Italian Pulcinella in the Italian Commedia dell'arte.  

In the stories Guignol is often a silkweaver (like much of his original audience) and he is always very poor.  He is cheeky, clever & courageous - has a strong sense of justice and inevitably the story is of triumph of good over evil. 

Audrey:  Guignol is a glove puppet - whereas the Kasperle is a marionette, on strings. 

Lillian:  Yes, the English Punch is traditionally a glove puppet too.  We should say that the French use the word marionette for all puppets and those with strings are called marionettes à tringle et fils or marionettes à fils.

 

Audrey: I found a statue of Laurent Mourguet near the museum - the top part  is quite charming with Mourguet interacting with the puppet he created ...

but on the side - some of that slap-stick violence you were talking about

just above that unpleasantness, there is a reference to silk weaving with a bobbin of thread, clippers ... a shuttle ...









Lillian:  But back to the museum for a bit - because the buildings are quite lovely examples of Renaissance architecture.
Audrey: With a tower and courtyards ... 

A nice doorway

Audrey:  But best of all was the very thoughtfully provided Blythe swimming pool ...

And when we got back to our hotel - the mural at the entrance made far more sense  ...

Hello Guignol!

Le Musée de l’École de Nancy

This post should come with a "partial nudity" warning.  Art Nouveau artists were inspired by many lovely things such as flowers & women ...

Lillian :  Nancy is a wonderful place to see Art Nouveau and a visit to the Musée de l’École de Nancy is a delight for anyone interested in the style -
Audrey :  Or if you just like seeing beautiful things that have been beautifully made.


Lillian : Quite! It is lovely to see complete sets of furniture, with paintings, lamps, vases ... all presented in a natural way in the rooms of the house. 




Audrey : The painting you can see part of there is by Victor Prouvé - it is of 3 lovely ladies in soft, pretty dresses, painted in 1903.  The furniture is by Louis Majorelle, his Ensemble aux nénuphars (French for waterlilies) 1900.











Lillian : The details - the way the shapes of waterlily leaves and stems are suggested in the shapes of the legs, the turned up edges of the desk-top, the table ... just lovely!















Audrey : Detail of a chair - also by Louis Majorelle - Chaise Pavots (poppies), very elegant. 












Lillian :  This room - Salle a manger (dining room) by Eugène Vallin & Victor Prouvé  - was a trifle over-whelming!

The original room was somewhat larger so the beautiful painted ceiling has actually been cut down a little.  The light-fitting is gorgeous. 

And here is a close-up picture of the tea-set.













Audrey :  Of course, electric light was a wonderful new thing when these Art Nouveau artistes were creating & designing.  They even found wonderfully clever ways to use light bulbs - 


isn't that delightful?  I wanted to stand under that light and wait for everyone to give me kisses - but our people wanted to see everything in the museum ...

Lillian :  And there is so much to see!  we can only show you a tiny amount here.
This lovely set of lights in glass gourds is by Emile Gallé, 1902.
The foliage is made of iron, and I think that would look wonderful under a verandah.

Lillian : The Art Nouveau movement held that everything can & should be made beautiful (as well as practical).  So a lovely painting is put into a gorgeous frame - with a dragonfly perhaps.

 




Audrey :  Even a bath-tub!  Not merely a place to get clean but an amazing grotto complete with water plants and nymph!

And all done in ceramic tiles.







Audrey : This fire-screen is inspired by the ocean with glass 'waves' and metal 'sea-weed''.


Lillian : I think that is what the French call verre américain - opalescent glass, invented by Tiffany & Co.

Audrey :  Let's see more lovely lead-light work...  The top of a display cabinet with pretty birds.










Lillian : A window with a lovely lady in a garden - hope she is using sun-screen! 

Pretty peacocks and curling fern-fronds in the corners.

Audrey : The lady has a kitty - and kitty wants a cuddle.

Lillian :  This very pretty window with roses is on the landing of the stairs.







Audrey : And this massive window - almost 3.5m long - is by Jacques Gruber 1904 (see our previous post for more of Monsieur Gruber's wonderful works in glass).

Some detail - the irises are of verre américain.

Audrey : Let's see more lovely glass - this time in vases. 

Lillian : Ah - some of the vases are displayed near a window so the sunlight shines through them.  This fern frond vase caught our stylist's eye. 

Audrey :  Downstairs there is a collection of glass-work by Emile Gallé

the colour in this vase is stunning.

This is called Ipoméa et Phalènes, it was in the Exposition universelle de Paris in 1900 but then the base was also of glass.  It seems that it had an accident back then and was given a new bronze base.        The moths have been applied by a marqueterie technique (see here for info).

Lillian :  Here is some more marquetry, the more common sort - in timber.  Some very delicate insects.

 

Lillian : And a delightful trinket box with tulips and a moth - by Emile Gallé.  Those Art Nouveau artists designed and made everything!

 

Lillian : In our next post we will show you the lovely gardens of this museum.  But now we'll leave you with some details from a large painting that delighted our stylist.  Unfortunately we don't know who painted this, our photographer couldn't find a signature and it is not in the big book our people bought from the Musée.

It shows women working at all sorts of textiles - here we see 2 ladies hand sewing and the lady bent over the tambour frame is busy embroidering or beading.









In the LH corner there is a lady making lace - bobbin (or pillow) lace Dentelle au Fuseau.  She is using a pillow with a roller (for making long lengths of lace) the French call this a carreau traditionnel and her bobbins don't have the beads (or spangles) found on English bobbins - European lace-makers use wooden bobbins of different shapes (like these) - no beads.

Brussels - Buildings, Lace & Things

Lillian : There are lots of lovely Art Nouveau style buildings in Brussels with beautiful lead-light windows, fancy iron-work and wonderful 'sgraffito'.

Audrey : We saw lots and lots including the gorgeous Cauchie House but most of the photos disappeared from the digital camera - and our people were very upset!

Lillian : Yes, we only have a few photos to show everyone and these are not the most famous buildings ...

Audrey : But it does pwove that there are lots of lovely buildings and it is very worth while to go exploring awound Bwussels.

Lillian : Yes, hop on a tram ... and remember to look up!

 

Audrey : Is that the scratchy graffiti stuff ALL over that building?

Lillian : They call it 'sgaffito' the design is 'scratched' or incised into wet mortar I think and then painted, often with lots of gold ...

Audrey : Sometimes it isn't painted ...

Audrey : Though I think I'd like to colour in those pwetty flowers.
Lillian : Those are 'MacIntosh' roses Audrey, another very popular Art Nouveau motif in Brussels is the Ginkgo leaf - sometimes in ironwork balconies like this -

 

Audrey : What about owls - are they a popular Art Nouveau motif too?

Lillian :  I'm not sure, owls aren't very sinuous or elegant but Les Hiboux (The Owls) building is very sweet.   Here are some of Les Hiboux

Audrey : It is nice when the buildings are cared for - remember the shop with the awful yellow paint?

Lillian : It was rather nasty ...

Audrey : But our stylist loved this lady - she was up the top of a building and the photo is not very clear but the lady has a stick with thwead on it.

Lillian : A distaff - used when spinning fibre.  She could be the goddess Frigg / Frigga (we've named Friday after her) or perhaps she is Clotho.  One of the 'three fates', Clotho spins the threads of human's lives  ....   I love the oak tree, perhaps it is a hint as to that lady's identity.

Audrey : Talking about twees - remember the extremely espaliered trees in the big park?

Lillian : Yes - Parc Royale - I guess the trees look better in summer when all their leaves are on.
Audrey : There is a very big fountain and lots of fun statues in that park / parc.

Audrey : He looked like a nice, eligible young man - very capable of bringing home the bacon!

Lillian : Looks like he is doing just that Audrey.  This chap has a big fish which is trying to eat a glove!

Audrey : And these plump babies have been telling each other silly jokes!

Lillian : Well - we can't leave Brussels and Belgium without talking about lace.
Audrey : Belgium is famous for lace - as well as for chocolate.
Lillian : The Costume & Lace Museum in Brussels and the Kantcentrum in Brugge are just wonderful.
Audrey : At the Kantcentrum you can see people making lace - with hundweds & hundweds of bobbins ...
Lillian : Yes - they have 'demonstrations' and one lady in particular was really fast.
Audrey : Oh she was amazing!  The thread was like spider's web and her bobbins were just flying!
Lillian : She was working with silk thread and I think she was making Binche lace - it was very beautiful.  Not much of the lace for sale in the shops is actually hand-made though some shops have lovely antique pieces in their windows, like these ...

 

Lillian : Isn't that just gorgeous!  And here is a close up - it is Rosaline lace, very distinctive with those little raised circles.

Audrey : Lovely and delicate - but what a lot of work to make it!  Amazing!