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| John Rawlings ~ Alfred Hitchcock, NYC 1956 |
La clef des songes
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| René Magritte, 1930 |
Bar
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| François-Xavier Lalanne, 1966 Sotheby’s |
Vol-au-vent
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| 19th-century seafood vol-au-vent filled with scallops, mussels and langoustine Chef Eric Ripert ~ Le Bernardin , 2009 
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Louis Eustache Ude
French Cook
Ci-devant Cook to Louis XVI. and the Earl of Sefton, and Steward to his Late Royal Highness the Duke of York. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea and Carey , 1828.
The first cookbook printed in America devoted exclusively to French cooking. Another was not published in America until 1832.
“First published in London in 1813, Ude’s The French Cook was undoubtedly a great success, going through numerous editions. Although it was not, as Favre argued, the first culinary work to appear in London, there is some truth in the claim that Ude was ‘one of the first to popularize haute cuisine in London’ (Favre, vol. 4, p. 1803). The saying, ‘Coquus nascitur non fit’—‘cooks are born, not made’—is attributed to him…He also insists that cookery is the most difficult and demanding of the sciences; that there are few good cooks, though many who claim to be; and that a properly qualified cook can be ‘placed in the rank of artists’ (ibid., xxix).”
Party Mask with Shells
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| Paul Outerbridge, 1936 |
“Art is life seen through man‘s inner craving for perfection and beauty—his escape from the sordid realities of life into a world of his imagining. Art accounts for at least a third of our civilization, and it is one of the artist‘s principal duties to do more than merely record life or nature. To the artist is given the privilege of pointing the way and inspiring towards a better life.”
The Magician of the forms?
Fêtes Carnaval
“Just One More Thing …”
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| Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo |
The character (who never had a first name), and the series are a creation of the writing/producing team of Richard Levinson and William Link. Columbo ran as a television series from 1971 to 1978, but the character had appeared in a short story, a live-television broadcast, and a stage play before making his first network television appearance in the Made-For-Television Movie Prescription: Murder (1968). Originally written for Bing Crosby, the Columbo role went to Falk when Crosby opted not to end his retirement.
The series’ original run was not in weekly hour-long episodes, but as a 90-minute “spoke” in the NBC Mystery Movie “wheel” concept: each week, one of three different series was shown on a rotating basis. Columbo was interspersed with McMillan & Wife (starring Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James), and McCloud (starring Dennis Weaver. This suited Falk and the producers just fine since the pace of production would be much slower than was usually the case with weekly series. The 90-minute program length also allowed each episode to be more intricate than the typical one-hour installment, and intricacy was stock in trade for the character.
Columbo was not a “who-done-it.” Indeed, the most distinguishing aspect of the series is the plot structure itself. Although this structure is just as rigid and successful as that in Perry Mason, Dragnet, or The Rockford Files, each episode is actually an inversion of the classic detective formula. In the classic formula, the crime is committed by an unknown person, a detective comes onto the case, clues are gathered, the detective solves the crime with the aid of his/her assistants, and the ability of the detective is proven true. In each Columbo plot, the crime and the culprit are shown in great detail. The audience sees the murder planned, committed, and covered up by the murderer. Since the audience knows who did it and how, the enigma becomes “how will Columbo figure it out?” The methods of the murderer are presented with such care that there is little doubt that the horrible crime will go unpunished–little doubt until Columbo comes onto the scene.
With his rumpled overcoat, stubby cigar, tousled hair and (apparently) confused attitude, Columbo rambles around in his old Peugeot, doggedly following the suspect of a homicide. The attitude and behavior, however, are all an act. Columbo is not confused but acutely aware, like a falcon circling its prey, waiting for a moment of weakness. Columbo bumbles about, often interfering with the activities of the uniformed police and gathering what seem to be the most unimportant clues. All the while he constantly pesters the person he has pegged as his central suspect.
At first even the murderer is amused at the lieutenant’s style and usually seems inclined to assume that if this is the best the Los Angeles police can offer, the murder will never be found out. But whenever the suspect seems to be rid of the Lieutenant, Columbo turns with a bemused remark, something like “Oh, there’s just one more thing ….” By the end of the episode, Columbo has taken an apparently minor discrepancy in the murderer’s story and wound it into the noose with which to hang the suspect. Conclusions often feature a weary, yet agreeable, criminal admitting to his or her guilt as Columbo, in the form of some imaginative turnabout, delivers the final blow. If the suspect is a magician, the Lieutenant uses a magic “trick”. If the crime was done by knowledge of movie special effects, Columbo uses similar special effects.
Columbo is the only regular character in the series. There is no grizzled police commissioner, no confidant with whom the case could be discussed. For Columbo, each guest villain becomes something of an ironic “Watson”. Columbo and the murderer spend most of the story playing off each other. The Lieutenant discusses the twists and turns of the case, the possible motives, the implications of clues with his primary suspect, always rich, powerful, and arrogant, always happy to match wits with the apparently witless policeman on the doorstep. In the end the working-class hero overcomes the wealthy, privileged criminal.
Many influential writers, directors, and producers of the 1980s and 1990s worked on this series. Stephen J. Cannell (The Rockford Files, The A-Team, Wiseguy), Peter S. Fisher (Murder, She Wrote), and Steven Bochco (L. A. Law, Hill Street Blues) were writers. Dean Hargrove (Matlock, Perry Mason) and Roland Kibbee (Barney Miller) were producers. The premiere episode was directed by a very young Steven Spielberg. Each episode featured a well-known character actor or minor star as the murderer. Robert Culp and Jack Cassidy had the highest number of returns as guest villain (three each).
Columbo won seven Emmys over the first run of the series, including three for Falk and one for the series itself. Columbo spawned only one spin-off, NBC’s short-lived, Mrs. Columbo (name later changed to Kate Columbo, Kate the Detective, and Kate Loves a Mystery) with Kate Mulgrew in the title role. This series played against Columbo in several ways. Instead of Mrs. Columbo being absent each episode, the lieutenant was “unavailable”. And here the plot followed the traditional detective format instead of the inverted one. It is not clear what caused this series to fail, but Mrs. Columbo was ill fated and ill advised. Both Link and Levinson disavowed it and Falk disliked the concept.
Following the success of Raymond Burr’s return as Perry Mason in a series of Made-for-Television Movies, Falk returned to Columbo on 6 February 1989, for a new “mystery wheel” concept (this time on ABC and alternating with Burt Reynolds in B. L. Stryker and Lou Gossett, Jr., in Gideon Oliver). Just as he left Rock Hudson and Dennis Weaver behind during his original run, the rumpled detective was the only one of the new “wheel” to survive. Indeed, like the character, Columbo always seems to be coming back as if to say “Oh, there’s just one more thing . . .”
–Dennis Bounds
Fang mask
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| Gabun/südliches Kamerun |
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The Fang tribe are spread over a vast area along the Atlantic coastline of equatorial Africa and can be found in Cameroon equatorial Guinea and Gabon and namely along the bank of the Ogowe river. The Fang people used masks in their secret societies. Members of this male society wore the Ngil masks during the initiation of new members and the persecution of wrongdoers. Masqueraders, clad in raffia costumes and attended by helpers, would materialize in the village after dark, illuminated by flickering torchlight.
Rococo
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| Estampillée : Matthieu Criaerd, 1742 Commode Painted in Vernis Martin, Wood, 85 x 132 x 64 Wood, 85 x 132 x 64 Musée du Louvre, Paris |
Commode
Louis XV acquired the Château de Choisy in 1739. The furniture in the Blue Room (commissioned from the marchand mercier Hébert) was designed to match some blue silk woven by the king’s mistress, Madame de Mailly, and to suit her taste for oriental art. Hébert had the commode and encoignure (corner cabinet) for the room made by cabinetmaker Matthieu Criaerd. The commode is a fine example of Criaerd’s work.
Louis XV acquired the Château de Choisy in 1739. The furniture in the Blue Room (commissioned from the marchand mercier Hébert) was designed to match some blue silk woven by the king’s mistress, Madame de Mailly, and to suit her taste for oriental art. Hébert had the commode and encoignure (corner cabinet) for the room made by cabinetmaker Matthieu Criaerd. The commode is a fine example of Criaerd’s work.
The Blue Room at the Château de Choisy
Madame de Mailly’s room was elaborately furnished in 1742. Louis XV’s mistress had given the king some silk that she had woven; this was made into blue and white striped moiré, and was used in the room which was then painted blue and white. The marchand mercier Hébert and the upholsterer Sallior were given the task of producing the furniture, which was to suit both the colors of the silk and Madame de Mailly’s taste for chinoiserie.
Madame de Mailly’s room was elaborately furnished in 1742. Louis XV’s mistress had given the king some silk that she had woven; this was made into blue and white striped moiré, and was used in the room which was then painted blue and white. The marchand mercier Hébert and the upholsterer Sallior were given the task of producing the furniture, which was to suit both the colors of the silk and Madame de Mailly’s taste for chinoiserie.
The production of the furniture
Although the marchand mercier Hébert was entrusted with producing the furniture, a commode veneered with Chinese lacquer was first delivered by his colleague Julliot. Hébert therefore made furniture to match this commode — provisional items, no doubt, which were subsequently replaced by the blue and white furniture which confirms Madame de Mailly’s pronounced taste for objects of oriental inspiration, reflected throughout her decorative scheme. Hébert provided blue and white China porcelain for the same apartment, together with silver-plated andirons decorated with figures of Chinese children. Hébert entrusted the production of the blue furniture to cabinetmaker Mattheu Criaerd.
Although the marchand mercier Hébert was entrusted with producing the furniture, a commode veneered with Chinese lacquer was first delivered by his colleague Julliot. Hébert therefore made furniture to match this commode — provisional items, no doubt, which were subsequently replaced by the blue and white furniture which confirms Madame de Mailly’s pronounced taste for objects of oriental inspiration, reflected throughout her decorative scheme. Hébert provided blue and white China porcelain for the same apartment, together with silver-plated andirons decorated with figures of Chinese children. Hébert entrusted the production of the blue furniture to cabinetmaker Mattheu Criaerd.
A commode typical of Criaerd’s work
Matthieu Criaerd produced a commode and encoignure (corner cabinet) which are now in the Louvre. The commode, with its curved legs and two long drawers, resembles the one delivered to Fontainebleau for Queen Maria Leczinska by BVRB in 1737. It is coated with blue and white vernis Martin, essentially representing exotic birds and plants, freely inspired by Chinese motifs. The silvered bronze decoration, typical of Criaerd, consists of trophies down the sides of the legs, and pierced sabots. The frames are formed by a series of scrolls, and the central, violin-shaped cartouche is created by a wavy border pierced with ovals, scrolls, and foliage. This type of decoration became very popular; it features on other commodes by Criaerd, notably the one in the former Grog-Carven Collection, or the one delivered by Hébert for the Dauphin’s study at the Château de Versailles in 1748.
Matthieu Criaerd produced a commode and encoignure (corner cabinet) which are now in the Louvre. The commode, with its curved legs and two long drawers, resembles the one delivered to Fontainebleau for Queen Maria Leczinska by BVRB in 1737. It is coated with blue and white vernis Martin, essentially representing exotic birds and plants, freely inspired by Chinese motifs. The silvered bronze decoration, typical of Criaerd, consists of trophies down the sides of the legs, and pierced sabots. The frames are formed by a series of scrolls, and the central, violin-shaped cartouche is created by a wavy border pierced with ovals, scrolls, and foliage. This type of decoration became very popular; it features on other commodes by Criaerd, notably the one in the former Grog-Carven Collection, or the one delivered by Hébert for the Dauphin’s study at the Château de Versailles in 1748.
Catalogue d’exposition : « Nouvelles acquisitions du département des Objets d’art 1990-1994 », Paris, 1995, pp. 31, 134-136.
D. Alcouffe, A. Dion-Tenenbaum, A. Lefébure, Le Mobilier du Musée du Louvre, t. 1, Paris, Faton, 1993, pp. 144-147
Louvre
Louvre
tout ceci est magnifique 