Valentina Expressions

Welcome to my personal A to Z Challenge on the subject of Home.
The goal, in a year time, is to elaborate and dissect topics regarding the Home not as containers of stuff, but as a cocoon for the soul, mind and heart. I will touch on decorations, style, trends, history of home and sometimes technical information.

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Oh, come to mama! I opened the window of my hotel in Venice and saw the naked statues of the building right across the street. Every morning the scene of naked statues sitting on top of pediments was more interesting than the action in the street down below. The male statues carved in marble stood on the pediment in all their male beauty oblivious to the passage of time.

Aegina, reconstruction

Vicenza, Italy – Rotonda broken pediment by Andrea Palladio

Various pediment style

Pediment with dentelle work

If we look at any Greek temples, a Pediment is the triangle gable built above a colonnade filled with sculptures representing humans and sometimes animals in some type of action. Pediment decorated each entrance, front or back, of any temple  and each pediment told a different story. Sculptures were not made all together, marble is a hard material and much time passed between one chisel and the other. Due to different time of fabrication, we can see now the evolution of the species through the art of sculptures. The gable being a triangle with two slender corners, limited the placement of standing statues in all their height, thus reclining figures, kneeling figures and figures with bent knees were the only positions for depicting statues.

We are accustomed to see statues in the pristine white of the marble and never gave a second thought that Greeks took inspiration from the Egyptians and used very bright, contrasting colors, at times even garish for the background of pediments and for the statues. Temples were the houses of Gods and places of worship, thus always built high up on hills, perhaps the reason for coloring sculptures and the background of pediments was to be seen from afar when ships approached the islands.

Romans copied the pediment idea from the Greeks and placed it on top of their temples built all over the Empire. Since then, the shape of a pediment continued through various periods and various architectural styles evolving in pointed, curved and broken pediment, the latter became the most used pediment in the very ornate Baroque period. Today we still build homes with pediments and we have extended its application to furniture, mirrors, fireplaces, entry doors and interior doors, windows and roofs. We still call it the “classical” style as the Roman did when referring to Greek architecture.  Certain details never go out of vogue!

If you like the classical style, ask me how to add value to your home with timeless features. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Copyright © 2013 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

It’s my hope through my writing to enrich your aesthetic sensibility towards design, style and inspire you to live in beauty. I have loved my profession as an interior designer since 1990 and seen many happy people after I leave a project. I am here ready to offer consultations on-line via Skype if you need.
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