Sunday 23 November 2008

Caught in time

New York based photographer Robert Polidori has spent the past twenty-five years chronicling the preservation of Versailles. Preservation against the onslaught of some 3 million yearly visitors.


Versailles, Appartement of Madame Adélaïde, Painting of Marie Clotilde Xavière de France, by François Hubert Drouais



Versailles, 1er Étage, Corps Central, Chambre à Coucher de la Reine, Wall Detail



Versailles, Dorures et Boiseries

Polidori’s pictures are as much an exercise in still life photography as a comment on the notion of restoration. Exquisite and opulent subject matter, photographed in painstaking detail, makes you wonder if restoration is anything more than maquillage of a contemporary culture, rather than the preservation of the past: ‘historical revisionism and present society’s superego’ as Polidori suggests. - Wallpaper*

Robert Polidori is represented by Flowers Gallery.


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Now playing: Al Stewart - The Palace of Versailles
via FoxyTunes

2 comments:

columnist said...

This hidden door is a gem, and was a great feature of architecture in the C18th.

Cote de Texas said...

I love the second line you wrote here. so true!