Villa Medici

"Muse with Peruvian Lillies" - By Mary Maki Rae - 2011(c)
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After so many Blue Paintings - I'm thinking about a warm retreat to an Italian Palette of Light Terracotta - Golds - Soft Blue - Mauve - and Green.
I've painted a myriad of Peruvian Lillies - always a Joy- with such a wide color range-!  Once established in your Garden they will grow quite profusely-!
I wonder if they would bloom in Italy - I can just imagine a hillside covered with these treasures in beautiful vibrant drifts-!
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The VILLA MEDICI - home of The French Academy of Fine Arts - a majestic - somber - theatrical 16th Century Palace - built for the Grand Duke of Tuscany - Ferdinand of Medici.
The Villa houses a collection of antiques assembled by the Medicis during the Renaissance - as well as fragments of bias-relief encrusted within the stuccoed walls.  Thus a well-favored place for choosen Artists to study Classical Sculpture and Antiquity first-hand.

Here the Painter Balthus (one of the last monstres sacres) of the 20th Century and among the rarest and most expensive artists in the world - was appointed director of the Villa in 1961.
Balthus restored the building with infinite care and thereafter used the premises to entertain Roman society - mostly royal - for the next 15 years.
Part of The Academy's Collection of Casts - which the Artists studied -  to learn Classical proportions.
The famed oriental-style "Turkish Room" was decorated by french painter Horace Vernet when He was Director of the Villa (1828-35).

The also Famous Painting: "La Chambre Turque" By Balthus (1963-66)
The model was his wife Setsuko -
a descendant of a long line of Japanese Samurai.
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For more about Villa Medici see:
The WORLD of INTERIORS -February-2002
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For more about Balthus's Very Own Castle see:
The WORLD of INTERIORS - April - 2002
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