Word: cythera
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Pagan Love. Rubens added some thing to the meaning of every subject he touched, but perhaps the deepest transformation of a theme that he set off was the imagery of the terrestrial paradise, which he changed into a thoroughly erotic Eden: the island of Cythera, sacred to Aphrodite. It was from this delectable abode of profane love that the 18th century painters of the féte champétre drew their inspiration. Rubens' outdoor courts of pagan love became Watteau's exquisite assemblies of lovers and Pierrots, at dusk, beside the Mozartian stone statue. This vision...
...awareness of their patrician Doppelgängers. The Isle of Jazz in Music Land (1946) is a brassy plebeian version of an almost archetypal image that in fine art reveals itself in Arnold Böcklin's Isle of the Dead and Watteau's Embarkation for Cythera: an island as kingdom of mood...
...touch distinctly recalled 18th century Versailles. But in the jet age, sailing by flower-bedecked barges to a make-believe Cythera will no longer do. It must be by plane, with champagne corks popping all the way. The destination can be anywhere - Acapulco, Moscow, Marrakesh. Last week it was Nassau, and for today's féte galante it was no moody grotto but the brand-new $55 million Paradise Island Hotel. Still, a touch of magic was called for, and the wand that summoned all the Beautiful People to court was held as usual by Serge Obolensky...