Word: gilt
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Left to my own devices, I spent a bemused hour observing the Senate and the House of Representatives. The two chambers have recently been renovated, and the old red hangings and tobacco-stained rugs have been replaced by a delicate grey decor with hints here and there of imperial gilt ... Those few who had come to observe the democratic process seemed mostly to be simple country people who behaved-quite rightly-as if they were at the circus; they chewed tobacco, shelled peanuts, ate popped corn, a newly contrived delicacy with the consistency and, I should think, the flavor...
Such is the fate of culturally stranded objects. Perhaps the most extreme example of it in "Treasures of Sacred Art" is a 16th century reliquary from the Collegiate Church of Calcata, north of Rome. Two elegantly slim silver-gilt angels hold up a casket surmounted by a crown, studded with rubies and emeralds. It is traditionally believed to contain the only relic left on earth by Jesus Christ. True, Christ ascended bodily into heaven before the eyes of the astonished Apostles after his resurrection. But he had been circumcised in the temple as an infant, and the Holy Foreskin, preserved...
...took only three minutes to sell lot No. 216 at Manhattan's Swann Galleries last week. The item, bound in two gilt-tooled morocco volumes, was bought at auction by a Philadelphia lawyer for $120,000. The price made history. The item was history: autographs of all 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence...
...human-a naif, a hack and a monomaniac. Probably a touch of madness ran in his blood: two of his three children were suicides; so was his only grandchild. But he did have the inexplicable gift of prophecy. In the operetta that was old Europe, he looked through the gilt backdrop and saw the flames of the Holocaust. In life and in history, his fearful vision has been repeatedly vindicated by the behavior of others. If that remains the best that can be said of Herzl, what worse can be said Of the world? ∎ Stefan Kanfer
...excited anticipation on behalf of everyone who'd seen their notices pasted up all over the Fogg, opened an exhibit of Eucharistic Vessels of the Middle Ages. If you're a middle ages freak, the show is fantastic. The vessels--chalices, monstrances, patens--are made of silver, copper gilt, Ivory and enamel, and are sumptuous and beautiful. The purpose of the show is to explain the relation of these objects to theology and liturgy in the middle ages. If you're at all interested in that, it's great--go see it. Through April...