Saturday, December 10, 2005

Bestiaire Medieval





There seems to be a never ending amount of interesting exhibitions in Paris. Le Bestiaire Medieval at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France is marvellous. Dozens of ancient illuminated volumes from the library's archives are on show focusing on the way animals & mythological creatures were depicted in the middle-ages. The intricate, hand written/illustrated pages are mind-blowing and the way the animals are intepreted is often hilarious.

The Bibliotheque-musee de l'Opera currently stages an exhibition of designs & costumes from past operas curated by Christian Lacroix. The theme here is 'rouge' and Lacroix has basically selected every drawing & costume from the archives that is red.
It's great to see so many different drawings, styles & designs by such varied artists & fashion designers.

3 comments:

the doodlers said...

Wow, your red and white sketch in the style of the bestiary medieval is terrific. Love the animal's awkward tortured expressions! The hairy-legged elephant is priceless.

Your take on the Christian Lacroix exhibit is delightful.. lively and loose. You've given us the flavour of the place... wishing we could be there!

Matt Jones said...

Thanks for the comments Doodlers, alas the Lacroix sketch is actually HIS not mine! Scanned it in from a magazine article about the exhibition. I think from now on I'll put my name on my pieces (as I did with the Medieval sketches) to avoid confusion.

the doodlers said...

Haha! OK, so we like LACROIX'S sketch! Thanks for the clarification. A fun post none-the-less.