The discovery demanded something of a interior rethink

January 25, 2019 1:14 PM

The Treasure Behind the Wall: Something in the new Oscar de la Renta boutique in Paris was not what it seemed.
posted by bq (10 comments total)

How delightful that it wasn't accidentally destroyed by being hidden. Also, I can't decide if the central figure was as unattractive in its day as I find it now -- fashions in habitus change almost as much as fashions in fashion.

Annoying that the only reason the proprietor of the swanky boutique could talk to the building owners was that he was related to them.
posted by clew at 1:53 PM on January 25, 2019 [1 favorite]

Something something history in Europe, distance in the US.
posted by drewbage1847 at 2:07 PM on January 25, 2019

Ok experts, what's with the fish?
posted by sammyo at 2:38 PM on January 25, 2019 [1 favorite]

Wow, that is extremely cool!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 4:01 PM on January 25, 2019 [1 favorite]

Is it a fish or a dauphin?
posted by GhostintheMachine at 4:27 PM on January 25, 2019 [6 favorites]

From the FPP, I was hoping for a "For the love of God, Montresor, the Split Cady Pesante Pencil Dress!" but I guess this is cool too.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:04 PM on January 25, 2019 [7 favorites]

It seems a little weird that the architect insisted he jump on a plane from New York to Paris to find out what it was rather than, I dunno, taking some pictures with her phone? Or maybe that was just NYT upping the narrative tension for the big reveal.
posted by gesso at 5:49 PM on January 25, 2019 [5 favorites]

How annoying that it was found during the renovation of a fucking Oscar de la Renta shop, though, rather than, like, a soup kitchen or community library. Imagine how they could benefit.

Oh, who am I kidding. Those things would never have renovations.
posted by rokusan at 5:58 PM on January 25, 2019 [6 favorites]

I'm pretty okay with a haute couture house being the one to foot the bill restoring this painting. It means it gets a loving restoration that is not hampered by a lack of funding, it will be veiwable while plans are made to relocate it and protected by people who understand how to secure valuables, especially easilty stolen ones with a lively black market ready to receive them. It's in the hands of people who rank beauty above practicality, which is about the best thing that could happen, really. You make a soup kitchen or a libarary cover the cost of even just securing this painting and you're taking food from the hungry and services from the sort of people who can't afford them.
posted by Jilder at 9:25 PM on January 25, 2019 [12 favorites]

The perspective of Jerusalem is interesting. Jerusalem is built on a hill; there's no perspective that could have afforded that view. The artist gave his subject (and, by extension, the viewer) an angel's-eye view of the city, as if the Marquis de Nointel were a sort of heavenly guide to the earthly Jerusalem. So the painting isn't a mere souvenir or 17th-century holiday snap: it's a prestige work that positions its subject as the gate to revelation.
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:07 PM on January 26, 2019 [1 favorite]