Maestro d'Arte... Carlo Marchiori...

 Color! Venetian born artist Carlo Marchiori sees the world through the language of color and reinterprets it in his eclectic pieces of art.

Located at the northern end of the Napa Valley in Calistoga, California- Carlo has his studio open to the public Thurs-Mon.

Carlo creates in both one and three dimensional mediums-paintings, ceramics, sculptures, furniture and watercolors. Don't worry, if you see something you like, you can order on line

In 1999, I was in the Venice train station and this magazine cover caught my eye...this was my first exposure to Carlo Marchiori.

Opening the pages, I found an incredible article on the artist along with pictures of his home.

Remember, this was 1999, we didn't even have a computer in our home yet...my Italian was not that good and I assumed this was an article on an Italian artist with his villa in Italy.

A few years later (computer installed in home now) I was on line searching some art references. I remembered the magazine and did a search on Carlo's name.

Bingo! There was a book! And he now lives in the U.S.!  I called the number listed on the web site and ordered the book. Carlo himself answered the phone when I placed the order.

When my daughter moved to San Francisco, I planned a visit to meet Carlo and take my daughter to see his incredible world.

Carlo has created a world reminiscent of Rome and Venice on his five acres in the Napa valley. The land has olive and eucalyptus trees, natural mineral springs and a climate similar to the Veneto area he grew up in. Marchiori designed his villa and gardens himself and is still adding to the illusion.

The interior walls are painted floor to ceiling in Italianate references.

Bacchus, Pompeii, Trojan horses,grottos, pulcinella-they are all here. When interviewed for California Style magazine, Carlo said- “I return home and enter my own dream world,” he says. “It’s a fantasy, and it’s my reality. I wake up, and I can be in 16th-century Vicenza. My spirit is uplifted. It’s the best way to start the day. It’s like living inside a painting.” •

On the way out of town, we rounded out the trip with a visit to the Del Dotto winery.

Del Dotto is an opulent winery with marble columns, mosaic floors and fantastic murals painted by Carlo!

You can view the winery's opulent tasting room in the video below.

The upper border Carlo painted features wine being aged in amphora clay vessels-Roman style.

The mantle wall is the focal point of the room with its floor to ceiling mural.

This fall, I look forward to the arrival of my 2009 clay vessel Zinfandel fermented as the Romans once practiced!

Also, here is a link to a great blog-Art and Alfalfa-Gina had her home built by the same architects that designed Ca'Toga!

A Fascination with Grottoes.....

Boboli Gardens Florence, Italy

Grottoes have always fascinated me. The word grotto comes from the Italian grotta- or cave. So simply, a grotto is a cave.

This is the entrance to the Boboli Gardens grotto in Florence, Italy. Leave it to an artist to not leave well enough alone and go and tweak mother nature! Artificial garden grottoes, such as the Boboli gardens were conceived in the 16th century. Artists took the concepts of stalactites, shells and mythological figures and glorified them in these false grottos.

This is why I have always wanted a grotto....a garden grotto with stalactite sheep and mythological figures emerging from the calcium carbonate formations against faded fresco walls....who wouldn't want a grotto after seeing this?

An artist's interpretation of a grotto...with classical urns and fountains, frescoes and large clam shells formed by man, not nature....

Even the ceilings in the Boboli gardens are examples of controlled nature...dripping sections of della robbia frame the painted panels.

Boboli gardens ceiling

Such a perfect combination of man's ability and nature's best!

The romancing of nature-combining sculpture with found objects, always linking to the ocean and water.

Carlo Marchiori has a modern grotta on the grounds of his home Ca' Toga in California. Carlo created his home and all architecture to give the illusion of Italian ruins. This shot shows the oculus dome inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. The grotta is made from woven rebar, metal mesh, abalone shells and "hundreds of buckets of concrete mix."(quote from Festa Veneziana a Ca'Toga)

I took these photos in Rome ten years ago....sculptures on Via XX Settembre...mythological subjects with grotto style renderings.

It would be a few years later before I would go to Florence and became totally smitten with grottoes.

Man continues to imitate nature...this is a stalactite ceiling done in plaster in the early turn of the 20th century in the United States.

...and the fascination continues with this recent installation in the U.N.'s Palace of Nations ceiling by Spanish painter Miquel Barcelo.

Maybe if I snag an incredible grotto chair like this one from Michaelsamantiques I will be satisfied.....for a while!

Enfilades....

An enfilade can be a piece of furniture, usually a buffet, with a minimum of four cabinet doors opening to reveal connected compartments in a row.

The Baroque era-Mannheim Palace in Germany

Enfilade(ahn'-fe-lahd) comes from the french verb "enfiler" meaning "to thread" and more commonly refers to a suite of rooms formally aligned with each other.(wikipedia def.) 

This baroque enfilade is from Catherine the Great's Palace -

I love the chinoiserie theme with this enfilade...the design mimics the pattern in the leaded glass windows.

These are the Fine Rooms at Burlington House, part of the Royal Academy of London. They remind me of a set of fired porcelain tea cups with gilded edging.

Enfilades can carry out a larger theme with each doorway varying in detail from the next, note above the doorway how each one has a different motif.

Photo courtesy New York Social Diary

This enfilade leads to the Salon des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors) in Versailles.

The Golden Room in the Charlottenburg Palace is an exuberant example of Baroque

Even Marrakech architecture can be defined as enfilade...these windows repeat the pattern

I love how the classical pediments repeat, slightly different from the previous set.

Photo from Ca'Toga

No one "works" the concept of enfilade better than Carlo Marchiori in his home Ca'Toga. Venetian born, he frames the outer doors with replica gondola moorings. Pediments over the door continue with the second set of doors and the story is completed with the hand painted chest and trompe l'oeil curtains and sky with Campanile on the back wall.

As much as I love Baroque art, I must end this with a newer interpretation of an enfilade. It fits the definition perfectly.

Along your travels in life, have you seen an example of an enfilade that made your heart skip a beat? Please share your experiences with me!!

over the top interiors....

Bergl, Duquette, Marchiori....sigh.....images of their work are always in my mind...

....influencing my own work and consultations I have with clients and decorators.

These first two images are from two rooms done by J W Bergl in the Schonbrunn Palace in Austria. Here is a link to see a panoramic view of the entire room.

This is the lacquered hall from the Hotel Claude in Paris....

Look at the scale of this classical motif salon....

...and the layers of trompe l'oeil fabric behind the bed....

Tony Duquette was synonymous with asian decor and high drama.

This is Duquette's drawing room at Dawnridge...

..more classic Duquette...

Carlo Marchiori, Venetian by birth, settled in California over a decade ago and brought with him the best of european decorative art.

Carlo not only built Ca 'Toga, but painted all interior murals as well....

His work stopped me in my tracks when I first saw it featured in a magazine I picked up in Venice.

Let me know who has influenced you with your decorating style..!