Long Live the Queen

Happy birthday Ma'am

Magister Dixit:

"You have to give people something to dream on."

- Jimi Hendrix

 

Detail of the Tomb of Duchess Maria Christina of Saxony-Teschen. Antonio Canova.

A Look We Like

 Three Mighty Ladies from Livonia by Albrecht Dürer, 1521.

The Duke of Edinburgh. The picture of Marilyn Monroe

Magister Dixit:

"Buying is a profound pleasure."

- Simone de Beauvoir

Design by John Linnell for a state coach, c. 1760

 Pietra-dura details of table-tops.

Detail from Emperor Maximilian triumphal - Albrecht Altdorfer

Versailles:

The Princess Palatine with a valet. François de Troy. 1680.

"I believe that the histories that will be written about this court after we are gone will be better and more entertaining than any novel, and I am afraid that those who come after us will not be able to believe them and think they are just fairy tales."

- Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine

The Emperor and Empress of Ethiopia

Amen

"I think some people would love to be able to make the clothes I make - and of course, I do influence them, but they keep simplifying, and minimalism doesn't quite work."

- Dame Vivienne Westwood

The Descent of Christ Into Limbo, detail. Bronzino. 1552.

A Look We Like

Marie Leczinska, Queen of France, as Juno. Guillaume Coustou. 1731.

Les Amoureux

"It is as dreadful to be too rich as to be too tall. In the first instance you don't find happiness and in the second you can't find a bed."

- Coco Chanel

Strike a Pose

Magister Dixit:

Three generations of Churchills in coronation robes for Elizabeth's II coronation in 1953: Sir Winston, his son Randolph and grandson Winston.

"Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference."

- Sir Winston Churchill

Masters and Slaves

The Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne, Annibale Carracci, 1597.

Funerary monument to Catharina Opalinska, queen of Poland. Nicolas-Sébastien Adam. 1749

Régnez Plaisirs et Jeux

 Henri Matisse. La Danse. 1909.

Henri Matisse. La Danse. 1910.

 "Cleopatra's nose, had it been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed."

- Blaise Pascal

The toilet of Batsheba. Cornelis van Haarlem, 1594.

When The World Was New

 Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Stephanie Seymour, Tatjana Patitz. Peter Lindbergh

Naomi Campbell by Herb Ritts. 1990.

St John Lateran, Rome, Italy

 Henry IV receiving the portrait of Marie de Medici. Detail. Rubens.

The Swiss Guard at the Holy See

Why Don't You?