Hi everyone! This week I wanted to talk about one of the rooms I saw at the Metropolitan Museum of Art this weekend; I always loves going to the MET because it is so vast, the artwork is beautiful , and it’s fun to have a day out (even though NY kind of scares me!).
At the MET, I was able to see those amazing French and German decorative rooms that show rooms similar to how they were in palaces during certain time periods. One of the rooms I wanted to talk about today is an Austrian room, from Vienna, called the Boiserie from the Palais Paar constructed in 1765-72.
Based on the description of the MET website, the Palace was first built in 1630 for the Holy Roman Empire “postmaster,” a person who worked as a post officer, Baron Johann Christoph von Paar. During the 18th century, the Palace was remodeled in the Rococco style for Count Wenzel Johann Joseph von Paar. The architect who created this design was Isidor Canevale. He was in charge of the panel designs, but they were completed by a sculptor called Johann Georg Leithner.
This room, at the MET, includes a handful of panelings from this exact room and other rooms in the Palace. Unfortunately, the Paar Palace was destroyed in 1931. Some panels from the Palace were then sold to a french company called Jansen; afterwards, it went to London and back to Jansen. When it went to London, the owner at the time, painted the panel the blue color we see here. When Jansen took it the second time, the MET investigated if the blue was the original color that was in the Palace. Scholars at the MET discovered that the original color of the panels was actually variation of grey tones and not blue. In the 1960s, it was installed into the MET.
I loved this room, along with the many other rooms that the MET had. These rooms are so elegant, beautiful, and complex. I personally admire the complex nature of these types of rooms rather than the simple designs we have today. Plus, I love that these rooms are usually very spacey.
Feature Image and Bottom Images from metmuseum.org | Panorama Taken by Me
