Mediant Studies

31/07/2026

"Suave mari magno..." wrote Roman philosopher Lucretius. It is pleasant to stand on a cliff top and watch a ship in trouble, as you are glad not to be part of it! While New Zealand freezes under a large anti-cyclone, we look in horror at newsreels of Southern Europe burning. At least this inferno was not created by a self-indulgent Roman emperor, although some may blame the situation at least in part on the vagaries of a modern emperor, ruling over a collection of states which no longer seem to be as united as they once were - and (some say) have lost their democratic direction. And what's this? - a man in Russia accused of spying for New Zealand! O tempora, o mores - loosely translated "How on earth have things come to this?"

18/07/2026

18/07/2026

Catching sight of this magnolia lit by the morning sun against a clear blue sky reminded me of the impressionists, who I think would love to capture the moment in paint, giving life to the creamy-smooth petals and highlighting the contrast with the azure background.

30/06/2026

Here's another interesting connection. The writers and artists who frequented Le Bœuf sur le toit (like Jean Cocteau and André Breton) were deeply obsessed with Freud’s groundbreaking work on the unconscious mind and dreams. (I visited his house museums in Vienna in London.) They used his theories as the foundation for the Surrealist movement. When I visited Gustave Moreau's House Museum in Paris, I noticed how dreamy much of his work was. He seems to have picked it up from Puvis de Chavannes. Both artists were also interested in classical Greece and Rome - which interested me as a Classical scholar - and both influenced the symbolist movement. Incidentally and ironically, Freud hated music!

30/06/2026

Another fun fact that I have just discovered is that the first 19th century artist to produce flat paintings without shading is said to have been Puvis de Chavannes. It had little to do with photography, and a great deal to do with early Renaissance frescoes by Giotto and others. Guess who else was inspired by that period - Satie, whose famous Gymnopedies use the modes and stepwise movement of Gregorian chant, on which much of the music of that period was based. He picked it up from his piano teacher, who was also a church organist. Satie then passed the modal harmony onto Ravel, one of the few composers who had any time for him. (Both composers attended another cabaret, Le Bœuf sur le toit, which was named after a popular ballet by one of Satie's followers, Milhaud.) Ravel then passed the modal style on to Vaughan Williams, who studied with him in 1908 - and who also studied and conducted Renaissance Church music. Nowadays, apart from the Gymopedies, very few people would know any of the works produced by either Puvis de Chavannes or Satie, yet both figures strongly influenced a number of others.

30/06/2026

I have had the book of artworks at the Musee d'Orsay open at the page about Toulouse-Lautrec. He was a devotee of the cabaret scene in Montmartre at the same time as the composer Erik Satie. I discovered that both frequented le Chat Noir. (A cat poster for the cabaret was for a long time attributed to TL.) They were both intimate with Susanne Valadon (not at the same time though). Satie and Valadon were each quite eccentric, so probably deserved each other. Satie asked her to marry him the first time they met. He was devastated when later on she suddenly left him. His music became even more unusual - until Debussy died, when he suddenly began writing music in the style of Debussy - a style he had always previously studiously avoided! He died a very unhappy man, having alienated nearly everyone who had ever liked him. TL died quite young - too much wine, women and song!

23/03/2026

Lillian Chrystall was an exceptionally gifted award-winning architect. She was accepted into the University of Auckland (UoA) School of Architecture as one of only five women and designed several houses in Remuera.