Design for a ceiling painted with putti, garlands, and swags 1850 - 1900

Curator: Oh, how lovely! Looking at this piece gives me such a dreamy, lightheaded feeling, almost like floating on clouds. Editor: Here we have "Design for a ceiling painted with putti, garlands, and swags" made between 1850 and 1900 by Jules-Edmond-Charles Lachaise. It's currently held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, rendered in watercolor and drawing on toned paper. What is it that inspires that ethereal sensation in you? Curator: I think it's the cherubs! They're plump and playful, caught in what feels like a joyful dance along the edges. And the colors – pale blues, faded pinks. There's a lightness to it all. Makes you almost hear heavenly harps! It’s incredibly Rococo, isn’t it? Editor: Absolutely. Rococo was all about lightness and elegance, often deployed as propaganda for aristocracy. Though, looking closely, the fading of the paper tells another story – one of time passing, tastes changing. The idealized cherubs and garlands are bordering the drawing, like ornaments around what exactly? The paper at the center is kept plain; a certain void to be considered, no? Curator: You’re right, there’s an emptiness in the middle that gives it an unfinished quality, even unsettling if you stare at it too long! Perhaps it invites us to imagine the space it's meant to adorn—a grand salon, maybe? To me, it speaks to aspiration – that striving for beauty, even if perpetually out of reach, like chasing after clouds. There is no landscape to escape from. Editor: Perhaps more practically, we might imagine the space not with what we see, but the labour and social implications behind this "decorative-art". Who would labour and live within such "beauty?" Curator: Ah, to burst the bubble of my daydream! Always the pragmatist! Editor: Well, thinking critically also gives me joy! By looking at historical, artistic intentions—a complete vision that required many exploited bodies to manifest. Curator: Okay, okay, point taken. Maybe that touch of melancholy I feel comes from a deeper, unacknowledged awareness of the complicated world these pretty cherubs inhabit. Perhaps that's why, despite their charm, there’s a wistfulness, a fragility to the image that lingers. Editor: Yes. To consider its delicate materials alongside of social context! Now, *that* gives me a certain type of lightheadedness... Curator: Well said! Makes you reconsider how the pursuit of beauty intersects with some harsh realities. A design of a dream—not devoid of nightmares.