#arched window

"Art Nouveau Apartment" (1898–1900) ❦ Victor Horta — arched window, integrated woodwork & daylight, Brussels

This minutely detailed painting teems with symbolism as it imagines a scene from Jesus’s early life. It depicts the young Jesus stretching after his day’s labor in his father’s carpentry shop. His mother Mary kneels behind him, looking up at his shadow, which falls on a plank of wood hung with carpentry tools resembling a cross, prefiguring his crucifixion. An arched window creates a halo around Jesus’s head. The star-shaped aperture above the windows recalls the light that guided a group of priestly wise men, called Magi, to the newborn Jesus; Mary looks up from a trunk containing gift s the Magi gave on that occasion. A red headdress at Christ’s feet foreshadows the crown of thorns he will wear at his execution.

Victoria, Duchess of Kent (1786-1861), was born Victoria Mary Louisa, Princess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Her first marriage in 1803 was to the Prince of Leiningen, with whom she had a son, Charles, and a daughter, Feodora. The Prince died in 1814 and Victoria then married Edward, Duke of Kent, the fourth son of George III and Queen Charlotte. They had one daughter, the future Queen Victoria.

A place to relax, a place to unwind.

The Cook’s Room: A Celebration of the Heart of the Home, 1991

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