SCALA REGIA #7

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SPREADS AND
LIST OF CONTENTS

1.

MINERVA OF THE NORTH

THE LIFE OF QUEEN
CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN

A variety of lives encapsulated in the course of a single lifetime. This idea, that grasps the essential plot of the text that follows, is also the starting point to understand the personal odyssey of a woman who, among many other things, was Queen of Sweden. The tale of Queen Christina, which is not a tale as its events took place in the real world, is almost Woolfian because, just like in Virginia Woof's tale of Orlando, the unthinkable becomes verb and everything that is deemed impossible ends up being transposed through an incomparable web of possibilities. Such was the life of Christina of Sweden, the woman whose story, anchored on a staunch refusal of the codes of her time, became timeless and worthy of all eras.

Words by Tiago Lorga

2.

IMPRESSIONS OF PAST LIVES

THE MANY ROOMS OF
MARIO PRAZ

Mario Praz, a prolific writer and essayist, amassed a superlative collection that has formed what is today the Casa Museo Mario Praz at Palazzo Primoli in Rome. Amongst the infinitude of pieces of furniture, pieces of art and all kinds of decorative objects dating from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Praz's fascination with the nineteenth-century art of living is particularly visible in his compilation of watercolours depicting lively testimonials from the age of Neoclassicism and Romanticism.

Words by Patrizia Rosazza-Ferraris,
photography by Massimo Listri and
watercolours courtesy of Casa Museo Mario Praz

3.

SÈVRES PORCELAIN

FROM WHITE CLAY
TO WHITE GOLD

The porcelain produced at the Sèvres manufactory is widely regarded as the height of luxury and craftsmanship. With a harmonious range of colours that complements fanciful shapes and designs, Sèvres porcelain has for almost three centuries reflected art movements and fashion trends. For collectors, it is a precious treasure; for historians, it offers a fascinating story. Félix Zorzo, Curatorial Assistant at the Wallace Collection in London, offers us an insightful narration of the period between the manufactury's origins and the end of the Ancien Régime.

Words by Félix Zorzo and
special thanks to The Wallace Collection

4.

THE STORYTELLER

THE LIFE AND PHOTOGRAPHY
OF ROLAND BEAUFRE

Photographer Roland Beaufre is renowned for his pictures of interiors, architecture and gardens present in many magazines and books published in the past few decades. We have selected, from his vast portfolio gathering different subjects, a few photos of interiors that we have considered to look like actual portraits, representative of the atmospheric quality that the photographer is very often able to permeate his pictures with. These portraits appear to have a sort of romantic veil that makes them seem to be suggesting a thought, a special moment, perhaps a story.

Words by Pierre Roffe

5.

INTERREGNUM

THE COVER STORY WITH PATOU
AT PALÁCIO FRONTEIRA

An interregnum can be defined as a pause, a short period in which time itself seems to be suspended and everything ends up subjected to the vagaries of the world. Such experience is not unfamiliar to any of us these days... In this issue, attempting to cope with our very own interregnum, our team quested to find the most beautiful fashion and the most extraordinary location, elements that would suit the curious eyes of our readers. Our friends, the Marquess and Marchioness of Fronteira welcomed us into their home in Lisbon, Palácio Fronteira, and, from Paris, Patou sent us a trove of dreamy clothes.

Photography by Maria Rita and
art direction by Diogo Mayo & Pierre Roffe

6.

MASSIMO LISTRI
AND HIS COLLECTION

THIRTY QUESTIONS ABOUT THE
PHOTOGRAPHER AND HIS HOME

Our team has interviewed Massimo Listri in order to ask him some questions about himself and his work, but mostly about his home in Florence which is replete with wonderful objects. On top of collecting discernibly and curating the items of his trove in pleasing scenes, the photographer also took the pictures that dress this article.

Interview by the team

7.

PRINCELY PURSUIT

A COMPENDIUM OF
RARE EXOTIC WOODS

Visitors of the National Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon will probably not notice a small neoclassical cabinet that, flanked by other exuberant baroque and rococo pieces of furniture, holds a very special collection inside. Opening its ornamented doors, all volutes and arabesques, will reveal a multitude of thin drawers that, numbered from one to thirty-five, showcase a puzzle of exotic woods. The small cabinet happens to be a xylotheque, a type of herbarium intended for the gathering of samples of different woods. It belongs to a series of four xylotheques commissioned by the prince regent of Portugal, future King John VI, for the pursuit of botanical knowledge.

Words by Celina Bastos,
photography by Maria Rita and
special thanks to the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga

8.

BEAUTIFUL THINGS

HÔTEL D'ORROUER AND THE
MANY INCARNATIONS OF
THE GOÛT GIVENCHY

Renowned by a career in fashion that spanned five decades, Hubert the Givenchy is also a household name when it comes to interiors and decoration. An aesthete whose vision would reach far and beyond, a meticulous art collector and an indomitable creative force, Monsieur Givenchy composed his own houses with the same measure of virtuosity that he deployed in each of his fashion creations. Hôtel d'Orrouer at 87 rue de Grenelle in Paris, ethereally eternised in the photos of Francis Hammond, is both a reflection and a face of the man who inhabited it.

Words by Pedro Rei and
photography by Francis Hammond

9.

EDWARDIAN ECCENTRICS

OLGA AND ADOLPH DE MEYER
MOVING BETWEEN BRIGHTNESS
AND SHADOW

Adolph, a photographer, and Olga, his perfect muse, visited and lived in many cities of the world. Brought up according to Edwardian codes, their marriage spanned through the Belle Époque, the First World War, and the Roaring Twenties. As wife and husband, they shared a union that was, at surface, unusual to the common individual, and certainly controversial if explored in depth. Connected by a special romantic bond that peharps tended to be more platonic at times, the two led an elegant public life that was certainly delusive of their private, more honest existence. Archetypes of their class and day, they never compromised on the infinity of their personal freedom.

Words by Jorge Teixeira de Sampayo

10.

TULLGARN

A NEOCLASSICAL PALACE
OVERLOOKING THE BALTIC

"Tullgarn has the perfect location secluded in the unspoiled countryside by the sea. It is in a large park about an hour's drive south of Stockholm. I have gathered many pictures of it that I have taken over a number of years as it is a favourite place of mine to visit. There is also a large working farm there with traditional red wooden barns and outbuildings. There are horses and cows there as well. Tullgarn was built in the 1720s and then bought in 1772 by the state and put at the disposal of Prince Frederick Adolph, Gustav III's youngest brother. Its interiors were redecorated for Frederick Adolph in the Neoclassical style in the 1780s and the 1790s, and ultimately finished for Princess Sophia Albertina, his sister, who moved in 1807."

Words and photography by Håkan Groth

11.

ANDREA DEL VERROCCHIO

A MAN OF HIS TIME AND
FOR ALL THE AGES

Born and lived during the flourishing Rinascimento in Florence in the 1400s, the multifarious artist Andrea del Verrocchio, sculptor of atemporal excellence, was not only a witness to the evolving paradigms of the modern world but also a purveyor of the new values through his creations of great humanistic sensitivity. On the hierarchy of art, his works are today placed on the steps of the masters, and his workshop is highly valued for his influence on talents such as Ghirlandaio, Botticelli and the ultimate genius of the Renaissance Leonardo da Vinci.

Words by Miguel E. Bermudez

12.

INCREDIBLE INVENTIVENESS

SCHLOSS FAVORITE, SYBILLA
AUGUSTA'S DECORATIVE FANTASY

"La Favorite. Charming rococo palace. A masterpiece of extravagance and charm. Divine bad taste." — These few words scribbled down by Victor Hugo in 1863 about his trip to the Rhine Valley perfectly summarize all the charm and appeal of this mysterious summer residence. A so-called "porcelain" castle, in reason of the fabulous collections it housed and still houses, Favorite is the fruit of the imagination of an extraordinary princess, Sybilla Augusta von Sachsen-Lauenburg.

Words and photography by Wandrille Potez

SCALA REGIA, 2023