Friday, January 22, 2010

An old mansion / Um velho palacete


It is a pleasure to go down the road and suddenly be faced with the imposing figure of one of these "dinosaurs," more than likely the centenary result of the labor and willingness of a local “Brasileiro”. The one in the image still looks in reasonable condition - something that today is far from being a rule - and leaves open the curiosity about what's beyond their fenced walls, apart from the visible windmill, fruit trees and camellias: An exuberant garden, surpassed only by the exuberance of interiors abundant with plaster, decorative paintings and woods richly worked ... I did not see: That's what I was told.
É um prazer ir pela estrada e de repente dar de caras com a imponente figura de um destes “dinossauros”, mais do que provavelmente o fruto centenário do labor e vontade de algum “Brasileiro” da terra. O da imagem parece razoavelmente conservado - algo que nos dias de hoje está longe de ser uma regra - e deixa em aberto a curiosidade sobre o que haverá para lá dos seus muros gradeados para além do visível catavento, árvores de fruto e camélias: Um exuberante jardim, apenas ultrapassado em exuberância pelos interiores abundantes em estuques, pinturas decorativas e madeiras ricamente trabalhadas... Eu não vi: Foi o que me disseram.
Fabriano cold pressed 7"x 5" - 90lb (18x12,5cm - 200g/m2) paper
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4 comments:

Unknown said...

It is good stuff, imagining what goes on beyond a garden wall.
How many times i have walked past an old stone wall in Sydney's older neighbourhoods, and had a little daydream myself.
Beautiful work that feeds the viewers imagination!

Paulo J. Mendes said...

You're so right, Christy: That's a good exercise for imagination, and doesn't require a long journey: These treasures behind walls are often not so far from home.
These old mansions and even smaller homes were strongly fenced but always left something to curiosity and imagination through rails or bushes, or even sometimes through a window-shaped overture in the walls...
Very different from today's modern "vivendas" here, with their high walls and often an opaque fence over them to make it higher and impossible to see... There's nothing to see anyway, apart from a boring scientifically mowed lawn with a sad azalea lost in the middle...

Julio Rodrigues said...

Fantástico lugar. Tiro o chapéu ao Brasileiro que o construíu.
E também ao Português que o imaginou e pintou.

Paulo J. Mendes said...

Obrigado, amigo Villager. Agora é melhor voltar a pôr o chapéu porque o Inverno por aí não deve estar para brincadeiras... Nós por cá, já tivemos dias em que andei de gorro dentro de casa :)))
Um abraço e bom fim-de-semana!