Unusual
article | Reading time4 min
Unusual
article | Reading time4 min
The Villa Kérylos had been designed as an immersion in antiquity, as a journey in the heart of Greece. However its references are taken from the ancient Mediterranean worlds, from Rome to Egypt and the Middle-East. A true invitation to travel !
In fact, everything in the villa had been custom made, from floor to ceiling, from the tableware to the lamps. Yet, the Villa is never a duplicate but a true creation: Théodore Reinach and Emmanuel Pontremoli had collected themes and motives to transpose them from one material to the other. The paintings on the walls of the peristyle are not duplicates of ancient frescos but adaptations of motifs painted on vases. Beyond this principle of transposition, the scenery of the Villa Kérylos are fully in accordance with their time and announce, in some ways, the Art Deco. The talent of the painters Jaulmes and Karbowsky, students of Puvis de Chavannes, has something to do with it !
© Colombe Clier / Centre des monuments nationaux
The furniture has been made by Bettenfeld, a gifted cabinetmaker who knew how to reproduce the ancient forms and enhance them with incredible marquetry. Everywhere in the villa, the tables have only three legs. It is not a fancy but an ancient reality, and for good reason: the floors of the homes were usually in beaten earth, thus uneven. The table with three legs resolves this problem because it can’t be wobbly by nature !
© Pascal Lemaître / Centre des monuments nationaux
Each element of the Villa Kérylos has been entrusted to the best craftsmen: every curtain and hanging have been embroidered by the house Ecochard, and each of them is dedicated to a room. For the tableware, Théodore Reinach ordered 150 pieces to the ceramicist Emile Lenoble, who made a set inspired by Antiquity without ever approaching plagiarism. There are no mythological scenes on the ceramics, only geometrical motifs from the ancient repertoire reflecting the motifs of the mosaics and bronzes. The only figurative representation is a wild goat, or onager, inspired by the Tyszkiewicz cup, an Etruscan object from the 7th century before Christ.
© Pascal Lemaître / Centre des monuments nationaux
© Pascal Lemaître / Centre des monuments nationaux
© Pascal Lemaître / Centre des monuments nationaux
© Reproduction Pascal Lemaître / CMN
© Reproduction Pascal Lemaître / CMN
© Colombe Clier / Centre des monuments nationaux