Swirling Marble Photo

Photographer’s Note

The first little day trip I took last time I was in Italy was to a place I had wanted to go for some time but never got to stop in at until last year, La Reggia di Caserta (The Royal Palace in Caserta).

The palace certainly is impressive. In size it's gargantuan. Even from the end of the pools and cascades, 3 kilometers away, the buildings looks as if it's only a few hundred meters away. And inside the rooms are equally gigantic, especially the grand staircase and foyer. One of the most impressive spots for me on the interior was this area at the top of the grand stairs under this dome of marble. The swirling pattern and intricacy was mesmerizing.

The complex was designed built for Charles VII of Naples and designed by Luigi Vanvitelli. Charles, however, moved on to the Kingship of Spain before it was ready to live in. In fact Vanvitelli himself died 7 years before the palace was finished which was in 1780. As it is there are about 1200 rooms in the palace which also includes about 24 state apartments and even a theatre. As I said, it's huge.

Most recently this area of the palace was even used as the royal residence of the Queen of Naboo in the recent Star Wars movies.

axiotea, crckt, marjan, orme, jpinkham, bertolucci has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

axiotea (16107) 2007-07-04 10:16

Hi Paul
Beautiful ceiling richly decorated with a symmetric impact and nice swirling effect giving a sense of depth. I like the pastel colors and the framing. It looks like a drawing!
Well done
Marilyn

marjan (6081) 2007-07-04 13:24

hi Paul, excelent sho with good details and POV .
Majrna

orme (6746) 2007-07-05 6:48

Hello Paul,
You have done a good job in capturing the beauty of this wonderful architecture.
Great clarity and nicely framed.
Staring at the "swirling marble" becomes quite hypnotic after a while.
Well seen and thanks for the 'Star Wars' info.

jpinkham (844) 2007-07-06 16:30

"Mesmerizing" is an apt word for the artwork here, and you've shown it well, Paul. The detail and clarity undergird the image, just as they should, but I also like the sense of depth you convey with the point of view you've chosen. That lies as the essence of what draws us in. My only regret is that the upper and lower edges of the circle of the dome are not contained within the image, but that's not a showstopper in this case.

bertolucci (11976) 2007-07-13 2:41

Hi Paul, what an apt title for this one. There's really movement here and I agree with Andrew about the hyptonic effect -it's kind of a baroque take on the 70s record labels of the Vertigo corp, no the otheer wa around of course. I love the clarity, high resolution, the rendition of the colours and the judicious framing. A great archi-graphism.
Have a great weekend,
Bert