Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Trick of the Eye

St. Louis has a number of buildings with trompe l'oeil paintings on the walls, particularly around the city center. (Why don't I do a series on that? Note to self...) This is the back side of an old downtown office building, sparsely occupied these days, viewed from 7th and Locust Streets. (Most east-west streets in downtown St. Louis are named for trees - not insects.) We did not steal Michelangelo's David from Florence (which doesn't have a CDPB and deserves one) and put it at the end of a fake loggia. It's just a weird thing to see while walking around a medium sized Midwestern city.

The loggia is a charming architectural element created in Italy, characterized by a passageway on the outside of a building, supported by columns and open to the air. Beautiful examples are found in Florence, and, most famously, on the Doge's palace in Venice.

"Ain't got any of them loggias around here in Missouri, do we, paw?" "Nah, son, just some fake ones. Here, have another can of the product of the local mega-brewer."

TOMORROW'S POST: Thursday Arch Series


3 comments:

U "R" Us AKA Captain Crowe said...

I thought from your teaser today's post would be something to do with a Robert Loggia impersonator. Oh well. Now I know what a loggia is.

stromsjo said...

This one works very well in mono.

Why don’t I do more mono?
( note to self! :)

Janet said...

Selma used to have the Hotel Albert, which was patterned after the Doges Palace. Too bad it got torn down to make way for the modern municipal complex. Losing that beautiful structure woke people up, and now they work hard to save our old buildings.