"A room in which to dwell evokes being enclosed in a lacquer box": unpublished manuscript by Robert de Montesquiou

Montesquiou, Robert de, French aesthete, Symbolist poet, and collector (1855-1921). "Domus Aurea". Autograph manuscript.

€ 1.500,00

Unpublished poetic vision of a 19th century Domus aurea, written in the beautiful calligraphy of the great aesthete, beginning: "A room in which to dwell evokes being enclosed in a lacquer box. Golden walls, some smooth, some in relief, others in golden satin. Ceilings, the red of closed eyelids against the sun. Dry rose petal curtains, recalling a line from Anacreon: old, she still retains the scent of her youth [...]" (transl.).

While the description of the "Domus Aurea" is as beautiful as it is fantastic, a final section entitled "Observations générales" offers some thoughts on interior design: "Illuminate a dark corner either with mirrors during the day or with a lamp in the evening [...]". In the description of the garden, Montesquiou quotes the first stanza of his poem "Vester Vesper": "Dans le jardin, de fleurs, fleuri sur des étoffes / Où vous réunissez de rares philosophes. / Où sera mainte étagère, adorable Babel / Du bibelot. Le Saxe avec le Chine, bel / Auditoire poli, cosmopolite, tendre / Pâte, jamais ne bouge et refuse d'entendre". This poem was published in 1906 as part of the anthology "Les Hortensias Bleus", thus indicating a terminus post quem for the manuscript. The "line from Anacreon" invoked by Montesquiou is a reference to the famous "Ode on the Rose" from the apocryphical Anacreontea.

With traces of former restauration and minimal browning.