How this came about, I don't remember exactly... Something to do with Marie Antoinette's taste for games, and games that people played in the 18th Century. Also, there is this little teasing tidbit of information about Cherubini being so dejected and depressed around 1807-1808 that he stayed home cutting up playing cards and assembling them into landscapes. I could not find any corroboration or any images of the landscapes in question anywhere else:
"Disappointed and discouraged by lack of recognition, Cherubini produced scarcely anything in the two years which followed. He was broken-hearted and in ill health.He divided his time between drawing, botany, and cutting up playing cards into figures and landscapes which he framed and placed on the walls around his study. Not until 1809 was he aroused from this morbid indolence".
Still, it is an interesting visual proposition, so I looked for and found a bridge deck of French Royalty Playing cards.
They are not bad, but really a bit too traditional for my taste. Platnik Austrian cards...
So I suddenly found myself designing my own deck of Royal Playing Cards in Photoshop... Things are still very fluid, but just to give you an idea, here is what I have so far:
I also have a few variations for the backs of the decks, using a border from Masonic Board, and old prints from the period:
I don't know yet how I will use them in the show, but have no doubt they will find their place. The projection is a huge 5760 x 1080 pixels, so I am designing the cards 3000 x 2000 pixels, which is about as large as possible with material found on the Internet.
"Disappointed and discouraged by lack of recognition, Cherubini produced scarcely anything in the two years which followed. He was broken-hearted and in ill health.He divided his time between drawing, botany, and cutting up playing cards into figures and landscapes which he framed and placed on the walls around his study. Not until 1809 was he aroused from this morbid indolence".
Still, it is an interesting visual proposition, so I looked for and found a bridge deck of French Royalty Playing cards.
So I suddenly found myself designing my own deck of Royal Playing Cards in Photoshop... Things are still very fluid, but just to give you an idea, here is what I have so far:
Louis XVI
and Marie Antoinette
Louis XVIII
and Marie Josephine de Savoie
Henri IV
and Marie de Medicis
Francois Premier
I also have a few variations for the backs of the decks, using a border from Masonic Board, and old prints from the period:
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