Saturday 16 April 2011

Moisturise Daily (Statue Outside Palladio's Teatro Olimpico), Vicenza

This is what happens if you don't cow before the cult of pseudo-science and marketing excess that is the cosmetics industry. That said, assuming she's been at the Teatro Olimpico since it was finished in 1585, she's probably weathered better than many of us would.

On an only tenuously related note, I once did some work with a cosmetics company buying in generic moisturiser from China and adding their own labels. All material and transport costs included it ended up on the shelf at a cost just over 56p, sold at £62.50 - 125 times cost. Ever since I have viewed all such potions with great suspicion.

Hope everyone's having a fantastic start to the weekend!

From Wikipedia: The Teatro Olimpico ("Olympic Theatre") is a theatre in Vicenza, northern Italy: constructed in 1580-1585, it is the oldest surviving enclosed theatre in the world. The theatre was the final design by the Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, Renaissance, and was not completed until after his death. The trompe-l'œil onstage scenery, designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi, to give the appearance of long streets receding to a distant horizon, was installed in 1585 for the very first performance held in the theatre, and is the oldest surviving stage set still in existence.

The Teatro Olimpico is, along with the Teatro all'antica in Sabbioneta and the Teatro Farnese in Parma, one of only three Renaissance theatres remaining in existence. Both these theatres were based, in large measure, on the Teatro Olimpico.

Since 1994, the Teatro Olimpico, together with other Palladian buildings in and around Vicenza, has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto".


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