This just in from De Bethune -
DB25 Imperial Fountain
"There was, in a corner of the world, a wonder of the world; this wonder was called the Summer Palace. Art has two principles, the Idea, which produces European art, and the Chimera, which produces oriental art. The Summer Palace was to chimerical art what the Parthenon is to ideal art. All that can be begotten of the imagination of an almost extra-human people was there. It was not a single, unique work like the Parthenon. It was a kind of enormous model of the chimera, if the chimera can have a model. Imagine some inexpressible construction, something like a lunar building, and you will have the Summer Palace..."
Victor Hugo, in a letter to Captain Butler Hauteville House, November 25th 1861
Victor Hugo, in a letter to Captain Butler Hauteville House, November 25th 1861
DB25 Imperial Fountain
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| Courtesy of De Bethune |
