I am back from Florida! Wow what a trip! I was only supposed to be there for two weeks. The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota invited me to photograph their collections for a week. So I stayed an extra week and took about 1,500 photgraphs. Bradenton/Sarasota is a mecca for thrift and outlet stores. I had to buy a second suitcase and ship back home five boxes of things we purchased. I have two sisters who are addicted to shopping.
When I returned to Virginia, I was hired to teach Contempary Fashion History (1850-1990) for the summer semester at Virginia Commonwealth University. One of my dream jobs! I might be hired to teach it in the fall too. They have opened up this course to the entire School of the Arts. Back to Florida... John Ringling was one of the five Ringling Brothers of the circus fame. John and Mable also were big art collectors. On my first day, we went through the Circus Museum and Cá d'Zan, the 47 room mansion of John & Mable Ringling, to decide what we wanted to photograph. The house was completed in 1925 and was the Ringlings' winter home. The first shoot was in the circus costume gallery. Most of the costumes were from the 1950s. Here is a link to one of the photos of the costumes. http://www.costumegallery.com/Library/temp/Girl045A.jpg Later that day, we did a photoshoot of the exterior of the Cá d'Zan. Here is a front view of the mansion: http://www.costumegallery.com/Ringling/Mansion/2housefront150.jpg . You can't see the mansion's tower because the palm trees block the view. Here is one of the many images of a Venice Carnivale that is painted on the Gameroom's ceiling of the Cá d'Zan. http://www.costumegallery.com/Ringling/Mansion/Gameroom/Venice/mansion4_035w.htm The artist was Willy Pogany, a famous children's book illustrator, costume designer for opera and theater, and was employed by Florence Ziegfeld. This massive collection was painted in the mid-1920s on canvas in New York City. Mr. Pogany installed the paintings in 1925-26 on the ceiling of the Gameroom. I have not counted but there are about 30 very large paintings and several smaller ones of people in this room. I took 91 photos of the Carnivale ceiling. I laid flat on the floor to take the Carnivale photos. Next I photgraphed the square columns in the GameRoom. Three sides of each column were painted masks for the Carnivale. I guess, there was about 16-20 columns. The Gameroom took up a large majority of the third floor. Another ceiling was painted by Mr. Pogany, the Ballroom. The ceiling is called Dancers of the Nations. There are 22 panels of international dancers set in octagon gilded coffers. In each corner of the room was a painting of a couple doing American dances. I have the Ballroom webpages about 50% complete. I have large detailed photos of each set of dancers. You can see video of the Cá d'Zan on the Ringling website: http://www.ringling.org/tours/ca_dzan/court.htm . When you look at the Ballroom, point your cursor towards the ceiling and you will see the Dancers of the Nations. The official website for the museum is http://www.ringling.org/index.asp A big thrill of the week, was doing a photoshoot of Mr. Ringling's wardrobe. They have an extensive collection of his shoes, canes, hats, suits, and ties. The majority of his wardobe was purchased on Fifth Ave. in NYC. I spent two days photographing his wardrobe. The staff at the museum was wonderful! I didn't get to visit their art museum. I ran out of time. But I was told that the art museum has a collection of 75 hand fans. Penny Ladnier, Owner www.costumegallery.com www.costumelibrary.com www.costumeclassroom.com _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
