Rienzi is the house museum and collection of European paintings and decorative arts at the MFAH. Our articles highlight elements of the collection, discuss additions and changes to the house or gardens, and review events held at Rienzi for those of you not able to be here in person. Feel free to e-mail rienziblog@mfah.org with questions, comments, and suggestions. Welcome!
Posts From February 2012
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24 FebFri / 2012
Rodeo at Rienzi, the MFAH's house museum for European decorative arts? Yes, it's true!
This morning I decided to treat myself to a store-bought coffee (it is Friday, after all). Upon entering the grocery store, I immediately noticed the plethora of cowboy hats and boots. My companion reminded me that today is "Go Texan Day" (forgive me for not knowing, I'm a recent transplant!). I didn't think much of it until arriving at Rienzi where some of the longtime staff...
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23 FebThu / 2012
In late January, Rienzi’s first ever exhibition, English Taste: The Art of Dining in the Eighteenth Century, closed. I find that it is still slightly jarring to walk through the Dining Room, where during the four months the exhibition was on view, I became used to the sight of dishes such as larded hare, flummeries, and samphire.
Replacing the elaborate dinner table setting is a display of Paul Storr silver pieces. Three...
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21 FebTue / 2012
This March, the Rienzi and Bayou Bend Book Club is reading The Arcanum: The Extraordinary True Story by Janet Gleeson. Focusing on the development of Meissen porcelain in the 18th-century, Gleeson tells the tale of three Johanns, all instrumental in the process of creating “white gold”: Johann Frederick Böttger, Johann Gregor Herold, and Johann Joachim Kändler. Meissen, founded in 1710, was the first European porcelain manufactory to develop hard-paste porcelain similar to Asian...
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07 FebTue / 2012
One of my favorite rooms at Rienzi is the Library; as a self-proclaimed bibliophile, it’s a natural fit. Rienzi’s Library contains many classic texts, from Frances Burney’s Camilla to George Eliot’s Middlemarch and Evelyn Waugh’s A Handful of Dust, but of particular mention is a compilation of Shakespeare from 1632.
On the bottom right hand side rests a red leather bound book with the title “Shakespeare’s Works London 1632.” Also found in Library at Windsor Castle,...
