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!
About Casey Monahan
Casey Monahan joined Rienzi as education assistant in the summer of 2010 after receiving her B.A. from the College of the Holy Cross in Art History and History. She is currently working on her M. A. in Art History at the University of Houston. At Rienzi, the Massachusetts native works with docents, tours, and other public programs.
Posts by Casey Monahan, page 5
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15 DecThu / 2011
I arrived at Rienzi a few minutes early this morning, coffee in one hand, my lunch of leftover saag paneer in the other. I was a little on edge, for my a.m. drive in was unnecessarily stressful. When I entered my office, which is an off-view bedroom at Rienzi, nick-named the Septapus Room after a psychedelic seven armed octopus that is painted on the walls, ironically, I felt an instant calm.
Psychedelic murals aside, the Septapus...
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07 DecWed / 2011
On Thursday, December 1st Rienzi hosted a conversation with Megan and James Silk, two-thirds of the trio from Feast Restaurant on lower Westhemier. Feast is a European-style restaurant that follows a “nose-to-tail” philosophy, advocating for the consumption of the whole animal, no bits left behind.
At the reception before the main event, Feast provided the 60 guests with a course of hors d’oeuvres from their restaurant. Later on in the program, they revealed...
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14 NovMon / 2011
If you have visited Rienzi to see English Taste: The Art of Dining in the Eighteenth Century, you have probably noticed a dish on the table vaguely resembling green beans. Rienzi’s docents often receive the question, “what’s that?” accompanied by an index finger aimed at the mass of unfamiliar green vegetation.
The answer to the common query is samphire. What, you might ask, is samphire?
Samphire, officially Crithmum maritimum but also known as crest...
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07 NovMon / 2011
This month we have been reading the third book in Rienzi and Bayou Bend’s History Reading Series, Taste: The Story of Britain Through Its Cooking by Kate Colquhoun. We thought it would be appropriate to have a British culinary-themed text to celebrate Rienzi’s current exhibition, English Taste. This book provides some supplementary information on some of Mrs. Rafflad’s dishes that grace Rienzi’s Dining Room table, including dishes that are the most puzzling...
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24 OctMon / 2011
On Sunday afternoon, four members of the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra- Timothy Hester,(Fortepiano), Oleg Sulyga (Violin), Rene Salazar (Viola), and Barrett Sills (Cello)- will perform Mozart’s Piano Quartets in Rienzi’s Gallery
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is probably one of the most well known Classical music composers. Born in 1856 to Leopold and Anna Maria Pertl Mozart, young Wolfgang was taught violin and keyboard by his father, a composer and music teacher. An...
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