Happy Almost-Friday! Birthdays: Thomas Gainsborough, Sidney Bechet, George Lucas. What fragrance are you wearing?
I'm stealing SheriG's fragrance from yesterday, Parfum d'Empire Azemour Les Orangers. Note that some experts think the oranges in the painting are included to advertise the couple's great wealth, but others emphasize the biblical connections to innocence, sin and temptation (and note that in Van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece, Eve is holding a citrus fruit).**
Reminder: on 5/15 we're doing the Picture challenge, edition 11. The subject is the Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck.* As usual, you are free to be as farfetched as you like in your fragrance choice...or go literal: her dress is green, they are both wearing animal fur, there are oranges on the chest and windowsill, and cherries on the tree outside the window, etc etc. Thank you to Calypso for the suggestion! (In the fall, we'll do a more modern piece by Sonia Delaunay, suggested by Kanuka.)
And for those of you who like to plan ahead, see Scent of the day ~ Friday community projects 2026, where I'll try (but usually fail) to have the next five or six weeks mapped out in advance.
Note: top and bottom images are detail from the Arnolfini Portrait, good image of full painting here.
.jpg/960px-The_Arnolfini_portrait_(1434).jpg){kind=link}
*Extra reading: The many questions surrounding Jan Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait at JSTOR (this article has many useful close ups of the painting); The Arnolfini Portrait: Theories, Interpretations, and Analysis at The Collector; Hannah Gadsby: why I love the Arnolfini Portrait, one of art history’s greatest riddles at The Guardian.
**See also: How the Forbidden Fruit Became an Apple at Rutgers, which notes that there are several candidates for the forbidden fruit, including the citron or etrog. Cherries, meanwhile, in paintings of the time are often associated with biblical references to the blood of Christ, virtue, redemption, and paradise.
Still sick, but at least my temperature remains normal. Woke up at 3 a.m. to the sound of a drone and air defense. Fortunately, the drone didn’t linger, so I was able to go back to sleep. Thank you for all your kind words yesterday.
Wearing a few sprays of Chanel Cristalle for the lady’s green dress and for the mirror too – you know: crystal, glass, mirror, plus the metal band around the bottle, which you can use to see your own reflection.
Wrote another haiku. That makes four for the challenge.
Looking forward to all your haikus and happy to hear you’re feeling a bit better. 💪
I admire your outlook on life, Glannys. You do smell fabulous, too 🙂
Are you wearing an old or new Cristalle?
Not vintage, but the bottle is not very new. Ten years or so?
Hope you continue to improve. Thanks for the Stitch in Time clip, it was so interesting
You are welcome. I am glade you liked it (and everyone who commented on it yesterday).
Very nice association, Glannys! I love Cristalle and you smell wonderful.
I hope you feel better soon and I’m glad you’re ok. I heard a report about some serious attacks on Ukraine yesterday.
I can’t imagine having to consider evacuating while being sick! Glad that it didn’t come to that.
Hello.
Sotd is LV Ombre Nomad.
Weather in Toronto is great. Somewhere around the lower 50s. Today we will have brunch (I am craving eggs benedict) then walk to CN Tower and also visit the aquarium next to it.
Have a lovely day in Toronto happy888cat! Can’t be bad if it starts with eggs benedict.
Thank you! Just had Mexican for dinner. Sooo good!
Enjoy Toronto!
Thank you!
Sounds like you are having a wonderful time in Toronto!
Such a great time. So relaxing and chill (weather pun intended!).
I’m in Santa Maria Novella Eva today, for the Italian-ness of it and the painting. And I’m still chuckling over Hannah Gadsby’s take on it — especially the comment about a “hairdo involving horns”. I had the same thought.
Yum, you smell great today SheriG!
Thanks! You do too, of course. 😉
I love so many of the Santa Maria Novellas. Italy in a bottle!
I don’t get that ‘horns’ hairstyle either. Bjork is fond of it, or was.
I love Eva, and should probably try their new iris scent. Eva seems to be harder to come by locally, but it’s still on SMN’s website so hopefully not discontinued.
Wearing Chanel Bois des Isles parfum today to represent the wooden floors, shutters, shoes, and the expression on the dude’s face. 🙃
If I had Bvlgari Black, I’d wear that to represent the dude’s hat. Alas, I swapped it moons ago.
Happy Almost Friday! 😎
Also, I just now noticed that there only one candle in the chandelier, which is lit. All the other spots are sans any candle at all…curiouser and curiouser…
One theory is there is a candle on his side because he is still alive, there is a snuffed out candle on hers if you look at a closeup…
So supposedly lends credence to theory that she has already died in childbirth when this is painted.
Oh, that is so morbid but fascinating. Thx to whoever posted the video about making a modern version of the wife’s dress. That was a wonderful video, really enjoyed it and I love seeing people’s deep dives and passions.
I think I read somewhere that the single candle represents the eye of God?
I love the man’s hat–and you are so right about his face. That part of your comment made me laugh! I suppose he is meant to look very aristocratic with the long nose and elegant hands.
The hat is supposed to be made of straw dyed black (I read this somewhere) so any perfume with notes of hay might work for the CP! I probably have many of those.
Smelling fantastic today!
I’m wearing Amouage Reflection, which seems a bit of a cheat, as it’s so obvious–but truly, the reflection in the mirror is one of the most wondrous parts of the painting to me.
Another great part of the painting is the little dog. If you zero in, he has such an alert expression and is looking right at you. (A friend of mine says she can almost hear his yapping.) His actual face kind of resembles a wizened little man. Both sweet and mischievous. My project for tomorrow is to scent the dog… though I have no idea how at this point!
PS I’ve looked it up, and among suggested breeds, the little dog looks most like an Affenpinscher to me.
https://www.chewy.com/education/dog-breeds/affenpinscher#adopt
Oh, I thought of Reflection too. If I had it, I would definitely wear it. Not a cheat at all – great match.
second this!
I paused all my library holds while I was on vacation and now they have all arrived at once! I’ll have to read fast to get through them all before they have to be returned in 3 weeks.
In Turkey I tried Turkish delight, and it was delicious, not at all like it is here, more like a fruit jelly candy. So today I am wearing SL Rahat Loukoum and smelling very almondy.
Love that one. You smell delicious and elegant, foxbins.
Did you bring back any genuine Turkish delight?
No, just pistachio paste and baklava.
Yum.
I’m wearing L’artisan Soleil de Provence. I’m enjoying my sample a lot-bezoin, mimosa, and lemon. Uncomplicated and a bit joyous.
Love the notes
Sound lovely
Your SOTD sounds quite nice!
My eyes always go the the wooden clogs as they relate to a minor irritation for me…my husband always kicks off his shoes when he comes through the kitchen door and then leaves them where they land, usually right in front of the doorway. I always move them to the side as I’m scared of tripping. So, I noticed the clogs in this image, and the woman’s downwards gaze and thought, ‘ you are in for a lifetime of tidying away this guy’s shoes unless you can nip it in the bud right now.’ Then, my mind wandering I wondered what other quirks he might have: hoarding glass jars, candle stubs chucked in a kitchen drawer, giant hat left on the kitchen table…can you move your hat so I can set the table? And I imagine she is constantly getting tangled up in the hem of her gown, wondering why she didn’t take it up an inch or two so she could walk around without stepping on it. So, a perfume to match domestic life: By your side
LOL, I don’t think many people have had your response to the painting, but it’s a fun one!! In the video about modern people trying to remake the woman’s dress, they emphasized how bulky and heavy it would have been. It seems likely she didn’t have to move around much, but sit somewhere keeping warm under all those layers (with the dog on her lap helping, of course), while she had some maids to keep things tidy! Thus, we don’t have to worry too much about her, though the maids’ lives were probably rather dreary. (This reminds me of the novel and movie “Girl with a Pearl,” where the maid did well for herself,. Although it was probably inaccurate, the movie was really very beautiful, I thought.)
Ha! Good one Kanuka.
The wife doubtless has many servants to tidy up, set the table, cook the meals, etc.
Her hands don’t look like they spend much time scouring pans, plucking chickens, or plunged into hot soapy water trying to wash the dirt off long dresses.
Love it! Life before the joy of home appliances 🙂 .
I do recommend watching the Youtube video that Glannys gave us a link to the other day, in which a contemporary team tries to remake her outfit. It shows the incredible processes of weaving and dyeing the wool of her green gown/robe, both as done now and in the past. That’s one thing the narrator says–she just can’t imagine how much work it would have been–and how expensive–to have completed those processes by hand.
I might just wallow like a piglet in Italian perfumes this week, I’ve got a great excuse with the CP. So…today’s scent is Trussardi Donna EdP, the original one in the squat clear bottle. (I once bought the shiny white bottle of Trussardi Donna that came later and that one was totally different and not to my liking.) I wish perfume companies wouldn’t do that to us, very disappointing. Anyway, the original is a wonderful cologny chypre thing with oakmoss and herbs and ginger. Tart rather than sweet. Very refreshing and incredibly reasonably priced on the evil of bays. (not affiliated). It reminds me that I would like to try more Trussardi scents. Python and Trussardi Homme also gets raves.
A piglet wallowing in perfumes sounds so delightful and cute. 🙂
Good morning from the airport, where I didn’t expect to be again so soon after my trip. I’m going to Christchurch for the day for a funeral, a close friend of my mother died, and I’m going on her behalf. My mother isn’t really capable of travelling to another city now, and this was really short notice.
I’m wearing Neroli Outrenoir, one of my staple travel sprays, which also happily goes with the oranges in the painting.
Safe travels. My condolences to your Mom on her friend’s passing.
That is so kind of you to go for her Gaynor.
Thank you to whoever recommended Alastair Reynolds sci fi novel The Prefect. I just finished it and found it excellent. I’m passing it on to my son, who also likes sci-fi. Great philosophical debates about good, evil, morality, etc., that flow seamlessly with the plot and characters and do not feel tacked on or like talking heads or as though the author had points to make and concocted scenarios to fit. Very suspenseful as well. I’ve heard about him for years but this was my first Alastair Reynolds. It won’t be my last. What should I read next? Revelation Space? Kind of cool that many of his books are set in the same uh, ‘universe.’
I think that was me and I strongly recommend the Revelation Space trilogy – unputdownable!
I guess I’m participating through the Italian angle — decided to retry Mendittorosa Osang today, and I’m liking it better than I did in the winter. I wore Orlo yesterday and realized I liked it much less than I did when I first tried it, and that was the one I’d thought was FB-worthy. I may need to reevaluate all of those samples now that we’ve moved on to warmer weather.
Seems I’m not the only one who was thinking of Azemour for this — I’ll wear it tomorrow.
Oranges is the easy way out 🙂
SOTD = Tom Ford Lost Cherry
🍒! Love it! I think there’s a way to figure out how much is left in my bottle but I am too lazy to execute it.
In other news, this Wall Street Journal article (so possibly pay wall) is about off-the-beaten-path places to visit in Paris:
https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/travel/museums-paris-not-the-louvre-f69255d5?st=tJfv8F&reflink=article_copyURL_share
There are a couple ways I can think of to guessimate how much is left in your Lost Cherry bottle. One is to shake it. A higher pitch of the sloshing means less liquid. Also, it gets quiet when the volume is really low.
The other is to shine a bright light from behind your bottle. If it is semi-opaque, the light will show the level of liquid. This doesn’t work if the bottle is totally opaque though.
I’m not sure that the shaking will work. I will try to use a flashlight. Thanks.
Another lovely cool 🌞 day with temps in the mid-60’s. My lilacs are still going strong, and I’m joining them in wearing the last of my lilac-centered fragrances, Gucci Guilty. Supposedly it has a prominent lilac note although what I smell is more of a blended floral with a bit of fruit up top and some patch on the bottom. Nice but not one of my faves.
Spent a lot of time outdoors pulling weeds and listening to the birds, enjoying this beautiful day before the weather changes again. Warming up after today but once it gets to 70 and above, that just means rain these days. So going up to the mid-80’this weekend but with rain and threats of storms each day.
Happy almost-weekend ahead! 🐧🐤🐦🎵
How lovely that you still have lilacs! Around here they seem mostly gone.
Feels like the middle of June here again today, with a high temp of 87 degrees F. The sunscreen is getting quite the workout!
Took Teflon kitty to the vet for an annual exam this afternoon. She was less upset than usual, which is a good thing. Mixed news to tell the vet. She is showing fewer allergy symptoms this Spring, which means the allergy medicine is starting to work. However, she has lost a little weight. For a small cat her size, losing weight is something that needs to be monitored. She also has another ear infection, which could be another allergy symptom besides itching. So it’s back to the ear goop.
SOTD = commando again. Couldn’t decide on what I wanted to wear.
Hopefully once her ear is better, she will start eating more.
Tef’s appetite has been really good this week. It’s been especially noticeable yesterday and today. So I am going to start feeding her smaller meals more frequently.
Poor kitty, sorry about that ear infection. Hope it clears up soon🤞!
Teflon HATES the ear goop! Both of us will be happy if these recurring ear infections go away.
Poor kitteh…at least the annual exam “caught” the new ear infection.
I knew she had one just by how she was acting. But this one didn’t seem to be bothering her as much as previous events due to the allergy medicine.
Wishing good health to Teflon!
Thank you Glannys! Hope that your sweet Kora is doing well.
It’s a gorgeous 61 degrees here.
I went to church this morning with my cousin and then to lunch. A nice day.
This morning I wore Vera Bradley Peach blossom and nectar. Tonight I am wearing Cuir de Lancome. I had forgotten how beautiful this is.
You smell gorgeous (the CdL). What’s the deal with church on a Thursday morning?
Cuir de Lancome is stunning!