Word: gems
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Then there were the decorative arts: hard-stone (pietre dure) inlays, gems, tapestries. The tapestries in particular were a way of extracting the maximum visual punch from skilled labor: not only could they reproduce great designs at a fraction of the cost of painting, but they could also cover enormous surfaces with sumptuous effects. Monarchs loved them, setting up weaving factories in the Netherlands, France, Naples and Madrid. Naturally, the Medici had to have their own. Most elaborate of all were the pietre dure designs - fantastically elaborate inlays of jasper, lapis lazuli, serpentine and all manner of semiprecious stones, sawed...
...season. Instead, guests dine on a breezy verandah overlooking a lush forest of banana trees, palms, orchids and ginger flowers. Ceiling fans and geckos on the hunt lend an equatorial air, but the fine linens, crystal stemware and impeccable service could be straight out of a Michelin-starred Parisian gem. The six-course tasting menu ($26)?starting with a delicate amuse bouche of parmesan and rosemary, and ending with a decadent chocolate mousse souffl? served with coconut sorbet?is not so much fusion food as French classics with a tropical twist. For his seared tuna, Salans eschews the obvious sweet...
...Gem Brown is less fortunate. Although she is one of five children, Gem, 36, bears most of the responsibility for her ailing father Hencliffe, 73, a retired mail-room worker. Gem, who works full time for a medical home-care company, has moved her dad into her two-bedroom condo in Mount Laurel, N.J., so that she can look after him. She has enrolled her father at the Tender, an adult day-care program that he attends while she's at the office, and she schedules morning doctor's visits so she can get to work on time. Gem...
...exquisite Musée Jacquemart-André, in the former mansion of 19th century banker Edouard André and his artist wife, Nélie Jacquemart, houses their exceptional collection of furniture, paintings, porcelain and objets d'art. The current temporary show, like the museum, is a small gem, although the title From Caillebotte to Picasso is a little misleading. Only one Picasso and two Caillebottes are on display. The rest of the 85 paintings and sculptures, all from the Oscar Ghez collection at Geneva's Petit Palais, cover modern art between 1870 and 1950: Impressionists, Neo-Impressionists, Nabis, Fauves...
...Rodham Clinton came to Palermo in 1999, her visit put the official stamp of approval on the Sicilian capital as a secure tourist destination. After decades of open Mafia war, the city was finally quelling crime, restoring order and emerging as yet another not-to-be missed Italian cultural gem. Clinton - then the First Lady, now a Senator from New York - was most interested in ingratiating herself with Sicilian-American voters back home. But she was telling the truth when she praised Palermo's efforts to get out from under the Mafia's shadow, which have led to a drop...