sorry, Ocm?, but I just realized that Lindy found me an hour before you posted.
You're up next, Lindy...go hide!
Not because I have any special reverence for Napoleon, but to me his tomb had a mystical aura about it. There have been a few other tombs that affected me that way, so maybe I'll go to one of those later in this game.
Besides being the tomb of such a historically significant person, the design of Napoleon's tomb is burial high-art.
Talk about high art, high on the ceiling of the dome over Napoleon's tomb are murals which always remind me of the ones my dad painted high up on church domes and ceilings. This is over Napoleon's tomb:
An interesting fact many people don't appreciate is how the visual perspective of what's painted so high above the viewer and on a curved wall has to be distorted by the artist in certain ways so that it looks right from the ground...my dad used to explain that to me when I climbed up the high scaffolds to watch him paint. He painted murals in most churches and cathedrals around here, and up and down the east coast of the U.S. I guess I'll throw in a couple bonus pics, one of St. Monica's Church in Philadelphia after it totally burned down.
This presented a rare opportunity for my dad to design and paint the murals for the entire inside of the church. The parish wanted a bright, more modern style than some of the "more traditional" styles seen in churches, so this is what my dad came up with on the front area of the church...bright colors and themes carry throughout the church and are quite striking when you first walk in
