To prove the upper classes have still the upper hand …

The stately homes of England
How beautiful they stand,
To prove the upper classes
Have still the upper hand …

So wrote the social satirist Noel Coward in the 1930’s, and while we agonize correctly 80 years later about that currently widening gap between what remains of the social classes, the next lines point to a flux that cannot be ignored:

Though the fact that they have to be rebuilt,
And frequently mortgaged to the hilt
Is inclined to take the gilt
Off the gingerbread.

While we are definitely swinging towards a much wider gap than we had from approximately 1930 to the late 50’s, things have been much worse and rarely much better, throughout recorded history.  Take Ludwig II of Bavaria, please.

Here is his bed:

king-ludwigs-bedroom-at-linderhof

And here is the deserving young man, as painted by Ferdinand von Piloty, in 1865:

ludwig_01_370

 

The general’s uniform is interesting, to go off on a completely irrelevant tangent, as there is a scene in Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby, involving a painter of miniature portraits, who complains about painters renting out officers’ uniforms to their sitters, and how tacky the whole thing is.

Dickens was an amazingly perceptive man, and literally old enough to be Ludwig’s father. Ludwig was born in 1845, and Nicholas Nickleby was published in 1838, when Dickens was still in his late twenties and just getting going.  He was appalled by the excesses he witnessed in his lifetime, mirrored by the abject poverty of London and Yorkshire.  While he can be seen as an early crusader for what we now would call social justice [a much over-used and thus weakened notion] he also had a hankering for the finer things in life, and a nostalgia for the established order as well.

But back to Ludwig, who would have made Dickens’ compassionate blood roil.  He had a grotto built for himself:

Venusberg Grotto - Linderhof - Bayern Deutschland - Ludwig II Bavaria - Peter Crawford

which is an even more disgusting extravagance in that all of this was pretty much for the idiot himself, alone, and strangers were barred from his castles [which have become a tourism mecca, in a form of historic irony, bwahahaha, xty].

Ludwig is much admired by Bavarians today, sadly, as the lessons of history are so painfully slow to be learnt.  He was a patron of the arts, which tends to salvage the reputation of many a repulsive aristocrat, saving Wagner from financial ruin.  Wagner then wrote of his first meeting, undoubtedly from the heart not the wallet, that

Today I was brought to him. He is unfortunately so beautiful and wise, soulful and lordly, that I fear his life must fade away like a divine dream in this base world … You cannot imagine the magic of his regard: if he remains alive it will be a great miracle!”

Can you say sycophant?

But just as we see and admire the grand architecture and paintings and music that wealthy patrons helped produce we cannot see what might have been and must never be forgotten.

What a strange contrast to the goings on in North America around the same time.  The U.S. was plunged in civil war, Canada was exerting it’s independence in its own patient way, and rich and poor were quite close really, certainly compared to a Bavarian peasant and Ludwig.  It would have been one of the more remarkably attractive aspects of the new world, and one that is rarely discussed.  One hears of opportunity being the call but an equality of opportunity must have been intoxicating to those bearing the weight of all the Leopold’s supported through the interwoven social network of monarchies and landed gentry and established churches.

We have created our own aristocracies in North America, and they are taking on a Marie Antoinetteish air, but they have nothing against the entrenched aristocracies that used to keep their polished boots on the backs of the poor.

We ratchet towards a better world, even if it is a wrenching ratcheting, full of lots of ratchet, especially for the poor.  But if you are more middle class than poor, and up for a trip, I hear that this castle is now open to all:

Neuschwanstein_1985970b

And have a suitable, egalitarian, Saturday!

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59 Responses to To prove the upper classes have still the upper hand …

  1. Dryocopus pileatus says:

    EO i just checked over there and it’s no big deal. get back to whatever. it really isn’t worth it. karma.

  2. EO says:

    “Who has been right and who has been wrong?” is the only tune I need these days. And it’s been a happy tune indeed. 😎

    All else is a waste of time, trying to reason with zealots.

    Sauna’s ready. Much more important right now.

  3. DN says:

    DP
    Yes sir, 2014 is rolling smooth, thanks.
    Please talk more about the painting you posted. “what is missing?” do you think something is missing? Do you feel like some”thing” is missing, or is your overall feeling about the painting hollow/lonely/empty/longing/ in that sense… to some extent. (not in a negative way, just in an accurate way) Please go into it from whatever perspective you asked the question.
    It’s your painting? I might have missed earlier posts, . . . did you paint/are you painting it?
    I will continue looking at it, there’s a lot there, and it flows.
    you asked “what is missing”… keep talking, keep going… some background on the painting, then please pick up where you left off with the ‘what is missing’ question…

  4. xty says:

    DP – get used to the penetrating questions – DN and I disagree about religion, royals, all sorts of things, but when it comes to personal understanding and intuition, he is like a dog to a bone. And I mean that in a good way – DN has walloped me out of the blue with a completely accurate read of my mood based on what I thought were otherwise innocent postings, and has helped me understand myself better, or at least deal better with things I have been facing or denying.

    Of course, I had a shallow answer to your question but it does remind me suddenly of something offspring #3 learned in his photography course last semester and that was that amongst the four qualities a great photo should have was that it should tell a story. The trouble with painting is that the story is often more about the painter than the thing being painted, as with writing. I started listening to The Portrait of Dorian Grey the other day, and except for the painfully overt homoeroticism [which is painful to me in that I find all sensual writing squeamish and he was married and a father of two], Wilde gets it.

    And, please, EO, none of that here. Enjoy your break.

  5. xty says:

    Oh, sorry about the unintentionally disturbing word of the day. It never even entered my mind – dang what a horrible thing, a word that to me is sailing and wind and clouds, perverted by the military/industrial PR machine.

  6. Pete Maravich says:

  7. EO says:

    sorry xty. had my dander up.

    tax season is getting rolling. off i go. catch you all later.

  8. xty says:

    Pete’s song lyrics really were on the money!

    All is quickly forgiven and go off and toil.

  9. Dryocopus pileatus says:

    Hi all. i’m back too late and a new thread has started. but now i can likely say anything and get away with it. 😯

    EO – didn’t mean to check you. i say let them continue escalating hate and division over there. i am just going to ignore the “ad hominem” stuff from now on though. still i may comment on the same kind of crap that i used to over there, before i got banned. i do that for the benefit of all. sometimes, someone just has to say something. if i step out of line, you know what to do Xty.

    DN – i usually create and post my art all in one sit. for what ever reason i saved that one on my desktop, and never got back to it. so i’m not sure if it looks finished. i do not take any of it too seriously – my writing (rambling) or my art pics. so don’t be looking for any symbolism! i don’t even know if any of my stuff is any good. very hard to tell especially since i was largely despised at the last place. i always thought that it was because i refused to be intimidated and spoke my mind. but it could very well be that i just plain suck! the truth is that i don’t really care that much – at least a lot less than i used to. 🙂

    m44 – thanks. you really have a way of “saying it” in a song.

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