Blackstone Library 125th Anniversary
Are you ready to learn about another architectural detail of the Blackstone Library? For today’s 125th Anniversary Fact, we’re sharing what is by far the most common motif sprinkled throughout the library. The library is home to hundreds of rosettes in marble, wood, and metal, but what exactly is the humble rosette? A rosette is a round, stylized flower design, used extensively in sculptural objects from antiquity, appearing in Mesopotamia and used to decorate the funeral sites in Ancient Greece. It was adopted later in Romanesque and Renaissance, and also common in the art of Central Asia, spreading as far as India where it is used as a decorative motif in Greco-Buddhist art. Since the library is modeled on the Greek Erechtheion (Temple of Athena), it makes sense that the building would feature an architectural detail so popular with the Greeks, as well as the rest of the ancient world. The next time you’re at the Blackstone, see how many you can find!