The World of Interiors August 2021

1 Say it with flowers. Cox London’s artisans’ skills find expression in this 1.2m-high forged-iron-and-brass ‘Floral May’ pendant (£36,000), which is composed of thousands of metalwork leaves, flowers and buds. Ring 020 3328 9506, or visit coxlondon.com. 2 The inevitable happened when designer Adam Bray and wallpaper specialist Hamilton Weston chatted about stylish 1960s and 1970s interiors decorated with manilla paper and how well colours look on craft paper. The digitally printed ‘Brown Paper Stripe’ comes in six colourways and costs £165 per 10m roll. Ring 020 8940 4850, or visit hamiltonweston.com. 3 When your home city reaches the ripe old age of 1,600, how do you mark the occasion? Venetian fabric house Rubelli does what it does best – weaving a new silk damask. ‘San Polo’, which can be yours for…

THE MEDICI: PORTRAITS AND POLITICS 1512-1570 (by Keith Christiansen et al; The Met/Yale, rrp £50) Great portrait painters not only shape the way we view individuals, but also dynasties and societies. We see the court of Henry VIII with Holbein’s 20:20 vision, and that of Charles I through Van Dyck’s suavely soft-focused eyes. The Medici belong to Agnolo Bronzino. As court painter, he lovingly polished the great banking family, turning them into living artworks – seductive, sinister and invariably dressed to kill. The Medici puts Bronzino in the Florentine context, from when the ruthless upstarts overthrew the republic to their marriage into the European nobility. Museums are increasingly interested in how art is used by patrons to project identity. This catalogue contains fine essays on the Medici’s rise to power, cultural…

For a measure of the buzz created by Frank Gehry’s latest work simply type ‘Arles’ and ‘architecture’ into Google. Up pops match after match about the twisting form of the new LUMA TOWER, which shimmers like scrunched-up Bacofoil on the Provençal city’s ancient skyline. Gehry himself, of course, puts it slightly more poetically, pointing to the building’s subtle allusions to Van Gogh paintings. Whatever, the place hasn’t witnessed a projet quite so grand as this, the centrepiece of a new creative campus, since the Romans topped out their amphitheatre. Details: luma-arles.org. It turns out to be quite the month for the big reveal following architectural interventions. In Manchester, CARMODY GROARKE (WoI July/Aug 2020) has created a new entrance and gallery in railway arches and 1830s warehouse vaults for the Museum…