Crafti's great beach-houses: Australia

Years ago, when our children were young, we wanted a small, cheap holiday home near the beach on Victoria’s coast. It had to be in 2 hours drive of our suburban home.

Basin Beach House with sweeping, curved roof, Sydney
architect Peter Stutchbury, 

in Wallpaper.com

Victorian Coastal Holidays was helpful. Special holiday homes can be found on Phillip Island, Bass Coast and Mornington Peninsular. From spectacular water views, proximity to beautiful beaches, fishing spots, it is all available. From the Island homes, enjoy some of Victoria’s best surf and swimming beaches, and one of the State’s most popular fishing locations. It's Australia’s home of motorcycle racing and is also one of the nation’s most popular family areas, with activities for children AND adults eg famous Phillip Island Penguin Parade, The Nobbies, Seal Rocks, Koala Sanctuary Treetop Walk and other famous wildlife attractions. From the Mornington Peninsular homes, there is easy access to the local beautiful beaches, Peninsular Hot Springs, Mornington wineries and other pleasures.

So finding our cheap, small holiday home was easy, our only requirements being a] 2 proper bedrooms & a kitchen-family room, and b] the back of the house facing the ocean.

Since then, I have found and read books about C21st beach houses, written by Stephen Crafti during the last 25 years. He wrote and featured stunning full colour photography. Australians and New Zealanders are drawn to the coast. Whether it's a fancy abode or a simple fibro shack, the sound of the surf and the feel of sand beneath one's feet are very appealing. The beach house book featured 50 architect-designed homes on the coast. From the simple to the monumental, the closeness to the beach was very appealing.

Family room looking onto the ocean

Even in less than spectacular homes, the windows framed the spectacular views

In Beach Houses: Australia And New Zealand 

While many of the homes were lavish, others simply framed the great views. In this book the author explored the evolution of the once humble abode, from the fibro shack to architecturally engineered homes that now dot the coastline. See 50 beautiful architect-designed homes.

The Beach House book by Crafti featured 50 architect-designed homes along the coast, leaving a lasting impression. While many of the homes featured were lavishly appointed, others simply framed the great views. Filled with photos of well-designed beach houses around the world, Crafti might fill a dream of having one’s own seaside home.

While many of the homes featured in the book are lavish, others simply frame the spectacular views ahead. From the best-selling 21st Century Series, 200+ vibrant full colour pages capture the seaside splendour of over 50 architect-designed homes.

Volume I of Beach Houses showed a diverse collection of Australian and N.Z coastal retreats. The beach house had long played a major role for Australians and New Zealanders’ summer activities, but design was often of secondary importance. Only more recently has the beach house evolved into an architect-designed sanctuary for a family, with breathtaking surrounds and comfortable living.

Looking out to the veranda
In Contemporary Beach Houses Down Under 

In Volume 4 of Beach Houses, Crafti again selected some superb beach homes in a variety of locations. There has never been as much demand among hard working people for places to get away from it all. Once the beach-side site has been selected, architects are the next port of call in the quest for a coastal dream home. Crafti walked the reader through a fine collection of architect-designed beach homes; permanent homes, weekenders, luxury sites and some like the traditional beach shack.

The 5th book of the series was dedicated to beach houses and showcases almost every kind of modern style. This is a great coffee table book with appeal to lovers of architecture and the beach, from an Australian architecture and design writer. Filled with stunning shots of well-designed beach houses around the world, Stephen Crafti's latest tome helped readers dream of having their own seaside dwelling.

A Pocketful of Beach Houses offered 50+ examples of residential beach architecture, including great projects from top Australian and N.Z architects. Superb architect-designed homes, which in many cases have been adapted to harsh beachside environments, were explained and illustrated with beautiful photos, plans and descriptive text. Note stunning ocean views, dune views and impeccable architectural design for beach living.

Another fine collection of beach architecture is Beach Houses Down Under -  stunning ocean views, dunes, seaside flora, and salty air are almost palpable! Crafti again selected some superb architect designed homes, both normal homes and holiday houses, in a wide variety of beach locations.

Many architects were seen: Glenn Murcutt, Harry Seidler, Pete Bossley, Architectus, Craig Moller, McBride Charles Ryan, Kerstin Thompson, Brit Anderson, McGauran Soon, Lindsay Clare, Cox Richardson and others. All projects reflected fine contemporary architecture in a diversity of beach locations: from environmentally sensitive designs, to sumptuous seaside homes and luxurious clifftop residences.

Pole House view over the ocean, Great Ocean Rd Vic

Designed by Frank Dixon 1978

Pinterest

Pole House, minimalist interior

40 metres above the beach

Realestate

Crafti wrote many books for The Images Publishing Group. Full of ideas for the aspiring designer, renovator or builder, they showed lovely locations in Australia and N.Z that complemented fine contemporary architecture. Find many books, including Beach Houses of Australia and New Zealand (2000), Beach Houses (2004), Contemporary Beach Houses Down Under (2008), Beach Houses Down Under (2009) and A Pocketful of Beach Houses (2009).

Great Ocean Road House Victoria, by architect Rob Mills
Est living 

Second Home: A Different Way of Living
Barnes and Noble, 2023

Jan Luyken: a moralising Dutch artist

Jan Luyken (1649-1712) was an engraver and poet, who lived in a very educated, middle class part of Amsterdam. His timing was critical; he was born soon after the Dutch Republic was officially recognised by Spain as an independent Republic. So religious practice in his parents' home was in transition; at the time of his marriage Jan's father belonged to the Reformed Church but soon converted. This was when the Calvinist Church was first recognised as the official church. Non-Calvinist Protestants and Catholics could continue to worship, but quietly.

                                                          

Portrait of Jan Luyken by A. Houbraken

from the Bowyer Bible, 1700

As an adolescent, Jan Luyken was leading the good life, possibly a life full of wine, women and poetry. In 1671 he published German Lyric, a book of hedonistic poetry. There was no problem; he was young, single and not religious at the time. But I won’t examine this early work, in case it embarrassed him when the artist was older.

I am not sure what changed his life style but in 1672, aged 23, Luyken joined the Anabaptists. Then he seemed to have had a complete conversion in 1675: "In the 26th year of his life the Lord appeared in his heart in a powerful manner whereupon, afire with the love of God, he forsook his old bad company to join the God-fearing". It did not stop him creating his images, however. Luyken continued to be a versatile and productive engraver and etcher.

Anneken Hendriks, Frisian Mennonite,

burned to death in Dam Sq Amsterdam

published 1685, Wiki

BibliOdyssey reproduced images that depicted hanging, burning, torture, beheading, crucifixion and boiling, a broad artistic encyclopaedia of inhumanity. The images were extremely difficult to look at, so Luiken repeated Matthew's words: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven".

Perhaps the pain in his art reflected the pain in Luyken's own life. After 10 years of marriage and the birth of 5 children, Luyken’s wife died tragically. His son Casper (1672-1708), the only child to live into adulthood, collaborated with his father and became a well-known etcher in his own right. But even Casper died tragically at a young age, leaving a widow and young son who moved in with Jan.

The Martyrs Mirror had been first published in 1660 in Dutch by Thieleman J. van Braght. It documented the stories and testimonies of Christian martyrs, especially Anabaptists, and was said to be second only to the Bible in Mennonite homes. Luyken was given the very great honour of illustrating the 1685 edition of the Martyrs Mirror with 104 copper etchings. 30 of his plates survived and were part of The Mirror of the Martyrs Exhibit, at the Kauffman Museum at Bethel College, North Newton Kansas. The rest of the copper plates were probably destroyed in WW2 chaos.

Anabaptist Dirk Willems rescues his pursuer but is burned at the stake,

printed in1685 edition of Martyr's Mirror

Wiki

I am particularly interested in a large project that Luykens undertook in middle aged. The Book of Trades was a book of 100 engravings that Jan & his son Caspar published in 1694, illustrating various trades in Amsterdam in the Netherlands’ most productive century. The book followed the moralist contemporary style that seemed to be popular then, having a moralistic poem per trade. Morality aside, there was useful and detailed historical evidence in this book about trades that were common in late C17th Netherlands.

One example helps. The grave digger showed that when there was no room left in a church graveyard, the grave digger would have to take the old bodies out to make space for the new ones. It might have been depressing work, but in the background the observant viewer could detect a stork’s nest on the chimney. The symbols of birth, death and mortality all appeared to be an integral part of the scene.

Luyken died in poverty either because he was ill and couldn’t work, or because when his son died, Jan had to support his daughter in law and the grandchildren. Nonetheless his legacy lived on. 3,000+ of Luyken’s works survive today, especially in the field of book illustration. As well as travel literature and historical works, he used many Biblical subjects. Jan Luyken's can be found on the outer wall of the Rijksmuseum at the side of Jan Luijkenstraat, located in the neighbourhood where all the streets are named after Netherland's Golden Age artists. Perfect!

Apostle Bartholomew skinned alive and beheaded in Armenia in 70 AD 

published in 1694

Luyken’s legacy is also protected by modern historians eg Simon Schama, Embarrassment of Riches: Dutch Culture in the Golden Age (1997). For more specific references on the artist, see Biography of Jan Luyken by Josephine Brown. 

skate makers, in The Book of Trades, 1694

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Skate making was clearly an important trade in Netherlands

Stunning opera festival at Glyndebourne UK

The summer opera festival at Glyndebourne is a heart of the social season, where glamorous black-tied and sparkly gowned revellers picnicked on the lawns before enjoying a spectacular night at the opera. When the curtain rose on Glyndebourne’s first ever production of Richard Wagner’s final work Parsifal, it revealed a cast of c200 world-class performers in a magnificent, purpose-built opera house. This was deep in the rolling hills of East Sussex, near Lewes. Revellers in their finery sipped champagne and picnic on immaculate lawns during the famous 90-minute intervals.

Glyndebourne House

Wine being poured, before the opera started

Picnic tables during the 90 min interval

The summer festival grew far beyond its modest origins i.e an amateur entertainment dreamed up by an opera-lover and his muse on their honeymoon. A house had been at Glyndebourne since C15th. The present house’s appearance is mainly from 1870s, when its Victorian owner William Langham Christie extended with bay windows and fancy brickwork to conceal the C17th facade.

But Glyndebourne’s most famous change was made by Langham Christie’s grandson John, who came into legal possession in 1920. The new oval venue has shallow pitched roofs and a prominent central fly tower. The 1200-seat auditorium, fly tower, stage and side stages are at the centre of the building. Foyers and back of house spaces wrap around, giving views out to the gardens and picnickers. The opera house’s Hampshire red brick resonate foyer with the adjacent neo-Elizabethan house.

 

Galleries and ground floor arcades at the auditorium end of the building served as additional open air foyer spaces. Housed in a double-skinned circular drum with a shallow conical roof, the auditorium took the traditional European opera house form, with a gently raked bank of stalls and 3 horseshoe-shaped balconies. Lined in reclaimed pitch pine, its form was finely tuned to the required acoustics, with balcony fronts specially curved to reflect the stage sounds. The result was an intimate and clear ambience.

Theatrical producer John Christie added a magnificent organ room containing large non-cathedral organs. Christie held regular amateur musical evenings there, soon enhanced with professional musicians. In 1931 John met Canadian soprano Audrey Mildmay, fell in love and married some months later. On their honeymoon, the two opera fans visited Salzburg and Bayreuth festivals, planning how they might create a similar event in England.

The first opera performed at Glyndebourne in May 1934 was Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. Audience reaction was so positive that they soon outgrew that first, modest theatre. Remodelled, the capacity rose to 850. Today it’s the home of Gus Christie who moved into the house in 2002 and married soprano Danielle de Niese in 2009. The 70 singers and their families mostly stayed in the house, and plus people all around the place who were rehearsing. In 1994 the new auditorium opened for 1,250 people.

The 2025 Glyndebourne summer season ran for 15 weeks, offering 70+ concerts of operas including Parsifal, plus revivals of Handel’s Saul, Rossini’s Barber of Seville, Verdi’s Falstaff and Janácek’s Katya Kabanova. And the Marriage of Figaro, the most-loved and performed opera!

Those planning to picnic first hastened to claim their favourite spot, spreading out blankets. Some brought tables and gourmet hampers. Other people strolled through the grounds pre the music. Then the excited buzz rose as people slowly made their way to the auditorium. The curtain fell after the first act, with time to return to the well placed rugs and food baskets. Plus there were several on-site restaurants offering fine dining. The British climate being unreliable, there were large, covered balconies around the opera house in case of rain, or undercover picnic tables. NB the smart dress code doesn’t change, even in bad weather.

The 12 acres of Glyndebourne’s gardens have been perfectly cared for by a team. The gardens range vastly in style, from the striking sunken Bourne Garden, filled with exotic plants reflecting the marvels inside the opera house, and wild flower meadows and rolling lawns around the orchard. This area was a calm space to escape from the bold energy of the rest of the garden. The Figaro Garden was enclosed by tall yew hedges with benches that overlooked a pool, next to Henry Moore’s sculpture. The formal Urn Garden had scented flowers and tall yew hedges loaded with fragrance. On summer nights, the air had a heady perfume, while the area around Mildmay Restaurant was also fragrant.

Glyndebourne Opera House

Galleries and ground floor arcades inside the opera house

Performance of The Barber of Seville

Opera Today

The autumn season was more relaxed than summer. Many people experienced the opera for the first time! It was via these informal productions which, beside high-quality full operas, included revivals of Puccini’s La Bohème and Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Aiming to develop tomorrow’s stars, these productions showcased new artists hoping for global careers. Glyndebourne also had new audiences, including family open days, archive exhibitions, school trips and an extensive touring schedule.

Glyndebourne is now a fine and celebrated opera houses, offering performances to c150,000 people across a Summer Festival and an Autumn Tour. Thanks to Opera Today for photos of performances.

Caravaggio or Finson? Who???

Caravaggio, Young Sick Bacchus, 

1593-4

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) was a brilliant artist who easily found patrons; but his unstable character and nasty temper caused him to constantly move around. Worse still, he was sentenced to death for killing a Roman nobleman in a duel in May 1606. He went to Malta (1607), became a Knight of St John and painted brilliantly. Following another violent brawl, Caravaggio was arrested and gaoled, so he made a daring escape in 1608 and fled to Sicily, then Naples. In Oct 1609 he was attacked by soldiers sent from Malta.

But Caravaggio was seriously ill; he saw Rome as a safe haven and asked his patron Cardinal Scipione Borghese for protection. Their deal was Borghese would obtain the pardon, and Caravaggio would give the Cardinal all his unsold works. Expecting Pope Paul V (1605-21) would enforce the deal, Caravaggio left for Rome with his art all packed up. A week after leaving Naples, Caravaggio’s small boat sailed into the large, barracked Palo Laziale port and was promptly arrested. Seeing trouble looming again, the boat went to sea for Porto Ercole, taking Caravaggio’s works. After days, Caravaggio bought his freedom, searching for his art and running on the beach that hot July. He reached Porto Ercole by mid July 1610, but prison and fleeing had seriously weakened him, dying the next day. Caravaggio was thrown in a pauper’s grave, yet when news of his death spread, grief was intense.

Since Caravaggio had promised the paintings to Cardinal Borghese, he knew they were his! He sent his agent to find them and on 29th July the agent found 3 in the palace of Caravaggio’s former patron, Costanza Colonna Sforza. Alas the Prior of Capua from the Order of Malta app-eared, forcibly taking the paintings. NB Caravaggio had been defrocked in Malta, but the Prior ordered that when a knight died, his estate reverted to the Order of Malta.

Remember that since youth, Caravaggio had been a hoodlum; he scorned convention, disdained the law and was often violent. And unlike his contemporaries, Caravaggio worked alone, in his own style, and showed his patrons little respect. Yet his work had captivated people with its unique intensity. While Protestants disliked image cults, Cathol-ics embraced art’s religious power. Art played a key role in guiding the Faithful, including the illiterate, so religious art was explicit and powerful; it had to inspire Catholics to feel Christ’s sacrifice and martyrs’ suffering. Many artists loved dramatic realism, with boldly contrasting light and dark. Caravaggio had gained naturalism in both religious and secular scenes. And Orazio Gentileschi, Jusepe de Ribera and Pietro Paolini were faithful Caravaggisti.

**
Louis Finson (1574–1617) was a Flemish draughtsman, copyist and art dealer who painted portraits, religious compositions, symbolic art and genre scenes. Moving to Italy early in his career, he became one of the first Flemish followers of Caravaggio whom he knew in Naples; and the two artists were similarly aged.

Finson produced a number of copies after works by Caravaggio. He worked for years in various cities in France where he created altarpieces and portraits. And he was known for being the co-owner, together with his fellow Flemish painter and business partner Abraham Vinck, of two paintings by Caravaggio. Finson played a major role in the Northern Caravaggesque movement through his own works, and through his art dealership. Finson's Self Portrait 1613 is in the Musée des Beaux-Arts Marseille. This work was one of the matching self-portraits painted by Finson in what he called a distinct Caravaggesque style.

For c400 years nothing more was seen of them. Then in 1978 a French medical student, Christian Morand, got lucky. At a Marseille Exhibition of Provençal Art, he saw two special works. Attributed to Louis Finson (1580–1617), the two works come from the collection of scholar Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc. The oil paintings, 1) St Sebastian and 2) Penitent St Jerome 1595, were being auctioned in 1991. By then a specialist, Dr Morand failed to convince Marseille’s Musée des Beaux-Arts to buy them. So he went to the auction himself, to save the art for Provence .. but was outbid.

Later in Avignon, Morand walked in a back street and saw the 2 paintings in a shop window!! The doctor told the shop-owner his tale but didn’t have enough money to buy them; the owner was so taken by his passion that he offered a deal. Morand could take the paintings away with him, and each month he’d pay what he could. Morand was delighted. He bought a splendid new home and his 2 Finsons became the heart of his art collection. Now the family wondered if these fine paintings seemed too good for copies. And were unsigned! So what if they were actually by Caravaggio? Then Morand would need special insurance, security and conservation, all too costly!

In 2014 another miracle occurred - a Judith Beheading Holofernes was found in a Toulouse attic. Like Morand’s works, Judith was unsigned and there was also debate about the attribution. Some experts thought it was by Finson, or another Caravaggesque artist. Others thought that it was a lost Caravaggio which he’d given to Finson when he left Naples in 1607. Alas an American bought it pre-auction.

The Morands visited galleries & archives, consulted specialists and sent the Finson paintings for tests. Unable to find any other artists who could have painted these works, the Morands became convinced that Caravaggio was the only plausible artist of the paintings Caravaggio had lost at sea in 1610! Mind you, there were still issues. After Caravaggio’s death, Prior of Capua DID take some paintings from Naples’ Colonna Palace, under the Order of Malta’s instructions. He probably sent them back to Malta or used them to settle Caravaggio’s debts. It was possible that Morand’s works were among those he took, or perhaps smuggled out of Colonna Palace earlier.

Finson, St Jerome, 

1595

Finson, Self Portrait, 1613

 

Louis Finson, Saint Sebastian

c1610

One last thought, presented by art expert Eric Turquin, France’s leading authority on Old Masters paintings, had staked his reputation on authenticating Carvaggio’s lost Judith and Holofernes being the real thing. The painting, depicting a grisly biblical scene of the beautiful Jewish widow Judith beheading a sleeping Assyrian general, was to be auctioned in Toulouse. Turquin told Agence France-Presse he was sure the painting was by the volatile and violent genius. Not only is it a Caravaggio, but of all the Caravaggios that are known today, this is one of the great pictures! But Italian specialists had their doubts.

They believe it is a copy made by the Flemish artist Louis Finson, who worked alongside Caravaggio. On top of x-rays, cleaning showed that the painting was changed afterwards, with lots of retouching. The experts speculated that Finson possibly added his own touches to the canvas after Caravaggio left suddenly for Malta in 1607. The fiercely original painter had created his first canvas on the theme, the far more formal Judith Beheading Holofernes in 1598, in Palazzo Barberini in Rome.