Vizcaya: Music room & Dining room

Just beyond the Loggia from the living room is the small Music room, which acts as an anteroom to the Dining room; an impressive march from pre-dinner cocktails to the meal itself sure to impress the guests!Continuing the total mix of styles, the music room is a cozy little room straight out of a Venetian palazzo from the mid 18th century, pure frivolity and mood.The designer, Chalfin, was said of this mood "Some one seems to lurk here, wearing old creamy satin, looking into dim mirrors at strings of pearls and corals upon a narrow and corseted bosom, ready with facile musical sighs" A tad dramatic maybe but very evocative; it is after all a very dramatic space.The walls are paneled with scenes painted on canvas and surrounded with gilded wood moldings, seashells, coral and 18th century Venetian blown glass flowers.

Contemporary furnishings of the time period join a host of antiques including an Adam harp, a 17th century Italian spinet and a gilded Italian zither giving the music room its name.

The 18th century Venetian chandelier adds some more frivolity to the space; talk about letting them eat cake!

After the beautiful fluff of the music room, one moves into the rational of the Renaissance once again in the dining room,or as Chalfin liked to call it, the banquet hall.

The decor dates to the mid 16th century and features Flemish tapestries from that time period, among the great treasures of the estate. Marble floors in the music room give way to staid Floridian terrazzo (admittedly still marble, but a different variation).

Scavenged Roman columns again hold torchieres as in the Living room; I like the continuity.The ceiling is a copy from the Palazzo Gonzaga in Mantua but the furniture is authentic; ranging from the 15th thru 17th centuries, much of it originating from monasteries.While certainly impressive, it's not a very cozy or welcoming room and was rarely used. Rather, Deering preferred to eat al fesco in the courtyard or on the terrace.

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Write by: Unknown - Tuesday, March 29, 2011