Red Gallery: the music room

Set off against the oak, on shelves above the fireplace, a collection of blue and white Delftware and Chinese porcelain recalls the seventeenth-century vogue for “chinoiseries,” as they were then called. No doubt equally exotic to French eyes of the time would have been some of the furniture that Christie has brought here from his parents’ house in Buffalo, such as the large American clock above the main window – pieces that both recall his origins and incorporate the New World into the Bâtiment’s eclectic mythological mix. In a similar vein, a series of trompe-l’oeil cartouches bearing Latin inscriptions has been painted onto the walls, each one a favorite maxim chosen by Christie from authors such as Virgil, Sallust and La Rochefoucault, whose seventeenth-century French has been translated into the language of the Romans for consistency’s sake. Pictures also play an important role in a room that is sometimes nicknamed the “portrait gallery,” with musical themes predominating in the canvasses acquired by Christie, such as portraits of the composer Etienne de Moulinié (1599–1669) and the high tenor Pierre de Jélyotte (1713–97). Indeed, of all the rooms in the house, the red gallery, thanks to both its size and its excellent acoustics, is the best suited to making music for an assembly of guests. Moreover, in summer, the large French windows at the far end open up, prolonging the gallery outdoors into a charming exedra that is filled with countless pots containing red flowering or foliaged plants.