{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O126226"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O126226/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BK7651/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BK7651/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006BK7651","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BK7653","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O126226/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O126226","accessionNumber":"S.197-2006","objectType":"Set model","titles":[{"title":"Set model for Die Entführung aus dem Serail","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Great Britain’s leading theatre designer from the early 1930s to the mid 1950s, Oliver Messel (1904-1978) won international acclaim for his lavish, painterly and poetic designs informed by period styles.  His work spans ballet, drama, film, musical, opera and revue. Messel’s traditional style of theatre design became unfashionable from the mid 1950s onwards, and he increasingly concentrated on painting, interior and textile design, including designing luxury homes in the Caribbean.\r\n\r\nMozart’s comic opera <i>The Abduction from the Seraglio</i> was one of four Mozart operas performed  at Glyndebourne in 1956 to celebrate the bi-centenary of his birth.  Messel’s exuberant designs are inspired by 18th-century Western European art and design and its fascination with the Ottoman Empire, in harmony with the light-hearted spirit of Mozart’s opera.\r\n\r\nMessel borrowed motifs from engravings of Turkish buildings and Asian-style pavilions depicted in English tapestries and on Meissen porcelain for the architecture of Selim’s palace and garden.  He used painted acetate to create an effect of intricate lattice work. The platform features a palm tree, parasol and cushions, indicating the exotic location and air of indolent luxury in the palace garden on the Turkish coast.","physicalDescription":"Set model by Oliver Messel for Selim's palace garden, Act III, in a Glyndebourne production of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, 1956.  A wooden box containing the set. the box is carved and painted with baroque decoration.  The box is fringed in gold thread, and two columns are painted on the box frame, indicating the open window of the model.   The set is composed of cutcloths and a backcloth.  A yellow curtain painted on card hangs by rings and gold thread at the opening.  Also a false proscenium arch in blue, with Baroque decoration.   Two arches painted white on acetate either side of the opening.  Cypress trees in gauze and paint.  Central platform with palm tree and umbrella and cushions.  To the rear, a series of Eastern arches, and beyond, leafy vegtation and the towers of Selim's palace.  Blue sky backdrop.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Messel, Oliver Hilary Sambourne","id":"A4929"},"association":{"text":"designer","id":"x36960"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"pencil","id":"x30347"},{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"},{"text":"watercolour","id":"x33202"},{"text":"gouache","id":"AAT70114"},{"text":"kaolinite","id":"AAT13815"},{"text":"wood","id":"AAT11914"},{"text":"card","id":"x30344"},{"text":"acetate","id":"AAT255863"},{"text":"wire","id":"AAT11063"},{"text":"glue","id":"AAT14815"},{"text":"gauze","id":"AAT14083"},{"text":"plasticine","id":"x30671"},{"text":"masking tape","id":"AAT14836"},{"text":"perspex","id":"AAT14435"}],"techniques":[{"text":"drawing (image-making)","id":"AAT54196"},{"text":"painting (image making)","id":"AAT54216"},{"text":"glueing","id":"AAT53012"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Wood, cardboard, fabric, and paint.","categories":[{"text":"Entertainment & Leisure","id":"THES48959"},{"text":"Opera","id":"THES263971"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2006BK7651","2006BK7653"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"001","id":"THES396979"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"set model","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1956","earliest":"1956-01-01","latest":"1956-12-31"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"S.79-2006","id":"O124376"},"association":"Design"},{"object":{"text":"S.86-2006","id":"O124627"},"association":"Design"},{"object":{"text":"S.83-2006","id":"O124381"},"association":"Design"}],"creditLine":"Acquired with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Art Fund and the Friends of the V&A","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"61","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"43.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"63.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"<i>Die Entführung aus dem Serail</i> (1782), an opera in two acts by Mozart with  libretto by Bretzner.  Oliver Messel’s production was first performed by Glyndebourne Festival Opera at Glyndebourne on 10 June 1956; directed by Peter Ebert and featuring Ernst Häefliger as Belmonte and Arnold Van Mill as Osmin.  It was revived at Glyndebourne in 1957 and 1961.  \n\r\nLord Snowdon, Oliver Messel's nephew, inherited Messel's theatre designs and other designs and artefacts.  The designs were briefly stored in a disused chapel in Kensington Palace before being housed at the V&A from 1981 on indefinite loan.  The V&A Theatre Museum purchased the Oliver Messel collection from Lord Snowdon in 2005.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Set model by Oliver Messel for Selim's garden, Act III, in Mozart's opera <i>Die Entführung aus dem Serail</i>, Glyndebourne 1956.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Pinkham, Roger (ed.) <u>Oliver Messel: an exhibition held at the Theatre Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, 22 June - 30 September 1983.</u> \r\nLondon: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983.  200p., ill\r\nISBN 0905209508)"}],"production":"Reason For Production: Commission","productionType":{"text":"Model","id":"THES48867"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.197-2006"],"accessionNumberNum":"197","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2006,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"TM Rotation Number","id":"THES50368"},"number":"ROT 8822"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-07","recordCreationDate":"2006-07-20","availableToBook":true}}