Grand Entrance
The grand entry hall of Villa Castellamonte is, at the same time, both elegant and warmly inviting. Represented here are the works of individual craftsmen from throughout the world and the Dominican Republic. The entryway, soaring over 20' in height, offers a direct view through the villa to the waiting ocean while capturing your imagination with the detailed workmanship throughout.
The main entrance doors are handcrafted solid mahogany over 9' high reproducing the graceful arched doorways of Tuscan castles. Once inside, you will discover under your feet huge slabs of imported white Travertine marble encasing a custom designed handmade mosaic medallion. The sweeping stone staircase to the upper floor is made of hand chiseled coralina and golden marble from the Dominican Republic inset with selected ceramic tiles imported from Montalcino (Tuscany), Italy.
Gracing either side of the main entrance are hand-painted murals depicting romantic ocean view scenes from the Amalfi coast of Italy close to the town of Positano. Originally painted by Carl Frederic Aagaard in the 1870's, the paintings offer exquisite detail of the coastline as seen from Positano at that time. Our incredible artist has captured each individual detail of these famous paintings as he interpreted them through his murals.
Across the entire top of the entryway is another hand-painted mural of stunning detail and colors. The mural is a series of elegant vines intertwined together with gorgeous yellow flowers at their tips. The detailing around the main window looks like brocade cloth tied to the wall. This mural, covering over 180 square feet alone, took over 1000 man hours to create, is all freehand and will leave you amazed at the creativity of mankind.
Creating a masterpiece such as this was not only time consuming, but inherently dangerous. The artist first attempted to sit on high scaffolding and painstakingly layout the design before painting it. It rapidly became obvious that his neck could not stand the day-to-day strain such a huge project required.
Working with the builder, the artist had built for him scaffolding that might well have looked familiar to the likes of Michelangelo! It allowed him to lay down at an angle identical to the slope of the roof so he could concentrate on painting each individual line by hand with a simple artists brush. The glint of dew on a leaf or splash of sunlight on an individual flower were individually designed and painted by the artist.
The artistry of this ceiling alone will have you craning your neck to see more. Take your time, enjoy the detailed workmanship and if you look too long we can arrange for our in-villa masseuse to fix you up!
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