Palladio Due Solid - Primed - Swing

This classically designed interior door is part of the Palladio interior door collection, which means it is made of natural solid wood (not to be confused with solid core). The raised moldings is reminiscent of the Neoclassical period in architecture, when construction of attractive residential buildings were all the rage, completely changing the face of numerous major cities around the globe.

The beautiful two-panel arrangement is in keeping with Andrea Palladio’s principles of emphasizing the harmony of the decor through the simple elegance of its repeating elements – such as interior doors. It is a reminder that utility does not have to come at the expense of beauty.

This entire line of traditional style interior doors comes with all the usual wonderful features available here at Almes, such as the state-of-the-art hardware, including the Italian-made 3D-adjustable self-lubricating concealed hinges that make the installation a walk in the park and ensure long-term comfortable operation (this door will never creak), as well as the soundless magnetic lock – and, I hasten to add, the automatic sweep that is activated whenever the door is closed which, apart from the sense of privacy it provides, is part of the system that gives this interior door sound-proofing and thermal insulation qualities that are well above industry standards.

A number of finishes is available for this interior door (you’re hereby encouraged to explore every option). In addition to all standard configurations and sizes, custom orders are happily accepted.

Some historians claim, with good reason, that Palladian architecture appeared as a reaction to the proliferation of Renaissance themes everywhere, and while it was generally agreed that the tend was a huge improvement on formerly ubiquitous Gothic architecture, some purists longed for at least a partial return to truly classical, i.e. Greek and Roman, forms. Andrea Palladio was only too happy to oblige and designed villa after villa for the folks who could afford his services. Most of his works are concentrated in the Veneto region, whose prosperity in those days rivaled that of Florence.

Some other historians theorize that he was the precursor of Neoclassicism, which is not entirely accurate. The world had to wait two full centuries before neoclassical buildings started to spring up in France and Italy, and another two decades before they became a world-wide trend. It was only during the Industrial Revolution, when the middle class finally came into its own and turned into a force to be reckoned with that Palladio’s followers began to have a serious cultural influence, shouldering the aristocracy aside. One of the staunch proponents of the new architectural trend was, ironically, the third President of the United States, who, during his extensive travels in Europe, became a Palladian – so to speak. As luck would have it, he was also a capable and gifted architect who turned his own ideas into actual construction projects. Not too many leaders in history actually created any architecture themselves. Apart from this fellow, Emperor Hadrian comes naturally to mind, and … well, that’s it, really.

In light of the above, this line of interior doors is also a reaction to a number of today’s trends; a return to the basic classical themes that have made so many comebacks over the centuries they truly deserved to be called timeless.

The advantages of this approach – of this type of interior door finish – are fairly obvious. Pick a color, any color that suits your projects best. Mix and apply. Re- coat whenever you feel it is necessary to do so. Touch it up. It gives you, the proud owner of these interior doors, complete freedom of choice, and the significant savings, especially where it comes to bulk orders, can be a true source of joy.

As Kurt Vonnegut mentions in one of his novels (Bluebeard, unless I’m mistaken … check it out when you get a chance), the thrill of laying on colors is a large part of the artist’s professional satisfaction. In other words, a keen pleasure.

When back in the remote past visual arts became a field dominated by professionals rather than hobbyists, the main problem of “just laying on paint” became obvious: you can’t.

The medium of choice back then was egg tempera, a permanent, fast-drying substance consisting of colored pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. Portraits and ornaments were executed in this medium, and the wood panel was the surface of choice. One of tempera’s interesting features is that it is not as easily absorbed by wood as other mediums. Some sort of primer was necessary, of course, but pretty much any substance that dried evenly could be used.

The drawbacks of tempera, or pintura al temple, as the Spanish call it, only became obvious with the advent of the Renaissance, when the leading representatives of the trade turned to oil (and interior doors suddenly became a great deal less crude, but that’s a story for another day).

Oil painting is the process of “painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder.” Commonly used types include linseed (highly preferable in art, though not necessarily in interior doors, mind you), poppy seed, walnut, and safflower.

Today, five hundred years later, it is safe to say that oil is more versatile than pintura al temple – by orders of magnitude. Specifically, the contrasts achieved through the former are much greater, the darks are far deeper, and three- dimensional, highly realistic images are much easier to achieve. Next time you visit a museum, take a closer look at pintura al temple portraits. All of them, without exception, come off as a bit “flat” as opposed to their latter-day counterparts.

Also, where glazing is concerned …

Glazing: a painting technique in which a transparent layer, with just a touch of pigment, is laid over a previously painted surface, allowing light to travel through the glaze and be reflected back off of the opaque layer below. Gentle shadows, subtle changes of color, smooth transitions – all these can be achieved through glazing, which was used by all artists up until the middle of the Nineteenth Century, when artist tubes were invented, revolutionizing the field, and other techniques began to be explored.

Tempera enthusiasts (it takes all kinds to make a world) will assure you that glazing is not just possible in pintura al temple but is actually the basis of the whole enterprise. Well, what are you going to do? They’re enthusiasts.

Anyway, la peinture à l'huile, as the French call it, re-introduced the ancient problem of most surface’s propensity to absorb dipingere, as the Italians call the stuff. Wood or canvas, it is all the same: you’re not going to get very far without a good primer.

Experiments were conducted, and soon rabbit skin glue emerged as the least expensive and most effective solution. It was easy to apply. It dried evenly. It made the application of the l’huile stuff on top of it a walk in the park.

There were drawbacks. Today, rabbit skin glue is considered to be a major cause of cracking by most modern conservators. (Remember, when you visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art – and did you see those interior doors? … some of them are quite something … - most “old masters” pictures are completely covered with a cobweb of cracks? There you go). Because the glue is hygroscopic, it continually absorbs moisture from the atmosphere, causing the glue to swell and shrink as ambient humidity levels change. Over many humidity cycles, this repeated flexing causes the brittle oily layers to crack.

To combat this problem, modern primers are made of acrylic materials which are guaranteed not to cause any damage to the dipingere. No bubbling, no cracks. Your interior doors are safe.