Francesca Bianchi Perfumes Byzantine Amber, photo by Nicoleta
“O sages standing in God’s holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.” W. B. Yeats, Sailing to Byzantium
One of the first things that came to my mind, when I visited Istanbul, was the ancient legend that spoke of the day the empire fell. It was the spring of 1453 and many survivors of the city rushed to the Great Church of God, also known as Hagia Sophia, and barred the doors to protect themselves from the invaders. Meanwhile, as the city was falling and death was drawing near, the priests continued their celebration of the Christian liturgy. When the Turks burst in, the priests picked up their sacred vessels, the walls of the sanctuary opened and the priests moved into the masonry of the building, from which they are said to emerge once more*, to resume the liturgy when the place will become again a Christian church.
I remember that moment of being suspended out of time, looking at the mosaics adorning the walls and domes, specks of gold and light reflecting the last rays of the sun, the tarnished edges, blackened by time – a perfect metaphor for grandeur and decay, and the inner fight between seraphic magnificence whispering promises of immortality and the implacable cold silence of the passing time. I have always wondered how major events in history felt, as they happened – an empire falling once believed to last until the end of times – and if one needs perspective and distance to grasp the enormity of the tear. And it is hard to shake the unnerving feeling that humanity is at a new threshold, one unlike any other before. But before looking into the future, one must always look at the past.
“Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.” W. B. Yeats, “Sailing to Byzantium
Collage of mosaics from Hagia Sophia, Istanbul
Byzantium is one of the oldest and most important cultures of the western civilizations, and yet one of the least understood – even misunderstood ones. The culture and history of the Middle Ages of western Europe are engulfed in a heroic light– just think of King Arthur, the knights in shining armor, and the crusades – although, it was in its darkest and most barbaric of times. In opposition, there is much prejudice against the Byzantine world, although flourishing at the time, which has remained depicted as the devious, dark world of the not quite “proper” or even heretic Christians. Even today, the term “Byzantine” has pejorative uses, denoting a system of the most bizarre and sinister complexity*.
Westerners could not understand why the Byzantines were so different, as they were Christians, and their culture was derived also from Greek and Roman antiquity. And while the Western world has traditionally held a high appreciation for the cultures of China, India, the Middle East, and other more distant and “exotic” places, it has not shown remotely the same level of interest in Byzantium – being dismissed as the “decadent relative” of the more cultured and “enlightened” West. Interestingly enough, same as with individuals, entire cultures seem to dislike and distance themselves from those whom they most resemble in a weird anthropological take on a mirrored uncanny valley effect.
Salome by Gustave Moreau painting
Francesca Bianchi Perfumes Byzantine Amber, is the third fragrance that makes up the series dedicated to the most iconic raw materials of perfumery, after Libertine Neroli and Unspoken Musk, all reinterpreted in her inimitable style.
And here comes this young lioness, drawing near, etched in liquid gold, tearing with glowing ember fangs the fabric of this reality of choice. “Is it perfume from a dress /That makes me so digress? /Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl. /And should I then presume? /And how should I begin?” The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
It’s difficult and a disservice to dissect Francesca’s creations and talk about ingredients or technicalities, as it feels like I would awkwardly single out and point at the sound of a violin, while I’m witnessing a magnificent concerto that floods my senses, holding on for the ride, syncing my heartbeat to the tempo, a knot of emotions the size of an exploding sun gathering in my stomach. I am being a bit dramatic, I know, but the theatrical emphasis and grand gestures come, for me, as beautiful side-effects of her fragrances.
Salome by Gustave Moreau painting
Amber, Ambar, Beaming Sun, Hard Honey, Tears of the sun, Petrified light, wearing Francesca Perfumes Byzantine Amber, I felt all the facets of this accord rotating on my skin – warm, solar, balsamic, comforting, sweet, smoky, and slowly rolling the names in my head, as the fragrance purred on my skin, everything made sense, culminating with the switch to the mineral and dark ragged claws of ambergris, scuttling across the floors of silent seas. Francesca Bianchi composes the classical accord with benzoin and labdanum and adds in the warm bite of cinnamon, giving the perfume the trademark dark sensuality. It then bounces off the skin with specks of light that shine through the composition, decadently bright, with geranium and bergamot as the carriers of light, the chiaro to the oscuro to soon follow.
“Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enameling
To keep a drowsy Emperor, awake;”-William Butler Yeats, Sailing to Byzantium
AI-generated background with Francesca Bianchi Perfumes Byzantine Amber
The amber soon darkens at the edges, the leather of an old throne keeping the imprint of tense hands digging into the armrest, for the man who raised his head to the top of the dome of time, for that one last time. Then the ocean beneath trembles, echoes of Jonah’s voice echo, for three long days and nights, inside the belly of the whale, on the long journey to Nineveh. “When they said (they said) repent (repent), repent (repent) /I wonder what they meant.”
Bright yet benighted, introspective but with delicious theatrical outbursts, Francesca Bianchi Perfumes Amber Byzantine is a complicated fragrance that refuses to be pinned to a specific page in Francesca’s scented bestiary. It’s one of the more tame ones, as far as animalic prowess goes, but its insidious facets will last for eons on your skin. It has the kind of intensity that seems to grow stronger with time, like a fire that gathers momentum the more it consumes (of you).
For we are living at the edge of a world, hoping for a new renaissance, in all the pain and splendor of these fierce days of the roaring twenties-twenties. And amidst the turmoil, the uncertainty, and the shifting sands of time, there’s solace in the hope that – maybe- beauty can save the world.
“I’ve seen the nations rise and fall
I’ve heard their stories, heard them all
But love’s the only engine of survival
Things are going to slide
Slide in all directions
Won’t be nothing (won’t be)
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
Has crossed the threshold
And it’s overturned
The order of the soul” Leonard Cohen, The Future
*based on Timothy E. Gregory book,” A History of Byzantium”
Main accords: Amber, leather, animalic. Mood: Dramatic, Hypnotic, Theatrical Fragrance notes: Bergamot, Cinnamon, Geranium, Benzoin, Labdanum, Frankincense, Leather, Styrax, Ambergris
Also, check out the reviews for: Luxe, Calme, Volupte, Dark Side, Sex and the Sea, Sticky Fingers, Angel Dust, Lost in Heaven
Nicoleta Tomsa, Senior Editor
Disclosure: Perfume kindly offered by the brand; opinions are my own
AI-generated background with Francesca Bianchi Perfumes Byzantine Amber
Thanks to the generosity of Francesca Bianchi Perfumes we have a 30 ml of Byzantine Amber for one registered reader in the EU or USA. You must register or your entry will not count. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what sparks your interest based on Nicoleta’s history of Byzantium, her review of Francesca Bianchi Perfumes Byzantine Amber and where you live. Draw closes 3/8/2023
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