Glass-Matisse-Vence Chapel-Red Gold Millefiori

I maintain records on my trackables. They have the goal to circulate more than five years and to be moved by at least 25 cachers. That is a target rate of five drops per year for five years, or a drop every 73 days. The average drop rate of my trackables in the US is 124 days, in Europe it is 71 days. As of 6-Sep-23 this trackable had survived for 2.3 years and had been moved by 5 cachers, for an average drop every 167 days. Please keep it moving, then drop it in a safe place!

No permission is needed to leave the U.S. While in the U.S., please drop it in a Premium Member only OR a rural cache near a busy trail or road. Do not place it in an urban cache or abandon it at a caching event where there is no security. Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean and dry, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items. Otherwise, take the trackable anywhere you wish.

This is one of series of pendant travel bugs (TBs) made from sturdy, lamp-worked glass. Each TB is named for some other artistic expression using glass.

The Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence (Chapel of the Rosary), often referred to as the Matisse Chapel or the Vence Chapel, is a small Catholic chapel located in the town of Vence on the French Riviera. It was dedicated to the Dominican Order. The church was built and decorated between 1947 and 1951 under a plan devised by Henri Matisse. It houses a number of Matisse originals and was regarded by Matisse himself as his "masterpiece". While the simple white exterior has drawn mixed reviews from casual observers, some regard it as one of the great religious structures of the 20th century.

Despite never having done a project like this, Matisse, age seventy-seven, threw himself into it with gusto. He designed every detail: stained-glass windows, flooring, wall decoration, lighting, even the priest’s robes.

There are three sets of stained-glass windows, upon which Matisse spent a great deal of time. All three sets make use of just three colors: an intense yellow for the sun, an intense green for vegetation and cactus forms, and a vivid blue for the Mediterranean Sea, the Riviera sky and the Madonna. The two windows beside the altar are named the Tree of Life, but the forms are abstract. The color from the windows floods the chapel's interior, which is otherwise all white.