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The use of stained glass in a classical building is a solipsism. Classical architecture depends on clear light as an integral part of its compostion.
Post War resumption of the Corpus Christi Procession in Cologne in 1947
From the quondam Cork Examiner of 18 June 2014
Triptych artwork found in shed could fetch up to €120k
http://www.irishexaminer.com/media/images/t/TriptychWexford_large.jpg
By Brendan Furlong
A religious artwork discovered among junk in a presbytery outhouse is expected to fetch up to €120,000 at auction next month.
The triptych featuring scenes from the Crucifixion was found by Piercestown parish priest Fr John O’Reilly in a shed behind the parochial house which is situated just five miles south of Wexford town.
It has been identified as a rare 15th-century altar piece from the Flemish school of art in Belgium. Mystery surrounds how it ended up in Piercestown.
Fr O’Reilly said parishioners were amazed when they heard about the exciting find, but no one was able to offer any information about its origin.
Sheppards, the art auction specialists in Durrow, Co Laois, have estimated the piece to be worth between €80,000 and €120,000.
It will be auctioned at an international market on July 9. Fr O’Reilly said the proceeds will be used for the benefit of the parish.
They contacted the National Gallery and a Dutch University in The Hague, which confirmed the piece was an original from the Flemish School.
The priest told his parishioners about the find at Sunday Mass. Photographs of the triptych were put on display in the church.
Sheppards have suggested two possible theories on how it arrived in Wexford. One is that a wealthy local merchant may have brought it back from a trip to the continent, while the other is that it may have been taken for safe-keeping by monks or nuns fleeing Germany at the beginning of the Second World War.
An Interesting new publication.
The art of the Catholic Church in China
Veronese Exhibition, National Gallery
Veronese Exhibition, National Gallery
Veronese Exhibition, National Gallery, London
Veronese Exhibition National Gallery, London
Veronese Exhibition, National Gallery, London
William Morris and Morris & Company
William Morris was a brilliant polymath. Remembered today as a designer and manufacturer of textiles, wallpaper, and stained glass, he was equally renowned in his lifetime as a poet and novelist. An avid socialist, he fought class inequities, and he also campaigned to preserve green spaces and ancient monuments. Morris fervently subscribed to the Pre-Raphaelites’ belief that medieval exemplars could be used to improve the present. Opposed to industrial mass production, he advocated tradition-minded practices, believing that beautiful objects, honestly made, would promote a better society.
To this end, in 1861 the young entrepreneur helped found the decorative arts firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Company. His ingenuity was the driving force behind the enterprise, but it also showcased the talents of Burne-Jones, Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown, and architect Philip Webb. In 1875 Morris became sole director of the reconfigured Morris & Company. His predilection for historical techniques ensured that profits were modest, and, despite his socialist ideals, his wares were often affordable only to the wealthy. Nevertheless, the company’s designs became iconic and many remain in production. Bird hung in Morris’s own drawing room at Kelmscott House, Hammersmith, London.
Above: Designed by William Morris (British, 1834–1896). Bird, designed 1878. Manufactory: Morris & Company. British, Merton Abbey, Surrey. Wool. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Edward C. Moore Jr. Gift, 1923 (23.163.15)
Metropolitan Museum of Art New York
The Pre-Raphaelite Legacy
British Art and Design
May 20–October 26, 2014
Gallery 955
The Pre-Raphaelites galvanized the British art world in the second half of the nineteenth century with a creative vision that resonates to this day. Rejecting contemporary academic practice as vacuous and stifling, they sought to produce work that was vivid, sincere, and uplifting. Their name affirms their initial sources of inspiration: medieval and early Renaissance art from before the era of Raphael. Originally championed by a small, secret brotherhood, the movement swiftly gained adherents, who introduced new approaches and ambitions.
This exhibition brings together some thirty objects from across the Museum and from local private collections to highlight the second generation of the Pre-Raphaelites, focusing on the key figures Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Paintings, drawings, furniture, ceramics, stained glass, textiles, and book illustrations from the 1860s through the 1890s, many united for the first time, demonstrate the enduring impact of Pre-Raphaelite ideals as they were adapted by different artists and developed across a range of media. At a time of renewed appreciation for art of the Victorian age, the installation will direct fresh attention toward the Metropolitan’s little-known holdings in this important area.
Sir Edward Burne-Jones (British, 1833–1898). Angeli Laudantes, 1898. British, Merton Abbey. Dyed wool and silk on undyed cotton warp (15 warps per in.; 5-6 per cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund, 2008 (2008.8a–c)The movement began as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, founded in London in 1848 by seven young artists and writers, most notably William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Challenging convention, they painted in an archaizing style, with bright, flat color and unsparing realistic detail. The group disbanded by the mid-1850s, but its impact was far-reaching, stimulating a second generation of artists who expanded the movement’s scope and appeal over the next four decades.
Leading them was the bohemian Rossetti, who mentored newcomers Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris, former theology students at Oxford. This tight-knit trio redefined Pre-Raphaelite ideals. Moving away from the exacting naturalism and moralizing subjects preferred by the early Brotherhood, the friends cultivated its romantic and imaginative aspects. Alongside medieval prototypes, they embraced classical sculpture and even High Renaissance art. Focusing on mythical and poetic themes, they endeavored to conjure a realm of heightened emotions, aspirations, and visual splendor that would elevate a modern society beset by change. They asserted, in Burne-Jones’s words, “Only this is true, that beauty is very beautiful, and softens, and comforts, and inspires, and rouses, and lifts up, and never fails.”
Their approach cut across traditional divisions in the arts, forging connections between painting, poetry, music, and decoration. Morris’s design firm, founded in 1861, with Rossetti and Burne-Jones among the partners, fostered collaboration among artists and craftsmen, producing objects as aesthetically refined as they were technically brilliant.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti played a vital role in the Pre-Raphaelite movement as a founding member of the Brotherhood and guiding light to the second generation. A charismatic artist-poet, he attracted a circle of adherents whom he nurtured, and who inspired him in turn, most notably Burne-Jones and Morris. Although Rossetti rarely exhibited in public after 1850, disliking negative press, his passions—romanticism, medievalism, literature, and music—shaped later Pre-Raphaelite art.
From the mid-1850s Rossetti’s work was defined by portrayals of gorgeous women, often personifying mystical ideas but derived from actual individuals. During an extended relationship with Elizabeth Siddal he produced ethereal images of womanhood, but after her death in 1862 he moved toward something more unabashedly sensual. Fanny Cornforth, his mistress, appears in Lady Lilith as a legendary temptress whose long golden hair symbolizes her seductive power. In the late 1860s Rossetti balanced such imagery with more spiritualized conceptions inspired by his model Alexa Wilding, and, in his last decade, he became close to Jane Burden, Morris’s wife, celebrating her unconventional dark beauty in many works.
If so, this might make interesting bed-time reading:
Proceedings of the 9th International Congress on Deterioration and Conservation of Stone
Edited By
V. Fassina, c/o Istituto Veneto per i Beni Culturali, Parco Scientifico Technologico, Marghera, ItalySome rather interesting comments by Mr. Glendon on the qualities of Carrara marble:
“The altar is Carrara marble – the same rock used in the creation of Michelangelo’s ‘David’.
It also decorates the cathedrals of Florence and Milan,” Mr Glendon said. “I wanted to show the beauty of the rock, so the design is quite simple.”
Did the stone for this particular item come from the Fantiscritti quarries at Miseglia, the central of three small valleys in Carrara?
Incredibly, the article above has the following footnote:
The distribution of such a basic Puginesque
type is fascinating. For example, the church of
the Nativity of Blessed Virgin Mary at Ballyhooly
(Cork), Ireland, built in 1867-1870 by architects
George C. Ashlin and Edward Welby Pugin, is a
twin of the churches of Shebiya and Gaojiayingzi
(Irish Builder, 9, 1867, 120).As with its counterpart in Gaojiayingzi, Ballyhooly has also had its share of maurading vandals since it was built.
The Flemish Gothic Church Architecture of Alphonse Mooreloose in China
https://oar.onroerenderfgoed.be/publicaties/RELT/9/RELT009-006.pdf
The New Peal of Bells installed at Notre Dame de Paris to mark the 850th anniversary rungen for the first time on 23 March 2013.
Exhibiton at the Louvre
14 March 2014 – 16 June 2014
Saint-Maurice d’Agaune : un trésor médiéval du Valais à découvrir au Louvre
Châsse de saint Sigismond et de ses enfants (détail), vers 1160 et premier quart du XIIIe siècle, Abbaye de Saint-Maurice d’Agaune © Trésor de l’Abbaye de Saint-Maurice. Photo Nathalie Sabato
Le Louvre accueille pour quelques semaines le trésor de l’abbaye Saint-Maurice d’Agaune, le plus ancien monastère d’Occident encore en activité, qui possède des pièces somptueuses datant du Moyen-Age à la Renaissance. L’abbaye suisse, en travaux, n’avait jamais prêté autant de pièces et certaines n’en étaient jamais sorties (du 14 mars au 16 juin 2014).
L’abbaye de Saint-Maurice va fêter les 1500 ans de sa fondation, en 515, dans le sud de la Suisse. “Depuis, il y a toujours eu une communauté religieuse, une communauté monastique puis une communauté de chanoines”, explique Elisabeth Antoine-König, conservateur en chef au département des Objets d’art du musée du Louvre et co-commissaire deco l’exposition. “C’est unique en Occident”, précise-t-elle.
Pour cet anniversaire, l’abbaye est en train de rénover son espace muséographique, qui abrite le trésor, et “le Louvre a obtenu le privilège” d’accueillir une partie de celui-ci, se réjouit Elisabeth Antoine-König. “Tout historien de l’art médiéval connaît le trésor de l’abbaye Saint-Maurice, mais pas le grand public”, explique-t-elle. En effet, Saint-Agaune, coincé entre une falaise et le Rhône, dans le Valais, est un peu en dehors des circuits touristiques.
Saint Maurice et ses hommes massacrés par Rome
Le site était au contraire un lieu de passage important à l’époque de l’Empire Romain. Des fouilles archéologiques montrent une occupation romaine très ancienne. On était obligé de passer par le défilé rocheux d’Agaune pour se rendre de Rome vers le nord. Le lieu était surveillé par une garnison romaine. Celui qui est devenu saint Maurice était le chef d’une légion thébaine, venue en renfort de Haute-Egypte. Ses hommes étaient des chrétiens coptes et l’histoire raconte que l’empereur les a fait massacrer à la fin du 3e siècle parce qu’ils refusaient d’obéir à des ordres contraires à leur religion, comme de tuer des chrétiens.Un siècle plus tard, Théodule, évêque du Valais, voit en songe le lieu de leur martyre, fait exhumer leurs restes et fonde une basilique. A cet endroit, en 515, le prince burgonde Sigismond établit une abbaye vouée au culte de saint Maurice et de la légion thébaine. Saint Maurice, modèle idéal du chevalier chrétien, va alors être vénéré par les plus grands souverains qui offrent à l’abbaye de précieux reliquaires.
Des pièces somptueuses
La plupart des pièces de l’exposition viennent d’Agaune, mais le visiteur est accueilli par une statue en pierre prêtée par la cathédrale de Magdebourg (Allemagne). Saint Maurice est représenté en combattant en cotte de maille, et en noir africain, “une première” à l’époque.Le trésor d’Agaune est présenté de façon chronologique, dans trois salles qui déploient des objets précieux incroyables, les plus anciens étant peut-être les plus impressionnants. Ils datent des VIe, VIIe, IXe siècles, mais le vase dit “de Saint-Martin” en sardoine, or, grenat et pierres précieuses a été créé au Ier siècle avant JC et retravaillé six siècles plus tard.
Car c’est le cas de nombreux objets, dont l’histoire est incertaine, qui ont été créés ici, retravaillés là. D’ailleurs, il pourrait y avoir eu un atelier d’orfèvrerie à Saint-Maurice même.
Histoires de reliques
Une aiguière du IXe siècle est passée d’abord pour un don de saint Martin destiné à recueillir le sang des martyrs thébains. On l’a liée plus tard à Charlemagne. Elle porte sur ses flancs de sublimes émaux cloisonnés sur or du Proche-Orient représentant sur fond vert un arbre de vie, des lions et des griffons.Autre pièce exceptionnelle, le coffret reliquaire de Teuderic (VIIe siècle) est entièrement couvert de petites plaquettes de grenat sur paillon d’or, le tout décoré de saphirs, perles, grenats et quartz.
Le trésor de Saint-Agaume comprend de nombreux reliquaires car, au Moyen-Age, les reliques circulent. Au XIIe siècle est créée la châsse de saint Sigismond et de ses enfants, un grand coffre en argent repoussé sur lequel sont figurés Sigismond et Maurice, le Christ et les apôtres, les archanges.
Une “Sainte Epine” offerte par Saint Louis
Le bras de Saint Bernard de Menthon (1165), en argent aussi, a sans doute abrité celui d’un martyr thébain avant de renfermer un morceau de côte et un morceau du menton de saint Bernard, fondateur de l’hospice du Grand-Saint-Bernard. A noter aussi, un magnifique chef reliquaire de saint Candide de la même époque, qui figure sur son socle le martyre de ce soldat de la légion thébaine.Histoires de reliques, toujours : au XIIIe siècle il y a eu des échanges entre Saint Louis, qui veut développer le culte de saint Maurice, et l’abbaye d’Agaune. Saint Louis, qui a payé une fortune à Baudouin II de Constantinople pour acquérir la couronne du Christ, en a offert en 1262 une épine à l’abbaye, dans un reliquaire en or et argent, orné de pierres précieuses. En échange, des reliques d’Agaune sont parties pour Senlis.
Un détour par Notre-Dame de Paris
Des manuscrits, des étoffes précieuses, des bibles complètent l’ensemble, ainsi que deux coupes du XIIIe siècle dont une, très sobre mais extraordinaire car elle “chante”, grâce à une bille insérée sous le couvercle. Elle pourrait venir d’un atelier mongol.Commencée avec une image de saint Maurice, l’exposition se termine avec une autre, de 1577, une statue équestre, donnée par le duc Emmanuel Philibert qui s’est sans doute fait représenter lui-même, bien loin du légionnaire africain du XIIIe siècle.
Les chanoines de Saint-Maurice ont accepté que leur trésor fasse le voyage de Paris, enfin une partie. Mais ils ont tenu à ce que quelques pièces soient exposées à Notre-Dame. C’est ainsi que quatre d’entre elles ont y passé un week-end avant de rejoindre le Louvre.
Le Trésor de l’abbaye de Saint-Maurice d’Agaune, Musée du Louvre, Aile Richelieu
Tous les jours sauf mardi, 9h-17h30, nocturnes le mercredi et le vendredi jusqu’à 21h30
Accès avec le billet d’entrée au musée : 13€
Du 14 mars au 16 juin 2014Ecclesiological Society
Thursday 10 April
Ecclesiological Society Annual lecture and AGM
Sarah Brown will talk on ‘John Thornton’s Stained Glass Apocalypse in the East Window of York Minster: The Creation and Conservation of a Medieval Masterpiece’
Lecture at 6.30pm; doors open 6.00pm. St Alban’s Centre, Baldwins Gardens, London, EC1N 7AB. Open to all.
