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[Bibliography]
Peggy Guggenheim's career belongs in the history of 20th century art. Peggy used to say that it was her duty to protect the art of her own time, and she dedicated half of her life to this mission, as well as to the creation of the museum that still carries her name.
Peggy Guggenheim was born in New York on 26 August 1898, the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim and Florette Seligman. Benjamin Guggenheim was one of seven brothers who, with their father, Meyer (of Swiss origin), created a family fortune in the late 19th century from the mining and smelting of metals, especially silver, copper and lead. The Seligmans were a leading banking family. Peggy grew up in New York. In April 1912 her father died heroically on the SS Titanic. (1)
In her early 20s, Peggy volunteered for work at a bookshop, the Sunwise Turn, in New York and thanks to this began making friends in intellectual and artistic circles, including the man who was to become her first husband in Paris in 1922, Laurence Vail. Vail was a writer and Dada collagist of great talent. He chronicled his tempestuous life with Peggy in a novel, Murder! Murder! of which Peggy wrote: "It was a sort of satire of our life together and, although it was extremely funny, I took offense at several things he said about me."
In 1921 Peggy Guggenheim traveled to Europe. Thanks to Laurence Vail (the father of her two children Sindbad and Pegeen, the painter), Peggy soon found herself at the heart of Parisian bohème and American ex-patriate society. Many of her acquaintances of the time, such as Constantin Brancusi, Djuna Barnes and Marcel Duchamp, were to become lifelong friends. Though she remained on good terms with Vail for the rest of his life, she left him in 1928 for an English intellectual, John Holms, who was the greatest love of her life. There is a lengthy description of John Holms, a war hero with writer's block, in chapter five of Edwin Muir's An Autobiography. Muir wrote: "Holms was the most remarkable man I ever met." Unfortunately, Holms died tragically young in 1934.
In 1937, encouraged by her friend Peggy Waldman, Peggy decided to open an art gallery in London. When she opened her Guggenheim Jeune gallery in January 1938, she was beginning, at 39 years old, a career which would significantly affect the course of post-war art. Her friend Samuel Beckett urged her to dedicate herself to contemporary art as it was âa living thing,â and Marcel Duchamp introduced her to the artists and taught her, as she put it, âthe difference between abstract and Surrealist art.â The first show presented works by Jean Cocteau, while the second was the first one-man show of Vasily Kandinsky in England.
In 1939, tired of her gallery, Peggy conceived âthe idea of opening a modern museum in London,â with her friend Herbert Read as its director (2). From the start the museum was to be formed on historical principles, and a list of all the artists that should be represented, drawn up by Read and later revised by Marcel Duchamp and Nellie van Doesburg, was to become the basis of her collection.
In 1939-40, apparently oblivious of the war, Peggy busily acquired works for the future museum, keeping to her resolve to âbuy a picture a day.â Some of the masterpieces of her collection, such as works by Francis Picabia, Georges Braque, Salvador DalÃ- and Piet Mondrian, were bought at that time. She astonished Fernand Léger by buying his Men in the City on the day that Hitler invaded Norway. She acquired Brancusiâs Bird in Space as the Germans approached Paris, and only then decided to flee the city.
In July 1941, Peggy fled Nazi-occupied France and returned to her native New York, together with Max Ernst, who was to become her second husband a few months later (they separated in 1943).
Peggy immediately began looking for a location for her modern art museum, while she continued to acquire works for her collection. In October 1942 she opened her museum/gallery Art of This Century. Designed by the Rumanian-Austrian architect Frederick Kiesler, the gallery was composed of extraordinarily innovative exhibition rooms and soon became the most stimulating venue for contemporary art in New York City. (3)
Of the opening night, she wrote: âI wore one of my Tanguy earrings and one made by Calder in order to show my impartiality between Surrealist and Abstract Art" (4). There Peggy exhibited her collection of Cubist, abstract and Surrealist art, which was already substantially that which we see today in Venice. Peggy produced a remarkable catalogue, edited by André Breton, with a cover design by Max Ernst. She held temporary exhibitions of leading European artists, and of several then unknown young Americans such as Robert Motherwell, William Baziotes, Mark Rothko, David Hare, Janet Sobel, Robert de Niro Sr, Clyfford Still, and Jackson Pollock, the âstarâ of the gallery, who was given his first show by Peggy late in 1943. From July 1943 Peggy supported Pollock with a monthly stipend and actively promoted and sold his paintings. She commissioned his largest painting, a Mural, which she later gave to the University of Iowa.
Pollock and the others pioneered American Abstract Expressionism. One of the principal sources of this was Surrealism, which the artists encountered at Art of This Century. More important, however, was the encouragement and support that Peggy, together with her friend and assistant Howard Putzel, gave to the members of this nascent New York avant-garde. Peggy and her collection thus played a vital intermediary role in the development of Americaâs first art movement of international importance.
In 1947 Peggy decided to return in Europe, where her collection was shown for the first time at the 1948 Venice Biennale, in the Greek pavilion (5). In this way the works of artists such as Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko were exhibited for the first time in Europe. The presence of Cubist, abstract, and Surrealist art made the pavilion the most coherent survey of Modernism yet to have been presented in Italy.
Soon after Peggy bought Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, on the Grand Canal in Venice, where she came to live. In 1949 she held an exhibition of sculptures in the garden (6) curated by Giuseppe Marchiori, and from 1951 she opened her collection to the public.
In 1950 Peggy organized the first exhibition of Jackson Pollock in Italy, in the Ala Napoleonica of the Museo Correr in Venice. Her collection was in the meantime exhibited in Florence and Milan, and later in Amsterdam, Brussels, and Zurich. From 1951 Peggy opened her house and her collection to the public annually in the summer months. During her 30-year Venetian life, Peggy Guggenheim continued to collect works of art and to support artists, such as Edmondo Bacci and Tancredi Parmeggiani, whom she met in 1951. In 1962 Peggy Guggenheim was nominated Honorary Citizen of Venice.
In 1969 the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York invited Peggy Guggenheim to show her collection there. In 1976 she donated her palace and works of art to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. The Foundation had been created in 1937 by Peggy Guggenheimâs uncle Solomon, in order to operate his collection and museum which, since 1959, has been housed in Frank Lloyd Wrightâs famous spiral structure on 5th Avenue.
Peggy died aged 81 on 23 December 1979. Her ashes are placed in a corner of the garden of Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, next to the place where she customarily buried her beloved dogs. Since this time, the Guggenheim Foundation has converted and expanded Peggy Guggenheim's private house into one of the finest small museums of modern art in the world.
[Info]
Address
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
Palazzo Venier dei Leoni
Dorsoduro 701
I-30123 Venezia
Opening hours
Daily 10 am - 6 pm
Closed Tuesdays and December 25
General information
tel: +39.041.2405.411
fax: +39.041.520.6885
e-mail: info@guggenheim-venice.it
Visitor services
tel: +39.041.2405.440/419
fax: +39.041.520.9083
e-mail: visitorinfo@guggenheim-venice.it
Photography
Photography is permitted without flash. You may not use tripods or monopods.
Animals
Animals of all sizes are not allowed in the galleries and in the gardens.
For information and assistance please contact "Sporting Dog Club".
Call Tel. +39 347 6242550 (Marie) or +39 347 4161321 (Roberto)
or write to sportingdoginvenice@gmail.com
Venice Art for All
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection joins the Venice Art for All project and becomes accessible to all, including people with limited mobility.
Palazzo Venier dei Leoni was probably begun in the 1750s by architect Lorenzo Boschetti, whose only other known building in Venice is the church of San Barnaba.
It is an unfinished palace. A model exists in the Museo Correr, Venice (1). Its magnificent classical façade would have matched that of Palazzo Corner, opposite, with the triple arch of the ground floor (which is the explanation of the ivy-covered pillars visible today) extended through both the piani nobili above. We do not know precisely why this Venier palace was left unfinished. Money may have run out, or some say that the powerful Corner family living opposite blocked the completion of a building that would have been grander than their own. Another explanation may rest with the unhappy fate of the next door Gothic palace which was demolished in the early 19th century: structural damage to this was blamed in part on the deep foundations of Palazzo Venier dei Leoni.
Nor is it known how the palace came to be associated with "leoni," lions. Although it is said that a lion was once kept in the garden, the name is more likely to have arisen from the yawning lion's heads of Istrian stone which decorate the façade at water level (2). The Venier family, who claimed descent from the gens Aurelia of ancient Rome (the Emperor Valerian and Gallienus were from this family), were among the oldest Venetian noble families. Over the centuries they provided eighteen Procurators of St Markâs and three Doges. Antonio Venier (Doge, 1382-1400) had such a strong sense of justice that he allowed his own son to languish and die in prison for his crimes. Francesco Venier (Doge, 1553-56) was the subject of a superb portrait by Titian (Madrid, Fundaciòn Thyssen-Bornemisza). Sebastiano Venier was a commander of the Venetian fleet at the Battle of Lepanto (1571) and later became Doge (1577-78). A lively strutting statue of him, by Antonio dal Zotto (1907), can be seen today in the church of Ss. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice.
From 1910 to c. 1924 the house was owned by the flamboyant Marchesa Luisa Casati, hostess to the Ballets Russes, and the subject of numerous portraits by artists as various as Boldini, Troubetzkoy, Man Ray and Augustus John. In 1949, Peggy Guggenheim purchased Palazzo Venier from the heirs of Viscountes Castlerosse and made it her home for the following thirty years. Early in 1951, Peggy Guggenheim opened her home and collection to the public and continued to do so every year until her death in 1979. (3) (4)
In 1980, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection opened for the first time under the management of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, to which Peggy Guggenheim had given her palazzo and collection during her lifetime.
Palazzo Venier dei Leoni's long low façade, made of Istrian stone and set off against the trees in the garden behind that soften its lines, forms a welcome "caesura" in the stately march of Grand Canal palaces from the Accademia to the Salute.
[Permanent collection]
The core mission of the museum is to present the personal collection of Peggy Guggenheim. The collection holds major works of Cubism, Futurism, Metaphysical painting, European abstraction, avant-garde sculpture, Surrealism, and American Abstract Expressionism, by some of the greatest artists of the 20th century. These include Picasso (The Poet, On the Beach), Braque (The Clarinet), Duchamp (Sad Young Man on a Train), Léger, Brancusi (Maiastra, Bird in Space), Severini (Sea=Dancer), Picabia (Very Rare Picture on Earth), de Chirico (The Red Tower, The Nostalgia of the Poet), Mondrian (Composition No. 1 with Grey and Red 1938 / Composition with Red 1939), Kandinsky (Landscape with Red Spots, No. 2, White Cross), Miró (Seated Woman II), Giacometti Woman with Her Throat Cut, Woman Walking), Klee (Magic Garden), Ernst (The Kiss, Attirement of the Bride), Magritte (Empire of Light), DalÃ- (Birth of Liquid Desires), Pollock (The Moon Woman, Alchemy), Gorky (Untitled), Calder (Arc of Petals) and Marini (Angel of the City).
The museum also exhibits works of art given to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation for its Venetian museum since Peggy Guggenheim's death, as well as long-term loans from private collections.
Hannelore B. and Rudolph B. Schulhof Collection
In October 2012 eighty works of Italian, European and American art of the decades after 1945 were added to the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in Venice. They were the bequest of Hannelore B. Schulhof, who collected the works with her late husband Rudolph B. Schulhof. They include paintings by Burri, Dubuffet, Fontana, Hofmann, Kelly, Kiefer, Noland, Rothko, and Twombly, as well as sculptures by Calder, Caro, Holzer, Judd and Hepworth. The Hannelore B. and Rudolph B. Schulhof Garden exhibits works from this collection.
Gianni Mattioli Collection
The museum exhibits twenty six masterpieces on long-term loan from the renowned Gianni Mattioli Collection, including famous images of Italian Futurism, such as Materia and Dynamism of a Cyclist by Boccioni, Interventionist Demonstration by Carrà , The Solidity of Fog by Russolo, works by Balla, Severini (Blue Dancer), Sironi, Soffici, Rosai, Depero. The collection includes important early paintings by Morandi and a rare portrait by Modigliani.
Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Sculpture Garden
The Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Sculpture Garden and other outdoor spaces at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection presents works from the permanent collections (by Arp, Duchamp-Villon, Ernst, Flanagan, Giacometti, Gilardi, Goldsworthy, Holzer, Marini, Minguzzi, Mirko, Merz, Moore, Ono, Paladino, Richier, Takis), as well as sculptures on temporary loan from foundations and private collections (by Calder, König , Marini, Nannucci, Smith).
Scene from the Life of Christ, roof boss in the 14th century vault of the nave.
The attractive town of Tewkesbury has been dominated by its superb abbey church since the beginning of the 12th century, and we can be forever grateful to its townspeople for purchasing the monastic church in 1540 for £453 for use as their parish church, saving it from the fate that befell countless similar great churches across the land during the turmoil of the Dissolution. It reminds us both how lucky we are to still marvel at it today, yet also how great a loss to our heritage the period wrought when many more such buildings were so utterly plundered as to have gone without trace (the fate of the monastic buildings here and even the lady chapel of the church whose footings are laid out in the grass at the east end).
Tewkesbury Abbey is thus rightly celebrated as one of our greatest non-cathedral churches, and remarkably much of the original Norman church remains substantially intact, most apparently in the great central tower, a fine example of Romanesque architecture adorned with rows of blind-arcading. The west front is dominated by a massive Norman-arched recess (enclosing the somewhat later west window) and the nave and transepts remain largely as originally built, though this is less clear externally owing to the changes made to the windows, nearly all of which were enlarged in the 14th century in the Decorated Gothic style. This century also saw the complete rebuilding of the eastern limb of the church, of a form less common in England with radiating chapels surrounding the eastern apse of the choir (the central lady chapel sadly missing since 1540).
The interior reveals far more of the Romanesque structure with mighty columns supporting the round Norman arches of the nave arcades giving the building a great sense of solidity. The space is further enlivened by the changes made during the 14th century by the stunning vault over the nave (adorned with a rewarding series of figurative bosses) which sits surprisingly well with the Norman work below. Beyond the apsidal choir beckons, and both this and the space below the tower are enriched with stunningly complex vaulted ceilings (replete with further bosses and gilded metal stars), all ablaze with colour and gilding.
There is much to enjoy in glass here, most remarkably a complete set of 14th century glazing in the clerestorey of the choir, seven windows filled with saints and prophets (and most memorably two groups of knights in the westernmost windows on each side). A few of the figures have fared less well over the centuries but on the whole this is a wonderfully rare and well preserved scheme. There is much glass from the 19th century too, with an extensive scheme in the nave of good quality work by Hardman's, and more recently a pair of rich windows by Tom Denny were added in one of the polygonal chapels around the east end.
Some of the most memorable features are the monuments with many medieval tombs of note, primarily the effigies and chantry chapels of members of the Despenser family around the choir (two of the chantries being miniature architectural gems in their own right with exquisite fan-vaulting). In one of the apsidal chapels is the unusual cenotaph to Abbot Wakeman with his grisly cadaver effigy, a late medieval reminder of earthly mortality.
Tewkesbury Abbey is not to be missed and is every bit as rewarding as many of our cathedrals (superior in fact to all but the best). It is normally kept open and welcoming to visitors on a daily basis. I have also had the privilege of working on this great building several times over the years (as part of the team at the studio I once worked for), and have left my mark in glass in a few discreet places.
photographer's notes and text borrowings-
"mutual building", cape town. art deco, deluxe. finished in 1939. architect, fred glennis
inspiration maybe from the "met tower", NYC"?, chicago board of trade", "chrysler building, NYC"?
stone mason, ivan mitford-barberton (south african)
most of the building was changed into residential units
beautiful friezes by miftord-barberton
some nine (only?) african tribes depicted in stunning granite carvings on one facade of the building. it's unclear why only nine tribes were depicted
the tribes being-
matabele
basuto
barotse
kikuyu
zulu
bushman
xosa (xhosa)
pedi
masai
the building has three street facades, darling, parliament and long market streets, cape town CBD
much more to be explored and to be pixed. the building itself is exquisite
***********************
Mutual Building
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Mutual Building (Afrikaans: Mutual Gebou), in Cape Town, South Africa, was built as the headquarters of the South African Mutual Life Assurance Society, now the "Old Mutual" insurance and financial services company. It was opened in 1940, but before the end of the 1950s—less than 20 years later—business operations were already moving to another new office at Mutual Park in Pinelands (north east of the city centre); since then Old Mutual has become an international business and their present head office is in London.
The building is a fine example of art deco architecture and design, and it has many interesting internal features such as the banking hall, assembly room, directors' board room; external features include a dramatic ziggurat structure, prismoid (triangular) windows, and one of the longest carved stone friezes in the world. It has been said that it provides evidence of the colonial attitudes of the time, and the "ideals of colonial government promulgated
by Rhodes in the late nineteenth century".[1]
The Mutual Building is now converted to residential use, although some parts of the building are used commercially. For example, the Banking Hall (which is now an events venue) and the retail shops that operate outside on the ground level.
Coordinates: 33°55ʹ27.45ʺS 18°25ʹ20.25ʺE
Mutual Building
Mutual Gebou
The front of the building, in Darling Street, Cape Town
Location in central Cape Town Alternative Mutual Heights, Old Mutual
names Building
General information
Contents
1 History
1.1 The business
1.2 The "new" (1940) Head Office in Darling Street
1.3 Search for inspiration
1.4 Completion
1.5 Vacating and conversion
2 Structure of the building
3 Design elements
4 Features of the building
4.1 The Entrance Hall 4.2 The Banking Hall
4.3 The lifts (elevators) 4.4 The Assembly Room 4.5 The Directors' Rooms 4.6 The atrium
4.7 The windows
4.8 Granite cladding 4.9 The Tribal Figures 4.10 The frieze
5 Views of (and from) the building 6 References
7 Other external links
Type
Architectural style
Address Town or city Country Coordinates Completed Inaugurated Renovated Owner Height
Structural system
Floor count Lifts/elevators
Commercial converted to residential
Art Deco
14 Darling Street
Cape Town
South Africa
33°55ʹ27.45ʺS 18°25ʹ20.25ʺE 1939
1940
2005
Mutual Heights Body Corporate 84 metres (276 ft)
Technical details
Reinforced concrete, granite cladding
12 plus 3 levels basement parking
7
Architect
Architecture firm
Architect
Renovating firm
Structural engineer
Awards and prizes
Fred Glennie Louw & Louw
Renovating team
Robert Silke Louis Karol
Murray & Roberts
South African Institute of Architects, Presidents Award 2008
Website
Design and construction
www.mutualheights.net (www.mutualheights.net)
History The business
The Old Mutual business has a long history. In 1845 John Fairbairn (a Scot) founded "The Mutual Life Assurance Society of the Cape of Good Hope" in Cape Town. Over the next 100 years the business was to evolve significantly, changing its name in 1885 to the "South Africa Mutual Life Assurance Society", but becoming familiarly known simply as "The Old Mutual", so as to distinguish it from newer businesses of the same kind.
The company employed women as early as 1901, expanded into Namibia in 1920 and into Zimbabwe (then
Rhodesia) in 1927.[2] Old Mutual is now an international business with offices all over the world, and its portfolio
of financial services continues to evolve to meet market needs.
It is now some years since the business "de-mutualised" in order to issue shares and fund its operations using conventional investment markets.
The "new" (1940) Head Office in Darling Street
The name of the building in English and in Afrikaans ("Mutual Gebou"): The interesting frieze shown here is described in the text
Some comparisons with earlier inspirational buildings
In the 1930s it became clear that a new headquarters building was needed and very ambitious targets were set for the building: it was to be the tallest building in South Africa (possibly in the whole continent of Africa, with the exception of the pyramids in Egypt), it was to have the fastest lifts, it was to have the largest windows. At the same time it was to epitomise the values of the business: "Strength, Security and Confidence in the Future"; this demanded a combination of traditional
and contemporary design.[1]
Although it is clearly identified on the exterior as the "Mutual Building" (or "Mutual Gebou" in Afrikaans) it is often familiarly referred to as "The Old Mutual Building". Here, in the body of this article, it will be referred to as the "Mutual Building", thereby acknowledging the
nomenclature on the exterior of the building itself.
Search for inspiration
The figure here (adapted from www.skycrapers.com) compares the building with some of the other contemporaneous tall buildings in the world. Those involved in the design of the building travelled widely to study inspirational examples of corporate buildings elsewhere in the world. They learnt about the latest approaches to lighting, ventilation and fire protection in the USA, South America, England
and Sweden.[3] In the USA, the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles is one example of the genre of building design that captured their attention: this building was completed in 1930 and has also since been
converted to residential occupation.[1]
The art deco style was chosen. However, the building is embellished with features in other styles (such as neo-classicist in the case of the banking hall) intended to reinforce the long- standing and traditional values of the Old Mutual business.
Completion
The building was completed in 1939 and opened
early in 1940 with a great fanfare. The local paper provided a 16 page supplement,[4] and South African architects and dignitaries enthused about it. In his definitive examination of the design of the building, Federico Freschi summarises the status of the building thus:
"Ultimately, the consensus suggests that the Old Mutual Building is at once a worthy monument to modern design principles and the consolidation of an important corporate and public image."[1]
The building is listed elsewhere as a notable building,[5] and it is regarded as an important example of the social values of the time and of the economic state of the nation, but all as seen from a European or
"colonial" perspective, as explained by Freschi.[1]
Vacating and conversion
Within 20 years (in the late 1950s) the Old Mutual began to vacate the building, moving in stages to new offices at Mutual Park in Pinelands, Cape Town. By the 1990s, only assorted tenants remained, the last of
which departed in May 2003.[3]
At this time, conversion to residential occupation began under the direction of Robert Silke at Louis Karol
Architects.[6] The name of the building was changed by the developers to Mutual Heights (www.mutualheights.net), a decision that did not find favour with all owners and residents involved in
the new community.[7] Despite scepticism about the name, it is generally agreed that the conversion was the first in a series of projects that re-invigorated the central business district of Cape Town. The conversion has
been the subject of a number of architecture and design awards.[8]
In February 2012, the large "Old Mutual" sign on the east side of the building was removed, leaving little external evidence of the commercial origins of the building; in 2015 Old Mutual Properties finally disposed of the remaining portions of the interior that had not been sold previously, including the banking hall, the directors suite and the fresco room.
Structure of the building
The building is constructed using reinforced concrete, filled in internally with bricks and plaster, and clad on the outside with granite. At first sight, the building is a striking example of the Art Deco style and many of its features epitomize this genre - however, some interior features deviate from true Art Deco and probably reflect the desire of the company to demonstrate solidity and traditional values at the same time as
contemporaneous, forward-looking values.[1]
It is 276 feet (85 metres) high, as measured from the ground floor to the top of the tower,[3] but the building is often listed as being more than 90 metres high (even as high as 96.8 metres on the Old Mutual web
site[2]); this probably takes account of the "spire" at the top.
Having only 10 levels ("storeys") above ground level in the main part of this tall building (excluding the three levels of basement car parking, and the additional levels in the tower), it is evident that the spacing between floors is generous — generally each floor is about 5 metres above (or below) the next. In one of the meeting rooms on the eighth level (the Assembly Hall - see below), the curtains alone are more than six metres long. This generous spacing between floors was intended to achieve the greatest possible overall height for the building without exceeding the city planning limitation of 10 storeys, and it was allowed only
in view of the "set back" design of the exterior structure.[1]
Design elements
The original design of the building is attributed to Louw & Louw (Cape Town architects), working with Fred Glennie (best known at the time as a mentor to architectural students) – Mr Glennie is personally
credited with most of the detailed work[9] but Ivan Mitford-Barberton[10] was also involved with some
internal details as well as with the external granite decorations.
It is pleasing that the principal areas of the building have been so little changed over the years, especially the entrance, the banking hall, the assembly room, the directors' room, the atrium, and the windows. Even the original door handles (including the Old Mutual "logo") and the original banisters (on the staircases) are all still intact, and the atrium is largely unchanged although it is now protected from the weather by a translucent roof.
The original light fittings in the "public" areas are largely still intact, and in most parts of the building there are beautiful block-wood (parquet) floors.
Here is a selection of interior design details that exemplify the quality and attention to detail that was applied to this project by the architects, artists and designers.
Marble from the columns in the banking hall
As you use the stairs, you are reminded which storey you are on
Bulkhead lights on the 9th level
White-veined Onyx from the entrance hall
Hardwood block floors are still in place in many parts of the building
An original door handle (of which many remain)
The entrance hall has a gold leaf ceiling
Detail of a banister on one of the stairs
Original fire doors, with distinctive handles
Detail of the rail at the gallery of the Assembly Room
Some interior design details
The paragraphs below now visit each of the significant areas and features of the building in turn.
An original light fitting
The light fittings in the Assembly Room
The entrance lobby
Features of the building
The building incorporates a range of significant features.
The Entrance Hall
Black, gold-veined onyx is used in the Darling Street foyer, the ceiling of which is over 15 metres high and finished with gold leaf, laid by Italian workmen. The view of the glass window over the door to the banking hall (above) shows the iconic ziggurat shape of the building etched into the glass. Visitors must climb 17 steps to gain access to the banking hall, and towards the top they are met by the original "pill box" where security staff can observe who (and what) is entering and leaving the building. On either side of the pill box are the entrances to the main lifts – two on the left and two on the right (there are two "staff" lifts and one "service" lift elsewhere in the building).
Characteristic stainless steel trim and light fittings, such as can be seen here, are used extensively throughout the building.
The Banking Hall
Given its tall marble-clad colonnades, the magnificent banking hall would be more properly described as an example of "neo-classicism" although the light fittings echo the art deco theme that prevails elsewhere in the building, and again we see that the glass over the doors (at the far end in the photograph below) are etched with the iconic ziggurat form that is taken by the whole building.
The two service counters that can be seen in the banking hall look identical, but only the one on the right is original—the one on the left is a later, somewhat inferior, copy.
The banking hall
Between the columns of the banking hall the coats of arms are presented for each of the many provinces and countries within Southern Africa in which the South African Mutual Life Assurance Society had a presence.
The crests that appear between the columns in the banking hall
Northern Rhodesia Cape Colony Durban Rhodesia
Natal Petermaritzburg Port Elizabeth Orange Free State
Johannesburg Pretoria Kenya Colony Bloemfontein
Cape Town Union of South Africa Potchefstroom Windhoek The banking hall is now owned privately and is available for hire as an events venue.
The lifts (elevators)
The main lifts in the building are fast ("the fastest in Africa" it was claimed when the building opened) and no expense was spared – even in the basement parking area, the lifts are trimmed with black marble. Each door has an etched representation of an indigenous bird or animal from South Africa, with significant plants as additional decoration, or in some cases the corporate logo of the time.
There are seven lifts in the building, four of them "principal" lifts (as here)
The individual etchings in detail (click on the images to see the full-size version):
Springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis), with a king protea (Protea cynaroides), the national flower
Kudu (Tragelaphus), with veltheimia (Veltheimia bracteata) at the lower right
Giraffe, with a succulent (Crassula)
Zebra (Equus quagga), with a prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica)
The individual etchings on the lift doors
Ostrich (Struthio camelus australus), with prickly pear (lower left) and "century plant" (Agave americana)
Leopard (Panthera pardus pardus), with spekboom (Portulacaria afra) at the lower right and candelabra lily (Brunsvigia josephinae) at the lower left
Crane (Balearica regulorm) with reeds behind (Phragmites australis)
Lion, with lion's tail (or wild dagga - Leonotis leonuris) at lower left, violet painted petals (Freesia laxa) lower right and coral tree (Erythrina lysistemon) at the top
Secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius), with unidentifiable tree
The corporate "logo" (three entwined anchors), with Strelitzia reginae (bottom right), Disa uniflora (bottom left) and proteas (Protea repens) at the top
Vulture
These designs are attributed to Ivan Mitford-Barberton.
The Assembly Room
Perhaps the best known feature of the building (in artistic circles at least) is the Assembly Room, sometimes referred to as the "Fresco Room"; Freschi indicates that this was originally intended as a facility for policy
holders.[1] Here there are striking frescoes depicting some of the history of the nation of South Africa,
undertaken by Le Roux Smith Le Roux two years after the completion of the building.
Le Roux was supported in his early career by the famous British architect Herbert Baker, who provided bursaries so that Le Roux could spend time in
London and elsewhere. In London he
undertook a mural in South Africa House with
Eleanor Esmonde-White. An acquaintance (still living) of Le Roux and Esmonde-White recalls that Baker insisted that Eleanor Esmonde-White be awarded a bursary, despite gender-related objections from elsewhere; in the event she got to go to London with Le Roux, with the bursary. Following their years in London, Le Roux was awarded this commission to work on the Mutual Building and he therefore returned to Cape Town, but only after the main building work was done - it was not sensible to undertake this meticulous work while building operations were still in progress.
These frescoes are considered elsewhere as good examples of the genre—see for example
"Decopix - the Art Deco Architecture Site"[11] where the Mutual Building itself is well
represented.[12] The five frescoes on the end
walls and over the entrance depict more than
100 years of the history of the nation,
including industrial development, the Great
Trek, mining following the discovery of gold,
the growth of industry and agriculture, and a
hint of international travel and trade. Freschi considers that ".. in contemporary terms, Le Roux's work was seen to be distinctly progressive and very much in keeping with the ostensibly liberal party line of Jan
Smuts' coalition government".[1]
The panels are reproduced below, and selected portions from them are provided in the images that follow.
The five panels are presented left to right, in a clockwise direction when standing in the Assembly Room, back to the windows. The first and fifth are on the side walls, the second, third and fourth are on the long wall that includes the main entrance.
The fresco panels in the Assembly Room
The Assembly Room
Engineering water, The Great Trek building industry and
railroads
Trade and international travel
The discovery of gold
Railroads in service, productive farms
The fifth image includes a representation of the Mutual Building itself, the tallest building in what is known as the "City Bowl", below the slopes of Table Mountain. This did not remain true for long, it was only one year later that the General Post Office was built on the other (seaward side) of Darling Street, and a large number of larger more modern buildings have been built since (see the views from and of the building, shown further down this page).
Some details from the panels:
Some selected portions of the fresco panels in the Assembly Room
Mixing concrete, Wind-powered water working with the plans pumps provide
irrigation
The Great Trek - ladies Farm produce at last - a in their bonnets, men on smile on his face
horses
The Directors' Board Room
A detail - laying railway The image of the track Mutual Building under
Table Mountain
The Directors' Rooms
On the fourth level, at the front of the building, is the Directors' Board Room. As well as the board room there are two side rooms, one of which was a sitting room for Directors.
In the board room there is a continuous carved stinkwood frieze above the dado rail that incorporates animal and floral motifs (14 different species of birds and animals are represented). Ivan Mitford-Barberton is credited with this carving and it is probably the last work that he did in the building. Above the carved frieze is a mural designed and executed by Joyce Ord-Brown using stain on pale sycamore panelling. It represents
Cape Town as the "Tavern of the Seas" in a light hearted way.[1]
The selections below show some portions of the mural and the frieze, followed by some other details of the directors' rooms. The sea plane (second picture) is probably a Martin M-130, which is not recorded as having serviced South Africa (it worked the pacific routes). This is probably "artistic licence" on the part of Ord-Browne.
Portions of the Joyce Ord-Browne decorations
The Southern hemisphere, with route from Cape Town to London
Blue cranes flying
A sea plane
A portion of the Northern hemisphere, with King Neptune
Penguins and whales
A mermaid
Portions of the Mitford-Barberton stinkwood frieze
Some features of the directors' board room and sitting room
Entrance to the board room (see note below)
Easy chairs in the sitting room - unused in a long time
Marble at the door to the board room
Another original light fitting in the sitting room
Directors had their own storage drawers in the board room
An original light fitting in the board room that (seemingly) doubles as a ventilation device
It is of note that the etched ziggurat icon on the glass over the entrance to the board room (see the enlarged version of the first image above) is not the same as that which is used elsewhere.
The Directors' suite has great heritage value but in 2015 it was re-finished as a private apartment.
The atrium
The atrium extends from the roof of the banking hall to the very top of the main building. It was originally open to the weather, but it is now protected by a translucent roof, through which the tower can be seen extending even higher.
The circular windows visible here are incorporated into the apartments that now occupy the front of the building.
The windows
On entering the residential area of the building, one is struck by this extraordinary "top to bottom" atrium
The windows compared
The rising nature of the ziggurat mass of the exterior of the building is reinforced by the prismoid (triangular) windows, which extend up and down the height of the building. These windows are of note because they set the Mutual Building apart from some of the buildings that inspired it, for example the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles. They are also functional, because they allow light to enter the building more effectively than would otherwise be the case (using the reflective properties of the inside face of the glass), and by opening and closing blinds on the one side or the other it is possible on sunny days to manage the heat entering the building as the sun traverses the sky.
Water-cooled air conditioning was another innovative feature of the original building, that avoided the need for extensive natural ventilation and allowed more freedom for the design of the windows and granite spaces between; the same water-cooled air conditioning design is in use today.
As Freschi notes in his paper, the prismoid windows make for much more visual interest than the conventional windows in the General Post Office building. Here the image juxtaposes the Mutual building (foreground) with the General Post Office built the following year (behind).
Granite cladding
The granite cladding of the building was hewn from a single boulder on the Paarl Mountain, north east of the
city of Cape Town.[1] The cladding incorporates decorative baboon, elephant and tribal heads that project from the upper facades of the Darling Street elevation (the front of the building).
The granite decorations
The decorations Elephant (6th level) Baboon (8th level) Tribal head (tower)
Tower with tribal head
The Tribal Figures
On the Parliament Street facade there are carved granite figures representing nine ethnic African groups (not just South African) labelled thus: "Xosa", "Pedi", "Maasai", "Matabele", "Basuto", "Barotse", "Kikuyu", "Zulu", and "Bushman". Note that the identification of the tribes does not necessarily follow current practice.
The nine tribal figures looking over Parliament Street.
The individual figures in detail (remember you can click on the images to see the full-size version):
The individual tribal figures
"Xosa" "Pedi" "Masai" "Matabele"
"Basuto" "Barotse" "Kikuyu" "Zulu"
"Bushman"
Recently Sanford S. Shaman has written a critique of these figures, and other features of the building [13] partly based on interviews with pedestrians walking around the building.
The frieze
Around the three sides of the building facing Darling Street, Parliament Street and Longmarket Street there is a 386 feet (118 metre) frieze depicting scenes from the colonial history of South Africa, reported at its
completion to be the longest such frieze in the world.[4]
A portion of the 386 feet frieze that traverses three sides of the building, showing the 1820 settlers landing
It is of interest that, at the time, it was proclaimed that the building was built by South Africans, using South African materials; while the frieze was itself designed by South African, Ivan Mitford Barberton (born in Somerset East, Eastern Cape, in 1896), the work was executed by a team of Italian immigrants led by Adolfo Lorenzi. It has recently come to light that, in the course of the work, Lorenzi's team of masons were incarcerated when the Second World War broke out in 1939, being Italian and therefore regarded as "the
enemy" at that time. They were obliged to finish their work under an armed guard.[14]
A composite view of the frieze can be seen at the right; unfortunately in this version some portions are missing or obscured by trees in leaf.
The sections of the frieze are as follows:
The landing of Jan van Riebeeck
The arrival of the 1820 Settlers
The "Post Office Stone"
The building of the Castle of Good Hope
The emancipation of the slaves
Negotiations with Chaka (also known as "King Shaka)" The Great Trek
The dream of Nongqawuse (other spellings are sometimes used) Discovery of diamonds at Kimberley
Erection of a cross by Bartholomew Dias
Rhodes negotiating with the Matabele
David Livingstone preaching, healing and freeing slaves The opening up of Tanganyika Territory
The defence of Fort Jesus depicting Arab inhabitants
A second version of this collage of the complete frieze can be found elsewhere[15]
A composite showing almost all of the frieze in its 15 sections – some portions are missing in this version – click to see a readable version and then choose the "Full resolution" option under the image (but be patient, this is a large file – 1Mb)
Seen from Darling Street, the Mutual Building today stands proud as the day it was built.
Views of (and from) the building
The busy city works around the building. The Mutual Building can claim that its restoration and conversion to residential use brought new life to the city centre, and started a five year programme of re- invigoration and rapid improvement. The large green "Old Mutual" sign and logo were removed from the building in February 2012.
The skyline of the city of Cape Town has changed significantly since the Mutual Building was constructed. Even from its highest point of easy access, the Mutual Building View is now dwarfed by the more modern buildings in the Cape Town central business district.
In the modern skyline the Mutual Building is lost in a maze of tall buildings. Here the sea mist swirls around the central business district and the small coloured arrow picks out the Mutual Building, at the left. This photograph is taken from District Six, on the slopes of Devil's peak to the east of Table Mountain. Click to see the full size version of this photograph, when the outline of the building can be more easily discerned.
The view of the harbour from the middle levels of the Mutual Building in Darling Street in Cape Town, once uninterrupted, is now obscured by the General Post Office constructed shortly afterwards (seen here at the extreme left).
Table Mountain and its "table cloth" seen from the upper levels of the building.
Looking in the other direction, the City Hall, the Grand Parade and the Castle can all be seen clearly. In the distance are the Hottentots Holland Mountains.
References
The learned article by Federico Freschi is particularly recommended to all who are interested in this building and its context.
1. Freschi, F (1994). "Big Business Beautility: The Old Mutual Building, Cape Town, South Africa". Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Vol 20, pp.39-57
2. "Old Mutual - Our heritage". Old Mutual Web Site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
3. CSD, (2003). "Mutual Heights Heritage Impact Assessment Report", CS Design Architects and Heritage
Consultants, Cape Town, South Africa (August)
4. Cape Times (1940). "Old Mutual in New Home", The Cape Times (special supplement) (30 January)
5. "Mutual Heights". Emporis - The world's building website. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
6. "Cocktails over the Grand Parade". Cape Times online. 25 July 2003. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
7. Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Body Corporate, Mutual Heights, 2008
8. "Louis Karol awards". Louis Karol web site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
9. "SA Mutual Life Assr Soc (Old Mutual)". Artefacts web site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
10. "Ivan Mitford-Barberton". Biographical web site by Margaret C Manning. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
11. "Decopix - the Art Deco Architecture Web site". Randy Juster's Art Deco web site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
12. "The Mutual Building featured on Randy Juster's art deco web site". Randy Juster's Art Deco web site. Retrieved
27 December 2010.
13. "Art South Africa web site". "The Heights of Contradiction" by Sanford S. Shaman. Retrieved 3 March 2011.
14. Correspondence by email, Giovanni Adolfo Camerada to Andy Bytheway, 2008
15. "The Mutual Building Frieze". Web site of the Mutual Heights community.
Other external links
Website for the Mutual Heights Community (www.mutualheights.net)
Louis Karol Architects website (www.louiskarol.com/index.html)
Randy Juster's art deco web site (www.decopix.com)
David Thompson's art deco buildings web site (artdecobuildings.blogspot.com/) City of Cape Town web site (www.capetown.gov.za)
Stewart Harris' flikr photographs include some images of Fred Glennie and Le Roux Smith Le Roux at work on the building, and other interesting images of the building (www.flickr.com/groups/1615104@N21/)
Confirmation of the Bloemfontein crest that defied identification for several years (www.ngw.nl/heraldrywiki/index.php?title=Bloemfontein)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mutual_Building&oldid=700901155" Categories: Art Deco skyscrapers Buildings and structures in Cape Town Skyscrapers in Cape Town
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mutual heights building, friezes and panels
these stitched images do not do the original panels any justice. lines are distorted but methinks the complete is more important, albeit for now. in future AI will improve
photographer's notes and text borrowings-
"mutual building", cape town. art deco, deluxe. finished in 1939. architect, fred glennis
inspiration maybe from the "met tower", NYC"?, chicago board of trade", "chrysler building, NYC"?
stone mason, ivan mitford-barberton (south african)
most of the building was changed into residential units
beautiful friezes by miftord-barberton
some nine (only?) african tribes depicted in stunning granite carvings on one facade of the building. it's unclear why only nine tribes were depicted
the tribes being-
matabele
basuto
barotse
kikuyu
zulu
bushman
xosa (xhosa)
pedi
masai
the building has three street facades, darling, parliament and long market streets, cape town CBD
much more to be explored and to be pixed. the building itself is exquisite
***********************
Mutual Building
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Mutual Building (Afrikaans: Mutual Gebou), in Cape Town, South Africa, was built as the headquarters of the South African Mutual Life Assurance Society, now the "Old Mutual" insurance and financial services company. It was opened in 1940, but before the end of the 1950s—less than 20 years later—business operations were already moving to another new office at Mutual Park in Pinelands (north east of the city centre); since then Old Mutual has become an international business and their present head office is in London.
The building is a fine example of art deco architecture and design, and it has many interesting internal features such as the banking hall, assembly room, directors' board room; external features include a dramatic ziggurat structure, prismoid (triangular) windows, and one of the longest carved stone friezes in the world. It has been said that it provides evidence of the colonial attitudes of the time, and the "ideals of colonial government promulgated
by Rhodes in the late nineteenth century".[1]
The Mutual Building is now converted to residential use, although some parts of the building are used commercially. For example, the Banking Hall (which is now an events venue) and the retail shops that operate outside on the ground level.
Coordinates: 33°55ʹ27.45ʺS 18°25ʹ20.25ʺE
Mutual Building
Mutual Gebou
The front of the building, in Darling Street, Cape Town
Location in central Cape Town Alternative Mutual Heights, Old Mutual
names Building
General information
Contents
1 History
1.1 The business
1.2 The "new" (1940) Head Office in Darling Street
1.3 Search for inspiration
1.4 Completion
1.5 Vacating and conversion
2 Structure of the building
3 Design elements
4 Features of the building
4.1 The Entrance Hall 4.2 The Banking Hall
4.3 The lifts (elevators) 4.4 The Assembly Room 4.5 The Directors' Rooms 4.6 The atrium
4.7 The windows
4.8 Granite cladding 4.9 The Tribal Figures 4.10 The frieze
5 Views of (and from) the building 6 References
7 Other external links
Type
Architectural style
Address Town or city Country Coordinates Completed Inaugurated Renovated Owner Height
Structural system
Floor count Lifts/elevators
Commercial converted to residential
Art Deco
14 Darling Street
Cape Town
South Africa
33°55ʹ27.45ʺS 18°25ʹ20.25ʺE 1939
1940
2005
Mutual Heights Body Corporate 84 metres (276 ft)
Technical details
Reinforced concrete, granite cladding
12 plus 3 levels basement parking
7
Architect
Architecture firm
Architect
Renovating firm
Structural engineer
Awards and prizes
Fred Glennie Louw & Louw
Renovating team
Robert Silke Louis Karol
Murray & Roberts
South African Institute of Architects, Presidents Award 2008
Website
Design and construction
www.mutualheights.net (www.mutualheights.net)
History The business
The Old Mutual business has a long history. In 1845 John Fairbairn (a Scot) founded "The Mutual Life Assurance Society of the Cape of Good Hope" in Cape Town. Over the next 100 years the business was to evolve significantly, changing its name in 1885 to the "South Africa Mutual Life Assurance Society", but becoming familiarly known simply as "The Old Mutual", so as to distinguish it from newer businesses of the same kind.
The company employed women as early as 1901, expanded into Namibia in 1920 and into Zimbabwe (then
Rhodesia) in 1927.[2] Old Mutual is now an international business with offices all over the world, and its portfolio
of financial services continues to evolve to meet market needs.
It is now some years since the business "de-mutualised" in order to issue shares and fund its operations using conventional investment markets.
The "new" (1940) Head Office in Darling Street
The name of the building in English and in Afrikaans ("Mutual Gebou"): The interesting frieze shown here is described in the text
Some comparisons with earlier inspirational buildings
In the 1930s it became clear that a new headquarters building was needed and very ambitious targets were set for the building: it was to be the tallest building in South Africa (possibly in the whole continent of Africa, with the exception of the pyramids in Egypt), it was to have the fastest lifts, it was to have the largest windows. At the same time it was to epitomise the values of the business: "Strength, Security and Confidence in the Future"; this demanded a combination of traditional
and contemporary design.[1]
Although it is clearly identified on the exterior as the "Mutual Building" (or "Mutual Gebou" in Afrikaans) it is often familiarly referred to as "The Old Mutual Building". Here, in the body of this article, it will be referred to as the "Mutual Building", thereby acknowledging the
nomenclature on the exterior of the building itself.
Search for inspiration
The figure here (adapted from www.skycrapers.com) compares the building with some of the other contemporaneous tall buildings in the world. Those involved in the design of the building travelled widely to study inspirational examples of corporate buildings elsewhere in the world. They learnt about the latest approaches to lighting, ventilation and fire protection in the USA, South America, England
and Sweden.[3] In the USA, the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles is one example of the genre of building design that captured their attention: this building was completed in 1930 and has also since been
converted to residential occupation.[1]
The art deco style was chosen. However, the building is embellished with features in other styles (such as neo-classicist in the case of the banking hall) intended to reinforce the long- standing and traditional values of the Old Mutual business.
Completion
The building was completed in 1939 and opened
early in 1940 with a great fanfare. The local paper provided a 16 page supplement,[4] and South African architects and dignitaries enthused about it. In his definitive examination of the design of the building, Federico Freschi summarises the status of the building thus:
"Ultimately, the consensus suggests that the Old Mutual Building is at once a worthy monument to modern design principles and the consolidation of an important corporate and public image."[1]
The building is listed elsewhere as a notable building,[5] and it is regarded as an important example of the social values of the time and of the economic state of the nation, but all as seen from a European or
"colonial" perspective, as explained by Freschi.[1]
Vacating and conversion
Within 20 years (in the late 1950s) the Old Mutual began to vacate the building, moving in stages to new offices at Mutual Park in Pinelands, Cape Town. By the 1990s, only assorted tenants remained, the last of
which departed in May 2003.[3]
At this time, conversion to residential occupation began under the direction of Robert Silke at Louis Karol
Architects.[6] The name of the building was changed by the developers to Mutual Heights (www.mutualheights.net), a decision that did not find favour with all owners and residents involved in
the new community.[7] Despite scepticism about the name, it is generally agreed that the conversion was the first in a series of projects that re-invigorated the central business district of Cape Town. The conversion has
been the subject of a number of architecture and design awards.[8]
In February 2012, the large "Old Mutual" sign on the east side of the building was removed, leaving little external evidence of the commercial origins of the building; in 2015 Old Mutual Properties finally disposed of the remaining portions of the interior that had not been sold previously, including the banking hall, the directors suite and the fresco room.
Structure of the building
The building is constructed using reinforced concrete, filled in internally with bricks and plaster, and clad on the outside with granite. At first sight, the building is a striking example of the Art Deco style and many of its features epitomize this genre - however, some interior features deviate from true Art Deco and probably reflect the desire of the company to demonstrate solidity and traditional values at the same time as
contemporaneous, forward-looking values.[1]
It is 276 feet (85 metres) high, as measured from the ground floor to the top of the tower,[3] but the building is often listed as being more than 90 metres high (even as high as 96.8 metres on the Old Mutual web
site[2]); this probably takes account of the "spire" at the top.
Having only 10 levels ("storeys") above ground level in the main part of this tall building (excluding the three levels of basement car parking, and the additional levels in the tower), it is evident that the spacing between floors is generous — generally each floor is about 5 metres above (or below) the next. In one of the meeting rooms on the eighth level (the Assembly Hall - see below), the curtains alone are more than six metres long. This generous spacing between floors was intended to achieve the greatest possible overall height for the building without exceeding the city planning limitation of 10 storeys, and it was allowed only
in view of the "set back" design of the exterior structure.[1]
Design elements
The original design of the building is attributed to Louw & Louw (Cape Town architects), working with Fred Glennie (best known at the time as a mentor to architectural students) – Mr Glennie is personally
credited with most of the detailed work[9] but Ivan Mitford-Barberton[10] was also involved with some
internal details as well as with the external granite decorations.
It is pleasing that the principal areas of the building have been so little changed over the years, especially the entrance, the banking hall, the assembly room, the directors' room, the atrium, and the windows. Even the original door handles (including the Old Mutual "logo") and the original banisters (on the staircases) are all still intact, and the atrium is largely unchanged although it is now protected from the weather by a translucent roof.
The original light fittings in the "public" areas are largely still intact, and in most parts of the building there are beautiful block-wood (parquet) floors.
Here is a selection of interior design details that exemplify the quality and attention to detail that was applied to this project by the architects, artists and designers.
Marble from the columns in the banking hall
As you use the stairs, you are reminded which storey you are on
Bulkhead lights on the 9th level
White-veined Onyx from the entrance hall
Hardwood block floors are still in place in many parts of the building
An original door handle (of which many remain)
The entrance hall has a gold leaf ceiling
Detail of a banister on one of the stairs
Original fire doors, with distinctive handles
Detail of the rail at the gallery of the Assembly Room
Some interior design details
The paragraphs below now visit each of the significant areas and features of the building in turn.
An original light fitting
The light fittings in the Assembly Room
The entrance lobby
Features of the building
The building incorporates a range of significant features.
The Entrance Hall
Black, gold-veined onyx is used in the Darling Street foyer, the ceiling of which is over 15 metres high and finished with gold leaf, laid by Italian workmen. The view of the glass window over the door to the banking hall (above) shows the iconic ziggurat shape of the building etched into the glass. Visitors must climb 17 steps to gain access to the banking hall, and towards the top they are met by the original "pill box" where security staff can observe who (and what) is entering and leaving the building. On either side of the pill box are the entrances to the main lifts – two on the left and two on the right (there are two "staff" lifts and one "service" lift elsewhere in the building).
Characteristic stainless steel trim and light fittings, such as can be seen here, are used extensively throughout the building.
The Banking Hall
Given its tall marble-clad colonnades, the magnificent banking hall would be more properly described as an example of "neo-classicism" although the light fittings echo the art deco theme that prevails elsewhere in the building, and again we see that the glass over the doors (at the far end in the photograph below) are etched with the iconic ziggurat form that is taken by the whole building.
The two service counters that can be seen in the banking hall look identical, but only the one on the right is original—the one on the left is a later, somewhat inferior, copy.
The banking hall
Between the columns of the banking hall the coats of arms are presented for each of the many provinces and countries within Southern Africa in which the South African Mutual Life Assurance Society had a presence.
The crests that appear between the columns in the banking hall
Northern Rhodesia Cape Colony Durban Rhodesia
Natal Petermaritzburg Port Elizabeth Orange Free State
Johannesburg Pretoria Kenya Colony Bloemfontein
Cape Town Union of South Africa Potchefstroom Windhoek The banking hall is now owned privately and is available for hire as an events venue.
The lifts (elevators)
The main lifts in the building are fast ("the fastest in Africa" it was claimed when the building opened) and no expense was spared – even in the basement parking area, the lifts are trimmed with black marble. Each door has an etched representation of an indigenous bird or animal from South Africa, with significant plants as additional decoration, or in some cases the corporate logo of the time.
There are seven lifts in the building, four of them "principal" lifts (as here)
The individual etchings in detail (click on the images to see the full-size version):
Springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis), with a king protea (Protea cynaroides), the national flower
Kudu (Tragelaphus), with veltheimia (Veltheimia bracteata) at the lower right
Giraffe, with a succulent (Crassula)
Zebra (Equus quagga), with a prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica)
The individual etchings on the lift doors
Ostrich (Struthio camelus australus), with prickly pear (lower left) and "century plant" (Agave americana)
Leopard (Panthera pardus pardus), with spekboom (Portulacaria afra) at the lower right and candelabra lily (Brunsvigia josephinae) at the lower left
Crane (Balearica regulorm) with reeds behind (Phragmites australis)
Lion, with lion's tail (or wild dagga - Leonotis leonuris) at lower left, violet painted petals (Freesia laxa) lower right and coral tree (Erythrina lysistemon) at the top
Secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius), with unidentifiable tree
The corporate "logo" (three entwined anchors), with Strelitzia reginae (bottom right), Disa uniflora (bottom left) and proteas (Protea repens) at the top
Vulture
These designs are attributed to Ivan Mitford-Barberton.
The Assembly Room
Perhaps the best known feature of the building (in artistic circles at least) is the Assembly Room, sometimes referred to as the "Fresco Room"; Freschi indicates that this was originally intended as a facility for policy
holders.[1] Here there are striking frescoes depicting some of the history of the nation of South Africa,
undertaken by Le Roux Smith Le Roux two years after the completion of the building.
Le Roux was supported in his early career by the famous British architect Herbert Baker, who provided bursaries so that Le Roux could spend time in
London and elsewhere. In London he
undertook a mural in South Africa House with
Eleanor Esmonde-White. An acquaintance (still living) of Le Roux and Esmonde-White recalls that Baker insisted that Eleanor Esmonde-White be awarded a bursary, despite gender-related objections from elsewhere; in the event she got to go to London with Le Roux, with the bursary. Following their years in London, Le Roux was awarded this commission to work on the Mutual Building and he therefore returned to Cape Town, but only after the main building work was done - it was not sensible to undertake this meticulous work while building operations were still in progress.
These frescoes are considered elsewhere as good examples of the genre—see for example
"Decopix - the Art Deco Architecture Site"[11] where the Mutual Building itself is well
represented.[12] The five frescoes on the end
walls and over the entrance depict more than
100 years of the history of the nation,
including industrial development, the Great
Trek, mining following the discovery of gold,
the growth of industry and agriculture, and a
hint of international travel and trade. Freschi considers that ".. in contemporary terms, Le Roux's work was seen to be distinctly progressive and very much in keeping with the ostensibly liberal party line of Jan
Smuts' coalition government".[1]
The panels are reproduced below, and selected portions from them are provided in the images that follow.
The five panels are presented left to right, in a clockwise direction when standing in the Assembly Room, back to the windows. The first and fifth are on the side walls, the second, third and fourth are on the long wall that includes the main entrance.
The fresco panels in the Assembly Room
The Assembly Room
Engineering water, The Great Trek building industry and
railroads
Trade and international travel
The discovery of gold
Railroads in service, productive farms
The fifth image includes a representation of the Mutual Building itself, the tallest building in what is known as the "City Bowl", below the slopes of Table Mountain. This did not remain true for long, it was only one year later that the General Post Office was built on the other (seaward side) of Darling Street, and a large number of larger more modern buildings have been built since (see the views from and of the building, shown further down this page).
Some details from the panels:
Some selected portions of the fresco panels in the Assembly Room
Mixing concrete, Wind-powered water working with the plans pumps provide
irrigation
The Great Trek - ladies Farm produce at last - a in their bonnets, men on smile on his face
horses
The Directors' Board Room
A detail - laying railway The image of the track Mutual Building under
Table Mountain
The Directors' Rooms
On the fourth level, at the front of the building, is the Directors' Board Room. As well as the board room there are two side rooms, one of which was a sitting room for Directors.
In the board room there is a continuous carved stinkwood frieze above the dado rail that incorporates animal and floral motifs (14 different species of birds and animals are represented). Ivan Mitford-Barberton is credited with this carving and it is probably the last work that he did in the building. Above the carved frieze is a mural designed and executed by Joyce Ord-Brown using stain on pale sycamore panelling. It represents
Cape Town as the "Tavern of the Seas" in a light hearted way.[1]
The selections below show some portions of the mural and the frieze, followed by some other details of the directors' rooms. The sea plane (second picture) is probably a Martin M-130, which is not recorded as having serviced South Africa (it worked the pacific routes). This is probably "artistic licence" on the part of Ord-Browne.
Portions of the Joyce Ord-Browne decorations
The Southern hemisphere, with route from Cape Town to London
Blue cranes flying
A sea plane
A portion of the Northern hemisphere, with King Neptune
Penguins and whales
A mermaid
Portions of the Mitford-Barberton stinkwood frieze
Some features of the directors' board room and sitting room
Entrance to the board room (see note below)
Easy chairs in the sitting room - unused in a long time
Marble at the door to the board room
Another original light fitting in the sitting room
Directors had their own storage drawers in the board room
An original light fitting in the board room that (seemingly) doubles as a ventilation device
It is of note that the etched ziggurat icon on the glass over the entrance to the board room (see the enlarged version of the first image above) is not the same as that which is used elsewhere.
The Directors' suite has great heritage value but in 2015 it was re-finished as a private apartment.
The atrium
The atrium extends from the roof of the banking hall to the very top of the main building. It was originally open to the weather, but it is now protected by a translucent roof, through which the tower can be seen extending even higher.
The circular windows visible here are incorporated into the apartments that now occupy the front of the building.
The windows
On entering the residential area of the building, one is struck by this extraordinary "top to bottom" atrium
The windows compared
The rising nature of the ziggurat mass of the exterior of the building is reinforced by the prismoid (triangular) windows, which extend up and down the height of the building. These windows are of note because they set the Mutual Building apart from some of the buildings that inspired it, for example the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles. They are also functional, because they allow light to enter the building more effectively than would otherwise be the case (using the reflective properties of the inside face of the glass), and by opening and closing blinds on the one side or the other it is possible on sunny days to manage the heat entering the building as the sun traverses the sky.
Water-cooled air conditioning was another innovative feature of the original building, that avoided the need for extensive natural ventilation and allowed more freedom for the design of the windows and granite spaces between; the same water-cooled air conditioning design is in use today.
As Freschi notes in his paper, the prismoid windows make for much more visual interest than the conventional windows in the General Post Office building. Here the image juxtaposes the Mutual building (foreground) with the General Post Office built the following year (behind).
Granite cladding
The granite cladding of the building was hewn from a single boulder on the Paarl Mountain, north east of the
city of Cape Town.[1] The cladding incorporates decorative baboon, elephant and tribal heads that project from the upper facades of the Darling Street elevation (the front of the building).
The granite decorations
The decorations Elephant (6th level) Baboon (8th level) Tribal head (tower)
Tower with tribal head
The Tribal Figures
On the Parliament Street facade there are carved granite figures representing nine ethnic African groups (not just South African) labelled thus: "Xosa", "Pedi", "Maasai", "Matabele", "Basuto", "Barotse", "Kikuyu", "Zulu", and "Bushman". Note that the identification of the tribes does not necessarily follow current practice.
The nine tribal figures looking over Parliament Street.
The individual figures in detail (remember you can click on the images to see the full-size version):
The individual tribal figures
"Xosa" "Pedi" "Masai" "Matabele"
"Basuto" "Barotse" "Kikuyu" "Zulu"
"Bushman"
Recently Sanford S. Shaman has written a critique of these figures, and other features of the building [13] partly based on interviews with pedestrians walking around the building.
The frieze
Around the three sides of the building facing Darling Street, Parliament Street and Longmarket Street there is a 386 feet (118 metre) frieze depicting scenes from the colonial history of South Africa, reported at its
completion to be the longest such frieze in the world.[4]
A portion of the 386 feet frieze that traverses three sides of the building, showing the 1820 settlers landing
It is of interest that, at the time, it was proclaimed that the building was built by South Africans, using South African materials; while the frieze was itself designed by South African, Ivan Mitford Barberton (born in Somerset East, Eastern Cape, in 1896), the work was executed by a team of Italian immigrants led by Adolfo Lorenzi. It has recently come to light that, in the course of the work, Lorenzi's team of masons were incarcerated when the Second World War broke out in 1939, being Italian and therefore regarded as "the
enemy" at that time. They were obliged to finish their work under an armed guard.[14]
A composite view of the frieze can be seen at the right; unfortunately in this version some portions are missing or obscured by trees in leaf.
The sections of the frieze are as follows:
The landing of Jan van Riebeeck
The arrival of the 1820 Settlers
The "Post Office Stone"
The building of the Castle of Good Hope
The emancipation of the slaves
Negotiations with Chaka (also known as "King Shaka)" The Great Trek
The dream of Nongqawuse (other spellings are sometimes used) Discovery of diamonds at Kimberley
Erection of a cross by Bartholomew Dias
Rhodes negotiating with the Matabele
David Livingstone preaching, healing and freeing slaves The opening up of Tanganyika Territory
The defence of Fort Jesus depicting Arab inhabitants
A second version of this collage of the complete frieze can be found elsewhere[15]
A composite showing almost all of the frieze in its 15 sections – some portions are missing in this version – click to see a readable version and then choose the "Full resolution" option under the image (but be patient, this is a large file – 1Mb)
Seen from Darling Street, the Mutual Building today stands proud as the day it was built.
Views of (and from) the building
The busy city works around the building. The Mutual Building can claim that its restoration and conversion to residential use brought new life to the city centre, and started a five year programme of re- invigoration and rapid improvement. The large green "Old Mutual" sign and logo were removed from the building in February 2012.
The skyline of the city of Cape Town has changed significantly since the Mutual Building was constructed. Even from its highest point of easy access, the Mutual Building View is now dwarfed by the more modern buildings in the Cape Town central business district.
In the modern skyline the Mutual Building is lost in a maze of tall buildings. Here the sea mist swirls around the central business district and the small coloured arrow picks out the Mutual Building, at the left. This photograph is taken from District Six, on the slopes of Devil's peak to the east of Table Mountain. Click to see the full size version of this photograph, when the outline of the building can be more easily discerned.
The view of the harbour from the middle levels of the Mutual Building in Darling Street in Cape Town, once uninterrupted, is now obscured by the General Post Office constructed shortly afterwards (seen here at the extreme left).
Table Mountain and its "table cloth" seen from the upper levels of the building.
Looking in the other direction, the City Hall, the Grand Parade and the Castle can all be seen clearly. In the distance are the Hottentots Holland Mountains.
References
The learned article by Federico Freschi is particularly recommended to all who are interested in this building and its context.
1. Freschi, F (1994). "Big Business Beautility: The Old Mutual Building, Cape Town, South Africa". Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Vol 20, pp.39-57
2. "Old Mutual - Our heritage". Old Mutual Web Site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
3. CSD, (2003). "Mutual Heights Heritage Impact Assessment Report", CS Design Architects and Heritage
Consultants, Cape Town, South Africa (August)
4. Cape Times (1940). "Old Mutual in New Home", The Cape Times (special supplement) (30 January)
5. "Mutual Heights". Emporis - The world's building website. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
6. "Cocktails over the Grand Parade". Cape Times online. 25 July 2003. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
7. Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Body Corporate, Mutual Heights, 2008
8. "Louis Karol awards". Louis Karol web site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
9. "SA Mutual Life Assr Soc (Old Mutual)". Artefacts web site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
10. "Ivan Mitford-Barberton". Biographical web site by Margaret C Manning. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
11. "Decopix - the Art Deco Architecture Web site". Randy Juster's Art Deco web site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
12. "The Mutual Building featured on Randy Juster's art deco web site". Randy Juster's Art Deco web site. Retrieved
27 December 2010.
13. "Art South Africa web site". "The Heights of Contradiction" by Sanford S. Shaman. Retrieved 3 March 2011.
14. Correspondence by email, Giovanni Adolfo Camerada to Andy Bytheway, 2008
15. "The Mutual Building Frieze". Web site of the Mutual Heights community.
Other external links
Website for the Mutual Heights Community (www.mutualheights.net)
Louis Karol Architects website (www.louiskarol.com/index.html)
Randy Juster's art deco web site (www.decopix.com)
David Thompson's art deco buildings web site (artdecobuildings.blogspot.com/) City of Cape Town web site (www.capetown.gov.za)
Stewart Harris' flikr photographs include some images of Fred Glennie and Le Roux Smith Le Roux at work on the building, and other interesting images of the building (www.flickr.com/groups/1615104@N21/)
Confirmation of the Bloemfontein crest that defied identification for several years (www.ngw.nl/heraldrywiki/index.php?title=Bloemfontein)
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121 x 95 cm.
Carlo Carrà was one of the most influential Italian painters of the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his still lifes in the style of Metaphysical painting. He studied painting briefly at the Brera Academy in Milan, but he was largely self-taught. In 1909 he met the poet Filippo Marinetti and the artist Umberto Boccioni, who converted him to Futurism, an aesthetic movement that exalted patriotism, modern technology, dynamism, and speed. Carrà’s most famous painting, The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli (1911), embodies Futurist ideals with its portrayal of dynamic action, power, and violence.
With the advent of World War I, the classic phase of Futurism ended. Although Carrà’s work from this period, such as the collage Patriotic Celebration, Free Word Painting (1914), was based on Futurist concepts, he soon began to paint in a style of greatly simplified realism. Lot’s Daughters (1915), for example, represents an attempt to recapture the solidity of form and the stillness of the 13th-century painter Giotto. Carrà’s new style was crystallized in 1917 when he met the painter Giorgio de Chirico, who taught him to paint everyday objects imbued with a sense of eeriness. Carrà and de Chirico called their style pittura metafisica (“Metaphysical painting”), and their works of this period have a superficial similarity.
In 1918 Carrà broke with de Chirico and Metaphysical painting. Throughout the 1920s and ’30s, he painted melancholy figurative works based on the monumental realism of the 15th-century Italian painter Masaccio. Through such moody but well-constructed works as Morning by the Sea (1928), and through his many years of teaching at the Milan Academy, he greatly influenced the course of Italian art between the World Wars.
Part of the complete sequence of seven early 14th century windows preserving most of their original glass in the choir clerestorey.
The attractive town of Tewkesbury has been dominated by its superb abbey church since the beginning of the 12th century, and we can be forever grateful to its townspeople for purchasing the monastic church in 1540 for £453 for use as their parish church, saving it from the fate that befell countless similar great churches across the land during the turmoil of the Dissolution. It reminds us both how lucky we are to still marvel at it today, yet also how great a loss to our heritage the period wrought when many more such buildings were so utterly plundered as to have gone without trace (the fate of the monastic buildings here and even the lady chapel of the church whose footings are laid out in the grass at the east end).
Tewkesbury Abbey is thus rightly celebrated as one of our greatest non-cathedral churches, and remarkably much of the original Norman church remains substantially intact, most apparently in the great central tower, a fine example of Romanesque architecture adorned with rows of blind-arcading. The west front is dominated by a massive Norman-arched recess (enclosing the somewhat later west window) and the nave and transepts remain largely as originally built, though this is less clear externally owing to the changes made to the windows, nearly all of which were enlarged in the 14th century in the Decorated Gothic style. This century also saw the complete rebuilding of the eastern limb of the church, of a form less common in England with radiating chapels surrounding the eastern apse of the choir (the central lady chapel sadly missing since 1540).
The interior reveals far more of the Romanesque structure with mighty columns supporting the round Norman arches of the nave arcades giving the building a great sense of solidity. The space is further enlivened by the changes made during the 14th century by the stunning vault over the nave (adorned with a rewarding series of figurative bosses) which sits surprisingly well with the Norman work below. Beyond the apsidal choir beckons, and both this and the space below the tower are enriched with stunningly complex vaulted ceilings (replete with further bosses and gilded metal stars), all ablaze with colour and gilding.
There is much to enjoy in glass here, most remarkably a complete set of 14th century glazing in the clerestorey of the choir, seven windows filled with saints and prophets (and most memorably two groups of knights in the westernmost windows on each side). A few of the figures have fared less well over the centuries but on the whole this is a wonderfully rare and well preserved scheme. There is much glass from the 19th century too, with an extensive scheme in the nave of good quality work by Hardman's, and more recently a pair of rich windows by Tom Denny were added in one of the polygonal chapels around the east end.
Some of the most memorable features are the monuments with many medieval tombs of note, primarily the effigies and chantry chapels of members of the Despenser family around the choir (two of the chantries being miniature architectural gems in their own right with exquisite fan-vaulting). In one of the apsidal chapels is the unusual cenotaph to Abbot Wakeman with his grisly cadaver effigy, a late medieval reminder of earthly mortality.
Tewkesbury Abbey is not to be missed and is every bit as rewarding as many of our cathedrals (superior in fact to all but the best). It is normally kept open and welcoming to visitors on a daily basis. I have also had the privilege of working on this great building several times over the years (as part of the team at the studio I once worked for), and have left my mark in glass in a few discreet places.
friezes on the mutual buidling, cape town
photographer's notes and text borrowings-
"mutual building", cape town. art deco, deluxe. finished in 1939. architect, fred glennis
inspiration maybe from the "met tower", NYC"?, chicago board of trade", "chrysler building, NYC"?
elements of aert deco and
neo-classical
stone mason, ivan mitford-barberton (south african)
most of the building was changed into residential units
beautiful friezes by miftord-barberton
some nine (only?) african tribes depicted in stunning granite carvings on one facade of the building. it's unclear why only nine tribes were depicted
the tribes being-
matabele
basuto
barotse
kikuyu
zulu
bushman
xosa (xhosa)
pedi
masai
the building has three street facades, darling, parliament and long market streets, cape town CBD
much more to be explored and to be pixed. the building itself is exquisite
***********************
Mutual Building
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Mutual Building (Afrikaans: Mutual Gebou), in Cape Town, South Africa, was built as the headquarters of the South African Mutual Life Assurance Society, now the "Old Mutual" insurance and financial services company. It was opened in 1940, but before the end of the 1950s—less than 20 years later—business operations were already moving to another new office at Mutual Park in Pinelands (north east of the city centre); since then Old Mutual has become an international business and their present head office is in London.
The building is a fine example of art deco architecture and design, and it has many interesting internal features such as the banking hall, assembly room, directors' board room; external features include a dramatic ziggurat structure, prismoid (triangular) windows, and one of the longest carved stone friezes in the world. It has been said that it provides evidence of the colonial attitudes of the time, and the "ideals of colonial government promulgated
by Rhodes in the late nineteenth century".[1]
The Mutual Building is now converted to residential use, although some parts of the building are used commercially. For example, the Banking Hall (which is now an events venue) and the retail shops that operate outside on the ground level.
Coordinates: 33°55ʹ27.45ʺS 18°25ʹ20.25ʺE
Mutual Building
Mutual Gebou
The front of the building, in Darling Street, Cape Town
Location in central Cape Town Alternative Mutual Heights, Old Mutual
names Building
General information
Contents
1 History
1.1 The business
1.2 The "new" (1940) Head Office in Darling Street
1.3 Search for inspiration
1.4 Completion
1.5 Vacating and conversion
2 Structure of the building
3 Design elements
4 Features of the building
4.1 The Entrance Hall 4.2 The Banking Hall
4.3 The lifts (elevators) 4.4 The Assembly Room 4.5 The Directors' Rooms 4.6 The atrium
4.7 The windows
4.8 Granite cladding 4.9 The Tribal Figures 4.10 The frieze
5 Views of (and from) the building 6 References
7 Other external links
Type
Architectural style
Address Town or city Country Coordinates Completed Inaugurated Renovated Owner Height
Structural system
Floor count Lifts/elevators
Commercial converted to residential
Art Deco
14 Darling Street
Cape Town
South Africa
33°55ʹ27.45ʺS 18°25ʹ20.25ʺE 1939
1940
2005
Mutual Heights Body Corporate 84 metres (276 ft)
Technical details
Reinforced concrete, granite cladding
12 plus 3 levels basement parking
7
Architect
Architecture firm
Architect
Renovating firm
Structural engineer
Awards and prizes
Fred Glennie Louw & Louw
Renovating team
Robert Silke Louis Karol
Murray & Roberts
South African Institute of Architects, Presidents Award 2008
Website
Design and construction
www.mutualheights.net (www.mutualheights.net)
History The business
The Old Mutual business has a long history. In 1845 John Fairbairn (a Scot) founded "The Mutual Life Assurance Society of the Cape of Good Hope" in Cape Town. Over the next 100 years the business was to evolve significantly, changing its name in 1885 to the "South Africa Mutual Life Assurance Society", but becoming familiarly known simply as "The Old Mutual", so as to distinguish it from newer businesses of the same kind.
The company employed women as early as 1901, expanded into Namibia in 1920 and into Zimbabwe (then
Rhodesia) in 1927.[2] Old Mutual is now an international business with offices all over the world, and its portfolio
of financial services continues to evolve to meet market needs.
It is now some years since the business "de-mutualised" in order to issue shares and fund its operations using conventional investment markets.
The "new" (1940) Head Office in Darling Street
The name of the building in English and in Afrikaans ("Mutual Gebou"): The interesting frieze shown here is described in the text
Some comparisons with earlier inspirational buildings
In the 1930s it became clear that a new headquarters building was needed and very ambitious targets were set for the building: it was to be the tallest building in South Africa (possibly in the whole continent of Africa, with the exception of the pyramids in Egypt), it was to have the fastest lifts, it was to have the largest windows. At the same time it was to epitomise the values of the business: "Strength, Security and Confidence in the Future"; this demanded a combination of traditional
and contemporary design.[1]
Although it is clearly identified on the exterior as the "Mutual Building" (or "Mutual Gebou" in Afrikaans) it is often familiarly referred to as "The Old Mutual Building". Here, in the body of this article, it will be referred to as the "Mutual Building", thereby acknowledging the
nomenclature on the exterior of the building itself.
Search for inspiration
The figure here (adapted from www.skycrapers.com) compares the building with some of the other contemporaneous tall buildings in the world. Those involved in the design of the building travelled widely to study inspirational examples of corporate buildings elsewhere in the world. They learnt about the latest approaches to lighting, ventilation and fire protection in the USA, South America, England
and Sweden.[3] In the USA, the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles is one example of the genre of building design that captured their attention: this building was completed in 1930 and has also since been
converted to residential occupation.[1]
The art deco style was chosen. However, the building is embellished with features in other styles (such as neo-classicist in the case of the banking hall) intended to reinforce the long- standing and traditional values of the Old Mutual business.
Completion
The building was completed in 1939 and opened
early in 1940 with a great fanfare. The local paper provided a 16 page supplement,[4] and South African architects and dignitaries enthused about it. In his definitive examination of the design of the building, Federico Freschi summarises the status of the building thus:
"Ultimately, the consensus suggests that the Old Mutual Building is at once a worthy monument to modern design principles and the consolidation of an important corporate and public image."[1]
The building is listed elsewhere as a notable building,[5] and it is regarded as an important example of the social values of the time and of the economic state of the nation, but all as seen from a European or
"colonial" perspective, as explained by Freschi.[1]
Vacating and conversion
Within 20 years (in the late 1950s) the Old Mutual began to vacate the building, moving in stages to new offices at Mutual Park in Pinelands, Cape Town. By the 1990s, only assorted tenants remained, the last of
which departed in May 2003.[3]
At this time, conversion to residential occupation began under the direction of Robert Silke at Louis Karol
Architects.[6] The name of the building was changed by the developers to Mutual Heights (www.mutualheights.net), a decision that did not find favour with all owners and residents involved in
the new community.[7] Despite scepticism about the name, it is generally agreed that the conversion was the first in a series of projects that re-invigorated the central business district of Cape Town. The conversion has
been the subject of a number of architecture and design awards.[8]
In February 2012, the large "Old Mutual" sign on the east side of the building was removed, leaving little external evidence of the commercial origins of the building; in 2015 Old Mutual Properties finally disposed of the remaining portions of the interior that had not been sold previously, including the banking hall, the directors suite and the fresco room.
Structure of the building
The building is constructed using reinforced concrete, filled in internally with bricks and plaster, and clad on the outside with granite. At first sight, the building is a striking example of the Art Deco style and many of its features epitomize this genre - however, some interior features deviate from true Art Deco and probably reflect the desire of the company to demonstrate solidity and traditional values at the same time as
contemporaneous, forward-looking values.[1]
It is 276 feet (85 metres) high, as measured from the ground floor to the top of the tower,[3] but the building is often listed as being more than 90 metres high (even as high as 96.8 metres on the Old Mutual web
site[2]); this probably takes account of the "spire" at the top.
Having only 10 levels ("storeys") above ground level in the main part of this tall building (excluding the three levels of basement car parking, and the additional levels in the tower), it is evident that the spacing between floors is generous — generally each floor is about 5 metres above (or below) the next. In one of the meeting rooms on the eighth level (the Assembly Hall - see below), the curtains alone are more than six metres long. This generous spacing between floors was intended to achieve the greatest possible overall height for the building without exceeding the city planning limitation of 10 storeys, and it was allowed only
in view of the "set back" design of the exterior structure.[1]
Design elements
The original design of the building is attributed to Louw & Louw (Cape Town architects), working with Fred Glennie (best known at the time as a mentor to architectural students) – Mr Glennie is personally
credited with most of the detailed work[9] but Ivan Mitford-Barberton[10] was also involved with some
internal details as well as with the external granite decorations.
It is pleasing that the principal areas of the building have been so little changed over the years, especially the entrance, the banking hall, the assembly room, the directors' room, the atrium, and the windows. Even the original door handles (including the Old Mutual "logo") and the original banisters (on the staircases) are all still intact, and the atrium is largely unchanged although it is now protected from the weather by a translucent roof.
The original light fittings in the "public" areas are largely still intact, and in most parts of the building there are beautiful block-wood (parquet) floors.
Here is a selection of interior design details that exemplify the quality and attention to detail that was applied to this project by the architects, artists and designers.
Marble from the columns in the banking hall
As you use the stairs, you are reminded which storey you are on
Bulkhead lights on the 9th level
White-veined Onyx from the entrance hall
Hardwood block floors are still in place in many parts of the building
An original door handle (of which many remain)
The entrance hall has a gold leaf ceiling
Detail of a banister on one of the stairs
Original fire doors, with distinctive handles
Detail of the rail at the gallery of the Assembly Room
Some interior design details
The paragraphs below now visit each of the significant areas and features of the building in turn.
An original light fitting
The light fittings in the Assembly Room
The entrance lobby
Features of the building
The building incorporates a range of significant features.
The Entrance Hall
Black, gold-veined onyx is used in the Darling Street foyer, the ceiling of which is over 15 metres high and finished with gold leaf, laid by Italian workmen. The view of the glass window over the door to the banking hall (above) shows the iconic ziggurat shape of the building etched into the glass. Visitors must climb 17 steps to gain access to the banking hall, and towards the top they are met by the original "pill box" where security staff can observe who (and what) is entering and leaving the building. On either side of the pill box are the entrances to the main lifts – two on the left and two on the right (there are two "staff" lifts and one "service" lift elsewhere in the building).
Characteristic stainless steel trim and light fittings, such as can be seen here, are used extensively throughout the building.
The Banking Hall
Given its tall marble-clad colonnades, the magnificent banking hall would be more properly described as an example of "neo-classicism" although the light fittings echo the art deco theme that prevails elsewhere in the building, and again we see that the glass over the doors (at the far end in the photograph below) are etched with the iconic ziggurat form that is taken by the whole building.
The two service counters that can be seen in the banking hall look identical, but only the one on the right is original—the one on the left is a later, somewhat inferior, copy.
The banking hall
Between the columns of the banking hall the coats of arms are presented for each of the many provinces and countries within Southern Africa in which the South African Mutual Life Assurance Society had a presence.
The crests that appear between the columns in the banking hall
Northern Rhodesia Cape Colony Durban Rhodesia
Natal Petermaritzburg Port Elizabeth Orange Free State
Johannesburg Pretoria Kenya Colony Bloemfontein
Cape Town Union of South Africa Potchefstroom Windhoek The banking hall is now owned privately and is available for hire as an events venue.
The lifts (elevators)
The main lifts in the building are fast ("the fastest in Africa" it was claimed when the building opened) and no expense was spared – even in the basement parking area, the lifts are trimmed with black marble. Each door has an etched representation of an indigenous bird or animal from South Africa, with significant plants as additional decoration, or in some cases the corporate logo of the time.
There are seven lifts in the building, four of them "principal" lifts (as here)
The individual etchings in detail (click on the images to see the full-size version):
Springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis), with a king protea (Protea cynaroides), the national flower
Kudu (Tragelaphus), with veltheimia (Veltheimia bracteata) at the lower right
Giraffe, with a succulent (Crassula)
Zebra (Equus quagga), with a prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica)
The individual etchings on the lift doors
Ostrich (Struthio camelus australus), with prickly pear (lower left) and "century plant" (Agave americana)
Leopard (Panthera pardus pardus), with spekboom (Portulacaria afra) at the lower right and candelabra lily (Brunsvigia josephinae) at the lower left
Crane (Balearica regulorm) with reeds behind (Phragmites australis)
Lion, with lion's tail (or wild dagga - Leonotis leonuris) at lower left, violet painted petals (Freesia laxa) lower right and coral tree (Erythrina lysistemon) at the top
Secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius), with unidentifiable tree
The corporate "logo" (three entwined anchors), with Strelitzia reginae (bottom right), Disa uniflora (bottom left) and proteas (Protea repens) at the top
Vulture
These designs are attributed to Ivan Mitford-Barberton.
The Assembly Room
Perhaps the best known feature of the building (in artistic circles at least) is the Assembly Room, sometimes referred to as the "Fresco Room"; Freschi indicates that this was originally intended as a facility for policy
holders.[1] Here there are striking frescoes depicting some of the history of the nation of South Africa,
undertaken by Le Roux Smith Le Roux two years after the completion of the building.
Le Roux was supported in his early career by the famous British architect Herbert Baker, who provided bursaries so that Le Roux could spend time in
London and elsewhere. In London he
undertook a mural in South Africa House with
Eleanor Esmonde-White. An acquaintance (still living) of Le Roux and Esmonde-White recalls that Baker insisted that Eleanor Esmonde-White be awarded a bursary, despite gender-related objections from elsewhere; in the event she got to go to London with Le Roux, with the bursary. Following their years in London, Le Roux was awarded this commission to work on the Mutual Building and he therefore returned to Cape Town, but only after the main building work was done - it was not sensible to undertake this meticulous work while building operations were still in progress.
These frescoes are considered elsewhere as good examples of the genre—see for example
"Decopix - the Art Deco Architecture Site"[11] where the Mutual Building itself is well
represented.[12] The five frescoes on the end
walls and over the entrance depict more than
100 years of the history of the nation,
including industrial development, the Great
Trek, mining following the discovery of gold,
the growth of industry and agriculture, and a
hint of international travel and trade. Freschi considers that ".. in contemporary terms, Le Roux's work was seen to be distinctly progressive and very much in keeping with the ostensibly liberal party line of Jan
Smuts' coalition government".[1]
The panels are reproduced below, and selected portions from them are provided in the images that follow.
The five panels are presented left to right, in a clockwise direction when standing in the Assembly Room, back to the windows. The first and fifth are on the side walls, the second, third and fourth are on the long wall that includes the main entrance.
The fresco panels in the Assembly Room
The Assembly Room
Engineering water, The Great Trek building industry and
railroads
Trade and international travel
The discovery of gold
Railroads in service, productive farms
The fifth image includes a representation of the Mutual Building itself, the tallest building in what is known as the "City Bowl", below the slopes of Table Mountain. This did not remain true for long, it was only one year later that the General Post Office was built on the other (seaward side) of Darling Street, and a large number of larger more modern buildings have been built since (see the views from and of the building, shown further down this page).
Some details from the panels:
Some selected portions of the fresco panels in the Assembly Room
Mixing concrete, Wind-powered water working with the plans pumps provide
irrigation
The Great Trek - ladies Farm produce at last - a in their bonnets, men on smile on his face
horses
The Directors' Board Room
A detail - laying railway The image of the track Mutual Building under
Table Mountain
The Directors' Rooms
On the fourth level, at the front of the building, is the Directors' Board Room. As well as the board room there are two side rooms, one of which was a sitting room for Directors.
In the board room there is a continuous carved stinkwood frieze above the dado rail that incorporates animal and floral motifs (14 different species of birds and animals are represented). Ivan Mitford-Barberton is credited with this carving and it is probably the last work that he did in the building. Above the carved frieze is a mural designed and executed by Joyce Ord-Brown using stain on pale sycamore panelling. It represents
Cape Town as the "Tavern of the Seas" in a light hearted way.[1]
The selections below show some portions of the mural and the frieze, followed by some other details of the directors' rooms. The sea plane (second picture) is probably a Martin M-130, which is not recorded as having serviced South Africa (it worked the pacific routes). This is probably "artistic licence" on the part of Ord-Browne.
Portions of the Joyce Ord-Browne decorations
The Southern hemisphere, with route from Cape Town to London
Blue cranes flying
A sea plane
A portion of the Northern hemisphere, with King Neptune
Penguins and whales
A mermaid
Portions of the Mitford-Barberton stinkwood frieze
Some features of the directors' board room and sitting room
Entrance to the board room (see note below)
Easy chairs in the sitting room - unused in a long time
Marble at the door to the board room
Another original light fitting in the sitting room
Directors had their own storage drawers in the board room
An original light fitting in the board room that (seemingly) doubles as a ventilation device
It is of note that the etched ziggurat icon on the glass over the entrance to the board room (see the enlarged version of the first image above) is not the same as that which is used elsewhere.
The Directors' suite has great heritage value but in 2015 it was re-finished as a private apartment.
The atrium
The atrium extends from the roof of the banking hall to the very top of the main building. It was originally open to the weather, but it is now protected by a translucent roof, through which the tower can be seen extending even higher.
The circular windows visible here are incorporated into the apartments that now occupy the front of the building.
The windows
On entering the residential area of the building, one is struck by this extraordinary "top to bottom" atrium
The windows compared
The rising nature of the ziggurat mass of the exterior of the building is reinforced by the prismoid (triangular) windows, which extend up and down the height of the building. These windows are of note because they set the Mutual Building apart from some of the buildings that inspired it, for example the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles. They are also functional, because they allow light to enter the building more effectively than would otherwise be the case (using the reflective properties of the inside face of the glass), and by opening and closing blinds on the one side or the other it is possible on sunny days to manage the heat entering the building as the sun traverses the sky.
Water-cooled air conditioning was another innovative feature of the original building, that avoided the need for extensive natural ventilation and allowed more freedom for the design of the windows and granite spaces between; the same water-cooled air conditioning design is in use today.
As Freschi notes in his paper, the prismoid windows make for much more visual interest than the conventional windows in the General Post Office building. Here the image juxtaposes the Mutual building (foreground) with the General Post Office built the following year (behind).
Granite cladding
The granite cladding of the building was hewn from a single boulder on the Paarl Mountain, north east of the
city of Cape Town.[1] The cladding incorporates decorative baboon, elephant and tribal heads that project from the upper facades of the Darling Street elevation (the front of the building).
The granite decorations
The decorations Elephant (6th level) Baboon (8th level) Tribal head (tower)
Tower with tribal head
The Tribal Figures
On the Parliament Street facade there are carved granite figures representing nine ethnic African groups (not just South African) labelled thus: "Xosa", "Pedi", "Maasai", "Matabele", "Basuto", "Barotse", "Kikuyu", "Zulu", and "Bushman". Note that the identification of the tribes does not necessarily follow current practice.
The nine tribal figures looking over Parliament Street.
The individual figures in detail (remember you can click on the images to see the full-size version):
The individual tribal figures
"Xosa" "Pedi" "Masai" "Matabele"
"Basuto" "Barotse" "Kikuyu" "Zulu"
"Bushman"
Recently Sanford S. Shaman has written a critique of these figures, and other features of the building [13] partly based on interviews with pedestrians walking around the building.
The frieze
Around the three sides of the building facing Darling Street, Parliament Street and Longmarket Street there is a 386 feet (118 metre) frieze depicting scenes from the colonial history of South Africa, reported at its
completion to be the longest such frieze in the world.[4]
A portion of the 386 feet frieze that traverses three sides of the building, showing the 1820 settlers landing
It is of interest that, at the time, it was proclaimed that the building was built by South Africans, using South African materials; while the frieze was itself designed by South African, Ivan Mitford Barberton (born in Somerset East, Eastern Cape, in 1896), the work was executed by a team of Italian immigrants led by Adolfo Lorenzi. It has recently come to light that, in the course of the work, Lorenzi's team of masons were incarcerated when the Second World War broke out in 1939, being Italian and therefore regarded as "the
enemy" at that time. They were obliged to finish their work under an armed guard.[14]
A composite view of the frieze can be seen at the right; unfortunately in this version some portions are missing or obscured by trees in leaf.
The sections of the frieze are as follows:
The landing of Jan van Riebeeck
The arrival of the 1820 Settlers
The "Post Office Stone"
The building of the Castle of Good Hope
The emancipation of the slaves
Negotiations with Chaka (also known as "King Shaka)" The Great Trek
The dream of Nongqawuse (other spellings are sometimes used) Discovery of diamonds at Kimberley
Erection of a cross by Bartholomew Dias
Rhodes negotiating with the Matabele
David Livingstone preaching, healing and freeing slaves The opening up of Tanganyika Territory
The defence of Fort Jesus depicting Arab inhabitants
A second version of this collage of the complete frieze can be found elsewhere[15]
A composite showing almost all of the frieze in its 15 sections – some portions are missing in this version – click to see a readable version and then choose the "Full resolution" option under the image (but be patient, this is a large file – 1Mb)
Seen from Darling Street, the Mutual Building today stands proud as the day it was built.
Views of (and from) the building
The busy city works around the building. The Mutual Building can claim that its restoration and conversion to residential use brought new life to the city centre, and started a five year programme of re- invigoration and rapid improvement. The large green "Old Mutual" sign and logo were removed from the building in February 2012.
The skyline of the city of Cape Town has changed significantly since the Mutual Building was constructed. Even from its highest point of easy access, the Mutual Building View is now dwarfed by the more modern buildings in the Cape Town central business district.
In the modern skyline the Mutual Building is lost in a maze of tall buildings. Here the sea mist swirls around the central business district and the small coloured arrow picks out the Mutual Building, at the left. This photograph is taken from District Six, on the slopes of Devil's peak to the east of Table Mountain. Click to see the full size version of this photograph, when the outline of the building can be more easily discerned.
The view of the harbour from the middle levels of the Mutual Building in Darling Street in Cape Town, once uninterrupted, is now obscured by the General Post Office constructed shortly afterwards (seen here at the extreme left).
Table Mountain and its "table cloth" seen from the upper levels of the building.
Looking in the other direction, the City Hall, the Grand Parade and the Castle can all be seen clearly. In the distance are the Hottentots Holland Mountains.
References
The learned article by Federico Freschi is particularly recommended to all who are interested in this building and its context.
1. Freschi, F (1994). "Big Business Beautility: The Old Mutual Building, Cape Town, South Africa". Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Vol 20, pp.39-57
2. "Old Mutual - Our heritage". Old Mutual Web Site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
3. CSD, (2003). "Mutual Heights Heritage Impact Assessment Report", CS Design Architects and Heritage
Consultants, Cape Town, South Africa (August)
4. Cape Times (1940). "Old Mutual in New Home", The Cape Times (special supplement) (30 January)
5. "Mutual Heights". Emporis - The world's building website. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
6. "Cocktails over the Grand Parade". Cape Times online. 25 July 2003. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
7. Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Body Corporate, Mutual Heights, 2008
8. "Louis Karol awards". Louis Karol web site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
9. "SA Mutual Life Assr Soc (Old Mutual)". Artefacts web site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
10. "Ivan Mitford-Barberton". Biographical web site by Margaret C Manning. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
11. "Decopix - the Art Deco Architecture Web site". Randy Juster's Art Deco web site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
12. "The Mutual Building featured on Randy Juster's art deco web site". Randy Juster's Art Deco web site. Retrieved
27 December 2010.
13. "Art South Africa web site". "The Heights of Contradiction" by Sanford S. Shaman. Retrieved 3 March 2011.
14. Correspondence by email, Giovanni Adolfo Camerada to Andy Bytheway, 2008
15. "The Mutual Building Frieze". Web site of the Mutual Heights community.
Other external links
Website for the Mutual Heights Community (www.mutualheights.net)
Louis Karol Architects website (www.louiskarol.com/index.html)
Randy Juster's art deco web site (www.decopix.com)
David Thompson's art deco buildings web site (artdecobuildings.blogspot.com/) City of Cape Town web site (www.capetown.gov.za)
Stewart Harris' flikr photographs include some images of Fred Glennie and Le Roux Smith Le Roux at work on the building, and other interesting images of the building (www.flickr.com/groups/1615104@N21/)
Confirmation of the Bloemfontein crest that defied identification for several years (www.ngw.nl/heraldrywiki/index.php?title=Bloemfontein)
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If there's one place in London that merits an Art Deco Fair, it's Eltham Palace,
with its Art Deco entrance hall, created by the textile magnates the Courtaulds in 1936. The much-loved weekend fair is held twice a year - once in the summer and a second time in September - giving visitors the chance to buy original 1930s objects, from furniture and collectables to hats, handbags and jewellery. Browse the original 1930s objects, from jewellery to furniture while you take in the magnificent Art Deco surroundings of the Palace. Ticket price includes entry to Eltham Palace and gardens and you can see the house by guided tour.
About Eltham Palace
Restored by English Heritage, this fantastic house boasts Britain's finest Art Deco interior and offers visitors the chance to indulge in the opulence of 1930s Britain whilst at the same time experiencing the solidity and symbolism of medieval London. Eltham Palace began to evolve during the 15th century when Edward IV commissioned the Great Hall, which survives today as a testament to the craftsmanship of the period. More about Eltham Palace
The keep as it stands today is the product of many periods of building and repair. The first phase involved building the great archway into the ground floor, the original 11th-century entrance to the castle. This was absorbed within the new keep, which was probably built by Duke Conan of Brittany in the mid-12th century. The scale of the keep is vast, rising to just over 30 metres (100 feet), and gives an impression of solidity and strength.
photographer's notes and text borrowings-
"mutual building", cape town. art deco, deluxe. finished in 1939. architect, fred glennis
inspiration maybe from the "met tower", NYC"?, chicago board of trade", "chrysler building, NYC"?
stone mason, ivan mitford-barberton (south african)
most of the building was changed into residential units
beautiful friezes by miftord-barberton
some nine (only?) african tribes depicted in stunning granite carvings on one facade of the building. it's unclear why only nine tribes were depicted
the tribes being-
matabele
basuto
barotse
kikuyu
zulu
bushman
xosa (xhosa)
pedi
masai
the building has three street facades, darling, parliament and long market streets, cape town CBD
much more to be explored and to be pixed. the building itself is exquisite
***********************
Mutual Building
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Mutual Building (Afrikaans: Mutual Gebou), in Cape Town, South Africa, was built as the headquarters of the South African Mutual Life Assurance Society, now the "Old Mutual" insurance and financial services company. It was opened in 1940, but before the end of the 1950s—less than 20 years later—business operations were already moving to another new office at Mutual Park in Pinelands (north east of the city centre); since then Old Mutual has become an international business and their present head office is in London.
The building is a fine example of art deco architecture and design, and it has many interesting internal features such as the banking hall, assembly room, directors' board room; external features include a dramatic ziggurat structure, prismoid (triangular) windows, and one of the longest carved stone friezes in the world. It has been said that it provides evidence of the colonial attitudes of the time, and the "ideals of colonial government promulgated
by Rhodes in the late nineteenth century".[1]
The Mutual Building is now converted to residential use, although some parts of the building are used commercially. For example, the Banking Hall (which is now an events venue) and the retail shops that operate outside on the ground level.
Coordinates: 33°55ʹ27.45ʺS 18°25ʹ20.25ʺE
Mutual Building
Mutual Gebou
The front of the building, in Darling Street, Cape Town
Location in central Cape Town Alternative Mutual Heights, Old Mutual
names Building
General information
Contents
1 History
1.1 The business
1.2 The "new" (1940) Head Office in Darling Street
1.3 Search for inspiration
1.4 Completion
1.5 Vacating and conversion
2 Structure of the building
3 Design elements
4 Features of the building
4.1 The Entrance Hall 4.2 The Banking Hall
4.3 The lifts (elevators) 4.4 The Assembly Room 4.5 The Directors' Rooms 4.6 The atrium
4.7 The windows
4.8 Granite cladding 4.9 The Tribal Figures 4.10 The frieze
5 Views of (and from) the building 6 References
7 Other external links
Type
Architectural style
Address Town or city Country Coordinates Completed Inaugurated Renovated Owner Height
Structural system
Floor count Lifts/elevators
Commercial converted to residential
Art Deco
14 Darling Street
Cape Town
South Africa
33°55ʹ27.45ʺS 18°25ʹ20.25ʺE 1939
1940
2005
Mutual Heights Body Corporate 84 metres (276 ft)
Technical details
Reinforced concrete, granite cladding
12 plus 3 levels basement parking
7
Architect
Architecture firm
Architect
Renovating firm
Structural engineer
Awards and prizes
Fred Glennie Louw & Louw
Renovating team
Robert Silke Louis Karol
Murray & Roberts
South African Institute of Architects, Presidents Award 2008
Website
Design and construction
www.mutualheights.net (www.mutualheights.net)
History The business
The Old Mutual business has a long history. In 1845 John Fairbairn (a Scot) founded "The Mutual Life Assurance Society of the Cape of Good Hope" in Cape Town. Over the next 100 years the business was to evolve significantly, changing its name in 1885 to the "South Africa Mutual Life Assurance Society", but becoming familiarly known simply as "The Old Mutual", so as to distinguish it from newer businesses of the same kind.
The company employed women as early as 1901, expanded into Namibia in 1920 and into Zimbabwe (then
Rhodesia) in 1927.[2] Old Mutual is now an international business with offices all over the world, and its portfolio
of financial services continues to evolve to meet market needs.
It is now some years since the business "de-mutualised" in order to issue shares and fund its operations using conventional investment markets.
The "new" (1940) Head Office in Darling Street
The name of the building in English and in Afrikaans ("Mutual Gebou"): The interesting frieze shown here is described in the text
Some comparisons with earlier inspirational buildings
In the 1930s it became clear that a new headquarters building was needed and very ambitious targets were set for the building: it was to be the tallest building in South Africa (possibly in the whole continent of Africa, with the exception of the pyramids in Egypt), it was to have the fastest lifts, it was to have the largest windows. At the same time it was to epitomise the values of the business: "Strength, Security and Confidence in the Future"; this demanded a combination of traditional
and contemporary design.[1]
Although it is clearly identified on the exterior as the "Mutual Building" (or "Mutual Gebou" in Afrikaans) it is often familiarly referred to as "The Old Mutual Building". Here, in the body of this article, it will be referred to as the "Mutual Building", thereby acknowledging the
nomenclature on the exterior of the building itself.
Search for inspiration
The figure here (adapted from www.skycrapers.com) compares the building with some of the other contemporaneous tall buildings in the world. Those involved in the design of the building travelled widely to study inspirational examples of corporate buildings elsewhere in the world. They learnt about the latest approaches to lighting, ventilation and fire protection in the USA, South America, England
and Sweden.[3] In the USA, the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles is one example of the genre of building design that captured their attention: this building was completed in 1930 and has also since been
converted to residential occupation.[1]
The art deco style was chosen. However, the building is embellished with features in other styles (such as neo-classicist in the case of the banking hall) intended to reinforce the long- standing and traditional values of the Old Mutual business.
Completion
The building was completed in 1939 and opened
early in 1940 with a great fanfare. The local paper provided a 16 page supplement,[4] and South African architects and dignitaries enthused about it. In his definitive examination of the design of the building, Federico Freschi summarises the status of the building thus:
"Ultimately, the consensus suggests that the Old Mutual Building is at once a worthy monument to modern design principles and the consolidation of an important corporate and public image."[1]
The building is listed elsewhere as a notable building,[5] and it is regarded as an important example of the social values of the time and of the economic state of the nation, but all as seen from a European or
"colonial" perspective, as explained by Freschi.[1]
Vacating and conversion
Within 20 years (in the late 1950s) the Old Mutual began to vacate the building, moving in stages to new offices at Mutual Park in Pinelands, Cape Town. By the 1990s, only assorted tenants remained, the last of
which departed in May 2003.[3]
At this time, conversion to residential occupation began under the direction of Robert Silke at Louis Karol
Architects.[6] The name of the building was changed by the developers to Mutual Heights (www.mutualheights.net), a decision that did not find favour with all owners and residents involved in
the new community.[7] Despite scepticism about the name, it is generally agreed that the conversion was the first in a series of projects that re-invigorated the central business district of Cape Town. The conversion has
been the subject of a number of architecture and design awards.[8]
In February 2012, the large "Old Mutual" sign on the east side of the building was removed, leaving little external evidence of the commercial origins of the building; in 2015 Old Mutual Properties finally disposed of the remaining portions of the interior that had not been sold previously, including the banking hall, the directors suite and the fresco room.
Structure of the building
The building is constructed using reinforced concrete, filled in internally with bricks and plaster, and clad on the outside with granite. At first sight, the building is a striking example of the Art Deco style and many of its features epitomize this genre - however, some interior features deviate from true Art Deco and probably reflect the desire of the company to demonstrate solidity and traditional values at the same time as
contemporaneous, forward-looking values.[1]
It is 276 feet (85 metres) high, as measured from the ground floor to the top of the tower,[3] but the building is often listed as being more than 90 metres high (even as high as 96.8 metres on the Old Mutual web
site[2]); this probably takes account of the "spire" at the top.
Having only 10 levels ("storeys") above ground level in the main part of this tall building (excluding the three levels of basement car parking, and the additional levels in the tower), it is evident that the spacing between floors is generous — generally each floor is about 5 metres above (or below) the next. In one of the meeting rooms on the eighth level (the Assembly Hall - see below), the curtains alone are more than six metres long. This generous spacing between floors was intended to achieve the greatest possible overall height for the building without exceeding the city planning limitation of 10 storeys, and it was allowed only
in view of the "set back" design of the exterior structure.[1]
Design elements
The original design of the building is attributed to Louw & Louw (Cape Town architects), working with Fred Glennie (best known at the time as a mentor to architectural students) – Mr Glennie is personally
credited with most of the detailed work[9] but Ivan Mitford-Barberton[10] was also involved with some
internal details as well as with the external granite decorations.
It is pleasing that the principal areas of the building have been so little changed over the years, especially the entrance, the banking hall, the assembly room, the directors' room, the atrium, and the windows. Even the original door handles (including the Old Mutual "logo") and the original banisters (on the staircases) are all still intact, and the atrium is largely unchanged although it is now protected from the weather by a translucent roof.
The original light fittings in the "public" areas are largely still intact, and in most parts of the building there are beautiful block-wood (parquet) floors.
Here is a selection of interior design details that exemplify the quality and attention to detail that was applied to this project by the architects, artists and designers.
Marble from the columns in the banking hall
As you use the stairs, you are reminded which storey you are on
Bulkhead lights on the 9th level
White-veined Onyx from the entrance hall
Hardwood block floors are still in place in many parts of the building
An original door handle (of which many remain)
The entrance hall has a gold leaf ceiling
Detail of a banister on one of the stairs
Original fire doors, with distinctive handles
Detail of the rail at the gallery of the Assembly Room
Some interior design details
The paragraphs below now visit each of the significant areas and features of the building in turn.
An original light fitting
The light fittings in the Assembly Room
The entrance lobby
Features of the building
The building incorporates a range of significant features.
The Entrance Hall
Black, gold-veined onyx is used in the Darling Street foyer, the ceiling of which is over 15 metres high and finished with gold leaf, laid by Italian workmen. The view of the glass window over the door to the banking hall (above) shows the iconic ziggurat shape of the building etched into the glass. Visitors must climb 17 steps to gain access to the banking hall, and towards the top they are met by the original "pill box" where security staff can observe who (and what) is entering and leaving the building. On either side of the pill box are the entrances to the main lifts – two on the left and two on the right (there are two "staff" lifts and one "service" lift elsewhere in the building).
Characteristic stainless steel trim and light fittings, such as can be seen here, are used extensively throughout the building.
The Banking Hall
Given its tall marble-clad colonnades, the magnificent banking hall would be more properly described as an example of "neo-classicism" although the light fittings echo the art deco theme that prevails elsewhere in the building, and again we see that the glass over the doors (at the far end in the photograph below) are etched with the iconic ziggurat form that is taken by the whole building.
The two service counters that can be seen in the banking hall look identical, but only the one on the right is original—the one on the left is a later, somewhat inferior, copy.
The banking hall
Between the columns of the banking hall the coats of arms are presented for each of the many provinces and countries within Southern Africa in which the South African Mutual Life Assurance Society had a presence.
The crests that appear between the columns in the banking hall
Northern Rhodesia Cape Colony Durban Rhodesia
Natal Petermaritzburg Port Elizabeth Orange Free State
Johannesburg Pretoria Kenya Colony Bloemfontein
Cape Town Union of South Africa Potchefstroom Windhoek The banking hall is now owned privately and is available for hire as an events venue.
The lifts (elevators)
The main lifts in the building are fast ("the fastest in Africa" it was claimed when the building opened) and no expense was spared – even in the basement parking area, the lifts are trimmed with black marble. Each door has an etched representation of an indigenous bird or animal from South Africa, with significant plants as additional decoration, or in some cases the corporate logo of the time.
There are seven lifts in the building, four of them "principal" lifts (as here)
The individual etchings in detail (click on the images to see the full-size version):
Springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis), with a king protea (Protea cynaroides), the national flower
Kudu (Tragelaphus), with veltheimia (Veltheimia bracteata) at the lower right
Giraffe, with a succulent (Crassula)
Zebra (Equus quagga), with a prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica)
The individual etchings on the lift doors
Ostrich (Struthio camelus australus), with prickly pear (lower left) and "century plant" (Agave americana)
Leopard (Panthera pardus pardus), with spekboom (Portulacaria afra) at the lower right and candelabra lily (Brunsvigia josephinae) at the lower left
Crane (Balearica regulorm) with reeds behind (Phragmites australis)
Lion, with lion's tail (or wild dagga - Leonotis leonuris) at lower left, violet painted petals (Freesia laxa) lower right and coral tree (Erythrina lysistemon) at the top
Secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius), with unidentifiable tree
The corporate "logo" (three entwined anchors), with Strelitzia reginae (bottom right), Disa uniflora (bottom left) and proteas (Protea repens) at the top
Vulture
These designs are attributed to Ivan Mitford-Barberton.
The Assembly Room
Perhaps the best known feature of the building (in artistic circles at least) is the Assembly Room, sometimes referred to as the "Fresco Room"; Freschi indicates that this was originally intended as a facility for policy
holders.[1] Here there are striking frescoes depicting some of the history of the nation of South Africa,
undertaken by Le Roux Smith Le Roux two years after the completion of the building.
Le Roux was supported in his early career by the famous British architect Herbert Baker, who provided bursaries so that Le Roux could spend time in
London and elsewhere. In London he
undertook a mural in South Africa House with
Eleanor Esmonde-White. An acquaintance (still living) of Le Roux and Esmonde-White recalls that Baker insisted that Eleanor Esmonde-White be awarded a bursary, despite gender-related objections from elsewhere; in the event she got to go to London with Le Roux, with the bursary. Following their years in London, Le Roux was awarded this commission to work on the Mutual Building and he therefore returned to Cape Town, but only after the main building work was done - it was not sensible to undertake this meticulous work while building operations were still in progress.
These frescoes are considered elsewhere as good examples of the genre—see for example
"Decopix - the Art Deco Architecture Site"[11] where the Mutual Building itself is well
represented.[12] The five frescoes on the end
walls and over the entrance depict more than
100 years of the history of the nation,
including industrial development, the Great
Trek, mining following the discovery of gold,
the growth of industry and agriculture, and a
hint of international travel and trade. Freschi considers that ".. in contemporary terms, Le Roux's work was seen to be distinctly progressive and very much in keeping with the ostensibly liberal party line of Jan
Smuts' coalition government".[1]
The panels are reproduced below, and selected portions from them are provided in the images that follow.
The five panels are presented left to right, in a clockwise direction when standing in the Assembly Room, back to the windows. The first and fifth are on the side walls, the second, third and fourth are on the long wall that includes the main entrance.
The fresco panels in the Assembly Room
The Assembly Room
Engineering water, The Great Trek building industry and
railroads
Trade and international travel
The discovery of gold
Railroads in service, productive farms
The fifth image includes a representation of the Mutual Building itself, the tallest building in what is known as the "City Bowl", below the slopes of Table Mountain. This did not remain true for long, it was only one year later that the General Post Office was built on the other (seaward side) of Darling Street, and a large number of larger more modern buildings have been built since (see the views from and of the building, shown further down this page).
Some details from the panels:
Some selected portions of the fresco panels in the Assembly Room
Mixing concrete, Wind-powered water working with the plans pumps provide
irrigation
The Great Trek - ladies Farm produce at last - a in their bonnets, men on smile on his face
horses
The Directors' Board Room
A detail - laying railway The image of the track Mutual Building under
Table Mountain
The Directors' Rooms
On the fourth level, at the front of the building, is the Directors' Board Room. As well as the board room there are two side rooms, one of which was a sitting room for Directors.
In the board room there is a continuous carved stinkwood frieze above the dado rail that incorporates animal and floral motifs (14 different species of birds and animals are represented). Ivan Mitford-Barberton is credited with this carving and it is probably the last work that he did in the building. Above the carved frieze is a mural designed and executed by Joyce Ord-Brown using stain on pale sycamore panelling. It represents
Cape Town as the "Tavern of the Seas" in a light hearted way.[1]
The selections below show some portions of the mural and the frieze, followed by some other details of the directors' rooms. The sea plane (second picture) is probably a Martin M-130, which is not recorded as having serviced South Africa (it worked the pacific routes). This is probably "artistic licence" on the part of Ord-Browne.
Portions of the Joyce Ord-Browne decorations
The Southern hemisphere, with route from Cape Town to London
Blue cranes flying
A sea plane
A portion of the Northern hemisphere, with King Neptune
Penguins and whales
A mermaid
Portions of the Mitford-Barberton stinkwood frieze
Some features of the directors' board room and sitting room
Entrance to the board room (see note below)
Easy chairs in the sitting room - unused in a long time
Marble at the door to the board room
Another original light fitting in the sitting room
Directors had their own storage drawers in the board room
An original light fitting in the board room that (seemingly) doubles as a ventilation device
It is of note that the etched ziggurat icon on the glass over the entrance to the board room (see the enlarged version of the first image above) is not the same as that which is used elsewhere.
The Directors' suite has great heritage value but in 2015 it was re-finished as a private apartment.
The atrium
The atrium extends from the roof of the banking hall to the very top of the main building. It was originally open to the weather, but it is now protected by a translucent roof, through which the tower can be seen extending even higher.
The circular windows visible here are incorporated into the apartments that now occupy the front of the building.
The windows
On entering the residential area of the building, one is struck by this extraordinary "top to bottom" atrium
The windows compared
The rising nature of the ziggurat mass of the exterior of the building is reinforced by the prismoid (triangular) windows, which extend up and down the height of the building. These windows are of note because they set the Mutual Building apart from some of the buildings that inspired it, for example the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles. They are also functional, because they allow light to enter the building more effectively than would otherwise be the case (using the reflective properties of the inside face of the glass), and by opening and closing blinds on the one side or the other it is possible on sunny days to manage the heat entering the building as the sun traverses the sky.
Water-cooled air conditioning was another innovative feature of the original building, that avoided the need for extensive natural ventilation and allowed more freedom for the design of the windows and granite spaces between; the same water-cooled air conditioning design is in use today.
As Freschi notes in his paper, the prismoid windows make for much more visual interest than the conventional windows in the General Post Office building. Here the image juxtaposes the Mutual building (foreground) with the General Post Office built the following year (behind).
Granite cladding
The granite cladding of the building was hewn from a single boulder on the Paarl Mountain, north east of the
city of Cape Town.[1] The cladding incorporates decorative baboon, elephant and tribal heads that project from the upper facades of the Darling Street elevation (the front of the building).
The granite decorations
The decorations Elephant (6th level) Baboon (8th level) Tribal head (tower)
Tower with tribal head
The Tribal Figures
On the Parliament Street facade there are carved granite figures representing nine ethnic African groups (not just South African) labelled thus: "Xosa", "Pedi", "Maasai", "Matabele", "Basuto", "Barotse", "Kikuyu", "Zulu", and "Bushman". Note that the identification of the tribes does not necessarily follow current practice.
The nine tribal figures looking over Parliament Street.
The individual figures in detail (remember you can click on the images to see the full-size version):
The individual tribal figures
"Xosa" "Pedi" "Masai" "Matabele"
"Basuto" "Barotse" "Kikuyu" "Zulu"
"Bushman"
Recently Sanford S. Shaman has written a critique of these figures, and other features of the building [13] partly based on interviews with pedestrians walking around the building.
The frieze
Around the three sides of the building facing Darling Street, Parliament Street and Longmarket Street there is a 386 feet (118 metre) frieze depicting scenes from the colonial history of South Africa, reported at its
completion to be the longest such frieze in the world.[4]
A portion of the 386 feet frieze that traverses three sides of the building, showing the 1820 settlers landing
It is of interest that, at the time, it was proclaimed that the building was built by South Africans, using South African materials; while the frieze was itself designed by South African, Ivan Mitford Barberton (born in Somerset East, Eastern Cape, in 1896), the work was executed by a team of Italian immigrants led by Adolfo Lorenzi. It has recently come to light that, in the course of the work, Lorenzi's team of masons were incarcerated when the Second World War broke out in 1939, being Italian and therefore regarded as "the
enemy" at that time. They were obliged to finish their work under an armed guard.[14]
A composite view of the frieze can be seen at the right; unfortunately in this version some portions are missing or obscured by trees in leaf.
The sections of the frieze are as follows:
The landing of Jan van Riebeeck
The arrival of the 1820 Settlers
The "Post Office Stone"
The building of the Castle of Good Hope
The emancipation of the slaves
Negotiations with Chaka (also known as "King Shaka)" The Great Trek
The dream of Nongqawuse (other spellings are sometimes used) Discovery of diamonds at Kimberley
Erection of a cross by Bartholomew Dias
Rhodes negotiating with the Matabele
David Livingstone preaching, healing and freeing slaves The opening up of Tanganyika Territory
The defence of Fort Jesus depicting Arab inhabitants
A second version of this collage of the complete frieze can be found elsewhere[15]
A composite showing almost all of the frieze in its 15 sections – some portions are missing in this version – click to see a readable version and then choose the "Full resolution" option under the image (but be patient, this is a large file – 1Mb)
Seen from Darling Street, the Mutual Building today stands proud as the day it was built.
Views of (and from) the building
The busy city works around the building. The Mutual Building can claim that its restoration and conversion to residential use brought new life to the city centre, and started a five year programme of re- invigoration and rapid improvement. The large green "Old Mutual" sign and logo were removed from the building in February 2012.
The skyline of the city of Cape Town has changed significantly since the Mutual Building was constructed. Even from its highest point of easy access, the Mutual Building View is now dwarfed by the more modern buildings in the Cape Town central business district.
In the modern skyline the Mutual Building is lost in a maze of tall buildings. Here the sea mist swirls around the central business district and the small coloured arrow picks out the Mutual Building, at the left. This photograph is taken from District Six, on the slopes of Devil's peak to the east of Table Mountain. Click to see the full size version of this photograph, when the outline of the building can be more easily discerned.
The view of the harbour from the middle levels of the Mutual Building in Darling Street in Cape Town, once uninterrupted, is now obscured by the General Post Office constructed shortly afterwards (seen here at the extreme left).
Table Mountain and its "table cloth" seen from the upper levels of the building.
Looking in the other direction, the City Hall, the Grand Parade and the Castle can all be seen clearly. In the distance are the Hottentots Holland Mountains.
References
The learned article by Federico Freschi is particularly recommended to all who are interested in this building and its context.
1. Freschi, F (1994). "Big Business Beautility: The Old Mutual Building, Cape Town, South Africa". Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Vol 20, pp.39-57
2. "Old Mutual - Our heritage". Old Mutual Web Site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
3. CSD, (2003). "Mutual Heights Heritage Impact Assessment Report", CS Design Architects and Heritage
Consultants, Cape Town, South Africa (August)
4. Cape Times (1940). "Old Mutual in New Home", The Cape Times (special supplement) (30 January)
5. "Mutual Heights". Emporis - The world's building website. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
6. "Cocktails over the Grand Parade". Cape Times online. 25 July 2003. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
7. Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Body Corporate, Mutual Heights, 2008
8. "Louis Karol awards". Louis Karol web site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
9. "SA Mutual Life Assr Soc (Old Mutual)". Artefacts web site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
10. "Ivan Mitford-Barberton". Biographical web site by Margaret C Manning. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
11. "Decopix - the Art Deco Architecture Web site". Randy Juster's Art Deco web site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
12. "The Mutual Building featured on Randy Juster's art deco web site". Randy Juster's Art Deco web site. Retrieved
27 December 2010.
13. "Art South Africa web site". "The Heights of Contradiction" by Sanford S. Shaman. Retrieved 3 March 2011.
14. Correspondence by email, Giovanni Adolfo Camerada to Andy Bytheway, 2008
15. "The Mutual Building Frieze". Web site of the Mutual Heights community.
Other external links
Website for the Mutual Heights Community (www.mutualheights.net)
Louis Karol Architects website (www.louiskarol.com/index.html)
Randy Juster's art deco web site (www.decopix.com)
David Thompson's art deco buildings web site (artdecobuildings.blogspot.com/) City of Cape Town web site (www.capetown.gov.za)
Stewart Harris' flikr photographs include some images of Fred Glennie and Le Roux Smith Le Roux at work on the building, and other interesting images of the building (www.flickr.com/groups/1615104@N21/)
Confirmation of the Bloemfontein crest that defied identification for several years (www.ngw.nl/heraldrywiki/index.php?title=Bloemfontein)
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I just looked at this one last night in a somewhat altered state and saw how great it was. The photo owned my heart when I saw the smiles on those three girls faces, but there is so much else to like about it.
One of the things I like the best is the solidity, the perfect rightness, of the ropes that hold up the seat of the swing (sorry, can't call it a bench). The second rope divides the photo in half, and formally, I think the photo succeeds on its own terms (whatever that means).
When Larry's brother was here, we went for lunch downtown to this pub. I feel it is the most sympathetic renovation and conversion of an historic property in Calgary. The bank reference is obvious. The baron reference is to George Stephen, 1st Baron Mount Stephen, financier behind the creation of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1800's, President of the Bank of Montreal, and the person after whom Stephen Avenue Walk, where this bank sits, was named.
From HistoricPlaces.ca
Built in 1930, the Bank of Nova Scotia building is an excellent example of the kind of architectural eclecticism that was popular in banks of the period. Designed to convey a sense of solidity and security, this bank building is impressive in the proportions and symmetry of its flattened classical facade. This rational plan is characteristic of architect John M. Lyle's Beaux-Arts classicism, and yet the building pushes the limits of that style in many of its decorative elements. Of primary significance is the program of low relief sculptural panels adorning the main facade. Designed by Lyle, these panels depict such western Canadian themes as agriculture, commerce, and ranching. The incorporation of such imagery into a traditionally classical building was groundbreaking, and the Bank of Nova Scotia building remains an outstanding example of such a sculptural program in Alberta. The traditional interpretation of a bank as a classical temple has here been reconciled by Lyle with a modern emphasis on linearity, its decoration and interior materials moving decidedly toward the streamlined Art Deco style.
147 x 133 cm.
Carlo Carrà was one of the most influential Italian painters of the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his still lifes in the style of Metaphysical painting. He studied painting briefly at the Brera Academy in Milan, but he was largely self-taught. In 1909 he met the poet Filippo Marinetti and the artist Umberto Boccioni, who converted him to Futurism, an aesthetic movement that exalted patriotism, modern technology, dynamism, and speed. Carrà’s most famous painting, The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli (1911), embodies Futurist ideals with its portrayal of dynamic action, power, and violence.
With the advent of World War I, the classic phase of Futurism ended. Although Carrà’s work from this period, such as the collage Patriotic Celebration, Free Word Painting (1914), was based on Futurist concepts, he soon began to paint in a style of greatly simplified realism. Lot’s Daughters (1915), for example, represents an attempt to recapture the solidity of form and the stillness of the 13th-century painter Giotto. Carrà’s new style was crystallized in 1917 when he met the painter Giorgio de Chirico, who taught him to paint everyday objects imbued with a sense of eeriness. Carrà and de Chirico called their style pittura metafisica (“Metaphysical painting”), and their works of this period have a superficial similarity.
In 1918 Carrà broke with de Chirico and Metaphysical painting. Throughout the 1920s and ’30s, he painted melancholy figurative works based on the monumental realism of the 15th-century Italian painter Masaccio. Through such moody but well-constructed works as Morning by the Sea (1928), and through his many years of teaching at the Milan Academy, he greatly influenced the course of Italian art between the World Wars.
The Adoration of the Magi
www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436504
Artist:Giotto di Bondone (Italian, Florentine, 1266/76–1337)
Date:possibly ca. 1320
Medium:Tempera on wood, gold ground
Dimensions:17 3/4 x 17 1/4 in. (45.1 x 43.8 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:John Stewart Kennedy Fund, 1911
Accession Number:11.126.1
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 602
Dating to about 1320, this panel is one of seven showing the life of Christ. Nothing is known of their early history beyond the fact that they were painted for a Franciscan church or convent; however, the masterly depiction of the stable, the carefully articulated space, and the columnar solidity of the figures testify to Giotto’s reputation as the founder of European painting. The impetuous action of the kneeling king, who picks up the Christ Child, and Mary’s expression of concern translate the Biblical account into deeply human terms. "He made [art] natural and gave it gentleness" (Ghiberti, ca. 1450).
Catalogue Entry
The Artist: Giotto is the key figure of Western painting. His emphasis on solidly described figures and his exploration of a rational pictorial space set the course of European art for the next five hundred years. His achievement was celebrated by contemporaries from Dante and Petrarch to Boccaccio, who included a story about the artist in the Decameron (sixth day, fifth story). Vasari accords him the leading role in his famous Lives of the Artists, noting that he revived "the methods and outlines of good painting [that] had been buried for so many years . . .". He was in great demand and worked throughout Italy—Rome, Assisi, Rimini, Padua, Florence, Naples, Bologna, and Milan. His transformative impact on Italian art is due to the fact that in each place he worked he engaged local artists as assistants. Four main fresco cycles attributable to Giotto and assistants survive: that of the life of Saint Francis in the church of San Francesco, Assisi (the attribution and date were long disputed but it has been demonstrated that the cycle was begun under the reign of Nicholas IV, between 1288 and 1292, and completed by 1297; further cycles related to his presence there at later dates are in the lower church); the life of Christ in the Arena Chapel, Padua, one of the defining works of European Painting (completed by 1305); and two later fresco cycles in the church of Santa Croce, Florence. Each of these cycles has a distinctive character and reveals an artist who was constantly evolving. Giotto's towering genius was recognized as exceptional—if not unique—by his contemporaries, but the fact that—like Raphael two centuries later—he usually worked with a team of assistants and sometimes seems to have restricted his role to that of impresario, laying out the designs, has posed problems of interpretation for modern critics, wedded to the idea of "the master's hand."
The Picture: The MMA picture combines two events: the foreground shows the Adoration of the Magi while in the left background an angel announces the birth of Christ to two shepherds. It thus combines the narratives of the gospels of Matthew (2:1–12) and Luke (2:8–13). The Adoration is unusual, if not unique, in showing the oldest king kneeling, his crown set on the ground, and taking the Christ Child from the manger. Joseph, who holds the king's gift, looks on fixedly while the Virgin, depicted reclining on a mattress within the stable, wears a concerned expression. Next to Joseph are two black and one white sheep. The treatment of a canonical scene in terms of a human drama is typical of Giotto, and builds on his fresco cycle in the Arena Chapel in Padua. There, in the scene of the Adoration of the Shepherds, the Virgin is shown reclining on a mattress beneath the stable, turning to place her child in the manger. In the scene of the Adoration of the Magi she is depicted seated, flanked by two attendant angels, regally holding the Christ Child on her lap while in front of her the oldest king kneels to kiss the child. There is no known literary source for the features of the Museum's picture; however, a similar, humanizing, approach to the sacred story was promoted by devotional literature, such as the thirteenth-century Meditations on the Life of Christ, and was developed in liturgical dramas and mystery plays. These popular sources underscore one aspect of Giotto's pictorial revolution, which has often been linked to the populist ministry of the Franciscan order. No less characteristic of the pictorial revolution he promoted is the clear articulation of the space in three stepped tiers, with the shepherds shown as though standing on a notional, far side of the hill behind the stable. The roof of the stable is shown as though viewed from below and to the right. Of the two stars, that in front of the hill is a later addition.
The series to which it belonged: It has now been firmly established that the picture formed part of a series of seven scenes, all painted on a single, horizontal plank of wood, each scene separated from the adjacent one by a thin, vertical band of gold. Left to right, the series showed: The Nativity (MMA), the Presentation (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston), the Last Supper and Crucifixion (Alte Pinakothek, Munich), the Entombment (Berenson Collection, Florence), the Descent into Limbo (Alte Pinakothek, Munich), and Pentecost (National Gallery, London). All scenes are the same size and the events follow in chronological order. A raised edge (or barb) on the left side of the first panel and the right side of the last demonstrate that an engaged frame once surrounded the series. Uniquely, the reverse of the MMA panel preserves intact part of its gesso preparation as well as a porphyry-colored, reddish paint and graffiti that possibly dates to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (see Additional Images, fig. 2). There is also the space where, originally, a vertical batten was affixed, both as a restraining element against warping but possibly also attaching the plank to a more elaborate structure or frame. The scene of the Last Supper, in Munich, and the panels in the National Gallery, London, and in the Berenson Collection, Florence, also have traces of a vertical batten (though the paint has been scraped off). The gold leaf in all of the panels is on a green preparation rather than on the more usual red bole (the use of a green preparation for the gold is also found on panels from an altarpiece painted by Giotto for the chapel of Saint Stephen in the church of Santa Croce, Florence). That the reverse was painted and accessible (and thus vulnerable to being marked by graffiti) pretty much excludes that the series was incorporated into a piece of liturgical furniture, such as the sacristy cupboard panels by Taddeo Gaddi from Santa Croce, Florence (now divided among the Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence; the Alte Pinakothek, Munich; and the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin). More probably, the series formed a low dossal.
Of notable importance is the omission from the series of key events that normally form part of a synoptic narrative, most conspicuously the Annunciation and the Resurrection. Although in a letter of 1807 it was stated that the Last Supper in Munich belonged to a group of twelve panels, this is contradicted by the technical evidence and must be incorrect (see Strehlke 2015). Rather, the omissions indicate a theologically motivated selection. It might, for example, be noted that while the inclusion of the Epiphany, the Presentation, and Pentecost can be seen as emphasizing Christ’s manifestation and ministry to the Gentiles, the trio of Passion scenes at the center underscores the theme of sacrifice—also present in the scene of the Presentation (the two pigeons required by Jewish law).
Theories relating to its commission: The center scene of the Crucifixion includes a figure in a Franciscan habit—undoubtedly Saint Francis—kneeling to one side of the cross with, on the other side, a female and male donor. Given the presence of Saint Francis there can be no doubt that the series was painted for a Franciscan church. What church this might have been has been much discussed. Ghiberti states that Giotto painted four altarpieces in the church of Santa Croce and it has been proposed (Christiansen 1982) that the series could have served as an altarpiece for the Bardi Chapel, which was dedicated to Saint Francis and in which the figural style is related. Vasari also mentions a picture by Giotto with small figures ("di piccolo figure") that had been brought from Borgo San Sepolcro to Arezzo and cut up; the pieces were, again according to Vasari, subsequently acquired by a member of the Gondi family in Florence. The possibility that this unspecified work, conceivably from the church of San Francesco in San Sepolcro, might relate to the series has been proposed (Davies 1951 and Gordon 1989). However, since—as documented by Strehlke (2015)—in 1609 the Gondi's panel was described as "Un quadro con più storiette drento il nostro Signore e della Madonna con figure piccolo, di mano di Giotto, con adornamento arabescato d'oro" (a picture with many small stories of Our Lord and the Madonna, with small figures, by the hand of Giotto, with a frame adorned with gilt arabesques), there is a contradiction with Vasari's account, since according to him the panel from Sansepolcro had already been cut up. Finally, a third proposal would have it that the scenes formed a dossal for the high altar of the church of San Francesco in Rimini, where we know Giotto worked and for which he painted a monumental crucifix, still in the church. However, the further suggestion that the two donor figures in the Munich Crucifixion are identifiable with Malatesta di Verucchio and his wife or sister (Gordon 1989) can be excluded, for the male figure is clearly dressed in liturgical vestments. As pointed out by Strehlke (2015), the priest wears a green alb and a gilt-decorated collar known as an amice. He also has a maniple over his right arm such as is used at mass and this gives the scene a specifically sacral allusion. The woman has a hood that could indicate that she belongs to a lay order. After all is said and done, concrete evidence for any of these suggestions regarding the origin of the series is lacking and each one involves a different chronological placement. The series has been dated as early as about 1305 (D'Arcais 1995) but is more generally—and convincingly—placed in the second or third decade of the century (a minute discussion of the various arguments put forward can be found in Strehlke 2015).
Attribution: Just as there is a variety of views regarding the dating of the series, so their attribution—whether they were entirely painted by Giotto or merely designed by the master and painted with workshop assistance—has been much discussed. Suffice it to say that Giotto's oeuvre has undergone much re-evaluation in the last few decades and that, today, it would generally be conceded that he painted a good deal more than Anglo-American scholars ascribed to him throughout most of the twentieth century. The most celebrated artist of his day, Giotto clearly had a highly organized workshop to deal with the many commissions he received. However, this series ranks among the finest produced in that shop and most scholars would ascribe to Giotto himself a large hand in the creation of these panels. The Metropolitan’s panel is of exceptionally high quality.
[Keith Christiansen 2016]
photographer's notes and text borrowings-
"mutual building", cape town. art deco, deluxe. finished in 1939. architect, fred glennis
inspiration maybe from the "met tower", NYC"?, chicago board of trade", "chrysler building, NYC"?
stone mason, ivan mitford-barberton (south african)
most of the building was changed into residential units
beautiful friezes by miftord-barberton
some nine (only?) african tribes depicted in stunning granite carvings on one facade of the building. it's unclear why only nine tribes were depicted
the tribes being-
matabele
basuto
barotse
kikuyu
zulu
bushman
xosa (xhosa)
pedi
masai
the building has three street facades, darling, parliament and long market streets, cape town CBD
much more to be explored and to be pixed. the building itself is exquisite
***********************
Mutual Building
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Mutual Building (Afrikaans: Mutual Gebou), in Cape Town, South Africa, was built as the headquarters of the South African Mutual Life Assurance Society, now the "Old Mutual" insurance and financial services company. It was opened in 1940, but before the end of the 1950s—less than 20 years later—business operations were already moving to another new office at Mutual Park in Pinelands (north east of the city centre); since then Old Mutual has become an international business and their present head office is in London.
The building is a fine example of art deco architecture and design, and it has many interesting internal features such as the banking hall, assembly room, directors' board room; external features include a dramatic ziggurat structure, prismoid (triangular) windows, and one of the longest carved stone friezes in the world. It has been said that it provides evidence of the colonial attitudes of the time, and the "ideals of colonial government promulgated
by Rhodes in the late nineteenth century".[1]
The Mutual Building is now converted to residential use, although some parts of the building are used commercially. For example, the Banking Hall (which is now an events venue) and the retail shops that operate outside on the ground level.
Coordinates: 33°55ʹ27.45ʺS 18°25ʹ20.25ʺE
Mutual Building
Mutual Gebou
The front of the building, in Darling Street, Cape Town
Location in central Cape Town Alternative Mutual Heights, Old Mutual
names Building
General information
Contents
1 History
1.1 The business
1.2 The "new" (1940) Head Office in Darling Street
1.3 Search for inspiration
1.4 Completion
1.5 Vacating and conversion
2 Structure of the building
3 Design elements
4 Features of the building
4.1 The Entrance Hall 4.2 The Banking Hall
4.3 The lifts (elevators) 4.4 The Assembly Room 4.5 The Directors' Rooms 4.6 The atrium
4.7 The windows
4.8 Granite cladding 4.9 The Tribal Figures 4.10 The frieze
5 Views of (and from) the building 6 References
7 Other external links
Type
Architectural style
Address Town or city Country Coordinates Completed Inaugurated Renovated Owner Height
Structural system
Floor count Lifts/elevators
Commercial converted to residential
Art Deco
14 Darling Street
Cape Town
South Africa
33°55ʹ27.45ʺS 18°25ʹ20.25ʺE 1939
1940
2005
Mutual Heights Body Corporate 84 metres (276 ft)
Technical details
Reinforced concrete, granite cladding
12 plus 3 levels basement parking
7
Architect
Architecture firm
Architect
Renovating firm
Structural engineer
Awards and prizes
Fred Glennie Louw & Louw
Renovating team
Robert Silke Louis Karol
Murray & Roberts
South African Institute of Architects, Presidents Award 2008
Website
Design and construction
www.mutualheights.net (www.mutualheights.net)
History The business
The Old Mutual business has a long history. In 1845 John Fairbairn (a Scot) founded "The Mutual Life Assurance Society of the Cape of Good Hope" in Cape Town. Over the next 100 years the business was to evolve significantly, changing its name in 1885 to the "South Africa Mutual Life Assurance Society", but becoming familiarly known simply as "The Old Mutual", so as to distinguish it from newer businesses of the same kind.
The company employed women as early as 1901, expanded into Namibia in 1920 and into Zimbabwe (then
Rhodesia) in 1927.[2] Old Mutual is now an international business with offices all over the world, and its portfolio
of financial services continues to evolve to meet market needs.
It is now some years since the business "de-mutualised" in order to issue shares and fund its operations using conventional investment markets.
The "new" (1940) Head Office in Darling Street
The name of the building in English and in Afrikaans ("Mutual Gebou"): The interesting frieze shown here is described in the text
Some comparisons with earlier inspirational buildings
In the 1930s it became clear that a new headquarters building was needed and very ambitious targets were set for the building: it was to be the tallest building in South Africa (possibly in the whole continent of Africa, with the exception of the pyramids in Egypt), it was to have the fastest lifts, it was to have the largest windows. At the same time it was to epitomise the values of the business: "Strength, Security and Confidence in the Future"; this demanded a combination of traditional
and contemporary design.[1]
Although it is clearly identified on the exterior as the "Mutual Building" (or "Mutual Gebou" in Afrikaans) it is often familiarly referred to as "The Old Mutual Building". Here, in the body of this article, it will be referred to as the "Mutual Building", thereby acknowledging the
nomenclature on the exterior of the building itself.
Search for inspiration
The figure here (adapted from www.skycrapers.com) compares the building with some of the other contemporaneous tall buildings in the world. Those involved in the design of the building travelled widely to study inspirational examples of corporate buildings elsewhere in the world. They learnt about the latest approaches to lighting, ventilation and fire protection in the USA, South America, England
and Sweden.[3] In the USA, the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles is one example of the genre of building design that captured their attention: this building was completed in 1930 and has also since been
converted to residential occupation.[1]
The art deco style was chosen. However, the building is embellished with features in other styles (such as neo-classicist in the case of the banking hall) intended to reinforce the long- standing and traditional values of the Old Mutual business.
Completion
The building was completed in 1939 and opened
early in 1940 with a great fanfare. The local paper provided a 16 page supplement,[4] and South African architects and dignitaries enthused about it. In his definitive examination of the design of the building, Federico Freschi summarises the status of the building thus:
"Ultimately, the consensus suggests that the Old Mutual Building is at once a worthy monument to modern design principles and the consolidation of an important corporate and public image."[1]
The building is listed elsewhere as a notable building,[5] and it is regarded as an important example of the social values of the time and of the economic state of the nation, but all as seen from a European or
"colonial" perspective, as explained by Freschi.[1]
Vacating and conversion
Within 20 years (in the late 1950s) the Old Mutual began to vacate the building, moving in stages to new offices at Mutual Park in Pinelands, Cape Town. By the 1990s, only assorted tenants remained, the last of
which departed in May 2003.[3]
At this time, conversion to residential occupation began under the direction of Robert Silke at Louis Karol
Architects.[6] The name of the building was changed by the developers to Mutual Heights (www.mutualheights.net), a decision that did not find favour with all owners and residents involved in
the new community.[7] Despite scepticism about the name, it is generally agreed that the conversion was the first in a series of projects that re-invigorated the central business district of Cape Town. The conversion has
been the subject of a number of architecture and design awards.[8]
In February 2012, the large "Old Mutual" sign on the east side of the building was removed, leaving little external evidence of the commercial origins of the building; in 2015 Old Mutual Properties finally disposed of the remaining portions of the interior that had not been sold previously, including the banking hall, the directors suite and the fresco room.
Structure of the building
The building is constructed using reinforced concrete, filled in internally with bricks and plaster, and clad on the outside with granite. At first sight, the building is a striking example of the Art Deco style and many of its features epitomize this genre - however, some interior features deviate from true Art Deco and probably reflect the desire of the company to demonstrate solidity and traditional values at the same time as
contemporaneous, forward-looking values.[1]
It is 276 feet (85 metres) high, as measured from the ground floor to the top of the tower,[3] but the building is often listed as being more than 90 metres high (even as high as 96.8 metres on the Old Mutual web
site[2]); this probably takes account of the "spire" at the top.
Having only 10 levels ("storeys") above ground level in the main part of this tall building (excluding the three levels of basement car parking, and the additional levels in the tower), it is evident that the spacing between floors is generous — generally each floor is about 5 metres above (or below) the next. In one of the meeting rooms on the eighth level (the Assembly Hall - see below), the curtains alone are more than six metres long. This generous spacing between floors was intended to achieve the greatest possible overall height for the building without exceeding the city planning limitation of 10 storeys, and it was allowed only
in view of the "set back" design of the exterior structure.[1]
Design elements
The original design of the building is attributed to Louw & Louw (Cape Town architects), working with Fred Glennie (best known at the time as a mentor to architectural students) – Mr Glennie is personally
credited with most of the detailed work[9] but Ivan Mitford-Barberton[10] was also involved with some
internal details as well as with the external granite decorations.
It is pleasing that the principal areas of the building have been so little changed over the years, especially the entrance, the banking hall, the assembly room, the directors' room, the atrium, and the windows. Even the original door handles (including the Old Mutual "logo") and the original banisters (on the staircases) are all still intact, and the atrium is largely unchanged although it is now protected from the weather by a translucent roof.
The original light fittings in the "public" areas are largely still intact, and in most parts of the building there are beautiful block-wood (parquet) floors.
Here is a selection of interior design details that exemplify the quality and attention to detail that was applied to this project by the architects, artists and designers.
Marble from the columns in the banking hall
As you use the stairs, you are reminded which storey you are on
Bulkhead lights on the 9th level
White-veined Onyx from the entrance hall
Hardwood block floors are still in place in many parts of the building
An original door handle (of which many remain)
The entrance hall has a gold leaf ceiling
Detail of a banister on one of the stairs
Original fire doors, with distinctive handles
Detail of the rail at the gallery of the Assembly Room
Some interior design details
The paragraphs below now visit each of the significant areas and features of the building in turn.
An original light fitting
The light fittings in the Assembly Room
The entrance lobby
Features of the building
The building incorporates a range of significant features.
The Entrance Hall
Black, gold-veined onyx is used in the Darling Street foyer, the ceiling of which is over 15 metres high and finished with gold leaf, laid by Italian workmen. The view of the glass window over the door to the banking hall (above) shows the iconic ziggurat shape of the building etched into the glass. Visitors must climb 17 steps to gain access to the banking hall, and towards the top they are met by the original "pill box" where security staff can observe who (and what) is entering and leaving the building. On either side of the pill box are the entrances to the main lifts – two on the left and two on the right (there are two "staff" lifts and one "service" lift elsewhere in the building).
Characteristic stainless steel trim and light fittings, such as can be seen here, are used extensively throughout the building.
The Banking Hall
Given its tall marble-clad colonnades, the magnificent banking hall would be more properly described as an example of "neo-classicism" although the light fittings echo the art deco theme that prevails elsewhere in the building, and again we see that the glass over the doors (at the far end in the photograph below) are etched with the iconic ziggurat form that is taken by the whole building.
The two service counters that can be seen in the banking hall look identical, but only the one on the right is original—the one on the left is a later, somewhat inferior, copy.
The banking hall
Between the columns of the banking hall the coats of arms are presented for each of the many provinces and countries within Southern Africa in which the South African Mutual Life Assurance Society had a presence.
The crests that appear between the columns in the banking hall
Northern Rhodesia Cape Colony Durban Rhodesia
Natal Petermaritzburg Port Elizabeth Orange Free State
Johannesburg Pretoria Kenya Colony Bloemfontein
Cape Town Union of South Africa Potchefstroom Windhoek The banking hall is now owned privately and is available for hire as an events venue.
The lifts (elevators)
The main lifts in the building are fast ("the fastest in Africa" it was claimed when the building opened) and no expense was spared – even in the basement parking area, the lifts are trimmed with black marble. Each door has an etched representation of an indigenous bird or animal from South Africa, with significant plants as additional decoration, or in some cases the corporate logo of the time.
There are seven lifts in the building, four of them "principal" lifts (as here)
The individual etchings in detail (click on the images to see the full-size version):
Springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis), with a king protea (Protea cynaroides), the national flower
Kudu (Tragelaphus), with veltheimia (Veltheimia bracteata) at the lower right
Giraffe, with a succulent (Crassula)
Zebra (Equus quagga), with a prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica)
The individual etchings on the lift doors
Ostrich (Struthio camelus australus), with prickly pear (lower left) and "century plant" (Agave americana)
Leopard (Panthera pardus pardus), with spekboom (Portulacaria afra) at the lower right and candelabra lily (Brunsvigia josephinae) at the lower left
Crane (Balearica regulorm) with reeds behind (Phragmites australis)
Lion, with lion's tail (or wild dagga - Leonotis leonuris) at lower left, violet painted petals (Freesia laxa) lower right and coral tree (Erythrina lysistemon) at the top
Secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius), with unidentifiable tree
The corporate "logo" (three entwined anchors), with Strelitzia reginae (bottom right), Disa uniflora (bottom left) and proteas (Protea repens) at the top
Vulture
These designs are attributed to Ivan Mitford-Barberton.
The Assembly Room
Perhaps the best known feature of the building (in artistic circles at least) is the Assembly Room, sometimes referred to as the "Fresco Room"; Freschi indicates that this was originally intended as a facility for policy
holders.[1] Here there are striking frescoes depicting some of the history of the nation of South Africa,
undertaken by Le Roux Smith Le Roux two years after the completion of the building.
Le Roux was supported in his early career by the famous British architect Herbert Baker, who provided bursaries so that Le Roux could spend time in
London and elsewhere. In London he
undertook a mural in South Africa House with
Eleanor Esmonde-White. An acquaintance (still living) of Le Roux and Esmonde-White recalls that Baker insisted that Eleanor Esmonde-White be awarded a bursary, despite gender-related objections from elsewhere; in the event she got to go to London with Le Roux, with the bursary. Following their years in London, Le Roux was awarded this commission to work on the Mutual Building and he therefore returned to Cape Town, but only after the main building work was done - it was not sensible to undertake this meticulous work while building operations were still in progress.
These frescoes are considered elsewhere as good examples of the genre—see for example
"Decopix - the Art Deco Architecture Site"[11] where the Mutual Building itself is well
represented.[12] The five frescoes on the end
walls and over the entrance depict more than
100 years of the history of the nation,
including industrial development, the Great
Trek, mining following the discovery of gold,
the growth of industry and agriculture, and a
hint of international travel and trade. Freschi considers that ".. in contemporary terms, Le Roux's work was seen to be distinctly progressive and very much in keeping with the ostensibly liberal party line of Jan
Smuts' coalition government".[1]
The panels are reproduced below, and selected portions from them are provided in the images that follow.
The five panels are presented left to right, in a clockwise direction when standing in the Assembly Room, back to the windows. The first and fifth are on the side walls, the second, third and fourth are on the long wall that includes the main entrance.
The fresco panels in the Assembly Room
The Assembly Room
Engineering water, The Great Trek building industry and
railroads
Trade and international travel
The discovery of gold
Railroads in service, productive farms
The fifth image includes a representation of the Mutual Building itself, the tallest building in what is known as the "City Bowl", below the slopes of Table Mountain. This did not remain true for long, it was only one year later that the General Post Office was built on the other (seaward side) of Darling Street, and a large number of larger more modern buildings have been built since (see the views from and of the building, shown further down this page).
Some details from the panels:
Some selected portions of the fresco panels in the Assembly Room
Mixing concrete, Wind-powered water working with the plans pumps provide
irrigation
The Great Trek - ladies Farm produce at last - a in their bonnets, men on smile on his face
horses
The Directors' Board Room
A detail - laying railway The image of the track Mutual Building under
Table Mountain
The Directors' Rooms
On the fourth level, at the front of the building, is the Directors' Board Room. As well as the board room there are two side rooms, one of which was a sitting room for Directors.
In the board room there is a continuous carved stinkwood frieze above the dado rail that incorporates animal and floral motifs (14 different species of birds and animals are represented). Ivan Mitford-Barberton is credited with this carving and it is probably the last work that he did in the building. Above the carved frieze is a mural designed and executed by Joyce Ord-Brown using stain on pale sycamore panelling. It represents
Cape Town as the "Tavern of the Seas" in a light hearted way.[1]
The selections below show some portions of the mural and the frieze, followed by some other details of the directors' rooms. The sea plane (second picture) is probably a Martin M-130, which is not recorded as having serviced South Africa (it worked the pacific routes). This is probably "artistic licence" on the part of Ord-Browne.
Portions of the Joyce Ord-Browne decorations
The Southern hemisphere, with route from Cape Town to London
Blue cranes flying
A sea plane
A portion of the Northern hemisphere, with King Neptune
Penguins and whales
A mermaid
Portions of the Mitford-Barberton stinkwood frieze
Some features of the directors' board room and sitting room
Entrance to the board room (see note below)
Easy chairs in the sitting room - unused in a long time
Marble at the door to the board room
Another original light fitting in the sitting room
Directors had their own storage drawers in the board room
An original light fitting in the board room that (seemingly) doubles as a ventilation device
It is of note that the etched ziggurat icon on the glass over the entrance to the board room (see the enlarged version of the first image above) is not the same as that which is used elsewhere.
The Directors' suite has great heritage value but in 2015 it was re-finished as a private apartment.
The atrium
The atrium extends from the roof of the banking hall to the very top of the main building. It was originally open to the weather, but it is now protected by a translucent roof, through which the tower can be seen extending even higher.
The circular windows visible here are incorporated into the apartments that now occupy the front of the building.
The windows
On entering the residential area of the building, one is struck by this extraordinary "top to bottom" atrium
The windows compared
The rising nature of the ziggurat mass of the exterior of the building is reinforced by the prismoid (triangular) windows, which extend up and down the height of the building. These windows are of note because they set the Mutual Building apart from some of the buildings that inspired it, for example the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles. They are also functional, because they allow light to enter the building more effectively than would otherwise be the case (using the reflective properties of the inside face of the glass), and by opening and closing blinds on the one side or the other it is possible on sunny days to manage the heat entering the building as the sun traverses the sky.
Water-cooled air conditioning was another innovative feature of the original building, that avoided the need for extensive natural ventilation and allowed more freedom for the design of the windows and granite spaces between; the same water-cooled air conditioning design is in use today.
As Freschi notes in his paper, the prismoid windows make for much more visual interest than the conventional windows in the General Post Office building. Here the image juxtaposes the Mutual building (foreground) with the General Post Office built the following year (behind).
Granite cladding
The granite cladding of the building was hewn from a single boulder on the Paarl Mountain, north east of the
city of Cape Town.[1] The cladding incorporates decorative baboon, elephant and tribal heads that project from the upper facades of the Darling Street elevation (the front of the building).
The granite decorations
The decorations Elephant (6th level) Baboon (8th level) Tribal head (tower)
Tower with tribal head
The Tribal Figures
On the Parliament Street facade there are carved granite figures representing nine ethnic African groups (not just South African) labelled thus: "Xosa", "Pedi", "Maasai", "Matabele", "Basuto", "Barotse", "Kikuyu", "Zulu", and "Bushman". Note that the identification of the tribes does not necessarily follow current practice.
The nine tribal figures looking over Parliament Street.
The individual figures in detail (remember you can click on the images to see the full-size version):
The individual tribal figures
"Xosa" "Pedi" "Masai" "Matabele"
"Basuto" "Barotse" "Kikuyu" "Zulu"
"Bushman"
Recently Sanford S. Shaman has written a critique of these figures, and other features of the building [13] partly based on interviews with pedestrians walking around the building.
The frieze
Around the three sides of the building facing Darling Street, Parliament Street and Longmarket Street there is a 386 feet (118 metre) frieze depicting scenes from the colonial history of South Africa, reported at its
completion to be the longest such frieze in the world.[4]
A portion of the 386 feet frieze that traverses three sides of the building, showing the 1820 settlers landing
It is of interest that, at the time, it was proclaimed that the building was built by South Africans, using South African materials; while the frieze was itself designed by South African, Ivan Mitford Barberton (born in Somerset East, Eastern Cape, in 1896), the work was executed by a team of Italian immigrants led by Adolfo Lorenzi. It has recently come to light that, in the course of the work, Lorenzi's team of masons were incarcerated when the Second World War broke out in 1939, being Italian and therefore regarded as "the
enemy" at that time. They were obliged to finish their work under an armed guard.[14]
A composite view of the frieze can be seen at the right; unfortunately in this version some portions are missing or obscured by trees in leaf.
The sections of the frieze are as follows:
The landing of Jan van Riebeeck
The arrival of the 1820 Settlers
The "Post Office Stone"
The building of the Castle of Good Hope
The emancipation of the slaves
Negotiations with Chaka (also known as "King Shaka)" The Great Trek
The dream of Nongqawuse (other spellings are sometimes used) Discovery of diamonds at Kimberley
Erection of a cross by Bartholomew Dias
Rhodes negotiating with the Matabele
David Livingstone preaching, healing and freeing slaves The opening up of Tanganyika Territory
The defence of Fort Jesus depicting Arab inhabitants
A second version of this collage of the complete frieze can be found elsewhere[15]
A composite showing almost all of the frieze in its 15 sections – some portions are missing in this version – click to see a readable version and then choose the "Full resolution" option under the image (but be patient, this is a large file – 1Mb)
Seen from Darling Street, the Mutual Building today stands proud as the day it was built.
Views of (and from) the building
The busy city works around the building. The Mutual Building can claim that its restoration and conversion to residential use brought new life to the city centre, and started a five year programme of re- invigoration and rapid improvement. The large green "Old Mutual" sign and logo were removed from the building in February 2012.
The skyline of the city of Cape Town has changed significantly since the Mutual Building was constructed. Even from its highest point of easy access, the Mutual Building View is now dwarfed by the more modern buildings in the Cape Town central business district.
In the modern skyline the Mutual Building is lost in a maze of tall buildings. Here the sea mist swirls around the central business district and the small coloured arrow picks out the Mutual Building, at the left. This photograph is taken from District Six, on the slopes of Devil's peak to the east of Table Mountain. Click to see the full size version of this photograph, when the outline of the building can be more easily discerned.
The view of the harbour from the middle levels of the Mutual Building in Darling Street in Cape Town, once uninterrupted, is now obscured by the General Post Office constructed shortly afterwards (seen here at the extreme left).
Table Mountain and its "table cloth" seen from the upper levels of the building.
Looking in the other direction, the City Hall, the Grand Parade and the Castle can all be seen clearly. In the distance are the Hottentots Holland Mountains.
References
The learned article by Federico Freschi is particularly recommended to all who are interested in this building and its context.
1. Freschi, F (1994). "Big Business Beautility: The Old Mutual Building, Cape Town, South Africa". Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Vol 20, pp.39-57
2. "Old Mutual - Our heritage". Old Mutual Web Site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
3. CSD, (2003). "Mutual Heights Heritage Impact Assessment Report", CS Design Architects and Heritage
Consultants, Cape Town, South Africa (August)
4. Cape Times (1940). "Old Mutual in New Home", The Cape Times (special supplement) (30 January)
5. "Mutual Heights". Emporis - The world's building website. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
6. "Cocktails over the Grand Parade". Cape Times online. 25 July 2003. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
7. Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Body Corporate, Mutual Heights, 2008
8. "Louis Karol awards". Louis Karol web site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
9. "SA Mutual Life Assr Soc (Old Mutual)". Artefacts web site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
10. "Ivan Mitford-Barberton". Biographical web site by Margaret C Manning. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
11. "Decopix - the Art Deco Architecture Web site". Randy Juster's Art Deco web site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
12. "The Mutual Building featured on Randy Juster's art deco web site". Randy Juster's Art Deco web site. Retrieved
27 December 2010.
13. "Art South Africa web site". "The Heights of Contradiction" by Sanford S. Shaman. Retrieved 3 March 2011.
14. Correspondence by email, Giovanni Adolfo Camerada to Andy Bytheway, 2008
15. "The Mutual Building Frieze". Web site of the Mutual Heights community.
Other external links
Website for the Mutual Heights Community (www.mutualheights.net)
Louis Karol Architects website (www.louiskarol.com/index.html)
Randy Juster's art deco web site (www.decopix.com)
David Thompson's art deco buildings web site (artdecobuildings.blogspot.com/) City of Cape Town web site (www.capetown.gov.za)
Stewart Harris' flikr photographs include some images of Fred Glennie and Le Roux Smith Le Roux at work on the building, and other interesting images of the building (www.flickr.com/groups/1615104@N21/)
Confirmation of the Bloemfontein crest that defied identification for several years (www.ngw.nl/heraldrywiki/index.php?title=Bloemfontein)
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photographer's notes and text borrowings-
"mutual building", cape town. art deco, deluxe. finished in 1939. architect, fred glennis
inspiration maybe from the "met tower", NYC"?, chicago board of trade", "chrysler building, NYC"?
stone mason, ivan mitford-barberton (south african)
most of the building was changed into residential units
beautiful friezes by miftord-barberton
some nine (only?) african tribes depicted in stunning granite carvings on one facade of the building. it's unclear why only nine tribes were depicted
the tribes being-
matabele
basuto
barotse
kikuyu
zulu
bushman
xosa (xhosa)
pedi
masai
the building has three street facades, darling, parliament and long market streets, cape town CBD
much more to be explored and to be pixed. the building itself is exquisite
***********************
Mutual Building
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Mutual Building (Afrikaans: Mutual Gebou), in Cape Town, South Africa, was built as the headquarters of the South African Mutual Life Assurance Society, now the "Old Mutual" insurance and financial services company. It was opened in 1940, but before the end of the 1950s—less than 20 years later—business operations were already moving to another new office at Mutual Park in Pinelands (north east of the city centre); since then Old Mutual has become an international business and their present head office is in London.
The building is a fine example of art deco architecture and design, and it has many interesting internal features such as the banking hall, assembly room, directors' board room; external features include a dramatic ziggurat structure, prismoid (triangular) windows, and one of the longest carved stone friezes in the world. It has been said that it provides evidence of the colonial attitudes of the time, and the "ideals of colonial government promulgated
by Rhodes in the late nineteenth century".[1]
The Mutual Building is now converted to residential use, although some parts of the building are used commercially. For example, the Banking Hall (which is now an events venue) and the retail shops that operate outside on the ground level.
Coordinates: 33°55ʹ27.45ʺS 18°25ʹ20.25ʺE
Mutual Building
Mutual Gebou
The front of the building, in Darling Street, Cape Town
Location in central Cape Town Alternative Mutual Heights, Old Mutual
names Building
General information
Contents
1 History
1.1 The business
1.2 The "new" (1940) Head Office in Darling Street
1.3 Search for inspiration
1.4 Completion
1.5 Vacating and conversion
2 Structure of the building
3 Design elements
4 Features of the building
4.1 The Entrance Hall 4.2 The Banking Hall
4.3 The lifts (elevators) 4.4 The Assembly Room 4.5 The Directors' Rooms 4.6 The atrium
4.7 The windows
4.8 Granite cladding 4.9 The Tribal Figures 4.10 The frieze
5 Views of (and from) the building 6 References
7 Other external links
Type
Architectural style
Address Town or city Country Coordinates Completed Inaugurated Renovated Owner Height
Structural system
Floor count Lifts/elevators
Commercial converted to residential
Art Deco
14 Darling Street
Cape Town
South Africa
33°55ʹ27.45ʺS 18°25ʹ20.25ʺE 1939
1940
2005
Mutual Heights Body Corporate 84 metres (276 ft)
Technical details
Reinforced concrete, granite cladding
12 plus 3 levels basement parking
7
Architect
Architecture firm
Architect
Renovating firm
Structural engineer
Awards and prizes
Fred Glennie Louw & Louw
Renovating team
Robert Silke Louis Karol
Murray & Roberts
South African Institute of Architects, Presidents Award 2008
Website
Design and construction
www.mutualheights.net (www.mutualheights.net)
History The business
The Old Mutual business has a long history. In 1845 John Fairbairn (a Scot) founded "The Mutual Life Assurance Society of the Cape of Good Hope" in Cape Town. Over the next 100 years the business was to evolve significantly, changing its name in 1885 to the "South Africa Mutual Life Assurance Society", but becoming familiarly known simply as "The Old Mutual", so as to distinguish it from newer businesses of the same kind.
The company employed women as early as 1901, expanded into Namibia in 1920 and into Zimbabwe (then
Rhodesia) in 1927.[2] Old Mutual is now an international business with offices all over the world, and its portfolio
of financial services continues to evolve to meet market needs.
It is now some years since the business "de-mutualised" in order to issue shares and fund its operations using conventional investment markets.
The "new" (1940) Head Office in Darling Street
The name of the building in English and in Afrikaans ("Mutual Gebou"): The interesting frieze shown here is described in the text
Some comparisons with earlier inspirational buildings
In the 1930s it became clear that a new headquarters building was needed and very ambitious targets were set for the building: it was to be the tallest building in South Africa (possibly in the whole continent of Africa, with the exception of the pyramids in Egypt), it was to have the fastest lifts, it was to have the largest windows. At the same time it was to epitomise the values of the business: "Strength, Security and Confidence in the Future"; this demanded a combination of traditional
and contemporary design.[1]
Although it is clearly identified on the exterior as the "Mutual Building" (or "Mutual Gebou" in Afrikaans) it is often familiarly referred to as "The Old Mutual Building". Here, in the body of this article, it will be referred to as the "Mutual Building", thereby acknowledging the
nomenclature on the exterior of the building itself.
Search for inspiration
The figure here (adapted from www.skycrapers.com) compares the building with some of the other contemporaneous tall buildings in the world. Those involved in the design of the building travelled widely to study inspirational examples of corporate buildings elsewhere in the world. They learnt about the latest approaches to lighting, ventilation and fire protection in the USA, South America, England
and Sweden.[3] In the USA, the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles is one example of the genre of building design that captured their attention: this building was completed in 1930 and has also since been
converted to residential occupation.[1]
The art deco style was chosen. However, the building is embellished with features in other styles (such as neo-classicist in the case of the banking hall) intended to reinforce the long- standing and traditional values of the Old Mutual business.
Completion
The building was completed in 1939 and opened
early in 1940 with a great fanfare. The local paper provided a 16 page supplement,[4] and South African architects and dignitaries enthused about it. In his definitive examination of the design of the building, Federico Freschi summarises the status of the building thus:
"Ultimately, the consensus suggests that the Old Mutual Building is at once a worthy monument to modern design principles and the consolidation of an important corporate and public image."[1]
The building is listed elsewhere as a notable building,[5] and it is regarded as an important example of the social values of the time and of the economic state of the nation, but all as seen from a European or
"colonial" perspective, as explained by Freschi.[1]
Vacating and conversion
Within 20 years (in the late 1950s) the Old Mutual began to vacate the building, moving in stages to new offices at Mutual Park in Pinelands, Cape Town. By the 1990s, only assorted tenants remained, the last of
which departed in May 2003.[3]
At this time, conversion to residential occupation began under the direction of Robert Silke at Louis Karol
Architects.[6] The name of the building was changed by the developers to Mutual Heights (www.mutualheights.net), a decision that did not find favour with all owners and residents involved in
the new community.[7] Despite scepticism about the name, it is generally agreed that the conversion was the first in a series of projects that re-invigorated the central business district of Cape Town. The conversion has
been the subject of a number of architecture and design awards.[8]
In February 2012, the large "Old Mutual" sign on the east side of the building was removed, leaving little external evidence of the commercial origins of the building; in 2015 Old Mutual Properties finally disposed of the remaining portions of the interior that had not been sold previously, including the banking hall, the directors suite and the fresco room.
Structure of the building
The building is constructed using reinforced concrete, filled in internally with bricks and plaster, and clad on the outside with granite. At first sight, the building is a striking example of the Art Deco style and many of its features epitomize this genre - however, some interior features deviate from true Art Deco and probably reflect the desire of the company to demonstrate solidity and traditional values at the same time as
contemporaneous, forward-looking values.[1]
It is 276 feet (85 metres) high, as measured from the ground floor to the top of the tower,[3] but the building is often listed as being more than 90 metres high (even as high as 96.8 metres on the Old Mutual web
site[2]); this probably takes account of the "spire" at the top.
Having only 10 levels ("storeys") above ground level in the main part of this tall building (excluding the three levels of basement car parking, and the additional levels in the tower), it is evident that the spacing between floors is generous — generally each floor is about 5 metres above (or below) the next. In one of the meeting rooms on the eighth level (the Assembly Hall - see below), the curtains alone are more than six metres long. This generous spacing between floors was intended to achieve the greatest possible overall height for the building without exceeding the city planning limitation of 10 storeys, and it was allowed only
in view of the "set back" design of the exterior structure.[1]
Design elements
The original design of the building is attributed to Louw & Louw (Cape Town architects), working with Fred Glennie (best known at the time as a mentor to architectural students) – Mr Glennie is personally
credited with most of the detailed work[9] but Ivan Mitford-Barberton[10] was also involved with some
internal details as well as with the external granite decorations.
It is pleasing that the principal areas of the building have been so little changed over the years, especially the entrance, the banking hall, the assembly room, the directors' room, the atrium, and the windows. Even the original door handles (including the Old Mutual "logo") and the original banisters (on the staircases) are all still intact, and the atrium is largely unchanged although it is now protected from the weather by a translucent roof.
The original light fittings in the "public" areas are largely still intact, and in most parts of the building there are beautiful block-wood (parquet) floors.
Here is a selection of interior design details that exemplify the quality and attention to detail that was applied to this project by the architects, artists and designers.
Marble from the columns in the banking hall
As you use the stairs, you are reminded which storey you are on
Bulkhead lights on the 9th level
White-veined Onyx from the entrance hall
Hardwood block floors are still in place in many parts of the building
An original door handle (of which many remain)
The entrance hall has a gold leaf ceiling
Detail of a banister on one of the stairs
Original fire doors, with distinctive handles
Detail of the rail at the gallery of the Assembly Room
Some interior design details
The paragraphs below now visit each of the significant areas and features of the building in turn.
An original light fitting
The light fittings in the Assembly Room
The entrance lobby
Features of the building
The building incorporates a range of significant features.
The Entrance Hall
Black, gold-veined onyx is used in the Darling Street foyer, the ceiling of which is over 15 metres high and finished with gold leaf, laid by Italian workmen. The view of the glass window over the door to the banking hall (above) shows the iconic ziggurat shape of the building etched into the glass. Visitors must climb 17 steps to gain access to the banking hall, and towards the top they are met by the original "pill box" where security staff can observe who (and what) is entering and leaving the building. On either side of the pill box are the entrances to the main lifts – two on the left and two on the right (there are two "staff" lifts and one "service" lift elsewhere in the building).
Characteristic stainless steel trim and light fittings, such as can be seen here, are used extensively throughout the building.
The Banking Hall
Given its tall marble-clad colonnades, the magnificent banking hall would be more properly described as an example of "neo-classicism" although the light fittings echo the art deco theme that prevails elsewhere in the building, and again we see that the glass over the doors (at the far end in the photograph below) are etched with the iconic ziggurat form that is taken by the whole building.
The two service counters that can be seen in the banking hall look identical, but only the one on the right is original—the one on the left is a later, somewhat inferior, copy.
The banking hall
Between the columns of the banking hall the coats of arms are presented for each of the many provinces and countries within Southern Africa in which the South African Mutual Life Assurance Society had a presence.
The crests that appear between the columns in the banking hall
Northern Rhodesia Cape Colony Durban Rhodesia
Natal Petermaritzburg Port Elizabeth Orange Free State
Johannesburg Pretoria Kenya Colony Bloemfontein
Cape Town Union of South Africa Potchefstroom Windhoek The banking hall is now owned privately and is available for hire as an events venue.
The lifts (elevators)
The main lifts in the building are fast ("the fastest in Africa" it was claimed when the building opened) and no expense was spared – even in the basement parking area, the lifts are trimmed with black marble. Each door has an etched representation of an indigenous bird or animal from South Africa, with significant plants as additional decoration, or in some cases the corporate logo of the time.
There are seven lifts in the building, four of them "principal" lifts (as here)
The individual etchings in detail (click on the images to see the full-size version):
Springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis), with a king protea (Protea cynaroides), the national flower
Kudu (Tragelaphus), with veltheimia (Veltheimia bracteata) at the lower right
Giraffe, with a succulent (Crassula)
Zebra (Equus quagga), with a prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica)
The individual etchings on the lift doors
Ostrich (Struthio camelus australus), with prickly pear (lower left) and "century plant" (Agave americana)
Leopard (Panthera pardus pardus), with spekboom (Portulacaria afra) at the lower right and candelabra lily (Brunsvigia josephinae) at the lower left
Crane (Balearica regulorm) with reeds behind (Phragmites australis)
Lion, with lion's tail (or wild dagga - Leonotis leonuris) at lower left, violet painted petals (Freesia laxa) lower right and coral tree (Erythrina lysistemon) at the top
Secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius), with unidentifiable tree
The corporate "logo" (three entwined anchors), with Strelitzia reginae (bottom right), Disa uniflora (bottom left) and proteas (Protea repens) at the top
Vulture
These designs are attributed to Ivan Mitford-Barberton.
The Assembly Room
Perhaps the best known feature of the building (in artistic circles at least) is the Assembly Room, sometimes referred to as the "Fresco Room"; Freschi indicates that this was originally intended as a facility for policy
holders.[1] Here there are striking frescoes depicting some of the history of the nation of South Africa,
undertaken by Le Roux Smith Le Roux two years after the completion of the building.
Le Roux was supported in his early career by the famous British architect Herbert Baker, who provided bursaries so that Le Roux could spend time in
London and elsewhere. In London he
undertook a mural in South Africa House with
Eleanor Esmonde-White. An acquaintance (still living) of Le Roux and Esmonde-White recalls that Baker insisted that Eleanor Esmonde-White be awarded a bursary, despite gender-related objections from elsewhere; in the event she got to go to London with Le Roux, with the bursary. Following their years in London, Le Roux was awarded this commission to work on the Mutual Building and he therefore returned to Cape Town, but only after the main building work was done - it was not sensible to undertake this meticulous work while building operations were still in progress.
These frescoes are considered elsewhere as good examples of the genre—see for example
"Decopix - the Art Deco Architecture Site"[11] where the Mutual Building itself is well
represented.[12] The five frescoes on the end
walls and over the entrance depict more than
100 years of the history of the nation,
including industrial development, the Great
Trek, mining following the discovery of gold,
the growth of industry and agriculture, and a
hint of international travel and trade. Freschi considers that ".. in contemporary terms, Le Roux's work was seen to be distinctly progressive and very much in keeping with the ostensibly liberal party line of Jan
Smuts' coalition government".[1]
The panels are reproduced below, and selected portions from them are provided in the images that follow.
The five panels are presented left to right, in a clockwise direction when standing in the Assembly Room, back to the windows. The first and fifth are on the side walls, the second, third and fourth are on the long wall that includes the main entrance.
The fresco panels in the Assembly Room
The Assembly Room
Engineering water, The Great Trek building industry and
railroads
Trade and international travel
The discovery of gold
Railroads in service, productive farms
The fifth image includes a representation of the Mutual Building itself, the tallest building in what is known as the "City Bowl", below the slopes of Table Mountain. This did not remain true for long, it was only one year later that the General Post Office was built on the other (seaward side) of Darling Street, and a large number of larger more modern buildings have been built since (see the views from and of the building, shown further down this page).
Some details from the panels:
Some selected portions of the fresco panels in the Assembly Room
Mixing concrete, Wind-powered water working with the plans pumps provide
irrigation
The Great Trek - ladies Farm produce at last - a in their bonnets, men on smile on his face
horses
The Directors' Board Room
A detail - laying railway The image of the track Mutual Building under
Table Mountain
The Directors' Rooms
On the fourth level, at the front of the building, is the Directors' Board Room. As well as the board room there are two side rooms, one of which was a sitting room for Directors.
In the board room there is a continuous carved stinkwood frieze above the dado rail that incorporates animal and floral motifs (14 different species of birds and animals are represented). Ivan Mitford-Barberton is credited with this carving and it is probably the last work that he did in the building. Above the carved frieze is a mural designed and executed by Joyce Ord-Brown using stain on pale sycamore panelling. It represents
Cape Town as the "Tavern of the Seas" in a light hearted way.[1]
The selections below show some portions of the mural and the frieze, followed by some other details of the directors' rooms. The sea plane (second picture) is probably a Martin M-130, which is not recorded as having serviced South Africa (it worked the pacific routes). This is probably "artistic licence" on the part of Ord-Browne.
Portions of the Joyce Ord-Browne decorations
The Southern hemisphere, with route from Cape Town to London
Blue cranes flying
A sea plane
A portion of the Northern hemisphere, with King Neptune
Penguins and whales
A mermaid
Portions of the Mitford-Barberton stinkwood frieze
Some features of the directors' board room and sitting room
Entrance to the board room (see note below)
Easy chairs in the sitting room - unused in a long time
Marble at the door to the board room
Another original light fitting in the sitting room
Directors had their own storage drawers in the board room
An original light fitting in the board room that (seemingly) doubles as a ventilation device
It is of note that the etched ziggurat icon on the glass over the entrance to the board room (see the enlarged version of the first image above) is not the same as that which is used elsewhere.
The Directors' suite has great heritage value but in 2015 it was re-finished as a private apartment.
The atrium
The atrium extends from the roof of the banking hall to the very top of the main building. It was originally open to the weather, but it is now protected by a translucent roof, through which the tower can be seen extending even higher.
The circular windows visible here are incorporated into the apartments that now occupy the front of the building.
The windows
On entering the residential area of the building, one is struck by this extraordinary "top to bottom" atrium
The windows compared
The rising nature of the ziggurat mass of the exterior of the building is reinforced by the prismoid (triangular) windows, which extend up and down the height of the building. These windows are of note because they set the Mutual Building apart from some of the buildings that inspired it, for example the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles. They are also functional, because they allow light to enter the building more effectively than would otherwise be the case (using the reflective properties of the inside face of the glass), and by opening and closing blinds on the one side or the other it is possible on sunny days to manage the heat entering the building as the sun traverses the sky.
Water-cooled air conditioning was another innovative feature of the original building, that avoided the need for extensive natural ventilation and allowed more freedom for the design of the windows and granite spaces between; the same water-cooled air conditioning design is in use today.
As Freschi notes in his paper, the prismoid windows make for much more visual interest than the conventional windows in the General Post Office building. Here the image juxtaposes the Mutual building (foreground) with the General Post Office built the following year (behind).
Granite cladding
The granite cladding of the building was hewn from a single boulder on the Paarl Mountain, north east of the
city of Cape Town.[1] The cladding incorporates decorative baboon, elephant and tribal heads that project from the upper facades of the Darling Street elevation (the front of the building).
The granite decorations
The decorations Elephant (6th level) Baboon (8th level) Tribal head (tower)
Tower with tribal head
The Tribal Figures
On the Parliament Street facade there are carved granite figures representing nine ethnic African groups (not just South African) labelled thus: "Xosa", "Pedi", "Maasai", "Matabele", "Basuto", "Barotse", "Kikuyu", "Zulu", and "Bushman". Note that the identification of the tribes does not necessarily follow current practice.
The nine tribal figures looking over Parliament Street.
The individual figures in detail (remember you can click on the images to see the full-size version):
The individual tribal figures
"Xosa" "Pedi" "Masai" "Matabele"
"Basuto" "Barotse" "Kikuyu" "Zulu"
"Bushman"
Recently Sanford S. Shaman has written a critique of these figures, and other features of the building [13] partly based on interviews with pedestrians walking around the building.
The frieze
Around the three sides of the building facing Darling Street, Parliament Street and Longmarket Street there is a 386 feet (118 metre) frieze depicting scenes from the colonial history of South Africa, reported at its
completion to be the longest such frieze in the world.[4]
A portion of the 386 feet frieze that traverses three sides of the building, showing the 1820 settlers landing
It is of interest that, at the time, it was proclaimed that the building was built by South Africans, using South African materials; while the frieze was itself designed by South African, Ivan Mitford Barberton (born in Somerset East, Eastern Cape, in 1896), the work was executed by a team of Italian immigrants led by Adolfo Lorenzi. It has recently come to light that, in the course of the work, Lorenzi's team of masons were incarcerated when the Second World War broke out in 1939, being Italian and therefore regarded as "the
enemy" at that time. They were obliged to finish their work under an armed guard.[14]
A composite view of the frieze can be seen at the right; unfortunately in this version some portions are missing or obscured by trees in leaf.
The sections of the frieze are as follows:
The landing of Jan van Riebeeck
The arrival of the 1820 Settlers
The "Post Office Stone"
The building of the Castle of Good Hope
The emancipation of the slaves
Negotiations with Chaka (also known as "King Shaka)" The Great Trek
The dream of Nongqawuse (other spellings are sometimes used) Discovery of diamonds at Kimberley
Erection of a cross by Bartholomew Dias
Rhodes negotiating with the Matabele
David Livingstone preaching, healing and freeing slaves The opening up of Tanganyika Territory
The defence of Fort Jesus depicting Arab inhabitants
A second version of this collage of the complete frieze can be found elsewhere[15]
A composite showing almost all of the frieze in its 15 sections – some portions are missing in this version – click to see a readable version and then choose the "Full resolution" option under the image (but be patient, this is a large file – 1Mb)
Seen from Darling Street, the Mutual Building today stands proud as the day it was built.
Views of (and from) the building
The busy city works around the building. The Mutual Building can claim that its restoration and conversion to residential use brought new life to the city centre, and started a five year programme of re- invigoration and rapid improvement. The large green "Old Mutual" sign and logo were removed from the building in February 2012.
The skyline of the city of Cape Town has changed significantly since the Mutual Building was constructed. Even from its highest point of easy access, the Mutual Building View is now dwarfed by the more modern buildings in the Cape Town central business district.
In the modern skyline the Mutual Building is lost in a maze of tall buildings. Here the sea mist swirls around the central business district and the small coloured arrow picks out the Mutual Building, at the left. This photograph is taken from District Six, on the slopes of Devil's peak to the east of Table Mountain. Click to see the full size version of this photograph, when the outline of the building can be more easily discerned.
The view of the harbour from the middle levels of the Mutual Building in Darling Street in Cape Town, once uninterrupted, is now obscured by the General Post Office constructed shortly afterwards (seen here at the extreme left).
Table Mountain and its "table cloth" seen from the upper levels of the building.
Looking in the other direction, the City Hall, the Grand Parade and the Castle can all be seen clearly. In the distance are the Hottentots Holland Mountains.
References
The learned article by Federico Freschi is particularly recommended to all who are interested in this building and its context.
1. Freschi, F (1994). "Big Business Beautility: The Old Mutual Building, Cape Town, South Africa". Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Vol 20, pp.39-57
2. "Old Mutual - Our heritage". Old Mutual Web Site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
3. CSD, (2003). "Mutual Heights Heritage Impact Assessment Report", CS Design Architects and Heritage
Consultants, Cape Town, South Africa (August)
4. Cape Times (1940). "Old Mutual in New Home", The Cape Times (special supplement) (30 January)
5. "Mutual Heights". Emporis - The world's building website. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
6. "Cocktails over the Grand Parade". Cape Times online. 25 July 2003. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
7. Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Body Corporate, Mutual Heights, 2008
8. "Louis Karol awards". Louis Karol web site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
9. "SA Mutual Life Assr Soc (Old Mutual)". Artefacts web site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
10. "Ivan Mitford-Barberton". Biographical web site by Margaret C Manning. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
11. "Decopix - the Art Deco Architecture Web site". Randy Juster's Art Deco web site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
12. "The Mutual Building featured on Randy Juster's art deco web site". Randy Juster's Art Deco web site. Retrieved
27 December 2010.
13. "Art South Africa web site". "The Heights of Contradiction" by Sanford S. Shaman. Retrieved 3 March 2011.
14. Correspondence by email, Giovanni Adolfo Camerada to Andy Bytheway, 2008
15. "The Mutual Building Frieze". Web site of the Mutual Heights community.
Other external links
Website for the Mutual Heights Community (www.mutualheights.net)
Louis Karol Architects website (www.louiskarol.com/index.html)
Randy Juster's art deco web site (www.decopix.com)
David Thompson's art deco buildings web site (artdecobuildings.blogspot.com/) City of Cape Town web site (www.capetown.gov.za)
Stewart Harris' flikr photographs include some images of Fred Glennie and Le Roux Smith Le Roux at work on the building, and other interesting images of the building (www.flickr.com/groups/1615104@N21/)
Confirmation of the Bloemfontein crest that defied identification for several years (www.ngw.nl/heraldrywiki/index.php?title=Bloemfontein)
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Bauhaus Museum Weimar, Germany
German architect Heike Hanada designed a minimalist concrete museum to celebrate the Bauhaus in Weimar, where the design school was founded 100 years ago. The building is dedicated to the design school creates a physical cultural presence for the Bauhaus in the German city where it was based between 1919 and 1925. Located near the Nazi-era Gauforum square and the Neue Museum Weimar, the Bauhaus Museum is a simple five-storey concrete box broken only with its entrance and a couple of windows. The enclosing shell of light-grey concrete lends the cube stability and dynamic solidity. Equally spaced horizontal grooves run around the facades of the museum, with the words "bauhaus museum" repeated in a band near the top of the building. Hanada designed the museum to be a public building for the city and has attempted to clearly connect it to the neighbouring park. With elements such as plinths, fasciae, portals, stairways and a terrace to the park, the architecture incorporates classical themes that underscore its public character.
The museum contains 2,000 m2 of exhibition space, which will be used to display around 1,000 items from the Weimar Bauhaus collection. A shop and entrance hall is located on the ground floor, with a cafe and toilets below, and three floors dedicated to telling the story of the Bauhaus above. Each of the galleries overlooks double-height spaces and are accessed from a long ceremonial staircase that stretches the height of the building. The visitors ascend a succession of interchanging open spaces and staircases until they finally arrive at the top floor where they are presented with an unobstructed view of the park. The cascading staircases are encased by ceiling-high walls and function as free-standing, enclosed bodies in the interior space. The collection is arranged to inform visitors about the history of the design school, with the gallery on the first floor dedicated to its origins in Weimar and the Bauhaus manifesto that Walter Gropius wrote in 1919. The second floor has exhibits that show how these ideas were implemented, with galleries dedicated to each of the Bauhaus directors – Gropius, Hannes Meyer and Mies van der Rohe – at the top of the building.
The museum in Weimar has opened to coincide with the centenary of the Bauhaus, which was established in the city in 1919. The school was forced to relocate from Weimar to Dessau in 1925, where Gropius designed a new school building for the institution. Following a short time based in Berlin the school closed for good in 1933. Although only open for just over a decade, the Bauhaus is the most influential art and design school in history. The ideas and people associated with the school had an incredible impact on design and architecture, and to mark its centenary we created a series exploring its key works and figures.
I came across this American one cent coin amongst my bits and pieces. I must have picked it up in change on a Stateside visit and kept it as a souvenir. I thought to snap it for Flickr and in doing so stopped to consider it more deeply. At the first level it is of course 100th of a U S Dollar. Also called a penny - at one time when its exchange rate value was 2.40 to the GB Pound it held the same value as a British penny, of which (pre decimalisation) there were 240 in the pound. The obverse, or 'head' of the coin shows Abraham Lincoln, with the mottoes 'Liberty' and 'In God We Trust' and lastly its year of minting, 1975. The reverse (see accompanying image) shows the Lincoln Memorial, the motto 'Epluribus Unum' - one out of many - plus the coin's denomination of One Cent and the national identity, United States of America. But, at a deeper level, it is more than just a coin. It purports an image of solidity and decency with its portrayal of Lincoln, the Civil War president and his Gettysburg Address - Of the people, for the people.... and the various mottoes listed on it. Sentiments that a free and civilised world would surely subscribe to. And so we have a coin that embodies the aspirations, not just of a nation, but of the free world, tried and under pressure as it currently may be. Mobile image.
Part of the complete sequence of seven early 14th century windows preserving most of their original glass in the choir clerestorey.
The attractive town of Tewkesbury has been dominated by its superb abbey church since the beginning of the 12th century, and we can be forever grateful to its townspeople for purchasing the monastic church in 1540 for £453 for use as their parish church, saving it from the fate that befell countless similar great churches across the land during the turmoil of the Dissolution. It reminds us both how lucky we are to still marvel at it today, yet also how great a loss to our heritage the period wrought when many more such buildings were so utterly plundered as to have gone without trace (the fate of the monastic buildings here and even the lady chapel of the church whose footings are laid out in the grass at the east end).
Tewkesbury Abbey is thus rightly celebrated as one of our greatest non-cathedral churches, and remarkably much of the original Norman church remains substantially intact, most apparently in the great central tower, a fine example of Romanesque architecture adorned with rows of blind-arcading. The west front is dominated by a massive Norman-arched recess (enclosing the somewhat later west window) and the nave and transepts remain largely as originally built, though this is less clear externally owing to the changes made to the windows, nearly all of which were enlarged in the 14th century in the Decorated Gothic style. This century also saw the complete rebuilding of the eastern limb of the church, of a form less common in England with radiating chapels surrounding the eastern apse of the choir (the central lady chapel sadly missing since 1540).
The interior reveals far more of the Romanesque structure with mighty columns supporting the round Norman arches of the nave arcades giving the building a great sense of solidity. The space is further enlivened by the changes made during the 14th century by the stunning vault over the nave (adorned with a rewarding series of figurative bosses) which sits surprisingly well with the Norman work below. Beyond the apsidal choir beckons, and both this and the space below the tower are enriched with stunningly complex vaulted ceilings (replete with further bosses and gilded metal stars), all ablaze with colour and gilding.
There is much to enjoy in glass here, most remarkably a complete set of 14th century glazing in the clerestorey of the choir, seven windows filled with saints and prophets (and most memorably two groups of knights in the westernmost windows on each side). A few of the figures have fared less well over the centuries but on the whole this is a wonderfully rare and well preserved scheme. There is much glass from the 19th century too, with an extensive scheme in the nave of good quality work by Hardman's, and more recently a pair of rich windows by Tom Denny were added in one of the polygonal chapels around the east end.
Some of the most memorable features are the monuments with many medieval tombs of note, primarily the effigies and chantry chapels of members of the Despenser family around the choir (two of the chantries being miniature architectural gems in their own right with exquisite fan-vaulting). In one of the apsidal chapels is the unusual cenotaph to Abbot Wakeman with his grisly cadaver effigy, a late medieval reminder of earthly mortality.
Tewkesbury Abbey is not to be missed and is every bit as rewarding as many of our cathedrals (superior in fact to all but the best). It is normally kept open and welcoming to visitors on a daily basis. I have also had the privilege of working on this great building several times over the years (as part of the team at the studio I once worked for), and have left my mark in glass in a few discreet places.
Special thanks to JohnnyG1955 for sharing the below info
www.flickr.com/photos/johnnyg1955/sets/72157604152348131/...
The parish of the Holy Rosary is the seventh oldest mission in the City of Leeds, with the first Church and School of the Holy Rosary built in Barrack Street in 1886 as a Chapel-of-Ease to St Anne’s Cathedral.
As the area from Sheepscar up to Moortown was developed, the population of the parish increased until in 1927 the first steps were taken to build a new church. Rev Canon Mitchell invited architects to submit plans for a new church with Marten & Burnett chosen as the architects for the building. A site was bought on Chapeltown Road in 1930 and then in 1935 test holes were dug in what was then the garden of Ashbourne House on Chapeltown Road. The foundation stone was laid on May 3rd 1936 by Canon Hawkswell. The church was completed at a cost of over £13,000, with Ashbourne House becoming the Presbytery of the new church.
The first mass was celebrated on September 30th 1937 by The Bishop of Leeds, Bishop Henry John Poskitt with Bishop Shine of Middlesbrough. Father Ward was the first priest in the parish.
Among the priests at the first mass in the new church in 1937 was a young priest who had been ordained in Ireland for the Leeds Diocese the previous year. In 1951, this priest, Canon P. O’Meara, became the first Parish Priest of the Holy Rosary, a position he held until his death in 1985. There is a commemorative plaque to Canon O’Meara in the church.
The first priest to be ordained from the Holy Rosary Parish was Father Gerald Creasey who was ordained in 1961.
In 1987 Father James Leavy instigated renovations to the church including: the relocation of the altar, removal of the communion rails, the font being moved to the chancel steps and the shortening of the nave creating a community room between the narthex and the main body of the church. The front of the original organ was retained above the community room and a new altar of Yorkshire Stone was created in the side chapel.
In 1989 the Presbytery, occupying what had been Ashbourne House, was split in two. The part nearest the church became the new presbytery and the House of Light took over the other half. At this time the presbytery was refurbished. The hall underneath the church was leased out to the Northern School of Contemporary Dance at this time.
The parish feast day is on October 7th, the feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary.
William Marshall, the last abbot of Kirkstall Abbey to die in office, came from what is now the Holy Rosary parish. He built the tower of Kirkstall Abbey in 1527, just twelve years before his successor, John Ripley, the 27th and last Abbot, had the sad duty of surrendering the Abbey to King Henry VIII. That the remains of the tower are still visible after 430 years is proof of the solidity of its construction, and a memorial to one who might be considered an early parishioner.
For more about the history of Kirkstall Abbey see:
www.leeds.gov.uk/kirkstallabbey/Kirkstall_Abbey/History.aspx
Another that could be seen as an early parishioner is William Scott of Scott Hall. Scott Hall was situated in Potternewton, just about where Scott Hall Place is now. This had been the home of the Scott family who had originated from Scotland. When the last of the family line died, the hall was demolished and the land was quarried, with the stone used for many Leeds buildings. When the quarry was worked out it was filled in and is now the playing fields on Scott Hall Road. When the A61 was built in the 1930s, it was named Scott Hall as a reminder of the former land use.
William Scott left a “parcel of land” on the corner of Vicar Lane and Kirkgate to the Parish Priest of Leeds Parish Church in 1470, on which a modest mansion was built. The site existed for almost 400 years and was known as Vicar’s Croft, until it was bought in 1857 by the Leeds Corporation and is now the home of the Leeds Markets.
An aerial view of the Church its surroundings can be found at:
www.leodis.net/display.aspx?resourceIdentifier=20021127_4...
Sources:
Silver Jubilee brochure for Holy Rosary Church, Leeds 1937-1962, can be downloaded from here.
www.movinghere.org.uk/search/catalogue.asp?catphase=short...
Gilleghan J (1990) Worship North and East of Leeds, Kingsway Press
The Diocese of Leeds
Leeds in The Catholic Encyclopedia in 1913:
en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Leeds
The Diocese of Leeds on Wikipedia:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocese_of_Leeds
For more about the history of Kirkstall Abbey see:
www.leeds.gov.uk/kirkstallabbey/Kirkstall_Abbey/History.aspx
photo courtesy
www.dharmashop.com/photos/ft016.jpg
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.
Dalai Lama
Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.
Dalai Lama
A Brief Biography
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is the head of state and spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. He was born on 6 July 1935, to a farming family, at the hamlet of Taktser in north-eastern Tibet. At the age of two the child named Lhamo Dhondup was recognized as the incarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso.
Dalai Lama is a Mongolian title meaning 'Ocean of Wisdom' and the Dalai Lamas are manifestations of the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Chenrezig. Bodhisattvas are enlightened beings who have postponed their own nirvana and chosen to take rebirth to serve humanity.
Education in Tibet
His Holiness began his monastic education at the age of six. At 23 he sat for his final examination in the Jokhang Temple, Lhasa, during the annual Monlam (prayer) Festival in 1959. He passed with honours and was awarded the Lharampa degree, the highest level geshe degree (a doctorate of Buddhist philosophy) .
Leadership Responsibilities
In 1950 His Holiness the Dalai Lama was called upon to assume full political power after China's invasion of Tibet in 1949. In 1954 he went to Beijing for peace talks with Mao Zedong and other Chinese leaders, including Deng Xiaoping. But finally, in 1959, with the brutal suppression of the Tibetan national uprising in Lhasa by Chinese troops, the Dalai Lama was forced to escape into exile. Since then he has been living in Dharamsala, north India, the seat of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile.
Since the Chinese invasion, His Holiness has appealed to the United Nations on the question of Tibet. Three resolutions were adopted by the General Assembly, in 1959,1961 and 1965.
Democratisation Process
In 1963 His Holiness the Dalai Lama presented a draft democratic constitution for Tibet, following this with a number of reforms. However, in May 1990, the radical reforms called for by His Holiness saw the realization of a truly democratic government for the exile Tibetan community. The Tibetan Cabinet (Kashag) , which till then had been appointed by him was dissolved along with the Tenth Assembly of Tibetan People's Deputies (Tibetan parliament in exile) . In the same year, exile Tibetans on the Indian sub-continent and in more than 33 other countries elected 46 members to the expanded Eleventh Tibetan parliament on a Ôone man one vote' basis. The parliament, in its turn, elected new members of the cabinet.
The new democratic constitution promulgated as a result of this reform was named 'The Charter of Tibetans in Exile'. The charter enshrines freedom of speech, belief, assembly and movement. It also provides detailed guidelines on the functioning of the Tibetan government with respect to those living in exile.
In 1992 His Holiness the Dalai Lama issued guidelines for the constitution of a future, free Tibet. In it, he announced that when Tibet becomes free the immediate task will be to set up an interim government whose first responsibility will be to elect a constitutional assembly to frame and adopt Tibet's democratic constitution. On that day His Holiness will transfer all his historical and political authority to the Interim President and live as a ordinary citizen. His Holiness also stated that Tibet comprising of the three traditional provinces Ð U-Tsang, Amdo and Kham Ð will be a federal and democracy.
Peace Initiatives
In 1987 His Holiness proposed the Five Point Peace Plan for Tibet as the first step towards a peaceful solution to the worsening situation in Tibet. He envisaged that Tibet will become a sanctuary Ð a zone of peace at the heart of Asia where all sentient beings can exist in harmony and the environment can restore and thrive. China has so far failed to respond positively to the various peace proposals put forward by His Holiness.
The Five Point Peace Plan
In His address to members of the United States Congress on 21 September 1987, His Holiness proposed the following peace plan, which contains five basic components:
1. Transformation of the whole of Tibet into a zone of peace
2. Abandonment of China's population transfer policy which threatens the very existence of the Tibetan people
3. Respect for the Tibetan people's fundamental human rights and democratic freedoms
4. Restoration and protection of Tibet's natural environment and the abandonment of China's use of Tibet for the production of nuclear weapons and dumping of nuclear waste
5. Commencement of earnest negotiations on the future status of Tibet and of relations between the Tibetan and Chinese people.
Revered By Tibetans
Every Tibetan has a deep and inexpressible connection with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. To the Tibetans, His Holiness symbolizes Tibet in its entirety: the beauty of the land, the purity of its rivers and lakes, the sanctity of its skies, the solidity of its mountains and the strength of its people.
Universal Recognition
His Holiness the Dalai Lama is a man of peace. In 1989 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent struggle for the liberation of Tibet. He has consistently advocated policies of non-violence, even in the face of extreme aggression. He also became the first Nobel Laureate to be recognized for his concern for global environmental problems.
His Holiness has traveled to more than 52 countries and met with presidents, prime ministers and crowned rulers of major nations. He has held dialogues with the heads of different religions and many well-known scientists.
From 1959 to 1999 His Holiness has received over 57 honorary doctorates, awards, prizes, etc., in recognition of his message of peace, non-violence, inter-religious understanding, universal responsibility and compassion. His Holiness has also authored more than 50 books.
His Holiness describes himself as a 'simple Buddhist monk'. In his lectures and tours around the world, his simplicity and compassionate nature visibly touches everyone who meets him. His messages are of love, compassion and forgiveness.
http: //www.tibet.net/hhdl/eng/
The Chinese are angry and hopping mad
As His Holiness Dalai Lama
will name his successor they add
They the usurpers who have swallowed his kingdom
His heritage the freedom of his people –vely bad
At Dharamsala a heart of Tibet ticks but is sad
Freedom a birthright
Robbed of her belongings
Scantily clad
But the spirit of humanity
The spirit of the Tibetans
Their hopes their aspirations
A launching pad
FREE TIBET
Bleeding words
On the Worlds Sketch Pad
Love poetry Hate racism
This schooner was launched as Lelanta II and is a larger version of Lelanta, owned by Ralph St. Peverley, who commissioned her from John G. Alden, an acclaimed sailor and ocean racing skipper. Alden’s boats are themselves world-renowned for their solidity and beauty. For Lelanta’s riveted steel build, Peverly chose the Abeking & Rasmussen shipyard in Germany, which also built cutting-edge German submarines. In 1987, her main deck had to be completely replaced, but her two spruce masts have survived the test of time. In 2002 and 2004, she finished second in her class at the Vele d’Epoca in Imperia.
www.paneraiclassicyachtschallenge.com/en/yacht-archive/se...
The largest and most magnificent of the chantry chapels is that erected on the north side of the sanctuary in 1430 by Isabella le Despenser (d.1439) in honour of her first husband Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Worcester (d.1422). She then married a second Richard Beauchamp (later buuired in his famous chapel in Warwick) and thus became Countess of Warwick. The splendid fan-vaulted chantry is thus known either as the Warwick or Beauchamp chapel and is a gloriously ornate piece of Perpendicular architecture.
The attractive town of Tewkesbury has been dominated by its superb abbey church since the beginning of the 12th century, and we can be forever grateful to its townspeople for purchasing the monastic church in 1540 for £453 for use as their parish church, saving it from the fate that befell countless similar great churches across the land during the turmoil of the Dissolution. It reminds us both how lucky we are to still marvel at it today, yet also how great a loss to our heritage the period wrought when many more such buildings were so utterly plundered as to have gone without trace (the fate of the monastic buildings here and even the lady chapel of the church whose footings are laid out in the grass at the east end).
Tewkesbury Abbey is thus rightly celebrated as one of our greatest non-cathedral churches, and remarkably much of the original Norman church remains substantially intact, most apparently in the great central tower, a fine example of Romanesque architecture adorned with rows of blind-arcading. The west front is dominated by a massive Norman-arched recess (enclosing the somewhat later west window) and the nave and transepts remain largely as originally built, though this is less clear externally owing to the changes made to the windows, nearly all of which were enlarged in the 14th century in the Decorated Gothic style. This century also saw the complete rebuilding of the eastern limb of the church, of a form less common in England with radiating chapels surrounding the eastern apse of the choir (the central lady chapel sadly missing since 1540).
The interior reveals far more of the Romanesque structure with mighty columns supporting the round Norman arches of the nave arcades giving the building a great sense of solidity. The space is further enlivened by the changes made during the 14th century by the stunning vault over the nave (adorned with a rewarding series of figurative bosses) which sits surprisingly well with the Norman work below. Beyond the apsidal choir beckons, and both this and the space below the tower are enriched with stunningly complex vaulted ceilings (replete with further bosses and gilded metal stars), all ablaze with colour and gilding.
There is much to enjoy in glass here, most remarkably a complete set of 14th century glazing in the clerestorey of the choir, seven windows filled with saints and prophets (and most memorably two groups of knights in the westernmost windows on each side). A few of the figures have fared less well over the centuries but on the whole this is a wonderfully rare and well preserved scheme. There is much glass from the 19th century too, with an extensive scheme in the nave of good quality work by Hardman's, and more recently a pair of rich windows by Tom Denny were added in one of the polygonal chapels around the east end.
Some of the most memorable features are the monuments with many medieval tombs of note, primarily the effigies and chantry chapels of members of the Despenser family around the choir (two of the chantries being miniature architectural gems in their own right with exquisite fan-vaulting). In one of the apsidal chapels is the unusual cenotaph to Abbot Wakeman with his grisly cadaver effigy, a late medieval reminder of earthly mortality.
Tewkesbury Abbey is not to be missed and is every bit as rewarding as many of our cathedrals (superior in fact to all but the best). It is normally kept open and welcoming to visitors on a daily basis. I have also had the privilege of working on this great building several times over the years (as part of the team at the studio I once worked for), and have left my mark in glass in a few discreet places.
Architects; Eric Parry Architects, 2011.
This is one of those buildings which has to be seen and walked around to fully appreciate architect's urge to give it such a strong mannerist 'garb' and visual layering, emphasising its solidity as it grows upwards.
The Flower Carrier [formerly The Flower Vendor]
1935
oil and tempera on Masonite, 48 in. x 47 3/4 in. (
Diego Rivera, Mexican (Guanajuato, Mexico, 1886 - 1957, Mexico City, Mexico)
Acquired 1935, Collection SFMOMA, Albert M. Bender Collection, gift of Albert M. Bender in memory of Caroline Walter, © Banco de Mexico Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
35.4516
In 1935, Albert M. Bender asked Rivera to select a work of art for the new San Francisco Museum of Art. Rivera's choice, The Flower Carrier, is a rhythmic, powerful image of peasants at work. As in many of Riera's depictions of Mexican campesinos, or agricultural owrkers, the painting conveys underlying Marxist convictions and a sympathetic respect for manual labor. Though the workers are heavily burdened, they are painted with a sculptural solidity that lends them a monumental dignity. One may interpret them as idealized representatives of their class, in harmony with each other and the natural world.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA) was opened in 1935 under director Grace L. McCann Morley as the San Francisco Museum of Art, the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art. For its first sixty years, the museum occupied upper floors of the War Memorial Veterans Building in the Civic Center. Under director Henry T. Hopkins, the museum added "Modern" to its title in 1975, and established an international reputation. In 1995 the museum moved to its current location, a large cubistic building designed by Mario Botta Architetto of Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum at 151 Third Street.
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is a modern art museum on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, and is one of the most visited attractions in Venice. The museum was originally the private collection of the American heiress Peggy Guggenheim, who began displaying the artworks to the public seasonally in 1951. After her death in 1979. it passed to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, which eventually opened the collection year-round. The collection is housed in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, an 18th-century palace, which was Guggenheim's home.
Collection
The collection is principally based on the personal art collection of Peggy Guggenheim, a former wife of artist Max Ernst and a niece of the mining magnate, Solomon R. Guggenheim. She collected the artworks mostly between 1938 and 1946, buying works in Europe "in dizzying succession" as World War II began, and later in America, where she discovered the talent of Jackson Pollock, among others. The museum "houses an impressive selection of modern art. Its picturesque setting and well-respected collection attract some 400,000 visitors per year", making it "the most-visited site in Venice after the Doge's Palace". Works on display include those of prominent Italian futurists and American modernists. Pieces in the collection embrace Cubism, Surrealism and Abstract expressionism. During Peggy Guggenheim's 30-year residence in Venice, her collection was seen at her home in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni and at special exhibitions in Amsterdam (1950), Zurich (1951), London (1964), Stockholm (1966), Copenhagen (1966), New York (1969) and Paris (1974).
Peggy Guggenheim, Marseille, 1937
Among the artists represented in the collection are, from Italy, De Chirico (The Red Tower, The Nostalgia of the Poet) and Severini (Sea Dancer); from France, Braque (The Clarinet), Metzinger (Au Vélodrome), Gleizes (Woman with animals), Duchamp (Sad Young Man on a Train), Léger (Study of a Nude and Men in the City ) Picabia (Very Rare Picture on Earth); from Spain, Dalí (Birth of Liquid Desires), Miró (Seated Woman II) and Picasso (The Poet, On the Beach); from other European countries, Brâncuși (including a sculpture from the Bird in Space series), Max Ernst (The Kiss, Attirement of the Bride), Giacometti (Woman with Her Throat Cut, Woman Walking), Gorky (Untitled), Kandinsky (Landscape with Red Spots, No. 2, White Cross), Klee (Magic Garden), Magritte (Empire of Light) and Mondrian (Composition No. 1 with Grey and Red 1938, Composition with Red 1939); and from the US, Calder (Arc of Petals) and Pollock (The Moon Woman, Alchemy).[3] In one room, the museum also exhibits a few paintings by Peggy's daughter Pegeen Vail Guggenheim
In addition to the permanent collection, the museum houses 26 works on long-term loan from the Gianni Mattioli Collection, including images of Italian futurism by artists including Boccioni (Materia, Dynamism of a Cyclist), Carrà (Interventionist Demonstration), Russolo (The Solidity of Fog) and Severini (Blue Dancer), as well as works by Balla, Depero, Rosai, Sironi and Soffici.In 2012, the museum received 83 works from the Rudolph and Hannelore Schulhof Collection, which will have its own gallery within in the building.
Building and Venice Biennale
Entrance to Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni
The collection is housed in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, which Peggy Guggenheim purchased in 1949. Although sometimes mistaken for a modern building,it is an 18th-century palace designed by the Venetian architect Lorenzo Boschetti. The building was unfinished, and has an unusually low elevation on the Grand Canal. The museum's website describes it thus:
Palazzo Venier dei Leoni's long low façade, made of Istrian stone and set off against the trees in the garden behind that soften its lines, forms a welcome "caesura" in the stately march of Grand Canal palaces from the Accademia to the Salute.
The palazzo was Peggy Guggenheim's home for thirty years. In 1951, the palazzo, its garden, now called the Nasher Sculpture Garden, and her art collection were opened to the public from April to October for viewing. Her collection at the palazzo remained open during the summers until her death in Camposampiero, northern Italy, in 1979; she had donated the palazzo and the 300-piece collection to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in 1976. The foundation, then under the direction of Peter Lawson-Johnston, took control of the palazzo and the collection in 1979 and re-opened the collection there in April 1980 as the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.
After the Foundation took control of the building in 1979, it took steps to expand gallery space; by 1985, "all of the rooms on the main floor had been converted into galleries ... the white Istrian stone facade and the unique canal terrace had been restored" and a protruding arcade wing, called the barchessa, had been rebuilt by architect Giorgio Bellavitis. Since 1985, the museum has been open year-round. In 1993, apartments adjacent to the museum were converted to a garden annex, a shop and more galleries.In 1995, the Nasher Sculpture Garden was completed, additional exhibition rooms were added, and a café was opened . A few years later, in 1999 and in 2000, the two neighboring properties were acquired. In 2003, a new entrance and booking office opened to cope with the increasing number of visitors, which reached 350,000 in 2007.Since 1993, the museum has doubled in size, from 2,000 to 4,000 square meters.
Since 1985, the United States has selected the foundation to operate the U.S. Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, an exhibition held every other summer. In 1986, the foundation purchased the Palladian-style pavilion, built in 1930
Management and attendance
Philip Rylands was appointed director of the collection in 2000. As of 2012, the collection was the most visited art gallery in Venice and the 11th most visited in Italy.
2014 law
Following the gift of works to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation by Hannelore and Rudolph Schulhof of Germany in 2012, works collected by Peggy Guggenheim were removed from the Palazzo and placed in storage to make room for the display of the new works. The Schulhofs were honoured with inscriptions of their names alongside Guggenheim's at both entrances of the museum. Their son, Michael P. Schulhof, has been a trustee of the Guggenheim foundation since 2009. In 2014, seven French descendants of Peggy Guggenheim sued the foundation for violating her will and agreements with the foundation, which they say require that the collection "remain intact and on display". The descendants also claim, among other things, that the resting place of Guggenheim's ashes in the gardens of the Palazzo have been desecrated by the display of sculptures donated by Patsy and Raymond Nasher nearby and by the use of the burial site for fundraising parties. The lawsuit requests that the founder's bequest be revoked or that the collections, gravesite and signage be restored. The foundation calls the lawsuit "meritless". Other descendants of Peggy Guggenheim support the foundation.
St Edmund, Southwold, Suffolk
I kept meaning to come back to Southwold - the church, I mean, for I found myself in the little town from time to time. I finally kept my promise to myself in the summer of 2017, tipping up on a beautiful sunny day only to find the church closed for extensive repairs. The days got shorter, and by the time the church reopened it was too late in the year for me to try again. In fact, it was not until late October 2018 that I made it back there, on another beautiful day.
Southwold is well-known to people who have never even been there I suppose, signifying one side of Suffolk to which Ipswich is perhaps the counter in the popular imagination. Some thirty years ago, the comedian Michael Palin made a film for television called East of Ipswich. It was a memoir of his childhood in the 1950s, and the basic comic premise behind the film was that in those days families would go on holiday to seaside resorts on the East Anglian coast. In the child Palin's case, it was Southwold.
The amusement came from the idea that people in those days would sit in deckchairs beside the grey north sea, or shelter from the drizzle in genteel teashops or the amusement arcade on the pier. In the Costa Brava package tour days of the 1980s, the quaintness of this image made it seem like something from a different world.
I remember Southwold in the 1980s. It was one of those agreeable little towns distant enough from anywhere bigger to maintain a life of its own. It still had its genteel tea shops, its dusty grocers, its quaint hotels and pubs all owned by Adnams, the old-fashioned and unfashionable local brewery. In the white heat of the Thatcherite cultural revolution, it seemed a place that would soon die on its feet quietly and peaceably.
And then, in the 1990s, the colour supplements discovered the East Anglian coast, and fell in love with it. The new fashions for antique-collecting, cooking with local produce and general country living, coupled with a snobbishness about how vulgar foreign package trips had become, conspired to make places like Southwold very sought after. Before Nigel Lawson's boom became a bust, the inflated house prices of London and the home counties gave people money to burn. And in their hoards, they came out of the big city to buy holiday homes in East Anglia.
Although they are often lumped together, the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk are very different to each other (Cambridgeshire and North Essex are also culturally part of East Anglia, but the North Essex coast is too close to London to have ever stopped being cheap and cheerful, and Cambridgeshire has no coastline). Norfolk's beaches are wide and sandy, with dunes and cliffs and rock pools to explore. Towns like Cromer and Hunstanton seem to have stepped out of the pages of the Ladybird Book of the Seaside. Tiny villages along the Norfolk coast have secret little beaches of their own.
Suffolk's coast is wilder. Beaches are mainly pebbles rather than sand, and the marshes stretch inland, cutting the coast off from the rest of the county. Unlike Norfolk, Suffolk has no coast road, and so the settlements on the coast are isolated from each other, stuck at the ends of narrow lanes which snake away from the A12 and peter out in the heathland above the sea. There are fewer of them too. It is still quicker to get from Walberswick to Southwold by water than by land. Because they are isolated from each other, they take on individual personalities and characteristics. Because they are isolated from the land, they become bastions of polite civilisation.
Between Felixstowe in the south, which no outsiders like (and consequently is the favourite of many Suffolk people) and Lowestoft in the north, which is basically an industrial town-on-sea (but which still has the county's best beaches - shhh, don't tell a soul) are half a dozen small towns that vie with each other for trendiness. Southwold is the biggest, and today it is also the most expensive place to live in all East Anglia. Genteel tea shops survive, but are increasingly shouldered by shops that specialise in ski-wear and Barbour jackets, delicatessens that stock radicchio and seventeen different kinds of olive, jewellery shops and kitchen gadget shops and antique furniture shops where prices are exquisitely painful. Worst of all, the homely, shabby, smoke-filled Sole Bay Inn under the lighthouse has been converted by the now-trendy Adnams Brewery into a chrome and glass filled wine bar.
If you see someone in Norfolk driving a truck, they are probably wearing a baseball cap and carrying a shotgun. in Suffolk, they've more likely just bought a Victorian pine dresser from an antique shop, and they're taking it back to Islington. Does this matter? The fishing industry was dying anyway. The tourist industry was also dying. If places like Southwold, Aldeburgh and Orford become outposts of north London, at least they will still provide jobs for local people. But the local people won't be able to afford to live there, of course. They'll be bussed in from Reydon, Leiston and Melton to provide services for people in holiday cottages which are the former homes they grew up in, but can no longer afford to buy. Does this seriously annoy me? Not as much as it does them, I'll bet.
So, lets go to Southwold, turning off the A12 at the great ship of Blythburgh church, the wide marshes of the River Blyth spreading aimlessly beyond the road. We climb and fall over ancient dunes, and then the road opens out into the flat marshes, the town spreads out beyond. We enter through Reydon (now actually bigger than Southwold, with houses at half the price) and over the bridge into the town of Southwold itself.
Having been so critical, I need to say here that Southwold is beautiful. It is quite the loveliest small town in all East Anglia. None of the half-timbered houses here that you find in places like Long Melford and Lavenham. Here, the town was completely destroyed by fire in the 17th century, and so we have fine 18th and 19th century municipal buildings. One of the legacies of the fire was the creation of wide open spaces just off of the high street, called greens. The best one of all is Gun Hill Green, overlooking the bay where the last major naval battle in British waters was fought. The cannons still point out to sea. The houses here are stunning, gobsmacking, jaw-droppingly wonderful. If I could afford to buy one of them as a weekend retreat, then you bet your life I would, and to hell with the people who moaned about it.
At the western end of the High Street is St Bartholomew's Green, and beyond it sits what is, for my money, Suffolk's single most impressive building. This is the great church of St Edmund, a vast edifice built all in one go in the second half of the 15th century. Only Lavenham can compete with it for scale and presence. Unlike the massing at St Peter and St Paul at Lavenham, St Edmund is defined by a long unbroken clerestory and aisles beneath - where St Peter and St Paul looks full of tension, ready to spring, St Edmund is languid and floating, a ship at ease.
Southwold church was just one of several vast late medieval rebuildings in this area. Across the river at Walberswick and a few miles upriver at Blythburgh the same thing happened. Blythburgh still survives, but Walberswick was derelicted to make a smaller church, as were Covehithe and Kessingland. Dunwich All Saints was lost to the sea. But Southwold was the biggest. Everything about it breathes massive permanence, from the solidity of the tower to the turreted porch, from the wide windows to the jaunty sanctus bell fleche.
Along the top of the aisles, grimacing faces look down. All of them are different. The pedestals atop the clerestory were intended for statues as at Blythburgh, but were probably never filled before the Reformation intervened. At the west end, above the great west window, you can see the vast inscription SAncT EDMUND ORA P: NOBIS ('Saint Edmund, pray for us') as bold a record of the mindset of late medieval East Anglian Catholicism as you'll find.
As at Lavenham and Long Melford, the interior has been extensively restored, but not in as heavy or blunt a manner as at those two churches. St Edmund has, it must be said, benefited from the attentions of German bombers who put out all the dull Victorian glass with blast damage during World War II. Here, the interior is vast, light and airy, and much of the restoration is 20th century work, not 19th century.
Perhaps because of this, more medieval interior features have survived. Unlike Long Melford, Southwold does not have surviving medieval glass (Mr Dowsing saw to that in 1644), but it does have what is the finest screen in the county.
It stretches right the way across the church, and is effectively three separate screens. There is a rood screen across the chancel arch, and parclose screens across the north and south chancel aisles. All retain their original dado figures. There are 36 of them, more than anywhere else in Suffolk. They have been restored, particularly in the central range, but are fascinating because they retain a lot of original gesso work, where plaster of Paris is applied to wood and allowed to dry. It is then carved to produce intricate details.
The central screen shows the eleven remaining disciples and St Paul. They are, from left to right, Philip, Bartholomew, James the Less, Thomas, Andrew, Peter, Paul, John, James, Simon, Jude and Matthew.
The south chancel chapel is light and open. The bosses above are said to represent Mary Tudor and her second husband Charles, Duke of Brandon. The screen here is painted with twelve Old Testament prophets, and Mortlock suggests that they are by a different hand to the images on the other two screens. Here on the south screen, some of the figures have surviving naming inscriptions, and Mortlock surmises that the complete sequence, from left to right, is Baruch, Hosea, Nahum, Jeremiah, Elias, Moses, David, Isaiah, Amos, Jonah and Ezekiel. Further, he observes that the subject is a usual one for the English Midlands, but rare for East Anglia, and that perhaps this part of the screen came from elsewhere. The same may be true of the other two parts - it is hard to think that the central screen was deliberately made too wide for the two arcades.
The north aisle chapel is reserved as the blessed sacrament chapel. The screen is harder to explore, because the northern side is curtailed by a large chest, but it features angels. Unlike the screens at Hitcham and Blundeston, which show angels holding instruments of the passion, these are the nine orders of angels, with Gabriel at their head, and flanked by angels holding symbols of the Trinity and the Eucharist. Mortlock says that they are so similar to the ones at Barton Turf in Norfolk that they may be by the same hand, in which case the central screen is also by that person. They are, from left to right, the Holy Trinity, Gabriel, Archangels, Powers, Dominions, Cherubim, Seraphim, Thrones, Principalities, Virtues, Messengers, and finally the Eucharist. The Holy Trinity angel still has part of the original dedicatory inscription beneath his feet.
If part or all of this screen came from elsewhere, where did it come from? Possibly either Walberswick, Covehithe or Kessingland, the three downsized churches mentioned earlier. More excitingly, it might have come from one of the churches along this coast that was lost to the sea, perhaps neighbouring St Nicholas at Easton Bavents, or, just to the south, St Peter or St John the Baptist, the two Dunwich churches lost in the 16th and 17th centuries. We'll never know.
If you turn back at the screen and face westwards, your eyes are automatically drawn to the towering font cover, part of the extensive 1930s redecoration of the building. The clerestory is almost like a glass atrium intended to house it. Also the work of the period is the repainting and regilding of the 15th century pulpit (a lot of people blanch at this, but I think it is gorgeous) and the lectern. Beneath the font cover, the font is clearly one of the rare seven sacraments series, and part of the same group as Westhall, Blythburgh and Wenhaston. As at Blythburgh and Wenhaston, the panels are completely erased, probably in the 19th century, an act of barbarous vandalism. Given that Westhall is probably the best of all in the county, we must assume that three major medieval art treasures were wiped out. Astonishingly, vague shadows survive of the former reliefs; you can easily make out the Mass panel, facing east as at Westhall, the Penance panel and even what may be the Baptism of Christ.
Stepping through the screen, the reredos ahead is by Benedict Williamson and the glass above by Ninian Comper, familiar names in the Anglo-catholic pantheon, and evidence of an enthusiasm here that still survives in High Church form. There is a good engraved glass image of St Edmund to the north of the sanctuary, very much in the 1960s fashion, but curiously placed. On the wall of the chancel to the west of it, the high organ case is also painted and gilded enthusiastically.
As well as the screen, Southwold's other great medieval survival is the set of return stalls either side of the eastern face of the chancel screen. They have misericord seats, but the best feature are the handrests between the seats. On the south side, carvings include a man with a horn-shaped hat and sinners being drawn into the mouth of hell. On the north side are a man playing two pipes, a monkey preaching and a beaver biting its own genitals, a tale from the medieval bestiary, apparently.
What else is there to see? Well, the church is full of delights, and rewards further visits which always seem to turn up something previously unnoticed. St George rides full tilt at a dragon on an old chest at the west end of the north aisle. There is good 19th century glass in the porch and at the west end of the nave. A clock jack stands, axe and bell in hand, at the west end, a twin to the one upriver at Blythburgh. This one has a name, he's called Southwold Jack, and he is one of the symbols of the Adnams brewery.
As Mortlock notes, there are very few surviving memorials. This is partly because St Edmund was not in the patronage of a great landed family, but it may also suggest that they were largely removed at the time of the 19th century restoration, as at Brandon. One moving one is for the child of a vicar, and there are some interesting pre-Oxford Movement 19th century brasses in the south aisle.
High, high above all this, the roofs are models of Anglo-Catholic melodrama, the canopy of honour to the rood and the chancel ceilure in particular. But there is a warmth about it all that is missing from, say, Eye, which underwent a similar makeover. This church feels full of life, and not a museum piece at all. I remember attending evensong here late one winter Saturday afternoon, and it was magical. On another visit, I came on one of the first days of spring that was truly warm and bright, with not a cloud in the sky. As we drove into town, a cold fret off of the sea was condensing the steam of the brewery, sending it in swirls and skeins around the tower of St Edmund like low cloud. It was so atmospheric that I almost forgave them for what they have done to the Sole Bay Inn.
Ferstel
(Pictures you can see by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
Ferstel and Café Central, by Rudolf von Alt, left the men's alley (Herrengasse - Street of the Lords), right Strauchgasse
Danube mermaid fountain in a courtyard of the Palais Ferstel
Shopping arcade of the Freyung to Herrengasse
Entrance to Ferstel of the Freyung, right the Palais Harrach, left the palace Hardegg
The Ferstel is a building in the first district of Vienna, Inner City, with the addresses Strauchgasse 2-4, 14 Lord Street (Herrengasse) and Freyung 2. It was established as a national bank and stock exchange building, the denomination Palais is unhistoric.
History
In 1855, the entire estate between Freyung, Strauchgasse and Herrengasse was by Franz Xaver Imperial Count von Abensperg and Traun to the k.k. Privileged Austrian National Bank sold. This banking institution was previously domiciled in the Herrengasse 17/ Bankgasse. The progressive industrialization and the with it associated economic expansion also implied a rapid development of monetary transactions and banking, so that the current premises soon no longer have been sufficient. This problem could only be solved by a new building, in which also should be housed a stock exchange hall.
According to the desire of the then Governor of the National Bank, Franz von Pipitz, the new building was supposed to be carried out with strict observance of the economy and avoiding a worthless luxury with solidity and artistic as well as technical completion. The building should offer room for the National Bank, the stock market, a cafe and - a novel idea for Vienna - a bazaar.
The commissioned architect, Heinrich von Ferstel, demonstrated in the coping with the irregular surface area with highest conceivable effective use of space his state-of-the art talent. The practical requirements combine themselves with the actually artistic to a masterful composition. Ferstel has been able to lay out the rooms of the issuing bank, the two trading floors, the passage with the bazar and the coffee house in accordance with their intended purpose and at the same time to maintain a consistent style.
He was an advocate of the "Materialbaues" (material building) as it clearly is reflected in the ashlar building of the banking institution. Base, pillars and stairs were fashioned of Wöllersdorfer stone, façade elements such as balconies, cornices, structurings as well as stone banisters of the hard white stone of Emperor Kaiser quarry (Kaisersteinbruch), while the walls were made of -Sankt Margarethen limestone. The inner rooms have been luxuriously formed, with wood paneling, leather wallpaper, Stuccolustro and rich ornamental painting.
The facade of the corner front Strauchgasse/Herrengasse received twelve sculptures by Hanns Gasser as decoration, they symbolized the peoples of the monarchy. The mighty round arch at the exit Freyung were closed with wrought-iron bare gates, because the first used locksmith could not meet the demands of Ferstel, the work was transferred to a silversmith.
1860 the National Bank and the stock exchange could move into the in 1859 completed construction. The following year was placed in the glass-covered passage the Danube mermaid fountain, whose design stems also of Ferstel. Anton von Fernkorn has created the sculptural decoration with an artistic sensitivity. Above the marble fountain basin rises a column crowned by a bronze statue, the Danube female with flowing hair, holding a fish in its hand. Below are arranged around the column three also in bronze cast figures: merchant, fisherman and shipbuilder, so those professions that have to do with the water. The total cost of the building, the interior included, amounted to the enormous sum of 1.897.600 guilders.
The originally planned use of the building remained only a few years preserved. The Stock Exchange with the premises no longer had sufficient space: in 1872 it moved to a provisional solution, 1877 at Schottenring a new Stock Exchange building opened. The National Bank moved 1925 into a yet 1913 planned, spacious new building.
The building was in Second World War battered gravely particularly on the main facade. In the 1960s was located in the former Stock Exchange a basketball training hall, the entire building appeared neglected.
1971 dealt the President of the Federal Monuments Office, Walter Frodl, with the severely war damaged banking and stock exchange building in Vienna. The Office for Technical Geology of Otto Casensky furnished an opinion on the stone facade. On the facade Freyung 2 a balcony was originally attached over the entire 15.4 m long front of hard Kaiserstein.
(Usage of Leith lime: Dependent from the consistence and structure of the Leitha lime the usage differed from „Reibsand“ till building material. The Leitha lime stone is a natural stone which can be formed easily and was desired als beautiful stone for buildings in Roman times. The usage of lime stone from Eggenburg in the Bronze age already was verified. This special attribute is the reason why the Leitha lime was taken from sculptors and masons.
The source of lime stone in the Leitha Mountains was important for Austria and especially for Vienna from the cultur historical point of view during the Renaissance and Baroque. At the 19th century the up to 150 stone quarries of the Leitha mountains got many orders form the construction work of the Vienna „Ring road“.
At many buildings of Graz, such as the castle at the Grazer castle hill, the old Joanneum and the Cottage, the Leitha lime stone was used.
Due to the fact that Leitha lime is bond on carbonate in the texture, the alteration through the actual sour rain is heavy. www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC2HKZ9_leithagebirge-leithak...)
This balcony was no longer present and only close to the facade were remnants of the tread plates and the supporting brackets recognizable. In July 1975, followed the reconstruction of the balcony and master stonemason Friedrich Opferkuh received the order to restore the old state am Leithagebirge received the order the old state - of Mannersdorfer stone, armoured concrete or artificial stone.
1975-1982, the building was renovated and re-opened the Café Central. Since then, the privately owned building is called Palais Ferstel. In the former stock exchange halls now meetings and presentations take place; the Café Central is utilizing one of the courtyards.
[Bibliography]
Peggy Guggenheim's career belongs in the history of 20th century art. Peggy used to say that it was her duty to protect the art of her own time, and she dedicated half of her life to this mission, as well as to the creation of the museum that still carries her name.
Peggy Guggenheim was born in New York on 26 August 1898, the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim and Florette Seligman. Benjamin Guggenheim was one of seven brothers who, with their father, Meyer (of Swiss origin), created a family fortune in the late 19th century from the mining and smelting of metals, especially silver, copper and lead. The Seligmans were a leading banking family. Peggy grew up in New York. In April 1912 her father died heroically on the SS Titanic. (1)
In her early 20s, Peggy volunteered for work at a bookshop, the Sunwise Turn, in New York and thanks to this began making friends in intellectual and artistic circles, including the man who was to become her first husband in Paris in 1922, Laurence Vail. Vail was a writer and Dada collagist of great talent. He chronicled his tempestuous life with Peggy in a novel, Murder! Murder! of which Peggy wrote: "It was a sort of satire of our life together and, although it was extremely funny, I took offense at several things he said about me."
In 1921 Peggy Guggenheim traveled to Europe. Thanks to Laurence Vail (the father of her two children Sindbad and Pegeen, the painter), Peggy soon found herself at the heart of Parisian bohème and American ex-patriate society. Many of her acquaintances of the time, such as Constantin Brancusi, Djuna Barnes and Marcel Duchamp, were to become lifelong friends. Though she remained on good terms with Vail for the rest of his life, she left him in 1928 for an English intellectual, John Holms, who was the greatest love of her life. There is a lengthy description of John Holms, a war hero with writer's block, in chapter five of Edwin Muir's An Autobiography. Muir wrote: "Holms was the most remarkable man I ever met." Unfortunately, Holms died tragically young in 1934.
In 1937, encouraged by her friend Peggy Waldman, Peggy decided to open an art gallery in London. When she opened her Guggenheim Jeune gallery in January 1938, she was beginning, at 39 years old, a career which would significantly affect the course of post-war art. Her friend Samuel Beckett urged her to dedicate herself to contemporary art as it was âa living thing,â and Marcel Duchamp introduced her to the artists and taught her, as she put it, âthe difference between abstract and Surrealist art.â The first show presented works by Jean Cocteau, while the second was the first one-man show of Vasily Kandinsky in England.
In 1939, tired of her gallery, Peggy conceived âthe idea of opening a modern museum in London,â with her friend Herbert Read as its director (2). From the start the museum was to be formed on historical principles, and a list of all the artists that should be represented, drawn up by Read and later revised by Marcel Duchamp and Nellie van Doesburg, was to become the basis of her collection.
In 1939-40, apparently oblivious of the war, Peggy busily acquired works for the future museum, keeping to her resolve to âbuy a picture a day.â Some of the masterpieces of her collection, such as works by Francis Picabia, Georges Braque, Salvador DalÃ- and Piet Mondrian, were bought at that time. She astonished Fernand Léger by buying his Men in the City on the day that Hitler invaded Norway. She acquired Brancusiâs Bird in Space as the Germans approached Paris, and only then decided to flee the city.
In July 1941, Peggy fled Nazi-occupied France and returned to her native New York, together with Max Ernst, who was to become her second husband a few months later (they separated in 1943).
Peggy immediately began looking for a location for her modern art museum, while she continued to acquire works for her collection. In October 1942 she opened her museum/gallery Art of This Century. Designed by the Rumanian-Austrian architect Frederick Kiesler, the gallery was composed of extraordinarily innovative exhibition rooms and soon became the most stimulating venue for contemporary art in New York City. (3)
Of the opening night, she wrote: âI wore one of my Tanguy earrings and one made by Calder in order to show my impartiality between Surrealist and Abstract Art" (4). There Peggy exhibited her collection of Cubist, abstract and Surrealist art, which was already substantially that which we see today in Venice. Peggy produced a remarkable catalogue, edited by André Breton, with a cover design by Max Ernst. She held temporary exhibitions of leading European artists, and of several then unknown young Americans such as Robert Motherwell, William Baziotes, Mark Rothko, David Hare, Janet Sobel, Robert de Niro Sr, Clyfford Still, and Jackson Pollock, the âstarâ of the gallery, who was given his first show by Peggy late in 1943. From July 1943 Peggy supported Pollock with a monthly stipend and actively promoted and sold his paintings. She commissioned his largest painting, a Mural, which she later gave to the University of Iowa.
Pollock and the others pioneered American Abstract Expressionism. One of the principal sources of this was Surrealism, which the artists encountered at Art of This Century. More important, however, was the encouragement and support that Peggy, together with her friend and assistant Howard Putzel, gave to the members of this nascent New York avant-garde. Peggy and her collection thus played a vital intermediary role in the development of Americaâs first art movement of international importance.
In 1947 Peggy decided to return in Europe, where her collection was shown for the first time at the 1948 Venice Biennale, in the Greek pavilion (5). In this way the works of artists such as Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko were exhibited for the first time in Europe. The presence of Cubist, abstract, and Surrealist art made the pavilion the most coherent survey of Modernism yet to have been presented in Italy.
Soon after Peggy bought Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, on the Grand Canal in Venice, where she came to live. In 1949 she held an exhibition of sculptures in the garden (6) curated by Giuseppe Marchiori, and from 1951 she opened her collection to the public.
In 1950 Peggy organized the first exhibition of Jackson Pollock in Italy, in the Ala Napoleonica of the Museo Correr in Venice. Her collection was in the meantime exhibited in Florence and Milan, and later in Amsterdam, Brussels, and Zurich. From 1951 Peggy opened her house and her collection to the public annually in the summer months. During her 30-year Venetian life, Peggy Guggenheim continued to collect works of art and to support artists, such as Edmondo Bacci and Tancredi Parmeggiani, whom she met in 1951. In 1962 Peggy Guggenheim was nominated Honorary Citizen of Venice.
In 1969 the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York invited Peggy Guggenheim to show her collection there. In 1976 she donated her palace and works of art to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. The Foundation had been created in 1937 by Peggy Guggenheimâs uncle Solomon, in order to operate his collection and museum which, since 1959, has been housed in Frank Lloyd Wrightâs famous spiral structure on 5th Avenue.
Peggy died aged 81 on 23 December 1979. Her ashes are placed in a corner of the garden of Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, next to the place where she customarily buried her beloved dogs. Since this time, the Guggenheim Foundation has converted and expanded Peggy Guggenheim's private house into one of the finest small museums of modern art in the world.
[Info]
Address
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
Palazzo Venier dei Leoni
Dorsoduro 701
I-30123 Venezia
Opening hours
Daily 10 am - 6 pm
Closed Tuesdays and December 25
General information
tel: +39.041.2405.411
fax: +39.041.520.6885
e-mail: info@guggenheim-venice.it
Visitor services
tel: +39.041.2405.440/419
fax: +39.041.520.9083
e-mail: visitorinfo@guggenheim-venice.it
Photography
Photography is permitted without flash. You may not use tripods or monopods.
Animals
Animals of all sizes are not allowed in the galleries and in the gardens.
For information and assistance please contact "Sporting Dog Club".
Call Tel. +39 347 6242550 (Marie) or +39 347 4161321 (Roberto)
or write to sportingdoginvenice@gmail.com
Venice Art for All
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection joins the Venice Art for All project and becomes accessible to all, including people with limited mobility.
Palazzo Venier dei Leoni was probably begun in the 1750s by architect Lorenzo Boschetti, whose only other known building in Venice is the church of San Barnaba.
It is an unfinished palace. A model exists in the Museo Correr, Venice (1). Its magnificent classical façade would have matched that of Palazzo Corner, opposite, with the triple arch of the ground floor (which is the explanation of the ivy-covered pillars visible today) extended through both the piani nobili above. We do not know precisely why this Venier palace was left unfinished. Money may have run out, or some say that the powerful Corner family living opposite blocked the completion of a building that would have been grander than their own. Another explanation may rest with the unhappy fate of the next door Gothic palace which was demolished in the early 19th century: structural damage to this was blamed in part on the deep foundations of Palazzo Venier dei Leoni.
Nor is it known how the palace came to be associated with "leoni," lions. Although it is said that a lion was once kept in the garden, the name is more likely to have arisen from the yawning lion's heads of Istrian stone which decorate the façade at water level (2). The Venier family, who claimed descent from the gens Aurelia of ancient Rome (the Emperor Valerian and Gallienus were from this family), were among the oldest Venetian noble families. Over the centuries they provided eighteen Procurators of St Markâs and three Doges. Antonio Venier (Doge, 1382-1400) had such a strong sense of justice that he allowed his own son to languish and die in prison for his crimes. Francesco Venier (Doge, 1553-56) was the subject of a superb portrait by Titian (Madrid, Fundaciòn Thyssen-Bornemisza). Sebastiano Venier was a commander of the Venetian fleet at the Battle of Lepanto (1571) and later became Doge (1577-78). A lively strutting statue of him, by Antonio dal Zotto (1907), can be seen today in the church of Ss. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice.
From 1910 to c. 1924 the house was owned by the flamboyant Marchesa Luisa Casati, hostess to the Ballets Russes, and the subject of numerous portraits by artists as various as Boldini, Troubetzkoy, Man Ray and Augustus John. In 1949, Peggy Guggenheim purchased Palazzo Venier from the heirs of Viscountes Castlerosse and made it her home for the following thirty years. Early in 1951, Peggy Guggenheim opened her home and collection to the public and continued to do so every year until her death in 1979. (3) (4)
In 1980, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection opened for the first time under the management of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, to which Peggy Guggenheim had given her palazzo and collection during her lifetime.
Palazzo Venier dei Leoni's long low façade, made of Istrian stone and set off against the trees in the garden behind that soften its lines, forms a welcome "caesura" in the stately march of Grand Canal palaces from the Accademia to the Salute.
[Permanent collection]
The core mission of the museum is to present the personal collection of Peggy Guggenheim. The collection holds major works of Cubism, Futurism, Metaphysical painting, European abstraction, avant-garde sculpture, Surrealism, and American Abstract Expressionism, by some of the greatest artists of the 20th century. These include Picasso (The Poet, On the Beach), Braque (The Clarinet), Duchamp (Sad Young Man on a Train), Léger, Brancusi (Maiastra, Bird in Space), Severini (Sea=Dancer), Picabia (Very Rare Picture on Earth), de Chirico (The Red Tower, The Nostalgia of the Poet), Mondrian (Composition No. 1 with Grey and Red 1938 / Composition with Red 1939), Kandinsky (Landscape with Red Spots, No. 2, White Cross), Miró (Seated Woman II), Giacometti Woman with Her Throat Cut, Woman Walking), Klee (Magic Garden), Ernst (The Kiss, Attirement of the Bride), Magritte (Empire of Light), DalÃ- (Birth of Liquid Desires), Pollock (The Moon Woman, Alchemy), Gorky (Untitled), Calder (Arc of Petals) and Marini (Angel of the City).
The museum also exhibits works of art given to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation for its Venetian museum since Peggy Guggenheim's death, as well as long-term loans from private collections.
Hannelore B. and Rudolph B. Schulhof Collection
In October 2012 eighty works of Italian, European and American art of the decades after 1945 were added to the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in Venice. They were the bequest of Hannelore B. Schulhof, who collected the works with her late husband Rudolph B. Schulhof. They include paintings by Burri, Dubuffet, Fontana, Hofmann, Kelly, Kiefer, Noland, Rothko, and Twombly, as well as sculptures by Calder, Caro, Holzer, Judd and Hepworth. The Hannelore B. and Rudolph B. Schulhof Garden exhibits works from this collection.
Gianni Mattioli Collection
The museum exhibits twenty six masterpieces on long-term loan from the renowned Gianni Mattioli Collection, including famous images of Italian Futurism, such as Materia and Dynamism of a Cyclist by Boccioni, Interventionist Demonstration by Carrà , The Solidity of Fog by Russolo, works by Balla, Severini (Blue Dancer), Sironi, Soffici, Rosai, Depero. The collection includes important early paintings by Morandi and a rare portrait by Modigliani.
Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Sculpture Garden
The Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Sculpture Garden and other outdoor spaces at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection presents works from the permanent collections (by Arp, Duchamp-Villon, Ernst, Flanagan, Giacometti, Gilardi, Goldsworthy, Holzer, Marini, Minguzzi, Mirko, Merz, Moore, Ono, Paladino, Richier, Takis), as well as sculptures on temporary loan from foundations and private collections (by Calder, König , Marini, Nannucci, Smith).
St Edmund, Southwold, Suffolk
I kept meaning to come back to Southwold - the church, I mean, for I found myself in the little town from time to time. I finally kept my promise to myself in the summer of 2017, tipping up on a beautiful sunny day only to find the church closed for extensive repairs. The days got shorter, and by the time the church reopened it was too late in the year for me to try again. In fact, it was not until late October 2018 that I made it back there, on another beautiful day.
Southwold is well-known to people who have never even been there I suppose, signifying one side of Suffolk to which Ipswich is perhaps the counter in the popular imagination. Some thirty years ago, the comedian Michael Palin made a film for television called East of Ipswich. It was a memoir of his childhood in the 1950s, and the basic comic premise behind the film was that in those days families would go on holiday to seaside resorts on the East Anglian coast. In the child Palin's case, it was Southwold.
The amusement came from the idea that people in those days would sit in deckchairs beside the grey north sea, or shelter from the drizzle in genteel teashops or the amusement arcade on the pier. In the Costa Brava package tour days of the 1980s, the quaintness of this image made it seem like something from a different world.
I remember Southwold in the 1980s. It was one of those agreeable little towns distant enough from anywhere bigger to maintain a life of its own. It still had its genteel tea shops, its dusty grocers, its quaint hotels and pubs all owned by Adnams, the old-fashioned and unfashionable local brewery. In the white heat of the Thatcherite cultural revolution, it seemed a place that would soon die on its feet quietly and peaceably.
And then, in the 1990s, the colour supplements discovered the East Anglian coast, and fell in love with it. The new fashions for antique-collecting, cooking with local produce and general country living, coupled with a snobbishness about how vulgar foreign package trips had become, conspired to make places like Southwold very sought after. Before Nigel Lawson's boom became a bust, the inflated house prices of London and the home counties gave people money to burn. And in their hoards, they came out of the big city to buy holiday homes in East Anglia.
Although they are often lumped together, the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk are very different to each other (Cambridgeshire and North Essex are also culturally part of East Anglia, but the North Essex coast is too close to London to have ever stopped being cheap and cheerful, and Cambridgeshire has no coastline). Norfolk's beaches are wide and sandy, with dunes and cliffs and rock pools to explore. Towns like Cromer and Hunstanton seem to have stepped out of the pages of the Ladybird Book of the Seaside. Tiny villages along the Norfolk coast have secret little beaches of their own.
Suffolk's coast is wilder. Beaches are mainly pebbles rather than sand, and the marshes stretch inland, cutting the coast off from the rest of the county. Unlike Norfolk, Suffolk has no coast road, and so the settlements on the coast are isolated from each other, stuck at the ends of narrow lanes which snake away from the A12 and peter out in the heathland above the sea. There are fewer of them too. It is still quicker to get from Walberswick to Southwold by water than by land. Because they are isolated from each other, they take on individual personalities and characteristics. Because they are isolated from the land, they become bastions of polite civilisation.
Between Felixstowe in the south, which no outsiders like (and consequently is the favourite of many Suffolk people) and Lowestoft in the north, which is basically an industrial town-on-sea (but which still has the county's best beaches - shhh, don't tell a soul) are half a dozen small towns that vie with each other for trendiness. Southwold is the biggest, and today it is also the most expensive place to live in all East Anglia. Genteel tea shops survive, but are increasingly shouldered by shops that specialise in ski-wear and Barbour jackets, delicatessens that stock radicchio and seventeen different kinds of olive, jewellery shops and kitchen gadget shops and antique furniture shops where prices are exquisitely painful. Worst of all, the homely, shabby, smoke-filled Sole Bay Inn under the lighthouse has been converted by the now-trendy Adnams Brewery into a chrome and glass filled wine bar.
If you see someone in Norfolk driving a truck, they are probably wearing a baseball cap and carrying a shotgun. in Suffolk, they've more likely just bought a Victorian pine dresser from an antique shop, and they're taking it back to Islington. Does this matter? The fishing industry was dying anyway. The tourist industry was also dying. If places like Southwold, Aldeburgh and Orford become outposts of north London, at least they will still provide jobs for local people. But the local people won't be able to afford to live there, of course. They'll be bussed in from Reydon, Leiston and Melton to provide services for people in holiday cottages which are the former homes they grew up in, but can no longer afford to buy. Does this seriously annoy me? Not as much as it does them, I'll bet.
So, lets go to Southwold, turning off the A12 at the great ship of Blythburgh church, the wide marshes of the River Blyth spreading aimlessly beyond the road. We climb and fall over ancient dunes, and then the road opens out into the flat marshes, the town spreads out beyond. We enter through Reydon (now actually bigger than Southwold, with houses at half the price) and over the bridge into the town of Southwold itself.
Having been so critical, I need to say here that Southwold is beautiful. It is quite the loveliest small town in all East Anglia. None of the half-timbered houses here that you find in places like Long Melford and Lavenham. Here, the town was completely destroyed by fire in the 17th century, and so we have fine 18th and 19th century municipal buildings. One of the legacies of the fire was the creation of wide open spaces just off of the high street, called greens. The best one of all is Gun Hill Green, overlooking the bay where the last major naval battle in British waters was fought. The cannons still point out to sea. The houses here are stunning, gobsmacking, jaw-droppingly wonderful. If I could afford to buy one of them as a weekend retreat, then you bet your life I would, and to hell with the people who moaned about it.
At the western end of the High Street is St Bartholomew's Green, and beyond it sits what is, for my money, Suffolk's single most impressive building. This is the great church of St Edmund, a vast edifice built all in one go in the second half of the 15th century. Only Lavenham can compete with it for scale and presence. Unlike the massing at St Peter and St Paul at Lavenham, St Edmund is defined by a long unbroken clerestory and aisles beneath - where St Peter and St Paul looks full of tension, ready to spring, St Edmund is languid and floating, a ship at ease.
Southwold church was just one of several vast late medieval rebuildings in this area. Across the river at Walberswick and a few miles upriver at Blythburgh the same thing happened. Blythburgh still survives, but Walberswick was derelicted to make a smaller church, as were Covehithe and Kessingland. Dunwich All Saints was lost to the sea. But Southwold was the biggest. Everything about it breathes massive permanence, from the solidity of the tower to the turreted porch, from the wide windows to the jaunty sanctus bell fleche.
Along the top of the aisles, grimacing faces look down. All of them are different. The pedestals atop the clerestory were intended for statues as at Blythburgh, but were probably never filled before the Reformation intervened. At the west end, above the great west window, you can see the vast inscription SAncT EDMUND ORA P: NOBIS ('Saint Edmund, pray for us') as bold a record of the mindset of late medieval East Anglian Catholicism as you'll find.
As at Lavenham and Long Melford, the interior has been extensively restored, but not in as heavy or blunt a manner as at those two churches. St Edmund has, it must be said, benefited from the attentions of German bombers who put out all the dull Victorian glass with blast damage during World War II. Here, the interior is vast, light and airy, and much of the restoration is 20th century work, not 19th century.
Perhaps because of this, more medieval interior features have survived. Unlike Long Melford, Southwold does not have surviving medieval glass (Mr Dowsing saw to that in 1644), but it does have what is the finest screen in the county.
It stretches right the way across the church, and is effectively three separate screens. There is a rood screen across the chancel arch, and parclose screens across the north and south chancel aisles. All retain their original dado figures. There are 36 of them, more than anywhere else in Suffolk. They have been restored, particularly in the central range, but are fascinating because they retain a lot of original gesso work, where plaster of Paris is applied to wood and allowed to dry. It is then carved to produce intricate details.
The central screen shows the eleven remaining disciples and St Paul. They are, from left to right, Philip, Bartholomew, James the Less, Thomas, Andrew, Peter, Paul, John, James, Simon, Jude and Matthew.
The south chancel chapel is light and open. The bosses above are said to represent Mary Tudor and her second husband Charles, Duke of Brandon. The screen here is painted with twelve Old Testament prophets, and Mortlock suggests that they are by a different hand to the images on the other two screens. Here on the south screen, some of the figures have surviving naming inscriptions, and Mortlock surmises that the complete sequence, from left to right, is Baruch, Hosea, Nahum, Jeremiah, Elias, Moses, David, Isaiah, Amos, Jonah and Ezekiel. Further, he observes that the subject is a usual one for the English Midlands, but rare for East Anglia, and that perhaps this part of the screen came from elsewhere. The same may be true of the other two parts - it is hard to think that the central screen was deliberately made too wide for the two arcades.
The north aisle chapel is reserved as the blessed sacrament chapel. The screen is harder to explore, because the northern side is curtailed by a large chest, but it features angels. Unlike the screens at Hitcham and Blundeston, which show angels holding instruments of the passion, these are the nine orders of angels, with Gabriel at their head, and flanked by angels holding symbols of the Trinity and the Eucharist. Mortlock says that they are so similar to the ones at Barton Turf in Norfolk that they may be by the same hand, in which case the central screen is also by that person. They are, from left to right, the Holy Trinity, Gabriel, Archangels, Powers, Dominions, Cherubim, Seraphim, Thrones, Principalities, Virtues, Messengers, and finally the Eucharist. The Holy Trinity angel still has part of the original dedicatory inscription beneath his feet.
If part or all of this screen came from elsewhere, where did it come from? Possibly either Walberswick, Covehithe or Kessingland, the three downsized churches mentioned earlier. More excitingly, it might have come from one of the churches along this coast that was lost to the sea, perhaps neighbouring St Nicholas at Easton Bavents, or, just to the south, St Peter or St John the Baptist, the two Dunwich churches lost in the 16th and 17th centuries. We'll never know.
If you turn back at the screen and face westwards, your eyes are automatically drawn to the towering font cover, part of the extensive 1930s redecoration of the building. The clerestory is almost like a glass atrium intended to house it. Also the work of the period is the repainting and regilding of the 15th century pulpit (a lot of people blanch at this, but I think it is gorgeous) and the lectern. Beneath the font cover, the font is clearly one of the rare seven sacraments series, and part of the same group as Westhall, Blythburgh and Wenhaston. As at Blythburgh and Wenhaston, the panels are completely erased, probably in the 19th century, an act of barbarous vandalism. Given that Westhall is probably the best of all in the county, we must assume that three major medieval art treasures were wiped out. Astonishingly, vague shadows survive of the former reliefs; you can easily make out the Mass panel, facing east as at Westhall, the Penance panel and even what may be the Baptism of Christ.
Stepping through the screen, the reredos ahead is by Benedict Williamson and the glass above by Ninian Comper, familiar names in the Anglo-catholic pantheon, and evidence of an enthusiasm here that still survives in High Church form. There is a good engraved glass image of St Edmund to the north of the sanctuary, very much in the 1960s fashion, but curiously placed. On the wall of the chancel to the west of it, the high organ case is also painted and gilded enthusiastically.
As well as the screen, Southwold's other great medieval survival is the set of return stalls either side of the eastern face of the chancel screen. They have misericord seats, but the best feature are the handrests between the seats. On the south side, carvings include a man with a horn-shaped hat and sinners being drawn into the mouth of hell. On the north side are a man playing two pipes, a monkey preaching and a beaver biting its own genitals, a tale from the medieval bestiary, apparently.
What else is there to see? Well, the church is full of delights, and rewards further visits which always seem to turn up something previously unnoticed. St George rides full tilt at a dragon on an old chest at the west end of the north aisle. There is good 19th century glass in the porch and at the west end of the nave. A clock jack stands, axe and bell in hand, at the west end, a twin to the one upriver at Blythburgh. This one has a name, he's called Southwold Jack, and he is one of the symbols of the Adnams brewery.
As Mortlock notes, there are very few surviving memorials. This is partly because St Edmund was not in the patronage of a great landed family, but it may also suggest that they were largely removed at the time of the 19th century restoration, as at Brandon. One moving one is for the child of a vicar, and there are some interesting pre-Oxford Movement 19th century brasses in the south aisle.
High, high above all this, the roofs are models of Anglo-Catholic melodrama, the canopy of honour to the rood and the chancel ceilure in particular. But there is a warmth about it all that is missing from, say, Eye, which underwent a similar makeover. This church feels full of life, and not a museum piece at all. I remember attending evensong here late one winter Saturday afternoon, and it was magical. On another visit, I came on one of the first days of spring that was truly warm and bright, with not a cloud in the sky. As we drove into town, a cold fret off of the sea was condensing the steam of the brewery, sending it in swirls and skeins around the tower of St Edmund like low cloud. It was so atmospheric that I almost forgave them for what they have done to the Sole Bay Inn.
St Edmund, Southwold, Suffolk
I kept meaning to come back to Southwold - the church, I mean, for I found myself in the little town from time to time. I finally kept my promise to myself in the summer of 2017, tipping up on a beautiful sunny day only to find the church closed for extensive repairs. The days got shorter, and by the time the church reopened it was too late in the year for me to try again. In fact, it was not until late October 2018 that I made it back there, on another beautiful day.
Southwold is well-known to people who have never even been there I suppose, signifying one side of Suffolk to which Ipswich is perhaps the counter in the popular imagination. Some thirty years ago, the comedian Michael Palin made a film for television called East of Ipswich. It was a memoir of his childhood in the 1950s, and the basic comic premise behind the film was that in those days families would go on holiday to seaside resorts on the East Anglian coast. In the child Palin's case, it was Southwold.
The amusement came from the idea that people in those days would sit in deckchairs beside the grey north sea, or shelter from the drizzle in genteel teashops or the amusement arcade on the pier. In the Costa Brava package tour days of the 1980s, the quaintness of this image made it seem like something from a different world.
I remember Southwold in the 1980s. It was one of those agreeable little towns distant enough from anywhere bigger to maintain a life of its own. It still had its genteel tea shops, its dusty grocers, its quaint hotels and pubs all owned by Adnams, the old-fashioned and unfashionable local brewery. In the white heat of the Thatcherite cultural revolution, it seemed a place that would soon die on its feet quietly and peaceably.
And then, in the 1990s, the colour supplements discovered the East Anglian coast, and fell in love with it. The new fashions for antique-collecting, cooking with local produce and general country living, coupled with a snobbishness about how vulgar foreign package trips had become, conspired to make places like Southwold very sought after. Before Nigel Lawson's boom became a bust, the inflated house prices of London and the home counties gave people money to burn. And in their hoards, they came out of the big city to buy holiday homes in East Anglia.
Although they are often lumped together, the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk are very different to each other (Cambridgeshire and North Essex are also culturally part of East Anglia, but the North Essex coast is too close to London to have ever stopped being cheap and cheerful, and Cambridgeshire has no coastline). Norfolk's beaches are wide and sandy, with dunes and cliffs and rock pools to explore. Towns like Cromer and Hunstanton seem to have stepped out of the pages of the Ladybird Book of the Seaside. Tiny villages along the Norfolk coast have secret little beaches of their own.
Suffolk's coast is wilder. Beaches are mainly pebbles rather than sand, and the marshes stretch inland, cutting the coast off from the rest of the county. Unlike Norfolk, Suffolk has no coast road, and so the settlements on the coast are isolated from each other, stuck at the ends of narrow lanes which snake away from the A12 and peter out in the heathland above the sea. There are fewer of them too. It is still quicker to get from Walberswick to Southwold by water than by land. Because they are isolated from each other, they take on individual personalities and characteristics. Because they are isolated from the land, they become bastions of polite civilisation.
Between Felixstowe in the south, which no outsiders like (and consequently is the favourite of many Suffolk people) and Lowestoft in the north, which is basically an industrial town-on-sea (but which still has the county's best beaches - shhh, don't tell a soul) are half a dozen small towns that vie with each other for trendiness. Southwold is the biggest, and today it is also the most expensive place to live in all East Anglia. Genteel tea shops survive, but are increasingly shouldered by shops that specialise in ski-wear and Barbour jackets, delicatessens that stock radicchio and seventeen different kinds of olive, jewellery shops and kitchen gadget shops and antique furniture shops where prices are exquisitely painful. Worst of all, the homely, shabby, smoke-filled Sole Bay Inn under the lighthouse has been converted by the now-trendy Adnams Brewery into a chrome and glass filled wine bar.
If you see someone in Norfolk driving a truck, they are probably wearing a baseball cap and carrying a shotgun. in Suffolk, they've more likely just bought a Victorian pine dresser from an antique shop, and they're taking it back to Islington. Does this matter? The fishing industry was dying anyway. The tourist industry was also dying. If places like Southwold, Aldeburgh and Orford become outposts of north London, at least they will still provide jobs for local people. But the local people won't be able to afford to live there, of course. They'll be bussed in from Reydon, Leiston and Melton to provide services for people in holiday cottages which are the former homes they grew up in, but can no longer afford to buy. Does this seriously annoy me? Not as much as it does them, I'll bet.
So, lets go to Southwold, turning off the A12 at the great ship of Blythburgh church, the wide marshes of the River Blyth spreading aimlessly beyond the road. We climb and fall over ancient dunes, and then the road opens out into the flat marshes, the town spreads out beyond. We enter through Reydon (now actually bigger than Southwold, with houses at half the price) and over the bridge into the town of Southwold itself.
Having been so critical, I need to say here that Southwold is beautiful. It is quite the loveliest small town in all East Anglia. None of the half-timbered houses here that you find in places like Long Melford and Lavenham. Here, the town was completely destroyed by fire in the 17th century, and so we have fine 18th and 19th century municipal buildings. One of the legacies of the fire was the creation of wide open spaces just off of the high street, called greens. The best one of all is Gun Hill Green, overlooking the bay where the last major naval battle in British waters was fought. The cannons still point out to sea. The houses here are stunning, gobsmacking, jaw-droppingly wonderful. If I could afford to buy one of them as a weekend retreat, then you bet your life I would, and to hell with the people who moaned about it.
At the western end of the High Street is St Bartholomew's Green, and beyond it sits what is, for my money, Suffolk's single most impressive building. This is the great church of St Edmund, a vast edifice built all in one go in the second half of the 15th century. Only Lavenham can compete with it for scale and presence. Unlike the massing at St Peter and St Paul at Lavenham, St Edmund is defined by a long unbroken clerestory and aisles beneath - where St Peter and St Paul looks full of tension, ready to spring, St Edmund is languid and floating, a ship at ease.
Southwold church was just one of several vast late medieval rebuildings in this area. Across the river at Walberswick and a few miles upriver at Blythburgh the same thing happened. Blythburgh still survives, but Walberswick was derelicted to make a smaller church, as were Covehithe and Kessingland. Dunwich All Saints was lost to the sea. But Southwold was the biggest. Everything about it breathes massive permanence, from the solidity of the tower to the turreted porch, from the wide windows to the jaunty sanctus bell fleche.
Along the top of the aisles, grimacing faces look down. All of them are different. The pedestals atop the clerestory were intended for statues as at Blythburgh, but were probably never filled before the Reformation intervened. At the west end, above the great west window, you can see the vast inscription SAncT EDMUND ORA P: NOBIS ('Saint Edmund, pray for us') as bold a record of the mindset of late medieval East Anglian Catholicism as you'll find.
As at Lavenham and Long Melford, the interior has been extensively restored, but not in as heavy or blunt a manner as at those two churches. St Edmund has, it must be said, benefited from the attentions of German bombers who put out all the dull Victorian glass with blast damage during World War II. Here, the interior is vast, light and airy, and much of the restoration is 20th century work, not 19th century.
Perhaps because of this, more medieval interior features have survived. Unlike Long Melford, Southwold does not have surviving medieval glass (Mr Dowsing saw to that in 1644), but it does have what is the finest screen in the county.
It stretches right the way across the church, and is effectively three separate screens. There is a rood screen across the chancel arch, and parclose screens across the north and south chancel aisles. All retain their original dado figures. There are 36 of them, more than anywhere else in Suffolk. They have been restored, particularly in the central range, but are fascinating because they retain a lot of original gesso work, where plaster of Paris is applied to wood and allowed to dry. It is then carved to produce intricate details.
The central screen shows the eleven remaining disciples and St Paul. They are, from left to right, Philip, Bartholomew, James the Less, Thomas, Andrew, Peter, Paul, John, James, Simon, Jude and Matthew.
The south chancel chapel is light and open. The bosses above are said to represent Mary Tudor and her second husband Charles, Duke of Brandon. The screen here is painted with twelve Old Testament prophets, and Mortlock suggests that they are by a different hand to the images on the other two screens. Here on the south screen, some of the figures have surviving naming inscriptions, and Mortlock surmises that the complete sequence, from left to right, is Baruch, Hosea, Nahum, Jeremiah, Elias, Moses, David, Isaiah, Amos, Jonah and Ezekiel. Further, he observes that the subject is a usual one for the English Midlands, but rare for East Anglia, and that perhaps this part of the screen came from elsewhere. The same may be true of the other two parts - it is hard to think that the central screen was deliberately made too wide for the two arcades.
The north aisle chapel is reserved as the blessed sacrament chapel. The screen is harder to explore, because the northern side is curtailed by a large chest, but it features angels. Unlike the screens at Hitcham and Blundeston, which show angels holding instruments of the passion, these are the nine orders of angels, with Gabriel at their head, and flanked by angels holding symbols of the Trinity and the Eucharist. Mortlock says that they are so similar to the ones at Barton Turf in Norfolk that they may be by the same hand, in which case the central screen is also by that person. They are, from left to right, the Holy Trinity, Gabriel, Archangels, Powers, Dominions, Cherubim, Seraphim, Thrones, Principalities, Virtues, Messengers, and finally the Eucharist. The Holy Trinity angel still has part of the original dedicatory inscription beneath his feet.
If part or all of this screen came from elsewhere, where did it come from? Possibly either Walberswick, Covehithe or Kessingland, the three downsized churches mentioned earlier. More excitingly, it might have come from one of the churches along this coast that was lost to the sea, perhaps neighbouring St Nicholas at Easton Bavents, or, just to the south, St Peter or St John the Baptist, the two Dunwich churches lost in the 16th and 17th centuries. We'll never know.
If you turn back at the screen and face westwards, your eyes are automatically drawn to the towering font cover, part of the extensive 1930s redecoration of the building. The clerestory is almost like a glass atrium intended to house it. Also the work of the period is the repainting and regilding of the 15th century pulpit (a lot of people blanch at this, but I think it is gorgeous) and the lectern. Beneath the font cover, the font is clearly one of the rare seven sacraments series, and part of the same group as Westhall, Blythburgh and Wenhaston. As at Blythburgh and Wenhaston, the panels are completely erased, probably in the 19th century, an act of barbarous vandalism. Given that Westhall is probably the best of all in the county, we must assume that three major medieval art treasures were wiped out. Astonishingly, vague shadows survive of the former reliefs; you can easily make out the Mass panel, facing east as at Westhall, the Penance panel and even what may be the Baptism of Christ.
Stepping through the screen, the reredos ahead is by Benedict Williamson and the glass above by Ninian Comper, familiar names in the Anglo-catholic pantheon, and evidence of an enthusiasm here that still survives in High Church form. There is a good engraved glass image of St Edmund to the north of the sanctuary, very much in the 1960s fashion, but curiously placed. On the wall of the chancel to the west of it, the high organ case is also painted and gilded enthusiastically.
As well as the screen, Southwold's other great medieval survival is the set of return stalls either side of the eastern face of the chancel screen. They have misericord seats, but the best feature are the handrests between the seats. On the south side, carvings include a man with a horn-shaped hat and sinners being drawn into the mouth of hell. On the north side are a man playing two pipes, a monkey preaching and a beaver biting its own genitals, a tale from the medieval bestiary, apparently.
What else is there to see? Well, the church is full of delights, and rewards further visits which always seem to turn up something previously unnoticed. St George rides full tilt at a dragon on an old chest at the west end of the north aisle. There is good 19th century glass in the porch and at the west end of the nave. A clock jack stands, axe and bell in hand, at the west end, a twin to the one upriver at Blythburgh. This one has a name, he's called Southwold Jack, and he is one of the symbols of the Adnams brewery.
As Mortlock notes, there are very few surviving memorials. This is partly because St Edmund was not in the patronage of a great landed family, but it may also suggest that they were largely removed at the time of the 19th century restoration, as at Brandon. One moving one is for the child of a vicar, and there are some interesting pre-Oxford Movement 19th century brasses in the south aisle.
High, high above all this, the roofs are models of Anglo-Catholic melodrama, the canopy of honour to the rood and the chancel ceilure in particular. But there is a warmth about it all that is missing from, say, Eye, which underwent a similar makeover. This church feels full of life, and not a museum piece at all. I remember attending evensong here late one winter Saturday afternoon, and it was magical. On another visit, I came on one of the first days of spring that was truly warm and bright, with not a cloud in the sky. As we drove into town, a cold fret off of the sea was condensing the steam of the brewery, sending it in swirls and skeins around the tower of St Edmund like low cloud. It was so atmospheric that I almost forgave them for what they have done to the Sole Bay Inn.
• Jimpawcle: Constituting the most prominent and severe domestic menace regularly faced and commonly feared by the native Favredian population of Olsuclund, Jimpawcles are exclusively-carnivorous, and accordingly vicious, mammalian predators that live and hunt in packs of up to several dozen individuals. Such groups and their activities are generally centralized around self-designated local areas - relatively flat/even stretches of terrain seem to be preferred - over which the beasts are fiercely territorial, responding with violence toward all intruding entities, including others belonging to their own kind but different packs thereof. Indeed, Jimpawcles are quite prone to infighting within their species based on arbitrary group affiliation, and are able to tell trusted brethren apart from "outsiders", in spite of there being no visible differences between their race's various sub-populations, by sense of smell, with the members of each pack carrying a very subtly unique scent, detectable only by other Jimpawcles, based on the specific features and environmental conditions of their respective territories. Unlike most predatory, pack-dwelling animal varieties found elsewhere, Jimpawcles lack any kind of hierarchy within their packs, where all individuals hold equal standing; this is most evident in their polygamous reproductive habits, where any/all males of a group are liable to mate with any/all of its females.
Although Jimpawcles may occasionally make primitive bids to expand the alleged "borders" of their groups' dominions, any resultant spreading of their population(s) is close-to-negligible as far as any other beings are concerned, and despite generally not posing an active, direct threat to major Favredian settlements, the beasts nonetheless end up causing more than their fair share of humanoid casualties as "field hazards" to hunting parties and others traversing the Olsuclundan environment beyond the confines of their communities. Upon one's stumbling into the unmarked boundaries of a pack's territory, multiple Jimpawcles will frequently show up to attack in rapid order, without warning and seemingly out of nowhere at times, and the creatures are exceptionally adept at ruthlessly ganging up on their targets.
The physiology of the Jimpawcle is that of a posteriorly four-legged, horizontally-postured organism with a fully-upright torso bearing two long, clawed additional arms and a headpiece that possesses certain reptile-resembling features, as does the flesh covering the length of its dorsal starting from the back of said head's neck. Furthermore in terms of reptilian attributes, the characteristic noise of which the Jimpawcle's unintelligible vocalizations all consist resembles not a roar, a growl or even a howl, as one might expect based on the creature's behavior and overall ecosystem role, but rather what can only be described as a distinct hiss. Given how much more distantly-audible and conspicuous a more obvious, louder sound would be as an indicator of Jimpawcles' presence, the hissing nature of their vocals, if anything, enhances the danger they pose to many a traveler, and non-native humanoid explorers in particular, since it is much more difficult for the uninitiated/unprepared to discern it from a safe distance, with the beasts often already being in the process of actively closing in by the time one is close enough to readily hear it.
Like most other organisms present on Olsuclund, the Jimpawcle possesses very tough skin on most areas of its body and even some built-in light protective plating upon certain spots, but conspicuously, its bare feet are among its few parts to bear no such resilience-enhancing features, which is easily the creature's most glaring specific weakness, and makes tactful footing a necessary skill for it to quickly develop during its life. On average, Jimpawcles are marginally greater in total mass than Favredians, but tend to be just slightly shorter in height as well as inferior in their durability, which is valued at 800-950 for the animals compared to the burly avian humanoids' range of 1,000-1,300.
• Metzilume: Arguably the most distinctive-formed of Poulbrimian organisms - having the most unique appearance and build - as well as often being considered some of the Qendsewn homeworld's least-repugnant animals, Metzilumes are peaceful, omnivorous - but primarily plant-eating, with Hatiginiffs being the only other significant beings they consume with any regularity - beasts found, usually living among several others of their kind, within and around various stretches of swampy terrain and marshy alcoves across the planet's map, and very seldom in any other biomes (not that Poulbrim boasts much of a variety thereof). Capable of reaching body lengths of ten feet or more, they are the largest of their desolate home planet's naturally-occurring inhabitants, and among the only ones to be largely left alone by the vicious Ulirooh swarms that have dominated much of the planet's wilds throughout all of recorded history, with their size being instinctually perceived as intimidating by, and thus deterring most potential attacks on them by, the monstrous flying insectoids. This effectively protects Metzilumes from what might otherwise be a threat to their very survival as a species, with the creatures having very little combative capacity in reality and usually ending up getting slaughtered in the rare event that they actually are attacked, whether by Uliroohs or otherwise.
The Metzilume's lengthy, partially-segmented body is horizontally-oriented for the back half of its length, but anteriorly curves into a more upright position starting just past where the frontmost of three pairs of legs meet its lower-belly. The most notable facial feature of the beast is what may appear to be a set of as many as seven eyes, but consists in actuality of three eyes surrounded by a number of physically-functionless embossed markings seemingly designed to superficially resemble true outlets of vision, ultimately contributing to the Metzilume's perceived imposing appearance which is, again, a key asset for its survival. Other points of visual interest on the headpiece include an upward-extending set of three cartilage-based horns as well as fleshy orbs, bearing multiple protrusions, which constitute the Metzilume's ears and are, in fact, the most vulnerably sensitive external parts of its body. Tentacle-esque twin tails extending from the creature's posterior and bearing hard, moderately sharp-edged end-pieces, meanwhile, provide the Metzilume with the closest it has to an adequate method of actively defending itself through attacking, in this case by means of haphazard lashing.
Metzilume flesh is squishier and consequently less resistant to puncturing, burning and the like than most, but what bones the beasts - whose simple skeletal systems consist of little more than what is strictly necessary to support their basic body shape - do have are, in sharp contrast, exceptionally dense and sturdy, being the strongest bones found in any Poulbrimian organism. While this does somewhat offset the relative weakness of the rest of the Metzilume form, the benefit is, in practice, less substantial than one might expect: the majority of feasible injuries to the animal that would even pierce deeply enough to be directly resisted by any of its bones (especially the ones in the main torso length), would, in most cases, be fatal anyway due to the grievous, blood-loss-entailing damage sustained by its flesh prior to its bones even becoming a factor in shock-absorption. All things considered, the Metzilume's overall durability value, on average, is about 900, while the most significant practical function ultimately served by the solidity of its bones lies not so much in protection from outright trauma, but more-so in casual leg-and-foot support during sustained manual locomotion. During the early phases of the humanoid race's long history of experimental, unorthodox scientific endeavoring, Metzilume bones were commonly harvested by Qendsewn, who otherwise have no use for the creatures, for use in various projects as a high-strength organic constructive material. Fortunately for both the animals and the humanoids, this has since become obsolete as the Qendsewn have gained ready access to equally (and later still, superiorly) sturdy materials that can be used nigh-identically in their experiments.
• Doilerbaum: A rather diminutive and ostensibly, yet quite deceptively, harmless-looking winged mammal native to Meilbatsy, the Doilerbaum primarily makes its home amid the same network of elevated landmasses that also provides the foundation for Rabbyphune civilization's centers, dwelling there in large family units. Collectively, these often-rapidly-produced families constitute an exceptionally massive total population for the animal's species: there are, in fact, more Doilerbaums than there are Rabbyphunes on Meilbatsy, though the same cannot be said in regard to the whole of the Prime Galaxy, where Rabbyphunes have proliferated and colonized elsewhere while Doilerbaums, like most non-humanoid animals in general, remain strictly confined to their home planet. In addition to their main areas of habitation, Doilerbaums can also be encountered on occasion all throughout the various lowland regions comprising the rest of Meilbatsy's surface, though never in the same large numbers.
With their largest specimens standing just short of one full meter in height (even with their tall, antenna-like ears accounted for) and their durability values rarely surpassing 500, Doilerbaums possess neither an imposing form nor anything even remotely resembling superior physical strength, yet arguably benefit in other ways from their size more than they ultimately suffer from it. Limited mass and correspondingly low energy intake requirements for sustaining their petite bodies allow the Doilerbaums' great numbers to be sustainable without the matter of having enough space and food to go around becoming exacerbated as a result of their huge population. Additionally and rather more interestingly, at least as the average reader of this will likely be concerned, their small build strongly compliments that of their wings, which, in relation to the rest of the Doilerbaum form, are just sizable and strong enough to adequately carry the nimble bodies from which they protrude through the air, granting the ability of free flight, while not being so substantial and heavy as to prove burdensome for their bearers while not in use. Being able to fly, in turn, gives the Doilerbaum, already a fleet-footed and craftily evasive creature on the ground and even able to perform a special sprint powered by all four pairs of its arms and legs, a tremendous extra advantage in terms of escaping from predators and other hazards. However, it is only in the rare event that it is confronted by a foe from which it, and any of its brethren who happen to be present and likewise-threatened, cannot flee that the tiny beast's most impressive ability of all comes into play.
Upon the end of every Doilerbaum's insectoid-esque tail rests a bulbous, dark-red stinger, via which the animal is able to deliver among the most potent of all venoms to be produced by any mortal organism: a poison that will quickly - yet no-less-painfully for the swiftness - kill any living thing found on Meilbatsy as well as virtually all visitors/explorers from elsewhere in the galaxy, with very few beings out there standing any chance of survival. Fortunately for Rabbyphunes and any others of benign disposition who would otherwise face a severe natural hazard in them, Doilerbaums are not aggressive or reckless with this most frightening and drastic of their abilities, and for good reason, for its use comes with major drawbacks and limitations stemming from the fact that each of the creatures' supply of the pernicious venom involved being both extremely limited and utterly unable to be replenished. As such, a Doilerbaum can only ever deliver two proper stings, the second of which will deplete and destroy its tail - a critical structural supporter of multiple internal organs - and lead to its own excruciating death. Despite this, Doilerbaums that have already stung once before rarely experience any hesitation over what will amount to a suicide attack, for whenever one of them is threatened by an inescapable foe, which usually comes in the form of a den-intruder, multiple others in its family unit are generally at risk as well, and per the small beasts' instinctive mentality, sacrificing oneself for the good of one's group is considered an unquestionably worthy cause.
• Etchfulber: Simple-minded organisms of largely passive disposition, Etchfulbers are a semi-common sight on Alfriiden, where their naturally-designated role is as prey animals to multiple other Alfriidenizen varieties. Small-to-average in body volume but considerably greater in effective mass by virtue of being extremely dense by the standards of most organic beings, the core frames of Etchfulbers are flat-faced and nearly rectangular in shape, and have been likened on numerous occasions to fleshy, slimy, icy "bricks". Given how the creatures' bodies have come to be commonly harnessed post-mortem (read below), such a comparison's rise to prominent recognition was all-but-inevitable in hindsight.
An Etchfulber's main set of arms can accurately be considered as one-and-the-same with its legs, in the sense that the beast does not, in fact, have any limbs of the latter variety, and relies on the former both to carry the bulk of its own considerable weight and for the usual purposes assigned to arms that accompany actual legs. To elaborate: the Etchfulber walks upon four muscular, fuzzy-haired primary arms, protruding from each upper-corner of its torso and ending in five-fingered, typically fist-clenched hands of multicolored crystalline composition (which are actually the creature's most densely-compacted body parts of all), while also boasting pairs of smaller, more flexible four-fingered claw-bearing arms positioned just below its faces and used primarily for scooping things into its mouths. Regarding the use of plurals in the preceding sentence, the Etchfulber does indeed possess two identical faces at opposite ends of its body, with the anus mutually led to by both mouths' digestive tracts existing as a gaping hole located on its underside halfway across the length between them. This also conveniently allows excrement to be deposited downward at a straight angle, falling directly onto the ground while seldom leaving any residue stuck to the Etchfulber's body due it lacking buttocks as well as having very moistly slippery flesh in general. Note that, like other mortal beings with multiple visible heads and/or faces, the Etchfulber still possesses only one consciousness between them, with its singular brain residing at the top-center of its overall main body, more-or-less vertically-opposite (directly above) the animal's previously (and rather-gratuitously; we hereby apologize for any disgusting images brought to anyone's mind there) described anus. The entirety of an Etchfulber's body is of extremely low (by standards of living organic matter) natural temperature, even compared to other Alfriidenizens, giving much of its form an ice-like, "frozen" quality which increases its effective resilience in some respects but also renders it weak against heat-force and certain applications of physical trauma that may lead to shattering. All in all, the beast's durability value is close to an even 800, with little variation in this statistic between specimens.
A slow-moving as well as slow-witted organism that does little more than eat and sleep, the Etchfulber is ultimately most notable not for any facet of its own behavior or even for its inherent physiology (which is admittedly very peculiar), but rather for the extremely unique way in which its bodily matter has come to be utilized by others, namely the humanoid Spepescuos, as a long-lasting preserving and cooling material superior to purified ice. The specific form of tissue harvested to this end comes mainly from the skeletal muscle found in the upper-flanks of the Etchfulber's bulky torso, and must be specially prepared and treated via a process that only Shepescuos know the secret to before it can be properly used in such a way. Over the last few centuries, the Shepescuos, whose people once reserved this resource for their own use exclusively, have increasingly recognized, and taken advantage of, the profitability of selling it to interplanetary traders as an "exotic" or even "collectible" commodity, a business that stands as their mostly-isolated and somewhat ill-reputed race's most prominent venue of interaction with others in the greater Prime Galaxy today. The Etchfulber population, meanwhile, has declined significantly as of late as a clear result of this practice's growing lucrativeness, although as of yet, the species itself has not reached the point of depletion necessary for it to become officially classified as endangered and accordingly protected from further destructive exploitation.
• Quottynorb: A semi-amphibious (that is, capable of underwater respiration but physically unfit for adequately traversing submerged terrains and having no need to ever do so), quasi-reptilian and otherwise unclassified creature, the Quottynorb is one of the larger, yet functionally less prominent, predatory animals of the Virslaglish ecosystem, being found most commonly in areas of lower elevation relative to sea level. It is most readily recognizable by its vertically-elongated (read: tall) cranium whose face bears four large eyeballs and a nasal system externally manifested as what amounts to three visible noses, as well as by the set of five legs - a very rare specific number of such limbs for any organism to have - by which the rest of its body is supported. Quottynorbs are asocial and generally unfriendly beings, with each specimen living and hunting on its own and the beasts' mating rituals and periods of active parenthood both being relatively short-term commitments; their disposition towards Hexpultis and most other humanoids, meanwhile, is such that they will give warning in the form of a low-pitched, gurgling growling at the sight of one or more in their vicinity before attacking if approached any further. Intelligence-wise, the Quottynorb is competently-coordinated but uninspired, displaying surprisingly above-average situational judgment and cunning throughout its constant endeavors to fulfill its own basic needs as an animal, yet lacking any drive to utilize that intuition toward more sophisticated (even by wildlife standards) ends such as teamwork with other specimens, construction of more substantial shelter for itself and the use of objects in its surroundings as tools. This self-limiting mentality is demonstrated most evidently through the less-than-optimal capacity in which the most unique built-in asset of the Quottynorb organism, that being the presence of long osseous rods holstered within the lengths of either of its arms that can be partly or wholly unsheathed from beneath the wrists at will, and likewise-discretionarily charged with deadly (to all but their own user) heat energy of nearly molten intensity, is used for purposes of violent aggression alone. The Quottynorb simply never thinks, or doesn't care, to utilize this remarkable mechanism for anything more creative or ambitious, such as using its rods to reach high-placed objects or cooking its food via fire manually generated by their heat. Quottynorbs never live for more than fifty years, with this limit to their lifespan being far stricter than for most other mortal beings, to the point of natural death from age occurring extremely abruptly, with no externally-discernible warning signs or "slowing down" of the animal's apparent functioning beforehand. Some have even been witnessed to stop literally dead in their tracks, slumping over in place after having appeared to be moving around healthily mere moments prior.
Grown Quottynorbs measure up to a median height of roughly two meters, therefore standing close-to-evenly with most of the Hexpultis warriors who are, naturally, the humanoids they come into contact with most commonly by far, and are comparably sturdy as well, with their durability values typically ranging between 900 and 1,100. The meat of the beasts is edible to the humanoids but not considered a delicacy by them, and as such the former are hunted for food resources by the latter occasionally but not regularly. Somewhat conversely, while neither Quottynorbs nor the insectoid Zinnktoses - Virslagly's most infamous predators - can actually gain nourishment from the other's flesh, the two creatures are innately hostile to one another all the same, with the former being vastly more powerful individually but the latter possessing strength in just-as-vastly greater numbers whenever they fight. Although all attempts by other beings to directly salvage and harness the Quottynorb's heated polearms have proven fruitless, Hexpultis engineers have nevertheless managed to construct their own high-temperature, retractable melee armaments inspired by and bearing decent physical and functional semblance to them, which have in turn been imitated by other weapon-crafters in galactic society.
• Wurkenko: Known as the largest of all beast-hominid varieties, the Wurkenko is a sparsely-populated (per natural status quo) species indigenous and exclusive to Barserinv, among whose resident creatures it is the most massive by a considerable margin. Standing up to eight meters when fully-upright (but more often than not encountered in hunched-over, crouching or even fully-doubled-down posture, frequently out of necessity so as not to bump its head into ceilings), it is a reclusive woodland-dwelling mammal with a habitual affinity for making its home in and around large naturally-formed caves found amid such environments, which seem, quite conveniently for it, to be rather inexplicably plentiful throughout most of Barserinv's regions. Wurkenkos are, furthermore, highly resourceful and creative - insomuch as unenlightened, wild creatures of their nature can be - when it comes to their living arrangements and the "furbishing" thereof, commonly clearing out trees and such from the areas surrounding their lairs so as to give them selves more room to comfortably roam around in, as well as building rudimentary structures from boulders, tree trunks, etc. to exteriorly supplement their dens. Predictably given these tendencies, they are also fiercely and selfishly territorial, leading to many a lesser animal being driven from its home when one of them decides to move into the area, but somewhat paradoxically in spite of this, they never maintain a single residence for the whole duration of their generous natural lifespan of approximately eighty years. Rather, the average Wurkenko voluntarily resettles itself at least three or four times, entirely abandoning everything of its previous home on each such occasion, over the course of its existence, providing it does not die prematurely, which is rare thanks to its species' innately great physical strength and durability (valued at 3,500-4,000). It is also during these periods of searching for new dwellings that most of the mating between Wurkenkos occurs, with the males involved resuming on their solitary ways shortly after the act of procreation and the mothers alone being responsible thereafter for the raising of their young, which generally lasts for the first four-to-six years of young specimens' lives. Though being strictly herbivorous, and one of the largest and most formidable animals in the whole of the galaxy to exhibit this dietary attribute, the Wurkenko is (to some extent justifiably, given its great size and proportionately high needs for sustenance) a very greedy beast whose thriving presence in an area can end up posing a threat to other, competing smaller local life-forms all the same, namely by monopolizing the territory and resources of a local area as mentioned above.
As far as physical attributes go, Wurkenkos bear thick and heavy hair, most of it greenish in coloration, upon the majority of their bodies' surfaces, but unlike most other prominently hairy organisms, they ultimately do not rely on it for any sort of major protection, having consistently tough and strong leathery skin that would be more-than-sufficient for them to withstand any and all harsh elements occurring in their natural habitats even if they were completely bald. Of particular visual strikingness, albeit equally-superfluous in practice, are the deep-blue tufts of extra-coarse fur that cover the dorsal surfaces of the Wurkenko's forearms, from the elbows to the knuckles of its four-fingered paws; if anything, this feature could be considered to serve as an aesthetic "accentuation" of sorts to the gangly-armed beast's punching ability, which is indeed massively powerful and its primary asset in terms of attacking. Easily the Wurkenko form's most distinctive feature of all, though, is what Kierraplips and other humanoid witnesses to the animal have popularly labelled as its "crown", consisting of six tall, straight-standing and nigh-unbreakably sturdy horns surrounding a large fleshy "bump" in encircling formation upon the otherwise-flat top-surface of its noggin. This is seen, as one might already guess based on the aforementioned "crown" terminology alone, to physically symbolize the Wurkenko's dominant role as "king" of Barserinv's wilds.
Bauhaus Museum Weimar, Germany
German architect Heike Hanada designed a minimalist concrete museum to celebrate the Bauhaus in Weimar, where the design school was founded 100 years ago. The building is dedicated to the design school creates a physical cultural presence for the Bauhaus in the German city where it was based between 1919 and 1925. Located near the Nazi-era Gauforum square and the Neue Museum Weimar, the Bauhaus Museum is a simple five-storey concrete box broken only with its entrance and a couple of windows. The enclosing shell of light-grey concrete lends the cube stability and dynamic solidity. Equally spaced horizontal grooves run around the facades of the museum, with the words "bauhaus museum" repeated in a band near the top of the building. Hanada designed the museum to be a public building for the city and has attempted to clearly connect it to the neighbouring park. With elements such as plinths, fasciae, portals, stairways and a terrace to the park, the architecture incorporates classical themes that underscore its public character.
The museum contains 2,000 m2 of exhibition space, which will be used to display around 1,000 items from the Weimar Bauhaus collection. A shop and entrance hall is located on the ground floor, with a cafe and toilets below, and three floors dedicated to telling the story of the Bauhaus above. Each of the galleries overlooks double-height spaces and are accessed from a long ceremonial staircase that stretches the height of the building. The visitors ascend a succession of interchanging open spaces and staircases until they finally arrive at the top floor where they are presented with an unobstructed view of the park. The cascading staircases are encased by ceiling-high walls and function as free-standing, enclosed bodies in the interior space. The collection is arranged to inform visitors about the history of the design school, with the gallery on the first floor dedicated to its origins in Weimar and the Bauhaus manifesto that Walter Gropius wrote in 1919. The second floor has exhibits that show how these ideas were implemented, with galleries dedicated to each of the Bauhaus directors – Gropius, Hannes Meyer and Mies van der Rohe – at the top of the building.
The museum in Weimar has opened to coincide with the centenary of the Bauhaus, which was established in the city in 1919. The school was forced to relocate from Weimar to Dessau in 1925, where Gropius designed a new school building for the institution. Following a short time based in Berlin the school closed for good in 1933. Although only open for just over a decade, the Bauhaus is the most influential art and design school in history. The ideas and people associated with the school had an incredible impact on design and architecture, and to mark its centenary we created a series exploring its key works and figures.
The largest and most magnificent of the chantry chapels is that erected on the north side of the sanctuary in 1430 by Isabella le Despenser (d.1439) in honour of her first husband Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Worcester (d.1422). She then married a second Richard Beauchamp (later buuired in his famous chapel in Warwick) and thus became Countess of Warwick. The splendid fan-vaulted chantry is thus known either as the Warwick or Beauchamp chapel and is a gloriously ornate piece of Perpendicular architecture.
The attractive town of Tewkesbury has been dominated by its superb abbey church since the beginning of the 12th century, and we can be forever grateful to its townspeople for purchasing the monastic church in 1540 for £453 for use as their parish church, saving it from the fate that befell countless similar great churches across the land during the turmoil of the Dissolution. It reminds us both how lucky we are to still marvel at it today, yet also how great a loss to our heritage the period wrought when many more such buildings were so utterly plundered as to have gone without trace (the fate of the monastic buildings here and even the lady chapel of the church whose footings are laid out in the grass at the east end).
Tewkesbury Abbey is thus rightly celebrated as one of our greatest non-cathedral churches, and remarkably much of the original Norman church remains substantially intact, most apparently in the great central tower, a fine example of Romanesque architecture adorned with rows of blind-arcading. The west front is dominated by a massive Norman-arched recess (enclosing the somewhat later west window) and the nave and transepts remain largely as originally built, though this is less clear externally owing to the changes made to the windows, nearly all of which were enlarged in the 14th century in the Decorated Gothic style. This century also saw the complete rebuilding of the eastern limb of the church, of a form less common in England with radiating chapels surrounding the eastern apse of the choir (the central lady chapel sadly missing since 1540).
The interior reveals far more of the Romanesque structure with mighty columns supporting the round Norman arches of the nave arcades giving the building a great sense of solidity. The space is further enlivened by the changes made during the 14th century by the stunning vault over the nave (adorned with a rewarding series of figurative bosses) which sits surprisingly well with the Norman work below. Beyond the apsidal choir beckons, and both this and the space below the tower are enriched with stunningly complex vaulted ceilings (replete with further bosses and gilded metal stars), all ablaze with colour and gilding.
There is much to enjoy in glass here, most remarkably a complete set of 14th century glazing in the clerestorey of the choir, seven windows filled with saints and prophets (and most memorably two groups of knights in the westernmost windows on each side). A few of the figures have fared less well over the centuries but on the whole this is a wonderfully rare and well preserved scheme. There is much glass from the 19th century too, with an extensive scheme in the nave of good quality work by Hardman's, and more recently a pair of rich windows by Tom Denny were added in one of the polygonal chapels around the east end.
Some of the most memorable features are the monuments with many medieval tombs of note, primarily the effigies and chantry chapels of members of the Despenser family around the choir (two of the chantries being miniature architectural gems in their own right with exquisite fan-vaulting). In one of the apsidal chapels is the unusual cenotaph to Abbot Wakeman with his grisly cadaver effigy, a late medieval reminder of earthly mortality.
Tewkesbury Abbey is not to be missed and is every bit as rewarding as many of our cathedrals (superior in fact to all but the best). It is normally kept open and welcoming to visitors on a daily basis. I have also had the privilege of working on this great building several times over the years (as part of the team at the studio I once worked for), and have left my mark in glass in a few discreet places.
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is a modern art museum on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, and is one of the most visited attractions in Venice. The museum was originally the private collection of the American heiress Peggy Guggenheim, who began displaying the artworks to the public seasonally in 1951.
After her death in 1979. it passed to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, which eventually opened the collection year-round. The collection is housed in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, an 18th-century palace, which was Guggenheim's home.
Collection
The collection is principally based on the personal art collection of Peggy Guggenheim, a former wife of artist Max Ernst and a niece of the mining magnate, Solomon R. Guggenheim. She collected the artworks mostly between 1938 and 1946, buying works in Europe "in dizzying succession" as World War II began, and later in America, where she discovered the talent of Jackson Pollock, among others. The museum "houses an impressive selection of modern art. Its picturesque setting and well-respected collection attract some 400,000 visitors per year", making it "the most-visited site in Venice after the Doge's Palace". Works on display include those of prominent Italian futurists and American modernists. Pieces in the collection embrace Cubism, Surrealism and Abstract expressionism. During Peggy Guggenheim's 30-year residence in Venice, her collection was seen at her home in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni and at special exhibitions in Amsterdam (1950), Zurich (1951), London (1964), Stockholm (1966), Copenhagen (1966), New York (1969) and Paris (1974).
Peggy Guggenheim, Marseille, 1937
Among the artists represented in the collection are,
from Italy, De Chirico (The Red Tower, The Nostalgia of the Poet) and Severini (Sea Dancer);
from France, Braque (The Clarinet), Metzinger (Au Vélodrome), Gleizes (Woman with animals), Duchamp (Sad Young Man on a Train), Léger (Study of a Nude and Men in the City) Picabia (Very Rare Picture on Earth);
from Spain, Dali - (Birth of Liquid Desires), Miro (Seated Woman II) and Picasso (The Poet, On the Beach);
from other European countries,
Constantin Brancusi (including a sculpture from the Bird in Space series), Max Ernst (The Kiss, Attirement of the Bride), Giacometti (Woman with Her Throat Cut, Woman Walking), Gorky (Untitled), Kandinsky (Landscape with Red Spots, No. 2, White Cross), Klee (Magic Garden), Magritte (Empire of Light) and Mondrian (Composition No. 1 with Grey and Red 1938, Composition with Red 1939); and from the US, Calder (Arc of Petals) and Pollock (The Moon Woman, Alchemy).
In one room, the museum also exhibits a few paintings by Peggy's daughter Pegeen Vail Guggenheim
In addition to the permanent collection, the museum houses 26 works on long-term loan from the Gianni Mattioli Collection, including images of Italian futurism by artists including Boccioni (Materia, Dynamism of a Cyclist), Carrà (Interventionist Demonstration), Russolo (The Solidity of Fog) and Severini (Blue Dancer), as well as works by Balla, Depero, Rosai, Sironi and Soffici.In 2012, the museum received 83 works from the Rudolph and Hannelore Schulhof Collection, which will have its own gallery within in the building.
Building and Venice Biennale
Entrance to Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni
The collection is housed in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, which Peggy Guggenheim purchased in 1949. Although sometimes mistaken for a modern building,it is an 18th-century palace designed by the Venetian architect Lorenzo Boschetti. The building was unfinished, and has an unusually low elevation on the Grand Canal. The museum's website describes it thus:
Palazzo Venier dei Leoni's long low façade, made of Istrian stone and set off against the trees in the garden behind that soften its lines, forms a welcome "caesura" in the stately march of Grand Canal palaces from the Accademia to the Salute.
The palazzo was Peggy Guggenheim's home for thirty years.
In 1951, the palazzo, its garden, now called the Nasher Sculpture Garden, and her art collection were opened to the public from April to October for viewing. Her collection at the palazzo remained open during the summers until her death in Camposampiero, northern Italy, in 1979; she had donated the palazzo and the 300-piece collection to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in 1976.
The foundation, then under the direction of Peter Lawson-Johnston, took control of the palazzo and the collection in 1979 and re-opened the collection there in April 1980 as the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.
After the Foundation took control of the building in 1979, it took steps to expand gallery space; by 1985, "all of the rooms on the main floor had been converted into galleries ... the white Istrian stone facade and the unique canal terrace had been restored" and a protruding arcade wing, called the barchessa, had been rebuilt by architect Giorgio Bellavitis. Since 1985, the museum has been open year-round.[11] In 1993, apartments adjacent to the museum were converted to a garden annex, a shop and more galleries.
In 1995, the Nasher Sculpture Garden was completed, additional exhibition rooms were added, and a café was opened. A few years later, in 1999 and in 2000, the two neighboring properties were acquired. In 2003, a new entrance and booking office opened to cope with the increasing number of visitors, which reached 350,000 in 2007. Since 1993, the museum has doubled in size, from 2,000 to 4,000 square meters.
Since 1985, the United States has selected the foundation to operate the U.S. Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, an exhibition held every other summer. In 1986, the foundation purchased the Palladian-style pavilion, built in 1930
Management and attendance
Philip Rylands was appointed director of the collection in 2000.[18] As of 2012, the collection was the most visited art gallery in Venice and the 11th most visited in Italy.
2014 lawsuit
Following the gift of works to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation by Hannelore and Rudolph Schulhof of Germany in 2012, works collected by Peggy Guggenheim were removed from the Palazzo and placed in storage to make room for the display of the new works.
The Schulhofs were honoured with inscriptions of their names alongside Guggenheim's at both entrances of the museum. Their son, Michael P. Schulhof, has been a trustee of the Guggenheim foundation since 2009.
In 2014, seven French descendants of Peggy Guggenheim sued the foundation for violating her will and agreements with the foundation, which they say require that the collection "remain intact and on display". The descendants also claim, among other things, that the resting place of Guggenheim's ashes in the gardens of the Palazzo have been desecrated by the display of sculptures donated by Patsy and Raymond Nasher nearby and by the use of the burial site for fundraising parties.
The lawsuit requests that the founder's bequest be revoked or that the collections, gravesite and signage be restored. The foundation calls the lawsuit "meritless". Other descendants of Peggy Guggenheim support the foundation.
The main room is somewhat disguised in this photo with a photoshop whitewash - I did this to see what the wooden ceiling would have looked like had I painted it white as I originally intended. Painting it white would have been much, much easier than sanding and bleaching it, but in the end it was an inferior option. The trusses would have looked thin and dinky, and the effect would have been colder or blander, less substantial and solid. The wood gave the place warmth and solidity, and the fact that the floor and ceiling are parallel expanses of tongue-and-groove boards seemed important.
The room is also used as our Ouno Design showroom. The building is the old Good Shepherd Mission, once a well-known little wooden church in Vancouver's Chinatown. See the set description for more information. The actual textile studio is in the back, but we use the floor in the main room on cutting/assembling days.
Blog blog.ounodesign.com
Etsy shop www.ouno.etsy.com
Roof boss in the 14th century vault of the nave.
The attractive town of Tewkesbury has been dominated by its superb abbey church since the beginning of the 12th century, and we can be forever grateful to its townspeople for purchasing the monastic church in 1540 for £453 for use as their parish church, saving it from the fate that befell countless similar great churches across the land during the turmoil of the Dissolution. It reminds us both how lucky we are to still marvel at it today, yet also how great a loss to our heritage the period wrought when many more such buildings were so utterly plundered as to have gone without trace (the fate of the monastic buildings here and even the lady chapel of the church whose footings are laid out in the grass at the east end).
Tewkesbury Abbey is thus rightly celebrated as one of our greatest non-cathedral churches, and remarkably much of the original Norman church remains substantially intact, most apparently in the great central tower, a fine example of Romanesque architecture adorned with rows of blind-arcading. The west front is dominated by a massive Norman-arched recess (enclosing the somewhat later west window) and the nave and transepts remain largely as originally built, though this is less clear externally owing to the changes made to the windows, nearly all of which were enlarged in the 14th century in the Decorated Gothic style. This century also saw the complete rebuilding of the eastern limb of the church, of a form less common in England with radiating chapels surrounding the eastern apse of the choir (the central lady chapel sadly missing since 1540).
The interior reveals far more of the Romanesque structure with mighty columns supporting the round Norman arches of the nave arcades giving the building a great sense of solidity. The space is further enlivened by the changes made during the 14th century by the stunning vault over the nave (adorned with a rewarding series of figurative bosses) which sits surprisingly well with the Norman work below. Beyond the apsidal choir beckons, and both this and the space below the tower are enriched with stunningly complex vaulted ceilings (replete with further bosses and gilded metal stars), all ablaze with colour and gilding.
There is much to enjoy in glass here, most remarkably a complete set of 14th century glazing in the clerestorey of the choir, seven windows filled with saints and prophets (and most memorably two groups of knights in the westernmost windows on each side). A few of the figures have fared less well over the centuries but on the whole this is a wonderfully rare and well preserved scheme. There is much glass from the 19th century too, with an extensive scheme in the nave of good quality work by Hardman's, and more recently a pair of rich windows by Tom Denny were added in one of the polygonal chapels around the east end.
Some of the most memorable features are the monuments with many medieval tombs of note, primarily the effigies and chantry chapels of members of the Despenser family around the choir (two of the chantries being miniature architectural gems in their own right with exquisite fan-vaulting). In one of the apsidal chapels is the unusual cenotaph to Abbot Wakeman with his grisly cadaver effigy, a late medieval reminder of earthly mortality.
Tewkesbury Abbey is not to be missed and is every bit as rewarding as many of our cathedrals (superior in fact to all but the best). It is normally kept open and welcoming to visitors on a daily basis. I have also had the privilege of working on this great building several times over the years (as part of the team at the studio I once worked for), and have left my mark in glass in a few discreet places.
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is a modern art museum on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, and is one of the most visited attractions in Venice. The museum was originally the private collection of the American heiress Peggy Guggenheim, who began displaying the artworks to the public seasonally in 1951.
After her death in 1979. it passed to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, which eventually opened the collection year-round. The collection is housed in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, an 18th-century palace, which was Guggenheim's home.
Collection
The collection is principally based on the personal art collection of Peggy Guggenheim, a former wife of artist Max Ernst and a niece of the mining magnate, Solomon R. Guggenheim. She collected the artworks mostly between 1938 and 1946, buying works in Europe "in dizzying succession" as World War II began, and later in America, where she discovered the talent of Jackson Pollock, among others. The museum "houses an impressive selection of modern art. Its picturesque setting and well-respected collection attract some 400,000 visitors per year", making it "the most-visited site in Venice after the Doge's Palace". Works on display include those of prominent Italian futurists and American modernists. Pieces in the collection embrace Cubism, Surrealism and Abstract expressionism. During Peggy Guggenheim's 30-year residence in Venice, her collection was seen at her home in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni and at special exhibitions in Amsterdam (1950), Zurich (1951), London (1964), Stockholm (1966), Copenhagen (1966), New York (1969) and Paris (1974).
Peggy Guggenheim, Marseille, 1937
Among the artists represented in the collection are,
from Italy, De Chirico (The Red Tower, The Nostalgia of the Poet) and Severini (Sea Dancer);
from France, Braque (The Clarinet), Metzinger (Au Vélodrome), Gleizes (Woman with animals), Duchamp (Sad Young Man on a Train), Léger (Study of a Nude and Men in the City) Picabia (Very Rare Picture on Earth);
from Spain, Dali - (Birth of Liquid Desires), Miro (Seated Woman II) and Picasso (The Poet, On the Beach);
from other European countries,
Constantin Brancusi (including a sculpture from the Bird in Space series), Max Ernst (The Kiss, Attirement of the Bride), Giacometti (Woman with Her Throat Cut, Woman Walking), Gorky (Untitled), Kandinsky (Landscape with Red Spots, No. 2, White Cross), Klee (Magic Garden), Magritte (Empire of Light) and Mondrian (Composition No. 1 with Grey and Red 1938, Composition with Red 1939); and from the US, Calder (Arc of Petals) and Pollock (The Moon Woman, Alchemy).
In one room, the museum also exhibits a few paintings by Peggy's daughter Pegeen Vail Guggenheim
In addition to the permanent collection, the museum houses 26 works on long-term loan from the Gianni Mattioli Collection, including images of Italian futurism by artists including Boccioni (Materia, Dynamism of a Cyclist), Carrà (Interventionist Demonstration), Russolo (The Solidity of Fog) and Severini (Blue Dancer), as well as works by Balla, Depero, Rosai, Sironi and Soffici.In 2012, the museum received 83 works from the Rudolph and Hannelore Schulhof Collection, which will have its own gallery within in the building.
Building and Venice Biennale
Entrance to Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni
The collection is housed in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, which Peggy Guggenheim purchased in 1949. Although sometimes mistaken for a modern building,it is an 18th-century palace designed by the Venetian architect Lorenzo Boschetti. The building was unfinished, and has an unusually low elevation on the Grand Canal. The museum's website describes it thus:
Palazzo Venier dei Leoni's long low façade, made of Istrian stone and set off against the trees in the garden behind that soften its lines, forms a welcome caesura in the stately march of Grand Canal palaces from the Accademia to the Salute.
The palazzo was Peggy Guggenheim's home for thirty years.
In 1951, the palazzo, its garden, now called the Nasher Sculpture Garden, and her art collection were opened to the public from April to October for viewing. Her collection at the palazzo remained open during the summers until her death in Camposampiero, northern Italy, in 1979; she had donated the palazzo and the 300-piece collection to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in 1976.
The foundation, then under the direction of Peter Lawson-Johnston, took control of the palazzo and the collection in 1979 and re-opened the collection there in April 1980 as the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.
After the Foundation took control of the building in 1979, it took steps to expand gallery space; by 1985 all of the rooms on the main floor had been converted into galleries ... the white Istrian stone facade and the unique canal terrace had been restored and a protruding arcade wing, called the barchessa, had been rebuilt by architect Giorgio Bellavitis. Since 1985, the museum has been open year-round.In 1993, apartments adjacent to the museum were converted to a garden annex, a shop and more galleries.
In 1995, the Nasher Sculpture Garden was completed, additional exhibition rooms were added, and a café was opened. A few years later, in 1999 and in 2000, the two neighboring properties were acquired. In 2003, a new entrance and booking office opened to cope with the increasing number of visitors, which reached 350,000 in 2007. Since 1993, the museum has doubled in size, from 2,000 to 4,000 square meters.
Since 1985, the United States has selected the foundation to operate the U.S. Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, an exhibition held every other summer. In 1986, the foundation purchased the Palladian-style pavilion, built in 1930
Management and attendance
Philip Rylands was appointed director of the collection in 2000.[18] As of 2012, the collection was the most visited art gallery in Venice and the 11th most visited in Italy.
2014 lawsuit
Following the gift of works to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation by Hannelore and Rudolph Schulhof of Germany in 2012, works collected by Peggy Guggenheim were removed from the Palazzo and placed in storage to make room for the display of the new works.
The Schulhofs were honoured with inscriptions of their names alongside Guggenheim's at both entrances of the museum. Their son, Michael P. Schulhof, has been a trustee of the Guggenheim foundation since 2009.
In 2014, seven French descendants of Peggy Guggenheim sued the foundation for violating her will and agreements with the foundation, which they say require that the collection remain intact and on display. The descendants also claim, among other things, that the resting place of Guggenheim's ashes in the gardens of the Palazzo have been desecrated by the display of sculptures donated by Patsy and Raymond Nasher nearby and by the use of the burial site for fundraising parties.
The lawsuit requests that the founder's bequest be revoked or that the collections, gravesite and signage be restored. The foundation calls the lawsuit meritless. Other descendants of Peggy Guggenheim support the foundation.
Marino Marini 1901 1980
The angel of the City
L'angelo della cittÃ
1948 Cast/ fusione 1950 ?
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is a modern art museum on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, and is one of the most visited attractions in Venice. The museum was originally the private collection of the American heiress Peggy Guggenheim, who began displaying the artworks to the public seasonally in 1951.
After her death in 1979. it passed to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, which eventually opened the collection year-round. The collection is housed in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, an 18th-century palace, which was Guggenheim's home.
Collection
The collection is principally based on the personal art collection of Peggy Guggenheim, a former wife of artist Max Ernst and a niece of the mining magnate, Solomon R. Guggenheim. She collected the artworks mostly between 1938 and 1946, buying works in Europe "in dizzying succession" as World War II began, and later in America, where she discovered the talent of Jackson Pollock, among others. The museum "houses an impressive selection of modern art. Its picturesque setting and well-respected collection attract some 400,000 visitors per year", making it "the most-visited site in Venice after the Doge's Palace". Works on display include those of prominent Italian futurists and American modernists. Pieces in the collection embrace Cubism, Surrealism and Abstract expressionism. During Peggy Guggenheim's 30-year residence in Venice, her collection was seen at her home in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni and at special exhibitions in Amsterdam (1950), Zurich (1951), London (1964), Stockholm (1966), Copenhagen (1966), New York (1969) and Paris (1974).
Peggy Guggenheim, Marseille, 1937
Among the artists represented in the collection are,
from Italy, De Chirico (The Red Tower, The Nostalgia of the Poet) and Severini (Sea Dancer);
from France, Braque (The Clarinet), Metzinger (Au Vélodrome), Gleizes (Woman with animals), Duchamp (Sad Young Man on a Train), Léger (Study of a Nude and Men in the City) Picabia (Very Rare Picture on Earth);
from Spain, Dali - (Birth of Liquid Desires), Miro (Seated Woman II) and Picasso (The Poet, On the Beach);
from other European countries,
Constantin Brancusi (including a sculpture from the Bird in Space series), Max Ernst (The Kiss, Attirement of the Bride), Giacometti (Woman with Her Throat Cut, Woman Walking), Gorky (Untitled), Kandinsky (Landscape with Red Spots, No. 2, White Cross), Klee (Magic Garden), Magritte (Empire of Light) and Mondrian (Composition No. 1 with Grey and Red 1938, Composition with Red 1939); and from the US, Calder (Arc of Petals) and Pollock (The Moon Woman, Alchemy).
In one room, the museum also exhibits a few paintings by Peggy's daughter Pegeen Vail Guggenheim
In addition to the permanent collection, the museum houses 26 works on long-term loan from the Gianni Mattioli Collection, including images of Italian futurism by artists including Boccioni (Materia, Dynamism of a Cyclist), Carrà (Interventionist Demonstration), Russolo (The Solidity of Fog) and Severini (Blue Dancer), as well as works by Balla, Depero, Rosai, Sironi and Soffici.In 2012, the museum received 83 works from the Rudolph and Hannelore Schulhof Collection, which will have its own gallery within in the building.
Building and Venice Biennale
Entrance to Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni
The collection is housed in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, which Peggy Guggenheim purchased in 1949. Although sometimes mistaken for a modern building,it is an 18th-century palace designed by the Venetian architect Lorenzo Boschetti. The building was unfinished, and has an unusually low elevation on the Grand Canal. The museum's website describes it thus:
Palazzo Venier dei Leoni's long low façade, made of Istrian stone and set off against the trees in the garden behind that soften its lines, forms a welcome "caesura" in the stately march of Grand Canal palaces from the Accademia to the Salute.
The palazzo was Peggy Guggenheim's home for thirty years.
In 1951, the palazzo, its garden, now called the Nasher Sculpture Garden, and her art collection were opened to the public from April to October for viewing. Her collection at the palazzo remained open during the summers until her death in Camposampiero, northern Italy, in 1979; she had donated the palazzo and the 300-piece collection to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in 1976.
The foundation, then under the direction of Peter Lawson-Johnston, took control of the palazzo and the collection in 1979 and re-opened the collection there in April 1980 as the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.
After the Foundation took control of the building in 1979, it took steps to expand gallery space; by 1985, "all of the rooms on the main floor had been converted into galleries ... the white Istrian stone facade and the unique canal terrace had been restored" and a protruding arcade wing, called the barchessa, had been rebuilt by architect Giorgio Bellavitis. Since 1985, the museum has been open year-round.[11] In 1993, apartments adjacent to the museum were converted to a garden annex, a shop and more galleries.
In 1995, the Nasher Sculpture Garden was completed, additional exhibition rooms were added, and a café was opened. A few years later, in 1999 and in 2000, the two neighboring properties were acquired. In 2003, a new entrance and booking office opened to cope with the increasing number of visitors, which reached 350,000 in 2007. Since 1993, the museum has doubled in size, from 2,000 to 4,000 square meters.
Since 1985, the United States has selected the foundation to operate the U.S. Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, an exhibition held every other summer. In 1986, the foundation purchased the Palladian-style pavilion, built in 1930
Management and attendance
Philip Rylands was appointed director of the collection in 2000.[18] As of 2012, the collection was the most visited art gallery in Venice and the 11th most visited in Italy.
2014 lawsuit
Following the gift of works to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation by Hannelore and Rudolph Schulhof of Germany in 2012, works collected by Peggy Guggenheim were removed from the Palazzo and placed in storage to make room for the display of the new works.
The Schulhofs were honoured with inscriptions of their names alongside Guggenheim's at both entrances of the museum. Their son, Michael P. Schulhof, has been a trustee of the Guggenheim foundation since 2009.
In 2014, seven French descendants of Peggy Guggenheim sued the foundation for violating her will and agreements with the foundation, which they say require that the collection "remain intact and on display". The descendants also claim, among other things, that the resting place of Guggenheim's ashes in the gardens of the Palazzo have been desecrated by the display of sculptures donated by Patsy and Raymond Nasher nearby and by the use of the burial site for fundraising parties.
The lawsuit requests that the founder's bequest be revoked or that the collections, gravesite and signage be restored. The foundation calls the lawsuit "meritless". Other descendants of Peggy Guggenheim support the foundation.
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection;
[Bibliography]
Peggy Guggenheim's career belongs in the history of 20th century art. Peggy used to say that it was her duty to protect the art of her own time, and she dedicated half of her life to this mission, as well as to the creation of the museum that still carries her name.
Peggy Guggenheim was born in New York on 26 August 1898, the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim and Florette Seligman. Benjamin Guggenheim was one of seven brothers who, with their father, Meyer (of Swiss origin), created a family fortune in the late 19th century from the mining and smelting of metals, especially silver, copper and lead. The Seligmans were a leading banking family. Peggy grew up in New York. In April 1912 her father died heroically on the SS Titanic. (1)
In her early 20s, Peggy volunteered for work at a bookshop, the Sunwise Turn, in New York and thanks to this began making friends in intellectual and artistic circles, including the man who was to become her first husband in Paris in 1922, Laurence Vail. Vail was a writer and Dada collagist of great talent. He chronicled his tempestuous life with Peggy in a novel, Murder! Murder! of which Peggy wrote: "It was a sort of satire of our life together and, although it was extremely funny, I took offense at several things he said about me."
In 1921 Peggy Guggenheim traveled to Europe. Thanks to Laurence Vail (the father of her two children Sindbad and Pegeen, the painter), Peggy soon found herself at the heart of Parisian bohème and American ex-patriate society. Many of her acquaintances of the time, such as Constantin Brancusi, Djuna Barnes and Marcel Duchamp, were to become lifelong friends. Though she remained on good terms with Vail for the rest of his life, she left him in 1928 for an English intellectual, John Holms, who was the greatest love of her life. There is a lengthy description of John Holms, a war hero with writer's block, in chapter five of Edwin Muir's An Autobiography. Muir wrote: "Holms was the most remarkable man I ever met." Unfortunately, Holms died tragically young in 1934.
In 1937, encouraged by her friend Peggy Waldman, Peggy decided to open an art gallery in London. When she opened her Guggenheim Jeune gallery in January 1938, she was beginning, at 39 years old, a career which would significantly affect the course of post-war art. Her friend Samuel Beckett urged her to dedicate herself to contemporary art as it was “a living thing,” and Marcel Duchamp introduced her to the artists and taught her, as she put it, “the difference between abstract and Surrealist art.” The first show presented works by Jean Cocteau, while the second was the first one-man show of Vasily Kandinsky in England.
In 1939, tired of her gallery, Peggy conceived “the idea of opening a modern museum in London,” with her friend Herbert Read as its director (2). From the start the museum was to be formed on historical principles, and a list of all the artists that should be represented, drawn up by Read and later revised by Marcel Duchamp and Nellie van Doesburg, was to become the basis of her collection.
In 1939-40, apparently oblivious of the war, Peggy busily acquired works for the future museum, keeping to her resolve to “buy a picture a day.” Some of the masterpieces of her collection, such as works by Francis Picabia, Georges Braque, Salvador Dalí and Piet Mondrian, were bought at that time. She astonished Fernand Léger by buying his Men in the City on the day that Hitler invaded Norway. She acquired Brancusi’s Bird in Space as the Germans approached Paris, and only then decided to flee the city.
In July 1941, Peggy fled Nazi-occupied France and returned to her native New York, together with Max Ernst, who was to become her second husband a few months later (they separated in 1943).
Peggy immediately began looking for a location for her modern art museum, while she continued to acquire works for her collection. In October 1942 she opened her museum/gallery Art of This Century. Designed by the Rumanian-Austrian architect Frederick Kiesler, the gallery was composed of extraordinarily innovative exhibition rooms and soon became the most stimulating venue for contemporary art in New York City. (3)
Of the opening night, she wrote: “I wore one of my Tanguy earrings and one made by Calder in order to show my impartiality between Surrealist and Abstract Art" (4). There Peggy exhibited her collection of Cubist, abstract and Surrealist art, which was already substantially that which we see today in Venice. Peggy produced a remarkable catalogue, edited by André Breton, with a cover design by Max Ernst. She held temporary exhibitions of leading European artists, and of several then unknown young Americans such as Robert Motherwell, William Baziotes, Mark Rothko, David Hare, Janet Sobel, Robert de Niro Sr, Clyfford Still, and Jackson Pollock, the ‘star’ of the gallery, who was given his first show by Peggy late in 1943. From July 1943 Peggy supported Pollock with a monthly stipend and actively promoted and sold his paintings. She commissioned his largest painting, a Mural, which she later gave to the University of Iowa.
Pollock and the others pioneered American Abstract Expressionism. One of the principal sources of this was Surrealism, which the artists encountered at Art of This Century. More important, however, was the encouragement and support that Peggy, together with her friend and assistant Howard Putzel, gave to the members of this nascent New York avant-garde. Peggy and her collection thus played a vital intermediary role in the development of America’s first art movement of international importance.
In 1947 Peggy decided to return in Europe, where her collection was shown for the first time at the 1948 Venice Biennale, in the Greek pavilion (5). In this way the works of artists such as Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko were exhibited for the first time in Europe. The presence of Cubist, abstract, and Surrealist art made the pavilion the most coherent survey of Modernism yet to have been presented in Italy.
Soon after Peggy bought Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, on the Grand Canal in Venice, where she came to live. In 1949 she held an exhibition of sculptures in the garden (6) curated by Giuseppe Marchiori, and from 1951 she opened her collection to the public.
In 1950 Peggy organized the first exhibition of Jackson Pollock in Italy, in the Ala Napoleonica of the Museo Correr in Venice. Her collection was in the meantime exhibited in Florence and Milan, and later in Amsterdam, Brussels, and Zurich. From 1951 Peggy opened her house and her collection to the public annually in the summer months. During her 30-year Venetian life, Peggy Guggenheim continued to collect works of art and to support artists, such as Edmondo Bacci and Tancredi Parmeggiani, whom she met in 1951. In 1962 Peggy Guggenheim was nominated Honorary Citizen of Venice.
In 1969 the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York invited Peggy Guggenheim to show her collection there. In 1976 she donated her palace and works of art to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. The Foundation had been created in 1937 by Peggy Guggenheim’s uncle Solomon, in order to operate his collection and museum which, since 1959, has been housed in Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous spiral structure on 5th Avenue.
Peggy died aged 81 on 23 December 1979. Her ashes are placed in a corner of the garden of Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, next to the place where she customarily buried her beloved dogs. Since this time, the Guggenheim Foundation has converted and expanded Peggy Guggenheim's private house into one of the finest small museums of modern art in the world.
[Info]
Address
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
Palazzo Venier dei Leoni
Dorsoduro 701
I-30123 Venezia
Opening hours
Daily 10 am - 6 pm
Closed Tuesdays and December 25
General information
tel: +39.041.2405.411
fax: +39.041.520.6885
e-mail: info@guggenheim-venice.it
Visitor services
tel: +39.041.2405.440/419
fax: +39.041.520.9083
e-mail: visitorinfo@guggenheim-venice.it
Photography
Photography is permitted without flash. You may not use tripods or monopods.
Animals
Animals of all sizes are not allowed in the galleries and in the gardens.
For information and assistance please contact "Sporting Dog Club".
Call Tel. +39 347 6242550 (Marie) or +39 347 4161321 (Roberto)
or write to sportingdoginvenice@gmail.com
Venice Art for All
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection joins the Venice Art for All project and becomes accessible to all, including people with limited mobility.
Palazzo Venier dei Leoni was probably begun in the 1750s by architect Lorenzo Boschetti, whose only other known building in Venice is the church of San Barnaba.
It is an unfinished palace. A model exists in the Museo Correr, Venice (1). Its magnificent classical façade would have matched that of Palazzo Corner, opposite, with the triple arch of the ground floor (which is the explanation of the ivy-covered pillars visible today) extended through both the piani nobili above. We do not know precisely why this Venier palace was left unfinished. Money may have run out, or some say that the powerful Corner family living opposite blocked the completion of a building that would have been grander than their own. Another explanation may rest with the unhappy fate of the next door Gothic palace which was demolished in the early 19th century: structural damage to this was blamed in part on the deep foundations of Palazzo Venier dei Leoni.
Nor is it known how the palace came to be associated with "leoni," lions. Although it is said that a lion was once kept in the garden, the name is more likely to have arisen from the yawning lion's heads of Istrian stone which decorate the façade at water level (2). The Venier family, who claimed descent from the gens Aurelia of ancient Rome (the Emperor Valerian and Gallienus were from this family), were among the oldest Venetian noble families. Over the centuries they provided eighteen Procurators of St Mark’s and three Doges. Antonio Venier (Doge, 1382-1400) had such a strong sense of justice that he allowed his own son to languish and die in prison for his crimes. Francesco Venier (Doge, 1553-56) was the subject of a superb portrait by Titian (Madrid, Fundaciòn Thyssen-Bornemisza). Sebastiano Venier was a commander of the Venetian fleet at the Battle of Lepanto (1571) and later became Doge (1577-78). A lively strutting statue of him, by Antonio dal Zotto (1907), can be seen today in the church of Ss. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice.
From 1910 to c. 1924 the house was owned by the flamboyant Marchesa Luisa Casati, hostess to the Ballets Russes, and the subject of numerous portraits by artists as various as Boldini, Troubetzkoy, Man Ray and Augustus John. In 1949, Peggy Guggenheim purchased Palazzo Venier from the heirs of Viscountes Castlerosse and made it her home for the following thirty years. Early in 1951, Peggy Guggenheim opened her home and collection to the public and continued to do so every year until her death in 1979. (3) (4)
In 1980, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection opened for the first time under the management of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, to which Peggy Guggenheim had given her palazzo and collection during her lifetime.
Palazzo Venier dei Leoni's long low façade, made of Istrian stone and set off against the trees in the garden behind that soften its lines, forms a welcome "caesura" in the stately march of Grand Canal palaces from the Accademia to the Salute.
[Permanent collection]
The core mission of the museum is to present the personal collection of Peggy Guggenheim. The collection holds major works of Cubism, Futurism, Metaphysical painting, European abstraction, avant-garde sculpture, Surrealism, and American Abstract Expressionism, by some of the greatest artists of the 20th century. These include Picasso (The Poet, On the Beach), Braque (The Clarinet), Duchamp (Sad Young Man on a Train), Léger, Brancusi (Maiastra, Bird in Space), Severini (Sea=Dancer), Picabia (Very Rare Picture on Earth), de Chirico (The Red Tower, The Nostalgia of the Poet), Mondrian (Composition No. 1 with Grey and Red 1938 / Composition with Red 1939), Kandinsky (Landscape with Red Spots, No. 2, White Cross), Miró (Seated Woman II), Giacometti Woman with Her Throat Cut, Woman Walking), Klee (Magic Garden), Ernst (The Kiss, Attirement of the Bride), Magritte (Empire of Light), Dalí (Birth of Liquid Desires), Pollock (The Moon Woman, Alchemy), Gorky (Untitled), Calder (Arc of Petals) and Marini (Angel of the City).
The museum also exhibits works of art given to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation for its Venetian museum since Peggy Guggenheim's death, as well as long-term loans from private collections.
Hannelore B. and Rudolph B. Schulhof Collection
In October 2012 eighty works of Italian, European and American art of the decades after 1945 were added to the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in Venice. They were the bequest of Hannelore B. Schulhof, who collected the works with her late husband Rudolph B. Schulhof. They include paintings by Burri, Dubuffet, Fontana, Hofmann, Kelly, Kiefer, Noland, Rothko, and Twombly, as well as sculptures by Calder, Caro, Holzer, Judd and Hepworth. The Hannelore B. and Rudolph B. Schulhof Garden exhibits works from this collection.
Gianni Mattioli Collection
The museum exhibits twenty six masterpieces on long-term loan from the renowned Gianni Mattioli Collection, including famous images of Italian Futurism, such as Materia and Dynamism of a Cyclist by Boccioni, Interventionist Demonstration by Carrà, The Solidity of Fog by Russolo, works by Balla, Severini (Blue Dancer), Sironi, Soffici, Rosai, Depero. The collection includes important early paintings by Morandi and a rare portrait by Modigliani.
Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Sculpture Garden
The Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Sculpture Garden and other outdoor spaces at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection presents works from the permanent collections (by Arp, Duchamp-Villon, Ernst, Flanagan, Giacometti, Gilardi, Goldsworthy, Holzer, Marini, Minguzzi, Mirko, Merz, Moore, Ono, Paladino, Richier, Takis), as well as sculptures on temporary loan from foundations and private collections (by Calder, König , Marini, Nannucci, Smith).
St Edmund, Southwold, Suffolk
I kept meaning to come back to Southwold - the church, I mean, for I found myself in the little town from time to time. I finally kept my promise to myself in the summer of 2017, tipping up on a beautiful sunny day only to find the church closed for extensive repairs. The days got shorter, and by the time the church reopened it was too late in the year for me to try again. In fact, it was not until late October 2018 that I made it back there, on another beautiful day.
Southwold is well-known to people who have never even been there I suppose, signifying one side of Suffolk to which Ipswich is perhaps the counter in the popular imagination. Some thirty years ago, the comedian Michael Palin made a film for television called East of Ipswich. It was a memoir of his childhood in the 1950s, and the basic comic premise behind the film was that in those days families would go on holiday to seaside resorts on the East Anglian coast. In the child Palin's case, it was Southwold.
The amusement came from the idea that people in those days would sit in deckchairs beside the grey north sea, or shelter from the drizzle in genteel teashops or the amusement arcade on the pier. In the Costa Brava package tour days of the 1980s, the quaintness of this image made it seem like something from a different world.
I remember Southwold in the 1980s. It was one of those agreeable little towns distant enough from anywhere bigger to maintain a life of its own. It still had its genteel tea shops, its dusty grocers, its quaint hotels and pubs all owned by Adnams, the old-fashioned and unfashionable local brewery. In the white heat of the Thatcherite cultural revolution, it seemed a place that would soon die on its feet quietly and peaceably.
And then, in the 1990s, the colour supplements discovered the East Anglian coast, and fell in love with it. The new fashions for antique-collecting, cooking with local produce and general country living, coupled with a snobbishness about how vulgar foreign package trips had become, conspired to make places like Southwold very sought after. Before Nigel Lawson's boom became a bust, the inflated house prices of London and the home counties gave people money to burn. And in their hoards, they came out of the big city to buy holiday homes in East Anglia.
Although they are often lumped together, the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk are very different to each other (Cambridgeshire and North Essex are also culturally part of East Anglia, but the North Essex coast is too close to London to have ever stopped being cheap and cheerful, and Cambridgeshire has no coastline). Norfolk's beaches are wide and sandy, with dunes and cliffs and rock pools to explore. Towns like Cromer and Hunstanton seem to have stepped out of the pages of the Ladybird Book of the Seaside. Tiny villages along the Norfolk coast have secret little beaches of their own.
Suffolk's coast is wilder. Beaches are mainly pebbles rather than sand, and the marshes stretch inland, cutting the coast off from the rest of the county. Unlike Norfolk, Suffolk has no coast road, and so the settlements on the coast are isolated from each other, stuck at the ends of narrow lanes which snake away from the A12 and peter out in the heathland above the sea. There are fewer of them too. It is still quicker to get from Walberswick to Southwold by water than by land. Because they are isolated from each other, they take on individual personalities and characteristics. Because they are isolated from the land, they become bastions of polite civilisation.
Between Felixstowe in the south, which no outsiders like (and consequently is the favourite of many Suffolk people) and Lowestoft in the north, which is basically an industrial town-on-sea (but which still has the county's best beaches - shhh, don't tell a soul) are half a dozen small towns that vie with each other for trendiness. Southwold is the biggest, and today it is also the most expensive place to live in all East Anglia. Genteel tea shops survive, but are increasingly shouldered by shops that specialise in ski-wear and Barbour jackets, delicatessens that stock radicchio and seventeen different kinds of olive, jewellery shops and kitchen gadget shops and antique furniture shops where prices are exquisitely painful. Worst of all, the homely, shabby, smoke-filled Sole Bay Inn under the lighthouse has been converted by the now-trendy Adnams Brewery into a chrome and glass filled wine bar.
If you see someone in Norfolk driving a truck, they are probably wearing a baseball cap and carrying a shotgun. in Suffolk, they've more likely just bought a Victorian pine dresser from an antique shop, and they're taking it back to Islington. Does this matter? The fishing industry was dying anyway. The tourist industry was also dying. If places like Southwold, Aldeburgh and Orford become outposts of north London, at least they will still provide jobs for local people. But the local people won't be able to afford to live there, of course. They'll be bussed in from Reydon, Leiston and Melton to provide services for people in holiday cottages which are the former homes they grew up in, but can no longer afford to buy. Does this seriously annoy me? Not as much as it does them, I'll bet.
So, lets go to Southwold, turning off the A12 at the great ship of Blythburgh church, the wide marshes of the River Blyth spreading aimlessly beyond the road. We climb and fall over ancient dunes, and then the road opens out into the flat marshes, the town spreads out beyond. We enter through Reydon (now actually bigger than Southwold, with houses at half the price) and over the bridge into the town of Southwold itself.
Having been so critical, I need to say here that Southwold is beautiful. It is quite the loveliest small town in all East Anglia. None of the half-timbered houses here that you find in places like Long Melford and Lavenham. Here, the town was completely destroyed by fire in the 17th century, and so we have fine 18th and 19th century municipal buildings. One of the legacies of the fire was the creation of wide open spaces just off of the high street, called greens. The best one of all is Gun Hill Green, overlooking the bay where the last major naval battle in British waters was fought. The cannons still point out to sea. The houses here are stunning, gobsmacking, jaw-droppingly wonderful. If I could afford to buy one of them as a weekend retreat, then you bet your life I would, and to hell with the people who moaned about it.
At the western end of the High Street is St Bartholomew's Green, and beyond it sits what is, for my money, Suffolk's single most impressive building. This is the great church of St Edmund, a vast edifice built all in one go in the second half of the 15th century. Only Lavenham can compete with it for scale and presence. Unlike the massing at St Peter and St Paul at Lavenham, St Edmund is defined by a long unbroken clerestory and aisles beneath - where St Peter and St Paul looks full of tension, ready to spring, St Edmund is languid and floating, a ship at ease.
Southwold church was just one of several vast late medieval rebuildings in this area. Across the river at Walberswick and a few miles upriver at Blythburgh the same thing happened. Blythburgh still survives, but Walberswick was derelicted to make a smaller church, as were Covehithe and Kessingland. Dunwich All Saints was lost to the sea. But Southwold was the biggest. Everything about it breathes massive permanence, from the solidity of the tower to the turreted porch, from the wide windows to the jaunty sanctus bell fleche.
Along the top of the aisles, grimacing faces look down. All of them are different. The pedestals atop the clerestory were intended for statues as at Blythburgh, but were probably never filled before the Reformation intervened. At the west end, above the great west window, you can see the vast inscription SAncT EDMUND ORA P: NOBIS ('Saint Edmund, pray for us') as bold a record of the mindset of late medieval East Anglian Catholicism as you'll find.
As at Lavenham and Long Melford, the interior has been extensively restored, but not in as heavy or blunt a manner as at those two churches. St Edmund has, it must be said, benefited from the attentions of German bombers who put out all the dull Victorian glass with blast damage during World War II. Here, the interior is vast, light and airy, and much of the restoration is 20th century work, not 19th century.
Perhaps because of this, more medieval interior features have survived. Unlike Long Melford, Southwold does not have surviving medieval glass (Mr Dowsing saw to that in 1644), but it does have what is the finest screen in the county.
It stretches right the way across the church, and is effectively three separate screens. There is a rood screen across the chancel arch, and parclose screens across the north and south chancel aisles. All retain their original dado figures. There are 36 of them, more than anywhere else in Suffolk. They have been restored, particularly in the central range, but are fascinating because they retain a lot of original gesso work, where plaster of Paris is applied to wood and allowed to dry. It is then carved to produce intricate details.
The central screen shows the eleven remaining disciples and St Paul. They are, from left to right, Philip, Bartholomew, James the Less, Thomas, Andrew, Peter, Paul, John, James, Simon, Jude and Matthew.
The south chancel chapel is light and open. The bosses above are said to represent Mary Tudor and her second husband Charles, Duke of Brandon. The screen here is painted with twelve Old Testament prophets, and Mortlock suggests that they are by a different hand to the images on the other two screens. Here on the south screen, some of the figures have surviving naming inscriptions, and Mortlock surmises that the complete sequence, from left to right, is Baruch, Hosea, Nahum, Jeremiah, Elias, Moses, David, Isaiah, Amos, Jonah and Ezekiel. Further, he observes that the subject is a usual one for the English Midlands, but rare for East Anglia, and that perhaps this part of the screen came from elsewhere. The same may be true of the other two parts - it is hard to think that the central screen was deliberately made too wide for the two arcades.
The north aisle chapel is reserved as the blessed sacrament chapel. The screen is harder to explore, because the northern side is curtailed by a large chest, but it features angels. Unlike the screens at Hitcham and Blundeston, which show angels holding instruments of the passion, these are the nine orders of angels, with Gabriel at their head, and flanked by angels holding symbols of the Trinity and the Eucharist. Mortlock says that they are so similar to the ones at Barton Turf in Norfolk that they may be by the same hand, in which case the central screen is also by that person. They are, from left to right, the Holy Trinity, Gabriel, Archangels, Powers, Dominions, Cherubim, Seraphim, Thrones, Principalities, Virtues, Messengers, and finally the Eucharist. The Holy Trinity angel still has part of the original dedicatory inscription beneath his feet.
If part or all of this screen came from elsewhere, where did it come from? Possibly either Walberswick, Covehithe or Kessingland, the three downsized churches mentioned earlier. More excitingly, it might have come from one of the churches along this coast that was lost to the sea, perhaps neighbouring St Nicholas at Easton Bavents, or, just to the south, St Peter or St John the Baptist, the two Dunwich churches lost in the 16th and 17th centuries. We'll never know.
If you turn back at the screen and face westwards, your eyes are automatically drawn to the towering font cover, part of the extensive 1930s redecoration of the building. The clerestory is almost like a glass atrium intended to house it. Also the work of the period is the repainting and regilding of the 15th century pulpit (a lot of people blanch at this, but I think it is gorgeous) and the lectern. Beneath the font cover, the font is clearly one of the rare seven sacraments series, and part of the same group as Westhall, Blythburgh and Wenhaston. As at Blythburgh and Wenhaston, the panels are completely erased, probably in the 19th century, an act of barbarous vandalism. Given that Westhall is probably the best of all in the county, we must assume that three major medieval art treasures were wiped out. Astonishingly, vague shadows survive of the former reliefs; you can easily make out the Mass panel, facing east as at Westhall, the Penance panel and even what may be the Baptism of Christ.
Stepping through the screen, the reredos ahead is by Benedict Williamson and the glass above by Ninian Comper, familiar names in the Anglo-catholic pantheon, and evidence of an enthusiasm here that still survives in High Church form. There is a good engraved glass image of St Edmund to the north of the sanctuary, very much in the 1960s fashion, but curiously placed. On the wall of the chancel to the west of it, the high organ case is also painted and gilded enthusiastically.
As well as the screen, Southwold's other great medieval survival is the set of return stalls either side of the eastern face of the chancel screen. They have misericord seats, but the best feature are the handrests between the seats. On the south side, carvings include a man with a horn-shaped hat and sinners being drawn into the mouth of hell. On the north side are a man playing two pipes, a monkey preaching and a beaver biting its own genitals, a tale from the medieval bestiary, apparently.
What else is there to see? Well, the church is full of delights, and rewards further visits which always seem to turn up something previously unnoticed. St George rides full tilt at a dragon on an old chest at the west end of the north aisle. There is good 19th century glass in the porch and at the west end of the nave. A clock jack stands, axe and bell in hand, at the west end, a twin to the one upriver at Blythburgh. This one has a name, he's called Southwold Jack, and he is one of the symbols of the Adnams brewery.
As Mortlock notes, there are very few surviving memorials. This is partly because St Edmund was not in the patronage of a great landed family, but it may also suggest that they were largely removed at the time of the 19th century restoration, as at Brandon. One moving one is for the child of a vicar, and there are some interesting pre-Oxford Movement 19th century brasses in the south aisle.
High, high above all this, the roofs are models of Anglo-Catholic melodrama, the canopy of honour to the rood and the chancel ceilure in particular. But there is a warmth about it all that is missing from, say, Eye, which underwent a similar makeover. This church feels full of life, and not a museum piece at all. I remember attending evensong here late one winter Saturday afternoon, and it was magical. On another visit, I came on one of the first days of spring that was truly warm and bright, with not a cloud in the sky. As we drove into town, a cold fret off of the sea was condensing the steam of the brewery, sending it in swirls and skeins around the tower of St Edmund like low cloud. It was so atmospheric that I almost forgave them for what they have done to the Sole Bay Inn.
St Edmund, Southwold, Suffolk
I kept meaning to come back to Southwold - the church, I mean, for I found myself in the little town from time to time. I finally kept my promise to myself in the summer of 2017, tipping up on a beautiful sunny day only to find the church closed for extensive repairs. The days got shorter, and by the time the church reopened it was too late in the year for me to try again. In fact, it was not until late October 2018 that I made it back there, on another beautiful day.
Southwold is well-known to people who have never even been there I suppose, signifying one side of Suffolk to which Ipswich is perhaps the counter in the popular imagination. Some thirty years ago, the comedian Michael Palin made a film for television called East of Ipswich. It was a memoir of his childhood in the 1950s, and the basic comic premise behind the film was that in those days families would go on holiday to seaside resorts on the East Anglian coast. In the child Palin's case, it was Southwold.
The amusement came from the idea that people in those days would sit in deckchairs beside the grey north sea, or shelter from the drizzle in genteel teashops or the amusement arcade on the pier. In the Costa Brava package tour days of the 1980s, the quaintness of this image made it seem like something from a different world.
I remember Southwold in the 1980s. It was one of those agreeable little towns distant enough from anywhere bigger to maintain a life of its own. It still had its genteel tea shops, its dusty grocers, its quaint hotels and pubs all owned by Adnams, the old-fashioned and unfashionable local brewery. In the white heat of the Thatcherite cultural revolution, it seemed a place that would soon die on its feet quietly and peaceably.
And then, in the 1990s, the colour supplements discovered the East Anglian coast, and fell in love with it. The new fashions for antique-collecting, cooking with local produce and general country living, coupled with a snobbishness about how vulgar foreign package trips had become, conspired to make places like Southwold very sought after. Before Nigel Lawson's boom became a bust, the inflated house prices of London and the home counties gave people money to burn. And in their hoards, they came out of the big city to buy holiday homes in East Anglia.
Although they are often lumped together, the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk are very different to each other (Cambridgeshire and North Essex are also culturally part of East Anglia, but the North Essex coast is too close to London to have ever stopped being cheap and cheerful, and Cambridgeshire has no coastline). Norfolk's beaches are wide and sandy, with dunes and cliffs and rock pools to explore. Towns like Cromer and Hunstanton seem to have stepped out of the pages of the Ladybird Book of the Seaside. Tiny villages along the Norfolk coast have secret little beaches of their own.
Suffolk's coast is wilder. Beaches are mainly pebbles rather than sand, and the marshes stretch inland, cutting the coast off from the rest of the county. Unlike Norfolk, Suffolk has no coast road, and so the settlements on the coast are isolated from each other, stuck at the ends of narrow lanes which snake away from the A12 and peter out in the heathland above the sea. There are fewer of them too. It is still quicker to get from Walberswick to Southwold by water than by land. Because they are isolated from each other, they take on individual personalities and characteristics. Because they are isolated from the land, they become bastions of polite civilisation.
Between Felixstowe in the south, which no outsiders like (and consequently is the favourite of many Suffolk people) and Lowestoft in the north, which is basically an industrial town-on-sea (but which still has the county's best beaches - shhh, don't tell a soul) are half a dozen small towns that vie with each other for trendiness. Southwold is the biggest, and today it is also the most expensive place to live in all East Anglia. Genteel tea shops survive, but are increasingly shouldered by shops that specialise in ski-wear and Barbour jackets, delicatessens that stock radicchio and seventeen different kinds of olive, jewellery shops and kitchen gadget shops and antique furniture shops where prices are exquisitely painful. Worst of all, the homely, shabby, smoke-filled Sole Bay Inn under the lighthouse has been converted by the now-trendy Adnams Brewery into a chrome and glass filled wine bar.
If you see someone in Norfolk driving a truck, they are probably wearing a baseball cap and carrying a shotgun. in Suffolk, they've more likely just bought a Victorian pine dresser from an antique shop, and they're taking it back to Islington. Does this matter? The fishing industry was dying anyway. The tourist industry was also dying. If places like Southwold, Aldeburgh and Orford become outposts of north London, at least they will still provide jobs for local people. But the local people won't be able to afford to live there, of course. They'll be bussed in from Reydon, Leiston and Melton to provide services for people in holiday cottages which are the former homes they grew up in, but can no longer afford to buy. Does this seriously annoy me? Not as much as it does them, I'll bet.
So, lets go to Southwold, turning off the A12 at the great ship of Blythburgh church, the wide marshes of the River Blyth spreading aimlessly beyond the road. We climb and fall over ancient dunes, and then the road opens out into the flat marshes, the town spreads out beyond. We enter through Reydon (now actually bigger than Southwold, with houses at half the price) and over the bridge into the town of Southwold itself.
Having been so critical, I need to say here that Southwold is beautiful. It is quite the loveliest small town in all East Anglia. None of the half-timbered houses here that you find in places like Long Melford and Lavenham. Here, the town was completely destroyed by fire in the 17th century, and so we have fine 18th and 19th century municipal buildings. One of the legacies of the fire was the creation of wide open spaces just off of the high street, called greens. The best one of all is Gun Hill Green, overlooking the bay where the last major naval battle in British waters was fought. The cannons still point out to sea. The houses here are stunning, gobsmacking, jaw-droppingly wonderful. If I could afford to buy one of them as a weekend retreat, then you bet your life I would, and to hell with the people who moaned about it.
At the western end of the High Street is St Bartholomew's Green, and beyond it sits what is, for my money, Suffolk's single most impressive building. This is the great church of St Edmund, a vast edifice built all in one go in the second half of the 15th century. Only Lavenham can compete with it for scale and presence. Unlike the massing at St Peter and St Paul at Lavenham, St Edmund is defined by a long unbroken clerestory and aisles beneath - where St Peter and St Paul looks full of tension, ready to spring, St Edmund is languid and floating, a ship at ease.
Southwold church was just one of several vast late medieval rebuildings in this area. Across the river at Walberswick and a few miles upriver at Blythburgh the same thing happened. Blythburgh still survives, but Walberswick was derelicted to make a smaller church, as were Covehithe and Kessingland. Dunwich All Saints was lost to the sea. But Southwold was the biggest. Everything about it breathes massive permanence, from the solidity of the tower to the turreted porch, from the wide windows to the jaunty sanctus bell fleche.
Along the top of the aisles, grimacing faces look down. All of them are different. The pedestals atop the clerestory were intended for statues as at Blythburgh, but were probably never filled before the Reformation intervened. At the west end, above the great west window, you can see the vast inscription SAncT EDMUND ORA P: NOBIS ('Saint Edmund, pray for us') as bold a record of the mindset of late medieval East Anglian Catholicism as you'll find.
As at Lavenham and Long Melford, the interior has been extensively restored, but not in as heavy or blunt a manner as at those two churches. St Edmund has, it must be said, benefited from the attentions of German bombers who put out all the dull Victorian glass with blast damage during World War II. Here, the interior is vast, light and airy, and much of the restoration is 20th century work, not 19th century.
Perhaps because of this, more medieval interior features have survived. Unlike Long Melford, Southwold does not have surviving medieval glass (Mr Dowsing saw to that in 1644), but it does have what is the finest screen in the county.
It stretches right the way across the church, and is effectively three separate screens. There is a rood screen across the chancel arch, and parclose screens across the north and south chancel aisles. All retain their original dado figures. There are 36 of them, more than anywhere else in Suffolk. They have been restored, particularly in the central range, but are fascinating because they retain a lot of original gesso work, where plaster of Paris is applied to wood and allowed to dry. It is then carved to produce intricate details.
The central screen shows the eleven remaining disciples and St Paul. They are, from left to right, Philip, Bartholomew, James the Less, Thomas, Andrew, Peter, Paul, John, James, Simon, Jude and Matthew.
The south chancel chapel is light and open. The bosses above are said to represent Mary Tudor and her second husband Charles, Duke of Brandon. The screen here is painted with twelve Old Testament prophets, and Mortlock suggests that they are by a different hand to the images on the other two screens. Here on the south screen, some of the figures have surviving naming inscriptions, and Mortlock surmises that the complete sequence, from left to right, is Baruch, Hosea, Nahum, Jeremiah, Elias, Moses, David, Isaiah, Amos, Jonah and Ezekiel. Further, he observes that the subject is a usual one for the English Midlands, but rare for East Anglia, and that perhaps this part of the screen came from elsewhere. The same may be true of the other two parts - it is hard to think that the central screen was deliberately made too wide for the two arcades.
The north aisle chapel is reserved as the blessed sacrament chapel. The screen is harder to explore, because the northern side is curtailed by a large chest, but it features angels. Unlike the screens at Hitcham and Blundeston, which show angels holding instruments of the passion, these are the nine orders of angels, with Gabriel at their head, and flanked by angels holding symbols of the Trinity and the Eucharist. Mortlock says that they are so similar to the ones at Barton Turf in Norfolk that they may be by the same hand, in which case the central screen is also by that person. They are, from left to right, the Holy Trinity, Gabriel, Archangels, Powers, Dominions, Cherubim, Seraphim, Thrones, Principalities, Virtues, Messengers, and finally the Eucharist. The Holy Trinity angel still has part of the original dedicatory inscription beneath his feet.
If part or all of this screen came from elsewhere, where did it come from? Possibly either Walberswick, Covehithe or Kessingland, the three downsized churches mentioned earlier. More excitingly, it might have come from one of the churches along this coast that was lost to the sea, perhaps neighbouring St Nicholas at Easton Bavents, or, just to the south, St Peter or St John the Baptist, the two Dunwich churches lost in the 16th and 17th centuries. We'll never know.
If you turn back at the screen and face westwards, your eyes are automatically drawn to the towering font cover, part of the extensive 1930s redecoration of the building. The clerestory is almost like a glass atrium intended to house it. Also the work of the period is the repainting and regilding of the 15th century pulpit (a lot of people blanch at this, but I think it is gorgeous) and the lectern. Beneath the font cover, the font is clearly one of the rare seven sacraments series, and part of the same group as Westhall, Blythburgh and Wenhaston. As at Blythburgh and Wenhaston, the panels are completely erased, probably in the 19th century, an act of barbarous vandalism. Given that Westhall is probably the best of all in the county, we must assume that three major medieval art treasures were wiped out. Astonishingly, vague shadows survive of the former reliefs; you can easily make out the Mass panel, facing east as at Westhall, the Penance panel and even what may be the Baptism of Christ.
Stepping through the screen, the reredos ahead is by Benedict Williamson and the glass above by Ninian Comper, familiar names in the Anglo-catholic pantheon, and evidence of an enthusiasm here that still survives in High Church form. There is a good engraved glass image of St Edmund to the north of the sanctuary, very much in the 1960s fashion, but curiously placed. On the wall of the chancel to the west of it, the high organ case is also painted and gilded enthusiastically.
As well as the screen, Southwold's other great medieval survival is the set of return stalls either side of the eastern face of the chancel screen. They have misericord seats, but the best feature are the handrests between the seats. On the south side, carvings include a man with a horn-shaped hat and sinners being drawn into the mouth of hell. On the north side are a man playing two pipes, a monkey preaching and a beaver biting its own genitals, a tale from the medieval bestiary, apparently.
What else is there to see? Well, the church is full of delights, and rewards further visits which always seem to turn up something previously unnoticed. St George rides full tilt at a dragon on an old chest at the west end of the north aisle. There is good 19th century glass in the porch and at the west end of the nave. A clock jack stands, axe and bell in hand, at the west end, a twin to the one upriver at Blythburgh. This one has a name, he's called Southwold Jack, and he is one of the symbols of the Adnams brewery.
As Mortlock notes, there are very few surviving memorials. This is partly because St Edmund was not in the patronage of a great landed family, but it may also suggest that they were largely removed at the time of the 19th century restoration, as at Brandon. One moving one is for the child of a vicar, and there are some interesting pre-Oxford Movement 19th century brasses in the south aisle.
High, high above all this, the roofs are models of Anglo-Catholic melodrama, the canopy of honour to the rood and the chancel ceilure in particular. But there is a warmth about it all that is missing from, say, Eye, which underwent a similar makeover. This church feels full of life, and not a museum piece at all. I remember attending evensong here late one winter Saturday afternoon, and it was magical. On another visit, I came on one of the first days of spring that was truly warm and bright, with not a cloud in the sky. As we drove into town, a cold fret off of the sea was condensing the steam of the brewery, sending it in swirls and skeins around the tower of St Edmund like low cloud. It was so atmospheric that I almost forgave them for what they have done to the Sole Bay Inn.
Raymond Duchamp Villon 1876 1918
Le Cheval
The Horse
Il Cavallo
1914 cast/fusione 1930
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is a modern art museum on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, and is one of the most visited attractions in Venice. The museum was originally the private collection of the American heiress Peggy Guggenheim, who began displaying the artworks to the public seasonally in 1951.
After her death in 1979. it passed to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, which eventually opened the collection year-round. The collection is housed in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, an 18th-century palace, which was Guggenheim's home.
Collection
The collection is principally based on the personal art collection of Peggy Guggenheim, a former wife of artist Max Ernst and a niece of the mining magnate, Solomon R. Guggenheim. She collected the artworks mostly between 1938 and 1946, buying works in Europe "in dizzying succession" as World War II began, and later in America, where she discovered the talent of Jackson Pollock, among others. The museum "houses an impressive selection of modern art. Its picturesque setting and well-respected collection attract some 400,000 visitors per year", making it "the most-visited site in Venice after the Doge's Palace". Works on display include those of prominent Italian futurists and American modernists. Pieces in the collection embrace Cubism, Surrealism and Abstract expressionism. During Peggy Guggenheim's 30-year residence in Venice, her collection was seen at her home in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni and at special exhibitions in Amsterdam (1950), Zurich (1951), London (1964), Stockholm (1966), Copenhagen (1966), New York (1969) and Paris (1974).
Peggy Guggenheim, Marseille, 1937
Among the artists represented in the collection are,
from Italy, De Chirico (The Red Tower, The Nostalgia of the Poet) and Severini (Sea Dancer);
from France, Braque (The Clarinet), Metzinger (Au Vélodrome), Gleizes (Woman with animals), Duchamp (Sad Young Man on a Train), Léger (Study of a Nude and Men in the City) Picabia (Very Rare Picture on Earth);
from Spain, Dali - (Birth of Liquid Desires), Miro (Seated Woman II) and Picasso (The Poet, On the Beach);
from other European countries,
Constantin Brancusi (including a sculpture from the Bird in Space series), Max Ernst (The Kiss, Attirement of the Bride), Giacometti (Woman with Her Throat Cut, Woman Walking), Gorky (Untitled), Kandinsky (Landscape with Red Spots, No. 2, White Cross), Klee (Magic Garden), Magritte (Empire of Light) and Mondrian (Composition No. 1 with Grey and Red 1938, Composition with Red 1939); and from the US, Calder (Arc of Petals) and Pollock (The Moon Woman, Alchemy).
In one room, the museum also exhibits a few paintings by Peggy's daughter Pegeen Vail Guggenheim
In addition to the permanent collection, the museum houses 26 works on long-term loan from the Gianni Mattioli Collection, including images of Italian futurism by artists including Boccioni (Materia, Dynamism of a Cyclist), Carrà (Interventionist Demonstration), Russolo (The Solidity of Fog) and Severini (Blue Dancer), as well as works by Balla, Depero, Rosai, Sironi and Soffici.In 2012, the museum received 83 works from the Rudolph and Hannelore Schulhof Collection, which will have its own gallery within in the building.
Building and Venice Biennale
Entrance to Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni
The collection is housed in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, which Peggy Guggenheim purchased in 1949. Although sometimes mistaken for a modern building,it is an 18th-century palace designed by the Venetian architect Lorenzo Boschetti. The building was unfinished, and has an unusually low elevation on the Grand Canal. The museum's website describes it thus:
Palazzo Venier dei Leoni's long low façade, made of Istrian stone and set off against the trees in the garden behind that soften its lines, forms a welcome caesura in the stately march of Grand Canal palaces from the Accademia to the Salute.
The palazzo was Peggy Guggenheim's home for thirty years.
In 1951, the palazzo, its garden, now called the Nasher Sculpture Garden, and her art collection were opened to the public from April to October for viewing. Her collection at the palazzo remained open during the summers until her death in Camposampiero, northern Italy, in 1979; she had donated the palazzo and the 300-piece collection to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in 1976.
The foundation, then under the direction of Peter Lawson-Johnston, took control of the palazzo and the collection in 1979 and re-opened the collection there in April 1980 as the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.
After the Foundation took control of the building in 1979, it took steps to expand gallery space; by 1985 all of the rooms on the main floor had been converted into galleries ... the white Istrian stone facade and the unique canal terrace had been restored and a protruding arcade wing, called the barchessa, had been rebuilt by architect Giorgio Bellavitis. Since 1985, the museum has been open year-round.In 1993, apartments adjacent to the museum were converted to a garden annex, a shop and more galleries.
In 1995, the Nasher Sculpture Garden was completed, additional exhibition rooms were added, and a café was opened. A few years later, in 1999 and in 2000, the two neighboring properties were acquired. In 2003, a new entrance and booking office opened to cope with the increasing number of visitors, which reached 350,000 in 2007. Since 1993, the museum has doubled in size, from 2,000 to 4,000 square meters.
Since 1985, the United States has selected the foundation to operate the U.S. Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, an exhibition held every other summer. In 1986, the foundation purchased the Palladian-style pavilion, built in 1930
Management and attendance
Philip Rylands was appointed director of the collection in 2000.[18] As of 2012, the collection was the most visited art gallery in Venice and the 11th most visited in Italy.
2014 lawsuit
Following the gift of works to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation by Hannelore and Rudolph Schulhof of Germany in 2012, works collected by Peggy Guggenheim were removed from the Palazzo and placed in storage to make room for the display of the new works.
The Schulhofs were honoured with inscriptions of their names alongside Guggenheim's at both entrances of the museum. Their son, Michael P. Schulhof, has been a trustee of the Guggenheim foundation since 2009.
In 2014, seven French descendants of Peggy Guggenheim sued the foundation for violating her will and agreements with the foundation, which they say require that the collection remain intact and on display. The descendants also claim, among other things, that the resting place of Guggenheim's ashes in the gardens of the Palazzo have been desecrated by the display of sculptures donated by Patsy and Raymond Nasher nearby and by the use of the burial site for fundraising parties.
The lawsuit requests that the founder's bequest be revoked or that the collections, gravesite and signage be restored. The foundation calls the lawsuit meritless. Other descendants of Peggy Guggenheim support the foundation.
St Edmund, Southwold, Suffolk
It is hard now to remember a time when Southwold was not fashionable. It must be coming on for thirty years ago now that the comedian Michael Palin made a film for television called East of Ipswich. It was a memoir of his childhood in the 1950s, and the basic comic premise was that in those days people used to go on holiday to seaside resorts on the East Anglian coast. In Palin's case, this was Southwold.
The amusement came from the idea that people in those days would sit in deckchairs beside the grey north sea, or shelter from the drizzle in genteel teashops or the amusement arcade on the pier. In the Costa Brava package tour days of the 1980s, the quaintness of this image made it seem like something from a different world.
And I remember Southwold in the 1980s. It was one of those agreeable little towns distant enough from anywhere bigger to maintain a life of its own. It still had its genteel tea shops, its dusty grocers, its quaint hotels and pubs all owned by Adnams, the old-fashioned and unfashionable local brewery. In the white heat of the Thatcherite cultural revolution, it seemed a place that would soon die on its feet quietly and peaceably.
And then, in the 1990s, the colour supplements discovered the East Anglian coast, and fell in love with it. The new fashions for antique-collecting, cooking with local produce and general country living, coupled with a snobbishness about how common foreign travel had become, conspired to make places like Southwold very sought after. Before Nigel Lawson's boom became a bust, the inflated house prices of London and the home counties gave people money to burn. And in their hoards, they came out of the big city to buy holiday homes in East Anglia.
Although they are often lumped together, the coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk are actually very different from each other (Cambridgeshire and North Essex are also culturally part of East Anglia, but the North Essex coast is too close to London to have ever stopped being cheap and cheerful, and Cambridgeshire has no coastline). Norfolk's beaches are wide and sandy, with dunes and cliffs and rock pools to explore; towns like Cromer and Hunstanton seem to have stepped out of the pages of the Ladybird Book of the Seaside. Tiny villages along the Norfolk coast have secret little beaches of their own.
Suffolk's coast is wilder. Beaches are mainly pebbles rather than sand, and the marshes stretch inland, cutting the coast off from the rest of the county. Unlike Norfolk, Suffolk has no coast road, and so the settlements on the coast are isolated from each other, stuck at the end of narrow lanes that snake away from the A12 and peter out in the heathland above the sea. There are fewer of them too. It is still quicker to get from Walberswick to Southwold by water than by land. Because they are isolated from each other, they take on individual personalities and characteristic. Because they are isolated from the land, they become bastions of polite civilisation.
Between Felixstowe in the south, which no outsiders like (and consequently is the favourite of many Suffolk people) and Lowestoft in the north, which is basically an industrial town-on-sea (but which still has the county's best beaches - shhh, don't tell a soul) are half a dozen small towns that vie with each other for trendiness. Southwold is the biggest, and today it is also the most expensive place to live in all East Anglia. Genteel tea shops survive, but are increasingly shouldered by shops that specialise in ski-wear and Barbour jackets, Jack Wills and White Stuff, delicatessens that stock radicchio and seventeen different kinds of olive, jewellery shops and kitchen gadget shops and antique furniture shops where prices are exquisitely painful. Worst of all, the homely, shabby, smoke-filled Sole Bay Inn under the lighthouse has been converted by the now-trendy Adnams Brewery into a chrome and glass filled wine bar.
If you see someone in Norfolk driving a truck, they are probably wearing a baseball cap and carrying a shotgun; in Suffolk, they've more likely just bought a Victorian pine dresser from an antique shop, and they're taking it back to Islington. Does this matter? The fishing industry was dying anyway. The tourist industry was also dying. If places like Southwold, Aldeburgh and Orford become outposts of north London, at least they will still provide jobs for local people. But the local people won't be able to afford to live there, of course; they'll be bused in from Reydon, Leiston and Melton to provide services for people in holiday cottages which are the former homes they grew up in, but can no longer afford to buy. Does this seriously annoy me? Not as much as it does them, I'll bet.
So, lets go to Southwold, turning off the A12 at the great ship of Blythburgh church, the wide marshes of the River Blyth spreading aimlessly beyond the road. We climb and fall over ancient dunes, and then the road opens out into the flat marshes, the town spreads out beyond. We enter through Reydon (now actually bigger than Southwold, with houses at half the price) and over the bridge into the town of Southwold itself.
Having been so critical, I need to say here that Southwold is beautiful. It is quite the loveliest small town in all East Anglia. None of the half-timbered houses here that you find in places like Long Melford and Lavenham; here, the town was completely destroyed by fire in the 17th century, and so we have fine 18th and 19th century municipal buildings. One of the legacies of the fire was the creation of wide open spaces just off of the high street, called greens. The best one of all is Gun Hill Green, overlooking the bay where the last major naval battle in British waters was fought; the cannons still point out to sea. The houses here are stunning, gobsmacking, jawdroppingly wonderful. If I could afford to buy one of them as a weekend retreat, then you bet your life I would, and to hell with the people who moaned about it.
At the western end of the High Street is St Bartholomew's Green, and beyond it sits what is, for my money, Suffolk's single most impressive building. This is the great church of St Edmund, a vast edifice built all in one go in the second half of the 15th century. Only Lavenham can compete with it for scale and presence. Unlike the massing at St Peter and St Paul at Lavenham, St Edmund is defined by a long unbroken clerestory and aisles beneath - where St Peter and St Paul looks full of tension, ready to spring, St Edmund is languid and floating, a ship at ease.
Southwold church was just one of several vast late medieval rebuildings in this area. Across the river at Walberswick and a few miles upriver at Blythburgh the same thing happened. Blythburgh still survives, but Walberswick was derelicted to make a smaller church, as were Covehithe and Kessingland. Dunwich All Saints was lost to the sea. But Southwold was the biggest. Everything about it breathes massive permanence, from the solidity of the tower to the turreted porch, from the wide windows to the jaunty sanctus bell fleche.
Along the top of the aisles, grimacing faces look down. All of them are different. The pedestals atop the clerestory were intended for statues as at Blythburgh, but were probably never filled before the Reformation intervened. At the west end, above the great west window, you can see the vast inscription SAncT EDMUND ORA P: NOBIS ('Saint Edmund, pray for us') as bold a record of the mindset of late medieval East Anglian patriotism and Catholicism as you'll find.
As at Lavenham and Long Melford, the interior has been extensively restored, but not in as heavy or blunt a manner as at those two churches. St Edmund has, it must be said, benefited from the attentions of German bombers who put out all the dull Victorian glass during World War II. Here, the interior is vast, light and airy, and much of the restoration is 20th century work, not 19th century. Perhaps because of this, more medieval interior features have survived. Unlike Long Melford, Southwold does not have surviving medieval glass (Mr Dowsing saw to that in 1644), but it does have what is the finest screen in the county.
It stretches right the way across the church, and is effectively three separate screens; a rood screen across the chancel arch, and parclose screens across the north and south chancel aisles. All retain their original dado figures; there are 36 of them, more than anywhere else in Suffolk. They have been restored, particularly in the central range, but are fascinating because they retain a lot of original gessowork - this is where plaster of paris is applied to wood and allowed to dry; it is then carved to produce intricate details. The central screen shows 11 disciples and St Paul; they are, from left to right, Philip, Matthew, James the Less, Thomas, Andrew, Peter, Paul, John, James, Batholomew, Jude and Simon.
The south chancel chapel is light and open; the bosses above are said to represent Mary Tudor and her second husband Charles, Duke of Brandon. The screen here is painted with twelve Old Testament prophets, and Mortlock suggests that they are by a different hand to the images on the other two screens. Further, he observes that the subject is a usual one for the English Midlands, but rare for East Anglia, and that perhaps this part of the screen came from elsewhere. The same may be true of the other two parts - it is hard to think that the central screen was deliberately made too wide for the two arcades. Here on the south screen, some of the figures have surviving naming inscriptions, and Mortlock surmises that the complete sequence, from left to right, is Baruch, Hosea, Nahum, Jeremiah, Elias, Moses, David, Isaiah, Amos, Jonah and Ezekiel. Hover and click on them below.
The north aisle chapel is reserved as the blessed sacrament chapel, and also contains a quite extensive modern library. The screen is harder to explore, because the northern side is curtailed by a large chest, but it features Angels. Unlike the screens at Hitcham and Blundeston, which show angels holding instruments of the passion, these are the nine orders of angels, with Gabriel at their head, and flanked by angels holding symbols of the Trinity and the Eucharist. Mortlock says that they are so similar to the ones at Barton Turf in Norfolk that they may be by the same hand, in which case the central screen is also by that person. They are, from left to right, the Holy Trinity, Gabriel, Archangels, Powers, Dominions, Cherubim, Seraphim, Thrones, Principalities, Virtues, Messengers, and finally the Eucharist. The Holy Trinity angel still has part of the original dedicatory inscription beneath his feet.
If part or all of this screen came from elsewhere, where did it come from? Possibly either Walberswick, Covehithe or Kessingland, the three downsized churches mentioned earlier. More excitingly, it might have come from one of the churches along this coast that was lost to the sea; perhaps neighbouring St Nicholas at Easton Bavents, or, just to the south, St Peter and St John the Baptist, the two Dunwich churches lost in the 16th and 17th centuries. We'll never know.
If you turn back at the screen and face westwards, your eyes are automatically drawn to the towering font cover, part of the extensive 1930s redecoration of the building. The clerestory is almost like a glass atrium to house it. Also the work of the period is the repainting and regilding of the 15th century pulpit (a lot of people blanch at this, but I think it is gorgeous) and the lectern. Beneath the font cover, the font is clearly one of the rare seven sacraments series, and part of the same group as Westhall, Blythburgh and Wenhaston. As at Blythburgh and Wenhaston, the panels are completely erased, probably in the 19th century, an act of barbarous vandalism. Given that Westhall is probably the best of all in the county, we must assume that three major medieval art treasures were wiped out. Astonishingly, vague shadows survive of the former reliefs. You can easily make out the Mass panel, facing east as at Westhall, the Penance panel and even what may be the Baptism of Christ.
Stepping through the screen, the reredos ahead is by Benedict Williamson and the glass above by Ninian Comper, familiar names in the Anglo-catholic pantheon, and evidence of an enthusiasm here that still survives in High Church form. There is a good engraved glass image of St Edmund to the north of the sanctuary, very much in the 1960s fashion, but curiously placed. On the wall of the chancel to the west of it, the high organ case is also painted and gilded enthusiastically.
As well as the screen, Southwold's other great medieval survival is the set of return stalls either side of the eastern face of the chancel screen. They have misericord seats, but the best feature are the handrests between the seats. On the south side, carvings include a man with a horn-shaped hat and sinners being drawn into the mouth of hell. On the north side are a man playing two pipes, a monkey preaching and a beaver biting its own genitals; a tale from the medieval bestiary, apparently.
What else is there to see? Well, the church is full of delights, and rewards further visits which always seem to turn up something previously unnoticed. St George rides full tilt at a dragon on an old chest at the west end of the north aisle. There is good 19th century glass in the porch and at the west end of the nave. A clock jack stands, axe and bell in hand, at the west end, a twin to the one upriver at Blythburgh. This one has a name - he's called Southwold Jack, and he is one of the symbols of the Adnams brewery.
As Mortlock notes, there are very few surviving memorials. This is partly because St Edmund was not in the patronage of a great landed family, but it may also suggest that they were largely removed at the time of the 19th century restoration, as at Brandon. One moving one is for the child of a Vicar, and there are some interesting pre-Oxford Movement 19th century brasses in the south aisle.
High, high above all this, the roofs are models of Anglo-catholic melodrama, the canopy of honour to the rood and the chancel ceilure in particular. But there is a warmth about it all that is missing from, say, Eye, which underwent a similar makeover. This church feels full of life, and not a museum piece at all. I remember attending evensong here late one winter Saturday afternoon, and it was magical. On another visit, I came on one of the first days of Spring that was truly warm and bright, with not a cloud in the sky. As I cycled into town, a cold fret off of the sea was condensing the steam of the brewery, sending it in swirls and skeins around the tower of St Edmund like low cloud. It was so atmospheric that I almost forgave them for what they have done to the Sole Bay Inn.
photographer's notes and text borrowings-
"mutual building", cape town. art deco, deluxe. finished in 1939. architect, fred glennis
inspiration maybe from the "met tower", NYC"?, chicago board of trade", "chrysler building, NYC"?
stone mason, ivan mitford-barberton (south african)
most of the building was changed into residential units
beautiful friezes by miftord-barberton
some nine (only?) african tribes depicted in stunning granite carvings on one facade of the building. it's unclear why only nine tribes were depicted
the tribes being-
matabele
basuto
barotse
kikuyu
zulu
bushman
xosa (xhosa)
pedi
masai
the building has three street facades, darling, parliament and long market streets, cape town CBD
much more to be explored and to be pixed. the building itself is exquisite
***********************
Mutual Building
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Mutual Building (Afrikaans: Mutual Gebou), in Cape Town, South Africa, was built as the headquarters of the South African Mutual Life Assurance Society, now the "Old Mutual" insurance and financial services company. It was opened in 1940, but before the end of the 1950s—less than 20 years later—business operations were already moving to another new office at Mutual Park in Pinelands (north east of the city centre); since then Old Mutual has become an international business and their present head office is in London.
The building is a fine example of art deco architecture and design, and it has many interesting internal features such as the banking hall, assembly room, directors' board room; external features include a dramatic ziggurat structure, prismoid (triangular) windows, and one of the longest carved stone friezes in the world. It has been said that it provides evidence of the colonial attitudes of the time, and the "ideals of colonial government promulgated
by Rhodes in the late nineteenth century".[1]
The Mutual Building is now converted to residential use, although some parts of the building are used commercially. For example, the Banking Hall (which is now an events venue) and the retail shops that operate outside on the ground level.
Coordinates: 33°55ʹ27.45ʺS 18°25ʹ20.25ʺE
Mutual Building
Mutual Gebou
The front of the building, in Darling Street, Cape Town
Location in central Cape Town Alternative Mutual Heights, Old Mutual
names Building
General information
Contents
1 History
1.1 The business
1.2 The "new" (1940) Head Office in Darling Street
1.3 Search for inspiration
1.4 Completion
1.5 Vacating and conversion
2 Structure of the building
3 Design elements
4 Features of the building
4.1 The Entrance Hall 4.2 The Banking Hall
4.3 The lifts (elevators) 4.4 The Assembly Room 4.5 The Directors' Rooms 4.6 The atrium
4.7 The windows
4.8 Granite cladding 4.9 The Tribal Figures 4.10 The frieze
5 Views of (and from) the building 6 References
7 Other external links
Type
Architectural style
Address Town or city Country Coordinates Completed Inaugurated Renovated Owner Height
Structural system
Floor count Lifts/elevators
Commercial converted to residential
Art Deco
14 Darling Street
Cape Town
South Africa
33°55ʹ27.45ʺS 18°25ʹ20.25ʺE 1939
1940
2005
Mutual Heights Body Corporate 84 metres (276 ft)
Technical details
Reinforced concrete, granite cladding
12 plus 3 levels basement parking
7
Architect
Architecture firm
Architect
Renovating firm
Structural engineer
Awards and prizes
Fred Glennie Louw & Louw
Renovating team
Robert Silke Louis Karol
Murray & Roberts
South African Institute of Architects, Presidents Award 2008
Website
Design and construction
www.mutualheights.net (www.mutualheights.net)
History The business
The Old Mutual business has a long history. In 1845 John Fairbairn (a Scot) founded "The Mutual Life Assurance Society of the Cape of Good Hope" in Cape Town. Over the next 100 years the business was to evolve significantly, changing its name in 1885 to the "South Africa Mutual Life Assurance Society", but becoming familiarly known simply as "The Old Mutual", so as to distinguish it from newer businesses of the same kind.
The company employed women as early as 1901, expanded into Namibia in 1920 and into Zimbabwe (then
Rhodesia) in 1927.[2] Old Mutual is now an international business with offices all over the world, and its portfolio
of financial services continues to evolve to meet market needs.
It is now some years since the business "de-mutualised" in order to issue shares and fund its operations using conventional investment markets.
The "new" (1940) Head Office in Darling Street
The name of the building in English and in Afrikaans ("Mutual Gebou"): The interesting frieze shown here is described in the text
Some comparisons with earlier inspirational buildings
In the 1930s it became clear that a new headquarters building was needed and very ambitious targets were set for the building: it was to be the tallest building in South Africa (possibly in the whole continent of Africa, with the exception of the pyramids in Egypt), it was to have the fastest lifts, it was to have the largest windows. At the same time it was to epitomise the values of the business: "Strength, Security and Confidence in the Future"; this demanded a combination of traditional
and contemporary design.[1]
Although it is clearly identified on the exterior as the "Mutual Building" (or "Mutual Gebou" in Afrikaans) it is often familiarly referred to as "The Old Mutual Building". Here, in the body of this article, it will be referred to as the "Mutual Building", thereby acknowledging the
nomenclature on the exterior of the building itself.
Search for inspiration
The figure here (adapted from www.skycrapers.com) compares the building with some of the other contemporaneous tall buildings in the world. Those involved in the design of the building travelled widely to study inspirational examples of corporate buildings elsewhere in the world. They learnt about the latest approaches to lighting, ventilation and fire protection in the USA, South America, England
and Sweden.[3] In the USA, the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles is one example of the genre of building design that captured their attention: this building was completed in 1930 and has also since been
converted to residential occupation.[1]
The art deco style was chosen. However, the building is embellished with features in other styles (such as neo-classicist in the case of the banking hall) intended to reinforce the long- standing and traditional values of the Old Mutual business.
Completion
The building was completed in 1939 and opened
early in 1940 with a great fanfare. The local paper provided a 16 page supplement,[4] and South African architects and dignitaries enthused about it. In his definitive examination of the design of the building, Federico Freschi summarises the status of the building thus:
"Ultimately, the consensus suggests that the Old Mutual Building is at once a worthy monument to modern design principles and the consolidation of an important corporate and public image."[1]
The building is listed elsewhere as a notable building,[5] and it is regarded as an important example of the social values of the time and of the economic state of the nation, but all as seen from a European or
"colonial" perspective, as explained by Freschi.[1]
Vacating and conversion
Within 20 years (in the late 1950s) the Old Mutual began to vacate the building, moving in stages to new offices at Mutual Park in Pinelands, Cape Town. By the 1990s, only assorted tenants remained, the last of
which departed in May 2003.[3]
At this time, conversion to residential occupation began under the direction of Robert Silke at Louis Karol
Architects.[6] The name of the building was changed by the developers to Mutual Heights (www.mutualheights.net), a decision that did not find favour with all owners and residents involved in
the new community.[7] Despite scepticism about the name, it is generally agreed that the conversion was the first in a series of projects that re-invigorated the central business district of Cape Town. The conversion has
been the subject of a number of architecture and design awards.[8]
In February 2012, the large "Old Mutual" sign on the east side of the building was removed, leaving little external evidence of the commercial origins of the building; in 2015 Old Mutual Properties finally disposed of the remaining portions of the interior that had not been sold previously, including the banking hall, the directors suite and the fresco room.
Structure of the building
The building is constructed using reinforced concrete, filled in internally with bricks and plaster, and clad on the outside with granite. At first sight, the building is a striking example of the Art Deco style and many of its features epitomize this genre - however, some interior features deviate from true Art Deco and probably reflect the desire of the company to demonstrate solidity and traditional values at the same time as
contemporaneous, forward-looking values.[1]
It is 276 feet (85 metres) high, as measured from the ground floor to the top of the tower,[3] but the building is often listed as being more than 90 metres high (even as high as 96.8 metres on the Old Mutual web
site[2]); this probably takes account of the "spire" at the top.
Having only 10 levels ("storeys") above ground level in the main part of this tall building (excluding the three levels of basement car parking, and the additional levels in the tower), it is evident that the spacing between floors is generous — generally each floor is about 5 metres above (or below) the next. In one of the meeting rooms on the eighth level (the Assembly Hall - see below), the curtains alone are more than six metres long. This generous spacing between floors was intended to achieve the greatest possible overall height for the building without exceeding the city planning limitation of 10 storeys, and it was allowed only
in view of the "set back" design of the exterior structure.[1]
Design elements
The original design of the building is attributed to Louw & Louw (Cape Town architects), working with Fred Glennie (best known at the time as a mentor to architectural students) – Mr Glennie is personally
credited with most of the detailed work[9] but Ivan Mitford-Barberton[10] was also involved with some
internal details as well as with the external granite decorations.
It is pleasing that the principal areas of the building have been so little changed over the years, especially the entrance, the banking hall, the assembly room, the directors' room, the atrium, and the windows. Even the original door handles (including the Old Mutual "logo") and the original banisters (on the staircases) are all still intact, and the atrium is largely unchanged although it is now protected from the weather by a translucent roof.
The original light fittings in the "public" areas are largely still intact, and in most parts of the building there are beautiful block-wood (parquet) floors.
Here is a selection of interior design details that exemplify the quality and attention to detail that was applied to this project by the architects, artists and designers.
Marble from the columns in the banking hall
As you use the stairs, you are reminded which storey you are on
Bulkhead lights on the 9th level
White-veined Onyx from the entrance hall
Hardwood block floors are still in place in many parts of the building
An original door handle (of which many remain)
The entrance hall has a gold leaf ceiling
Detail of a banister on one of the stairs
Original fire doors, with distinctive handles
Detail of the rail at the gallery of the Assembly Room
Some interior design details
The paragraphs below now visit each of the significant areas and features of the building in turn.
An original light fitting
The light fittings in the Assembly Room
The entrance lobby
Features of the building
The building incorporates a range of significant features.
The Entrance Hall
Black, gold-veined onyx is used in the Darling Street foyer, the ceiling of which is over 15 metres high and finished with gold leaf, laid by Italian workmen. The view of the glass window over the door to the banking hall (above) shows the iconic ziggurat shape of the building etched into the glass. Visitors must climb 17 steps to gain access to the banking hall, and towards the top they are met by the original "pill box" where security staff can observe who (and what) is entering and leaving the building. On either side of the pill box are the entrances to the main lifts – two on the left and two on the right (there are two "staff" lifts and one "service" lift elsewhere in the building).
Characteristic stainless steel trim and light fittings, such as can be seen here, are used extensively throughout the building.
The Banking Hall
Given its tall marble-clad colonnades, the magnificent banking hall would be more properly described as an example of "neo-classicism" although the light fittings echo the art deco theme that prevails elsewhere in the building, and again we see that the glass over the doors (at the far end in the photograph below) are etched with the iconic ziggurat form that is taken by the whole building.
The two service counters that can be seen in the banking hall look identical, but only the one on the right is original—the one on the left is a later, somewhat inferior, copy.
The banking hall
Between the columns of the banking hall the coats of arms are presented for each of the many provinces and countries within Southern Africa in which the South African Mutual Life Assurance Society had a presence.
The crests that appear between the columns in the banking hall
Northern Rhodesia Cape Colony Durban Rhodesia
Natal Petermaritzburg Port Elizabeth Orange Free State
Johannesburg Pretoria Kenya Colony Bloemfontein
Cape Town Union of South Africa Potchefstroom Windhoek The banking hall is now owned privately and is available for hire as an events venue.
The lifts (elevators)
The main lifts in the building are fast ("the fastest in Africa" it was claimed when the building opened) and no expense was spared – even in the basement parking area, the lifts are trimmed with black marble. Each door has an etched representation of an indigenous bird or animal from South Africa, with significant plants as additional decoration, or in some cases the corporate logo of the time.
There are seven lifts in the building, four of them "principal" lifts (as here)
The individual etchings in detail (click on the images to see the full-size version):
Springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis), with a king protea (Protea cynaroides), the national flower
Kudu (Tragelaphus), with veltheimia (Veltheimia bracteata) at the lower right
Giraffe, with a succulent (Crassula)
Zebra (Equus quagga), with a prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica)
The individual etchings on the lift doors
Ostrich (Struthio camelus australus), with prickly pear (lower left) and "century plant" (Agave americana)
Leopard (Panthera pardus pardus), with spekboom (Portulacaria afra) at the lower right and candelabra lily (Brunsvigia josephinae) at the lower left
Crane (Balearica regulorm) with reeds behind (Phragmites australis)
Lion, with lion's tail (or wild dagga - Leonotis leonuris) at lower left, violet painted petals (Freesia laxa) lower right and coral tree (Erythrina lysistemon) at the top
Secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius), with unidentifiable tree
The corporate "logo" (three entwined anchors), with Strelitzia reginae (bottom right), Disa uniflora (bottom left) and proteas (Protea repens) at the top
Vulture
These designs are attributed to Ivan Mitford-Barberton.
The Assembly Room
Perhaps the best known feature of the building (in artistic circles at least) is the Assembly Room, sometimes referred to as the "Fresco Room"; Freschi indicates that this was originally intended as a facility for policy
holders.[1] Here there are striking frescoes depicting some of the history of the nation of South Africa,
undertaken by Le Roux Smith Le Roux two years after the completion of the building.
Le Roux was supported in his early career by the famous British architect Herbert Baker, who provided bursaries so that Le Roux could spend time in
London and elsewhere. In London he
undertook a mural in South Africa House with
Eleanor Esmonde-White. An acquaintance (still living) of Le Roux and Esmonde-White recalls that Baker insisted that Eleanor Esmonde-White be awarded a bursary, despite gender-related objections from elsewhere; in the event she got to go to London with Le Roux, with the bursary. Following their years in London, Le Roux was awarded this commission to work on the Mutual Building and he therefore returned to Cape Town, but only after the main building work was done - it was not sensible to undertake this meticulous work while building operations were still in progress.
These frescoes are considered elsewhere as good examples of the genre—see for example
"Decopix - the Art Deco Architecture Site"[11] where the Mutual Building itself is well
represented.[12] The five frescoes on the end
walls and over the entrance depict more than
100 years of the history of the nation,
including industrial development, the Great
Trek, mining following the discovery of gold,
the growth of industry and agriculture, and a
hint of international travel and trade. Freschi considers that ".. in contemporary terms, Le Roux's work was seen to be distinctly progressive and very much in keeping with the ostensibly liberal party line of Jan
Smuts' coalition government".[1]
The panels are reproduced below, and selected portions from them are provided in the images that follow.
The five panels are presented left to right, in a clockwise direction when standing in the Assembly Room, back to the windows. The first and fifth are on the side walls, the second, third and fourth are on the long wall that includes the main entrance.
The fresco panels in the Assembly Room
The Assembly Room
Engineering water, The Great Trek building industry and
railroads
Trade and international travel
The discovery of gold
Railroads in service, productive farms
The fifth image includes a representation of the Mutual Building itself, the tallest building in what is known as the "City Bowl", below the slopes of Table Mountain. This did not remain true for long, it was only one year later that the General Post Office was built on the other (seaward side) of Darling Street, and a large number of larger more modern buildings have been built since (see the views from and of the building, shown further down this page).
Some details from the panels:
Some selected portions of the fresco panels in the Assembly Room
Mixing concrete, Wind-powered water working with the plans pumps provide
irrigation
The Great Trek - ladies Farm produce at last - a in their bonnets, men on smile on his face
horses
The Directors' Board Room
A detail - laying railway The image of the track Mutual Building under
Table Mountain
The Directors' Rooms
On the fourth level, at the front of the building, is the Directors' Board Room. As well as the board room there are two side rooms, one of which was a sitting room for Directors.
In the board room there is a continuous carved stinkwood frieze above the dado rail that incorporates animal and floral motifs (14 different species of birds and animals are represented). Ivan Mitford-Barberton is credited with this carving and it is probably the last work that he did in the building. Above the carved frieze is a mural designed and executed by Joyce Ord-Brown using stain on pale sycamore panelling. It represents
Cape Town as the "Tavern of the Seas" in a light hearted way.[1]
The selections below show some portions of the mural and the frieze, followed by some other details of the directors' rooms. The sea plane (second picture) is probably a Martin M-130, which is not recorded as having serviced South Africa (it worked the pacific routes). This is probably "artistic licence" on the part of Ord-Browne.
Portions of the Joyce Ord-Browne decorations
The Southern hemisphere, with route from Cape Town to London
Blue cranes flying
A sea plane
A portion of the Northern hemisphere, with King Neptune
Penguins and whales
A mermaid
Portions of the Mitford-Barberton stinkwood frieze
Some features of the directors' board room and sitting room
Entrance to the board room (see note below)
Easy chairs in the sitting room - unused in a long time
Marble at the door to the board room
Another original light fitting in the sitting room
Directors had their own storage drawers in the board room
An original light fitting in the board room that (seemingly) doubles as a ventilation device
It is of note that the etched ziggurat icon on the glass over the entrance to the board room (see the enlarged version of the first image above) is not the same as that which is used elsewhere.
The Directors' suite has great heritage value but in 2015 it was re-finished as a private apartment.
The atrium
The atrium extends from the roof of the banking hall to the very top of the main building. It was originally open to the weather, but it is now protected by a translucent roof, through which the tower can be seen extending even higher.
The circular windows visible here are incorporated into the apartments that now occupy the front of the building.
The windows
On entering the residential area of the building, one is struck by this extraordinary "top to bottom" atrium
The windows compared
The rising nature of the ziggurat mass of the exterior of the building is reinforced by the prismoid (triangular) windows, which extend up and down the height of the building. These windows are of note because they set the Mutual Building apart from some of the buildings that inspired it, for example the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles. They are also functional, because they allow light to enter the building more effectively than would otherwise be the case (using the reflective properties of the inside face of the glass), and by opening and closing blinds on the one side or the other it is possible on sunny days to manage the heat entering the building as the sun traverses the sky.
Water-cooled air conditioning was another innovative feature of the original building, that avoided the need for extensive natural ventilation and allowed more freedom for the design of the windows and granite spaces between; the same water-cooled air conditioning design is in use today.
As Freschi notes in his paper, the prismoid windows make for much more visual interest than the conventional windows in the General Post Office building. Here the image juxtaposes the Mutual building (foreground) with the General Post Office built the following year (behind).
Granite cladding
The granite cladding of the building was hewn from a single boulder on the Paarl Mountain, north east of the
city of Cape Town.[1] The cladding incorporates decorative baboon, elephant and tribal heads that project from the upper facades of the Darling Street elevation (the front of the building).
The granite decorations
The decorations Elephant (6th level) Baboon (8th level) Tribal head (tower)
Tower with tribal head
The Tribal Figures
On the Parliament Street facade there are carved granite figures representing nine ethnic African groups (not just South African) labelled thus: "Xosa", "Pedi", "Maasai", "Matabele", "Basuto", "Barotse", "Kikuyu", "Zulu", and "Bushman". Note that the identification of the tribes does not necessarily follow current practice.
The nine tribal figures looking over Parliament Street.
The individual figures in detail (remember you can click on the images to see the full-size version):
The individual tribal figures
"Xosa" "Pedi" "Masai" "Matabele"
"Basuto" "Barotse" "Kikuyu" "Zulu"
"Bushman"
Recently Sanford S. Shaman has written a critique of these figures, and other features of the building [13] partly based on interviews with pedestrians walking around the building.
The frieze
Around the three sides of the building facing Darling Street, Parliament Street and Longmarket Street there is a 386 feet (118 metre) frieze depicting scenes from the colonial history of South Africa, reported at its
completion to be the longest such frieze in the world.[4]
A portion of the 386 feet frieze that traverses three sides of the building, showing the 1820 settlers landing
It is of interest that, at the time, it was proclaimed that the building was built by South Africans, using South African materials; while the frieze was itself designed by South African, Ivan Mitford Barberton (born in Somerset East, Eastern Cape, in 1896), the work was executed by a team of Italian immigrants led by Adolfo Lorenzi. It has recently come to light that, in the course of the work, Lorenzi's team of masons were incarcerated when the Second World War broke out in 1939, being Italian and therefore regarded as "the
enemy" at that time. They were obliged to finish their work under an armed guard.[14]
A composite view of the frieze can be seen at the right; unfortunately in this version some portions are missing or obscured by trees in leaf.
The sections of the frieze are as follows:
The landing of Jan van Riebeeck
The arrival of the 1820 Settlers
The "Post Office Stone"
The building of the Castle of Good Hope
The emancipation of the slaves
Negotiations with Chaka (also known as "King Shaka)" The Great Trek
The dream of Nongqawuse (other spellings are sometimes used) Discovery of diamonds at Kimberley
Erection of a cross by Bartholomew Dias
Rhodes negotiating with the Matabele
David Livingstone preaching, healing and freeing slaves The opening up of Tanganyika Territory
The defence of Fort Jesus depicting Arab inhabitants
A second version of this collage of the complete frieze can be found elsewhere[15]
A composite showing almost all of the frieze in its 15 sections – some portions are missing in this version – click to see a readable version and then choose the "Full resolution" option under the image (but be patient, this is a large file – 1Mb)
Seen from Darling Street, the Mutual Building today stands proud as the day it was built.
Views of (and from) the building
The busy city works around the building. The Mutual Building can claim that its restoration and conversion to residential use brought new life to the city centre, and started a five year programme of re- invigoration and rapid improvement. The large green "Old Mutual" sign and logo were removed from the building in February 2012.
The skyline of the city of Cape Town has changed significantly since the Mutual Building was constructed. Even from its highest point of easy access, the Mutual Building View is now dwarfed by the more modern buildings in the Cape Town central business district.
In the modern skyline the Mutual Building is lost in a maze of tall buildings. Here the sea mist swirls around the central business district and the small coloured arrow picks out the Mutual Building, at the left. This photograph is taken from District Six, on the slopes of Devil's peak to the east of Table Mountain. Click to see the full size version of this photograph, when the outline of the building can be more easily discerned.
The view of the harbour from the middle levels of the Mutual Building in Darling Street in Cape Town, once uninterrupted, is now obscured by the General Post Office constructed shortly afterwards (seen here at the extreme left).
Table Mountain and its "table cloth" seen from the upper levels of the building.
Looking in the other direction, the City Hall, the Grand Parade and the Castle can all be seen clearly. In the distance are the Hottentots Holland Mountains.
References
The learned article by Federico Freschi is particularly recommended to all who are interested in this building and its context.
1. Freschi, F (1994). "Big Business Beautility: The Old Mutual Building, Cape Town, South Africa". Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Vol 20, pp.39-57
2. "Old Mutual - Our heritage". Old Mutual Web Site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
3. CSD, (2003). "Mutual Heights Heritage Impact Assessment Report", CS Design Architects and Heritage
Consultants, Cape Town, South Africa (August)
4. Cape Times (1940). "Old Mutual in New Home", The Cape Times (special supplement) (30 January)
5. "Mutual Heights". Emporis - The world's building website. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
6. "Cocktails over the Grand Parade". Cape Times online. 25 July 2003. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
7. Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Body Corporate, Mutual Heights, 2008
8. "Louis Karol awards". Louis Karol web site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
9. "SA Mutual Life Assr Soc (Old Mutual)". Artefacts web site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
10. "Ivan Mitford-Barberton". Biographical web site by Margaret C Manning. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
11. "Decopix - the Art Deco Architecture Web site". Randy Juster's Art Deco web site. Retrieved 27 December 2010.
12. "The Mutual Building featured on Randy Juster's art deco web site". Randy Juster's Art Deco web site. Retrieved
27 December 2010.
13. "Art South Africa web site". "The Heights of Contradiction" by Sanford S. Shaman. Retrieved 3 March 2011.
14. Correspondence by email, Giovanni Adolfo Camerada to Andy Bytheway, 2008
15. "The Mutual Building Frieze". Web site of the Mutual Heights community.
Other external links
Website for the Mutual Heights Community (www.mutualheights.net)
Louis Karol Architects website (www.louiskarol.com/index.html)
Randy Juster's art deco web site (www.decopix.com)
David Thompson's art deco buildings web site (artdecobuildings.blogspot.com/) City of Cape Town web site (www.capetown.gov.za)
Stewart Harris' flikr photographs include some images of Fred Glennie and Le Roux Smith Le Roux at work on the building, and other interesting images of the building (www.flickr.com/groups/1615104@N21/)
Confirmation of the Bloemfontein crest that defied identification for several years (www.ngw.nl/heraldrywiki/index.php?title=Bloemfontein)
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The attractive town of Tewkesbury has been dominated by its superb abbey church since the beginning of the 12th century, and we can be forever grateful to its townspeople for purchasing the monastic church in 1540 for £453 for use as their parish church, saving it from the fate that befell countless similar great churches across the land during the turmoil of the Dissolution. It reminds us both how lucky we are to still marvel at it today, yet also how great a loss to our heritage the period wrought when many more such buildings were so utterly plundered as to have gone without trace (the fate of the monastic buildings here and even the lady chapel of the church whose footings are laid out in the grass at the east end).
Tewkesbury Abbey is thus rightly celebrated as one of our greatest non-cathedral churches, and remarkably much of the original Norman church remains substantially intact, most apparently in the great central tower, a fine example of Romanesque architecture adorned with rows of blind-arcading. The west front is dominated by a massive Norman-arched recess (enclosing the somewhat later west window) and the nave and transepts remain largely as originally built, though this is less clear externally owing to the changes made to the windows, nearly all of which were enlarged in the 14th century in the Decorated Gothic style. This century also saw the complete rebuilding of the eastern limb of the church, of a form less common in England with radiating chapels surrounding the eastern apse of the choir (the central lady chapel sadly missing since 1540).
The interior reveals far more of the Romanesque structure with mighty columns supporting the round Norman arches of the nave arcades giving the building a great sense of solidity. The space is further enlivened by the changes made during the 14th century by the stunning vault over the nave (adorned with a rewarding series of figurative bosses) which sits surprisingly well with the Norman work below. Beyond the apsidal choir beckons, and both this and the space below the tower are enriched with stunningly complex vaulted ceilings (replete with further bosses and gilded metal stars), all ablaze with colour and gilding.
There is much to enjoy in glass here, most remarkably a complete set of 14th century glazing in the clerestorey of the choir, seven windows filled with saints and prophets (and most memorably two groups of knights in the westernmost windows on each side). A few of the figures have fared less well over the centuries but on the whole this is a wonderfully rare and well preserved scheme. There is much glass from the 19th century too, with an extensive scheme in the nave of good quality work by Hardman's, and more recently a pair of rich windows by Tom Denny were added in one of the polygonal chapels around the east end.
Some of the most memorable features are the monuments with many medieval tombs of note, primarily the effigies and chantry chapels of members of the Despenser family around the choir (two of the chantries being miniature architectural gems in their own right with exquisite fan-vaulting). In one of the apsidal chapels is the unusual cenotaph to Abbot Wakeman with his grisly cadaver effigy, a late medieval reminder of earthly mortality.
Tewkesbury Abbey is not to be missed and is every bit as rewarding as many of our cathedrals (superior in fact to all but the best). It is normally kept open and welcoming to visitors on a daily basis. I have also had the privilege of working on this great building several times over the years (as part of the team at the studio I once worked for), and have left my mark in glass in a few discreet places.
Roof boss in the 14th century vault of the nave.
The attractive town of Tewkesbury has been dominated by its superb abbey church since the beginning of the 12th century, and we can be forever grateful to its townspeople for purchasing the monastic church in 1540 for £453 for use as their parish church, saving it from the fate that befell countless similar great churches across the land during the turmoil of the Dissolution. It reminds us both how lucky we are to still marvel at it today, yet also how great a loss to our heritage the period wrought when many more such buildings were so utterly plundered as to have gone without trace (the fate of the monastic buildings here and even the lady chapel of the church whose footings are laid out in the grass at the east end).
Tewkesbury Abbey is thus rightly celebrated as one of our greatest non-cathedral churches, and remarkably much of the original Norman church remains substantially intact, most apparently in the great central tower, a fine example of Romanesque architecture adorned with rows of blind-arcading. The west front is dominated by a massive Norman-arched recess (enclosing the somewhat later west window) and the nave and transepts remain largely as originally built, though this is less clear externally owing to the changes made to the windows, nearly all of which were enlarged in the 14th century in the Decorated Gothic style. This century also saw the complete rebuilding of the eastern limb of the church, of a form less common in England with radiating chapels surrounding the eastern apse of the choir (the central lady chapel sadly missing since 1540).
The interior reveals far more of the Romanesque structure with mighty columns supporting the round Norman arches of the nave arcades giving the building a great sense of solidity. The space is further enlivened by the changes made during the 14th century by the stunning vault over the nave (adorned with a rewarding series of figurative bosses) which sits surprisingly well with the Norman work below. Beyond the apsidal choir beckons, and both this and the space below the tower are enriched with stunningly complex vaulted ceilings (replete with further bosses and gilded metal stars), all ablaze with colour and gilding.
There is much to enjoy in glass here, most remarkably a complete set of 14th century glazing in the clerestorey of the choir, seven windows filled with saints and prophets (and most memorably two groups of knights in the westernmost windows on each side). A few of the figures have fared less well over the centuries but on the whole this is a wonderfully rare and well preserved scheme. There is much glass from the 19th century too, with an extensive scheme in the nave of good quality work by Hardman's, and more recently a pair of rich windows by Tom Denny were added in one of the polygonal chapels around the east end.
Some of the most memorable features are the monuments with many medieval tombs of note, primarily the effigies and chantry chapels of members of the Despenser family around the choir (two of the chantries being miniature architectural gems in their own right with exquisite fan-vaulting). In one of the apsidal chapels is the unusual cenotaph to Abbot Wakeman with his grisly cadaver effigy, a late medieval reminder of earthly mortality.
Tewkesbury Abbey is not to be missed and is every bit as rewarding as many of our cathedrals (superior in fact to all but the best). It is normally kept open and welcoming to visitors on a daily basis. I have also had the privilege of working on this great building several times over the years (as part of the team at the studio I once worked for), and have left my mark in glass in a few discreet places.