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www.lissongallery.com/exhibitions/anish-kapoor-f45a2ea5-2...
For his latest exhibition, Anish Kapoor presents a new series of paintings, an element of his practice that has rarely been seen, exploring the intimate and ritualistic nature of his work. Created over the past year, the show provides a poetic view of the artist's recent preoccupations. While painting has always been an integral part of Kapoor’s practice, this radical new body of work is both spiritual and ecstatic, showing Kapoor working in more vivid and urgent form than ever. Alongside this exhibition, a solo show dedicated to Kapoor's paintings will run at Modern Art Oxford from 2 October 2021 - 13 February 2022, and both shows precede Kapoor’s major retrospective at Gallerie dell'Accademia di Venezia, opening April 2022 to coincide with the Venice Biennale.
Through painting, Kapoor delves into the deep inner world of our mind and body, from the physical exploration of the flesh and blood, to investigating psychological concepts as primal and nameless as origin and obliteration. Since the 1980s, Kapoor has been celebrated largely as a sculptor, yet painting, and its rawest composition, colour and form, have been a fundamental element of his practice-. The presentation will feature a selection of new and recent paintings, created between 2019 and 2021, the majority in the artist’s London-based studio during the pandemic. Like the artist’s wider oeuvre, these paintings are rooted in a drive to grasp the unknown, to awaken consciousness and experiment with the phenomenology of space.
Kapoor’s work has been characterized by an intense encounter with colour and matter – manifest either through refined, reflective surfaces such as metal or mirrors, or through the tactile, sensual quality of the blankets of impasto. The magnetism of the colour red is evident in these new paintings, manifesting the elemental force that flows through us all, yet now accompanied by a new palette of telluric greys and yellows, as if witnessing a surge from the depths of the earth. Some works appear volcanic, with an intense, fiery energy, while others are more primitive and abstract, with layers of dense pigment and resin forming a sculpted solidity. Many of the paintings have a visceral outpouring where a canvas within a canvas rotates and evolves in space, seeming to defy gravity, with brushstrokes cascading over the edges like a waterfall. In others we see distorted, polymorphic figures emerging from a deep, radiant void, with a ghostly aura.
Kapoor achieves a coherence of mind and body, of interior and exterior in two of the series of works, illustrating a mythic landscape with a turbulent, ominous atmosphere that differentiates land from sky, body from space. These whirling landscapes evoke the extraordinary, eerie Romanticism of JMW Turner, a worship of nature marked through an expressive, dramatic scene. Similar in disposition are two works where we imagine the moon rising over the peak – a symbolic narrative of a new cycle, of origins and menstruation.
The wall-based paintings recall some of Kapoor’s most ambitious, distinguished works, including Svayambhu (2007), My Red Homeland (2003) and Symphony for a Beloved Sun (2013). In these floor-based works we see a more ritualistic, visceral language, where Kapoor unashamedly delves into depicting the very blood and flesh from which we are all born. Artists from Leonardo di Vinci to Francis Bacon have been fascinated with the innards of the body, be it our anatomy or the surrealist beauty in violence. The work also stands in a powerful tradition of artists exploring the human body’s expression of divine matters, yet through the unique vision of Kapoor’s Eastern and Western influences, and ---– considering the year in which they were created --– taking on new meaning highlighting the fragility of the body and self.
"What yoga philosophy and all the great Buddhist teachings tells us is that solidity is a creation of the ordinary mind and that there never was anything permanent to begin with that we could hold on to. Life would be much easier and substantially less painful if we lived with the knowledge of impermanence as the only constant."~Donna Farhi
"There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter — the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. […] Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion." E.B. White, Here is New York
Villa Mansi in Segromigno, in the municipality of Capannori, is one of the main examples of 17th-century architecture in Lucca, belonging to the wealthy Mansi family who acquired it in the 17th century from the Cenami family.
Its main façade, which was planned by an architect from Urbino – Muzio Oddi– gives a visual effect of non-static solidity. The building actually looks like a compact block, but the façade is livened up by the fact that the central body is slightly set back from the two side parts.
The airy porticoon the raised floor, the double flight of stairs and the chromatic contrast between the plaster and the architectural and decorative elements contribute to the movement and lightness of the building. The composed motif of the serliana which characterises the portico continues in the highest part, throughout the double columns and central arcade.
Inside, there are paintings and frescoes by Lucca-based painter Stefano Tofanelli, greatly admired by Elisa Baciocchi, princess of Lucca and sister of Napoleon Bonaparte, dating back to the end of the 18th century and featuring mythological themes in the style of the time that depict the stories of the god Apollo.
In the garden, there are fountains and fishponds with statues by the architect Juvarra, whose original 18th-century garden design has been subsequently changed radically. Today, the property’s botanic gardens are home to over 40 types of trees from all over the world.
Albi Cathedral is one of the most unique, awe-inspiring churches ever concieved, quite simply one of the wonders of the medieval world.
Although contemporary with the great gothic cathedrals of Northern France, this largely 13th century structure is radically different, being constructed almost entirely of brick and built like a mighty fortress; mostly unadorned walls rise uninterrupted from the ground like sheer cliff-faces of brick. The simplicity of the design gives it an almost modern appearance, and it's massive scale exudes a quite overpowering presence.
The cathedral's powerful fortified appearance is largely down to two factors, the form of the building is consistent with local forms of gothic churches in southern France and northern Spain, whilst thr fortified solidity can be associated with the supression of the Cathars in this area during the Albigensian Crusades, the building serving as a lesson in strength and permanence as a warning to any rebellious locals.
The plain exterior was relieved in the more stable climate of the 16th century by the huge flamboyant porch on the south side of the nave, more like an enormous spikey canopy open on three sides. It remains the main entrance to the cathedral, the base of the enormous tower being so massively constructed as to leave no room for a traditional west entrance.
On entering this vast edifice one's senses are overwhelmed yet again, this time by the profusion of decoration in the cavernous interior. The walls and ceilings are entirely covered by frescoes dating from the early 16th century, mostly in Renaissance style, much of it colourful geometric patterns. The most memorable sections are the earliest frescoes at the west end from an enormous Last Judgement; the central section was sadly removed in the 18th century but the extensive and graphic depiction of the torments of Hell remains.
In addition this cathedral is rare in preserving it's 'jube' or choir screen), a late medieval masterpiece of decoration and sculpture which extends into a lavishly sculpted choir enclosure adorned with a riot of angels and saints.
All in all this unforgettable cathedral is a monument that defies description alone and bombards the senses!
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
Albi Cathedral is one of the most unique, awe-inspiring churches ever concieved, quite simply one of the wonders of the medieval world.
Although contemporary with the great gothic cathedrals of Northern France, this largely 13th century structure is radically different, being constructed almost entirely of brick and built like a mighty fortress; mostly unadorned walls rise uninterrupted from the ground like sheer cliff-faces of brick. The simplicity of the design gives it an almost modern appearance, and the massive scale gives it a quite overpowering presence.
The cathedral's powerful fortified appearance is largely down to two factors, the shape of the building is consistent with local forms of gothic churches in southern France and northern Spain, whilst thr fortified solidity can be associated with the supression of the Cathars in this area during the Albigensian Crusades, the building serving a lesson in strength and permanence as a warning to any rebellious locals.
The plain exterior was relieved in the more stable climate of the 16th century by the huge flamboyant porch on the south side of the nave, more like an enormous spikey canopy open on three sides. It remains the main entrance to the cathedral, the base of the enormous tower being so massively constructed as to leave no room for a traditional west entrance.
On entering this vast edifice one's senses are overwhelmed yet again, this time by the profusion of decoration in the cavernous interior. The walls and ceilings are entirely covered by frescoes dating from the early 16th century (mostly in Renaissance style, much of it colourful geometric patterns. The most memorable sections are the earliest frescoes at the west end from an enormous Last Judgement; the central section was sadly removed in the 18th century but the extensive and graphic depiction of the torments of Hell remains.
In addition this cathedral is rare in preserving it's 'jube' or choir screen), a late medieval masterpiece of decoration an sculpture which extends into a lavishly sculpted choir enclosure adorned with a riot of angels and saints.
All in all this unforgettable cathedral is a monument that defies description alone and bombards the senses!
Albi Cathedral is one of the most unique, awe-inspiring churches ever concieved, quite simply one of the wonders of the medieval world.
Although contemporary with the great gothic cathedrals of Northern France, this largely 13th century structure is radically different, being constructed almost entirely of brick and built like a mighty fortress; mostly unadorned walls rise uninterrupted from the ground like sheer cliff-faces of brick. The simplicity of the design gives it an almost modern appearance, and the massive scale gives it a quite overpowering presence.
The cathedral's powerful fortified appearance is largely down to two factors, the shape of the building is consistent with local forms of gothic churches in southern France and northern Spain, whilst thr fortified solidity can be associated with the supression of the Cathars in this area during the Albigensian Crusades, the building serving a lesson in strength and permanence as a warning to any rebellious locals.
The plain exterior was relieved in the more stable climate of the 16th century by the huge flamboyant porch on the south side of the nave, more like an enormous spikey canopy open on three sides. It remains the main entrance to the cathedral, the base of the enormous tower being so massively constructed as to leave no room for a traditional west entrance.
On entering this vast edifice one's senses are overwhelmed yet again, this time by the profusion of decoration in the cavernous interior. The walls and ceilings are entirely covered by frescoes dating from the early 16th century (mostly in Renaissance style, much of it colourful geometric patterns. The most memorable sections are the earliest frescoes at the west end from an enormous Last Judgement; the central section was sadly removed in the 18th century but the extensive and graphic depiction of the torments of Hell remains.
In addition this cathedral is rare in preserving it's 'jube' or choir screen), a late medieval masterpiece of decoration an sculpture which extends into a lavishly sculpted choir enclosure adorned with a riot of angels and saints.
All in all this unforgettable cathedral is a monument that defies description alone and bombards the senses!
A4 Milini 150gsm sketchbook, graphite pencil and W&N watercolor, 60mins mid-morning
I was attracted to the dense verticals of the trees. The strong shadows and general darkness make it singularly unsuitable for watercolor (which should only really be for scenes with a high key, in my opinion). I worked strictly within a 4x5" Albertian veil for a while but moved beyond it to include the foreground tree. Aiming for the dominant grays and blacks in the trees was quite futile in terms of watercolor. I failed to convey any sense of solidity in the tree trunks. I need to watch this propensity of mine for dark shadows and work with toned paper with this sort of subject matter. I keep forgetting that working on white paper is a very modern thing - really only invented by the French impressionists, who wanted to convey openness and light, not the dark shadows beloved of the pompier artists (who worked in bitumen and acid yellow).
The scene was entirely new and unanticipated. I need to work on the "mid-third" of trees, beyond just the trunks.
I need to check to see how Thomas Girtin and J.M.W.Turner handled dark shadows.
Not shown here, I overlaid this with a frame of tracing paper to isolate the original 4x5" rectangle of the Albertian veil.
sketchblog gasp2011.wordpress.com
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 Skelligs are two jagged rocky islands jutting out of the Atlantic ocean of the west coast of Kerry in the south west of Ireland.
The rocks have drawn men for centuries - you just have to see them from the mainland to want to go there, they look like something that Hollywood dreamt up.
The larger of the two rocks, Skellig Michael hosts an early Christian monastery which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has been remarkably preserved since it was abandoned in the 13th Century due to the island's inaccessibility and the simple solidity of the stone buildings.
Albi Cathedral is one of the most unique, awe-inspiring churches ever concieved, quite simply one of the wonders of the medieval world.
Although contemporary with the great gothic cathedrals of Northern France, this largely 13th century structure is radically different, being constructed almost entirely of brick and built like a mighty fortress; mostly unadorned walls rise uninterrupted from the ground like sheer cliff-faces of brick. The simplicity of the design gives it an almost modern appearance, and the massive scale gives it a quite overpowering presence.
The cathedral's powerful fortified appearance is largely down to two factors, the shape of the building is consistent with local forms of gothic churches in southern France and northern Spain, whilst the fortified solidity can be associated with the supression of the Cathars in this area during the Albigensian Crusades, the building serving a lesson in strength and permanence as a warning to any rebellious locals.
The plain exterior was relieved in the more stable climate of the 16th century by the huge flamboyant porch on the south side of the nave, more like an enormous spikey canopy open on three sides. It remains the main entrance to the cathedral, the base of the enormous tower being so massively constructed as to leave no room for a traditional west entrance.
On entering this vast edifice one's senses are overwhelmed yet again, this time by the profusion of decoration in the cavernous interior. The walls and ceilings are entirely covered by frescoes dating from the early 16th century (mostly in Renaissance style, much of it colourful geometric patterns. The most memorable sections are the earliest frescoes at the west end from an enormous Last Judgement; the central section was sadly removed in the 18th century but the extensive and graphic depiction of the torments of Hell remains.
In addition this cathedral is rare in preserving it's 'jube' or choir screen), a late medieval masterpiece of decoration and sculpture which extends into a lavishly sculpted choir enclosure adorned with a riot of angels and saints.
All in all this unforgettable cathedral is a monument that defies description alone and bombards the senses!
To the south of the high altar stands the chantry chapel of Edward le Despenser (d.1375) opposite the tomb of his father. Edward's effigy is unique, a kneeling, praying figure with its original colouring set beneath a canopy on the roof of the chapel (best viewed from the opposite side of the sanctuary). Within the chapel has a delicate fan-vaulted ceiling and a well preserved mural of the Trinity.
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.
JACQUES, JOHN, cabinet-maker, furniture manufacturer, and financier; b. 9 Nov. 1804, probably in the county of Cumberland, England, son of Thomas Jacques; m. Mary Quinton (1808–95), and they had one son and one daughter; d. 14 Feb. 1886 in Toronto, Ont.
John Jacques is believed to have apprenticed in cabinet-making at Wigton (Cumbria), England, and he spent some years at his trade in London. In 1831 he immigrated to York (Toronto) and worked as a cabinet-maker first for Elisha Benjamin Gilbert and later for William Maxwell. Jacques entered into partnership with Robert Hay to buy Maxwell’s business in 1835. Their firm, Jacques and Hay, was to set the pace for furniture manufacturing in the Canadas for the following half century.
Jacques and Hay produced in much greater quantity than their rivals, but they also led in quality. Pioneers in mass production techniques in the Upper Canadian furniture industry, they catered to the constant demands of immigrants with functional, machine-worked furniture in pine and basswood. They also served many middle class people and tended the needs of the wealthy leaders of taste who had first supported their venture. Their products were of considerable significance in the development of what might be called a southern Ontario furniture style in the middle decades of the 19th century. Firms such as Jacques and Hay, it is true, had to follow successive international fashions in Empire, Gothic, Rococo, and Eastlake styles, but into these fashions Jacques and Hay particularly blended the element of the regional style and thus perpetuated it. The principal characteristics of this regional variation on a general North American theme were solidity, a virtual absence of veneer, the large use of black walnut, and ornamentation which though it reflected the fussiness of the age never reached the point of vulgarity; the finished product bore a high gloss.
By the 1840s Jacques and Hay and other early Upper Canadian cabinet-makers had weaned many of the élite away from a dependence on imported furniture, although such customers in Montreal clung tenaciously to imports from Britain and the United States. Mahogany and rosewood were still thought to be materials of quality in Montreal, but in Canada West walnut, abundant in the region and virtually absent in Canada East, and to a lesser extent other native hardwoods such as maple and oak, were raised in status. Jacques and Hay were assisted in Canada West by the antipathy of many members of their upper class clientele to American products and by the costs of transporting bulky items from Britain.
Patrons of Jacques and Hay for their first-class work included leaders in public life and business in Canada West, and they supplied some of the finest institutional furnishings of their time. Sword’s Hotel and Osgoode Hall in Toronto, and Rideau Hall in Ottawa, were fitted with the firm’s best products. Like most of the leading makers of quality cabinetware, Jacques and Hay exhibited frequently and their winning of prizes in local, provincial, and international competitions further enhanced their reputation. Descriptions of their craftsmanship in exhibition pieces suggest a high degree of skill and taste; furthermore, extant pieces of their furniture, such as those made in 1867 for the splendid collection by James Austin* in his Spadina House in Toronto, testify to qualities of endurance and elegance. In the 1860s mention of their name was a special mark of distinction in lists of household effects being put up for auction.
Jacques’s role in the firm was the supervision of practical day to day production in the shop and warehouse. He did not fail to delegate responsibility, and his retirement from the firm on 26 Dec. 1870 was effected smoothly and speedily. He was financially successful in the years following his retirement, and invested in banks, railways, and mortgages. At his death Jacques left over $250,000, 80 per cent of it invested in mortgages. He had led an active public life, being at one time a member of the York Pioneer Society, the Toronto Mechanics’ Institute, the Canadian Institute, and the St Andrew’s (Presbyterian) Church of Toronto. A supporter of the Reform cause, he never held political office.
Today, a lack of understanding of the true place of machine-assisted production of furniture in the 19th century, the absence of unquestioned provenance, and the current taste for pre-Victorian furniture, have combined to reduce the place of Jacques and Hay in the history of our industrial arts. As craftsmanship is recognized for its intrinsic worth and the depreciation of Victoriana lessens, the contribution of Jacques and Hay will be fully recognized.
SOLD! Contemporary jewellery inspired by the Cornish coastline. Organic shapes and finishes with a feeling of weight and solidity. Unusual and individual for both women and men.
I wish I had gotten a better photo of this work. The reflection of the glass ruins the deep colors, and the solidity of the image.
Still, hopefully, this photo provides a sense of Karhu's style. Decidedly different from ukiyo-e, with more solid use of color, and bold lines, he uses Western perspective and a decidedly modern sensibility to depict wholly traditional Japanese scenes.
The noren blows in a cooling summer breeze, as the wide open gates invite you in, to seek respite from the oppressively hot & humid Kyoto summer.
It might not occur to the viewer at first that the rat is in fact spread across two pieces of cloth... I find this interesting, as it is fairly unrealistic. While I don't think it too unlikely that a noren might be designed this way, it'd be quite rare that the wind would blow it together in just the right way to make the images overlap in just the right way, deshou?
1205 Government Street / 612 View Street, Victoria, BC
Statement of Significance
Description of Historic Place
The Union Bank is a grand six-storey Edwardian-era commercial building framed by Government and View Streets, and Trounce Alley, in the heart of Victoria's Old Town District. It is characterized by its combined brick and white-glazed terra cotta detailing, and its wrought-iron balconies at its top-storey level.
Heritage Value
The Union Bank, constructed in 1912, contributes significant heritage value to Victoria's downtown because it is one of the finest examples of a large-scale commercial building of this era in the city.
Designed in the style of the Chicago School, its stately temple-like form and fine architectural detail exude the permanence and solidity associated with Edwardian-era architecture, and is a fine representation of the development boom that occurred in Victoria between 1908 and 1913. Its large floor plate, considerable height, and use as the local headquarters of the Union Bank of Canada reflect the physical and commercial metamorphosis that transformed Victoria from a nineteenth-century supply town to a modern twentieth-century imperial city.
Together with the adjacent Central Building to the east, the landmark Union Bank forms an impressive commercial block that defines Trounce Alley to the north, and maintains the historical context of the commercial streetscapes on View and Government Streets.
Source: City of Victoria Planning and Development Dept.
Character-Defining Elements
The character-defining elements of the Union Bank include:
- Its prominent location at the corner of Government and View Streets.
- Its position as a defining element of Trounce Alley.
- Its contiguous relationship to the Central Building.
- Its six-storey massing and temple-like form.
- Its intact Edwardian design elements on all three of its exposed facades, including white-glazed terra cotta quoining blocks, window surrounds, and cornice.
- The wrought-iron balconies on the sixth-storey.
- Surviving interior spatial configurations which represent its original use as a bank.
- Evidence of its association with the Union Bank of Canada.
- Canada's Historic Places
UNESCO World Heritage Site -
Historic Centre of Oaxaca and Archaeological Site of Monte Albán
Brief Description
Inhabited over a period of 1,500 years by a succession of peoples – Olmecs, Zapotecs and Mixtecs – the terraces, dams, canals, pyramids and artificial mounds of Monte Albán were literally carved out of the mountain and are the symbols of a sacred topography. The nearby city of Oaxaca, which is built on a grid pattern, is a good example of Spanish colonial town planning. The solidity and volume of the city's buildings show that they were adapted to the earthquake-prone region in which these architectural gems were constructed.
Centre historique de Oaxaca et zone archéologique de Monte Alban
Depuis plus de 1 500 ans, les Olmèques, les Zapotèques et les Mixtèques ont successivement habité le site. Les terrasses, barrages, canaux, pyramides et tertres artificiels de Monte Albán ont été littéralement sculptés dans la montagne et sont les symboles d'une topographie sacrée. Tout près, le plan en damier de la ville d'Oaxaca est un bon exemple d'urbanisme de la période coloniale espagnole. La stabilité et le volume de l'architecture qui s'est développée dans cette ville témoignent de manière exceptionnelle d'une adaptation de la construction et du style au terrain sismique sur lequel ont été bâtis ces chefs-d'œuvre architecturaux.
الوسط التاريخي في اواكساكا والمنطقة الأثرية في مونتي ألبان
منذ أكثر من 1500 عام، سكن كلّ من الأولميك والزابوتيك والميكستيك الموقع بالتتابع. فقد كانت الشرفات والسدود والقنوات والأهرام والتلال الاصطناعية في مونتي ألبان منحوتة بكل ما للكلمة من معنى في الجبل وهي رموزٌ لرسمات أماكن مقدّسة. وبالقرب منها، رسمٌ هندسي مؤلف من مربّعات منسّقة لمدينة اواكساكا يشكّل خيرَ مثال على المدينة في فترة الاستعمار الاسباني. فاستقرار وحجم الهندسة التي تطوّرت في تلك المدينة تشهد بطريقةٍ استثنائيّةٍ على تكيّف الهندسة والأسلوب على الأرض الزلزاليّة حيث تمّ انشاء هذه التحف الهندسيّة.
瓦哈卡历史中心与阿尔班山考古遗址
在1500多年的历史中，曾先后有多个民族在赫奥尔巴山居住过，他们包括奥尔梅克人、萨巴特克人和米斯泰克人。在阿尔班山考古遗址有许多梯田、水坝、运河、金字塔以及人造山，这些都是在山上开挖修建出来的，是神圣地形学的标志。在阿尔班山考古遗址附近的瓦哈卡市采用的是纵横交错的城市格局，展示了西班牙殖民时期城镇规划的一种范例。城市中的建筑结构非常坚固，说明这是为了适应当地地震多发的情况而设计建造的。
Историческая часть города Оахака и центр древней индейской культуры Монте-Альбан
Населенный в течение более 1,5 тыс. лет сменяющими друг друга народами – ольмеками, сапотеками и миштеками - комплекс Монте-Альбан, с его террасами, дамбами, каналами, пирамидами и искусственными холмами, был буквально вырезан из гор, став шедевром сакральной топографии. Расположенный поблизости город Оахака, имеющий прямоугольную планировку, представляет собой яркий пример испанского колониального градостроительства. Массивность и размеры городских зданий указывают на их приспособленность к условиям этого сейсмически опасного региона.
Centro histórico de Oaxaca y zona arqueológica de Monte Albán
Este sitio fue habitado sucesivamente por los olmecas, zapotecas y mixtecas durante quince siglos. Los terraplenes, diques, canales, pirámides y montículos artificiales de Monte Albán fueron literalmente excavados en la montaña y son símbolos de una topografía sagrada. Situada en sus cercanías, la ciudad de Oaxaca con su trazado en damero constituye una excelente muestra del urbanismo colonial español. La solidez y volumen de sus edificios, verdaderas obras de arte de la arquitectura, atestiguan que su construcción se adaptó a las características sísmicas de la región.
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.
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.
Caesarea was developed over a period of 12 Years into a grand city and major seaport and he dedicated it to Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus, who had returned it to Herod after wresting it away from Cleopatra. It left a spectacular Roman amphitheater that is still used as a performance venue today. Caesarea, often simplified to Keisarya, and Qaysaria, is an affluent town in north-central Israel, which inherits its name and much of its territory from the ancient city of Caesarea Maritima. Located midway between Tel Aviv and Haifa. The ancient city of Caesarea Maritima was built by Herod the Great about 25–13 BCE as a major port. It served as an administrative center of the province of Judaea in the Roman Empire, and later as the capital of the Byzantine province of Palaestina Prima. During the Muslim conquest in the 7th century, it was the last city of the Holy Land to fall to the Arabs. The city degraded to a small village after the provincial capital was moved from here to Ramla and had an Arab majority until Crusader conquest. Under the Crusaders it became once again a major port and a fortified city. It was diminished after the Mamluk conquest. In 1884, Bosniak immigrants settled there establishing a small fishing village. Hellenistic and early Roman periods - In 90 BCE, Jewish ruler Alexander Jannaeus captured Straton's Tower as part of his policy of developing the shipbuilding industry and enlarging the Hasmonean kingdom. Straton's Tower remained a Jewish settlement for two more generations, until the area became dominated by the Romans in 63 BCE, when they declared it an autonomous city. Herodian city of Caesarea Maritima (22 BCE – 6CE) - Caesarea Maritima was built in Roman-ruled Judea under the Jewish client King Herod the Great during c. 22-10/9 BCE near the ruins of the small naval station of Straton's Tower. The site, along with all of Judea, was awarded by Rome to Herod the Great in 30 BCE. The pagan city underwent vast changes under Herod, who renamed it Caesarea in honor of the Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus. Caesarea Maritima was known as the administrative, economic, and cultural capital of the Palestinian province from this time. In 22 BCE, Herod began construction of a deep-sea harbor named Sebastos and built storerooms, markets, wide roads, baths, temples to Rome and Augustus, and imposing public buildings. Herod built his palace on a promontory jutting out into the sea, with a decorative pool surrounded by stoas. Every five years, the city hosted major sports competitions, gladiator games, and theatrical productions in its theatre overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Construction of Sebastos Harbor / King Herod built the two jetties of the harbor between 22 and 15 BCE, and in 10/9 BCE he dedicated the city and harbor to Emperor Augustus (Sebastos is Greek for Augustus). The pace of construction was impressive considering the project's size and complexity. At its height, Sebastos was one of the most impressive harbors of its time. It had been constructed on a coast that had no natural harbors and served as an important commercial harbor in antiquity, rivaling Cleopatra's harbor at Alexandria. Josephus wrote: "Although the location was generally unfavorable, [Herod] contended with the difficulties so well that the solidity of the construction could not be overcome by the sea, and its beauty seemed finished off without impediment." When it was built in the 1st century BCE, the harbor of Sebastos ranked as the largest artificial harbor built in the open sea, enclosing around 100,000 m2. The breakwaters were made of lime and pozzolana, a type of volcanic ash, set into an underwater concrete. Herod imported over 24,000 m3 of pozzolana from the name-giving town of Puteoli, today Pozzuoli in Italy, to construct the two breakwaters: the southern one 500 meter, and the northern one 275 meter long. A shipment of this size would have required at least 44 shiploads of 400 tons each. Herod also had 12,000 m3 of local kurkar stone quarried to make rubble and 12,000 m3 of slaked lime mixed with the pozzolana. Architects had to devise a way to lay the wooden forms for the placement of concrete underwater. One technique was to drive stakes into the ground to make a box and then fill it with pozzolana concrete bit by bit. However, this method required many divers to hammer the planks to the stakes underwater and large quantities of pozzolana were necessary. Another technique was a double planking method used in the northern breakwater. On land, carpenters would construct a box with beams and frames on the inside and a watertight, double-planked wall on the outside. This double wall was built with a 23 cm (9 in) gap between the inner and outer layer. Although the box had no bottom, it was buoyant enough to float out to sea because of the watertight space between the inner and outer walls. Once it was floated into position, pozzolana was poured into the gap between the walls and the box would sink into place on the seafloor and be staked down in the corners. The flooded inside area was then filled by divers bit by bit with pozzolana-lime mortar and kurkar rubble until it rose above sea level. On the southern breakwater, barge construction was used. The southern side of Sebastos was much more exposed than the northern side, requiring sturdier breakwaters. Instead of using the double planked method filled with rubble, the architects sank barges filled with layers of pozzolana concrete and lime sand mortar. The barges were similar to boxes without lids, and were constructed using mortise and tenon joints, the same technique used in ancient boats, to ensure they remained watertight. The barges were ballasted with 0.5 meters of pozzolana concrete and floated out to their position. With alternating layers, pozzolana-based and lime-based concretes were hand-placed inside the barge to sink it and fill it up to the surface. However, there were underlying problems that led to its demise. Studies of the concrete cores of the moles have shown that the concrete was much weaker than similar pozzolana hydraulic concrete used in ancient Italian ports. For unknown reasons, the pozzolana mortar did not adhere as well to the kurkar rubble as it did to other rubble types used in Italian harbors. Small but numerous holes in some of the cores also indicate that the lime was of poor quality and stripped out of the mixture by strong waves before it could set. Also, large lumps of lime were found in all five of the cores studied at Caesarea, which shows that the mixture was not mixed thoroughly. However, stability would not have been seriously affected if the harbor had not been constructed over a geological fault line that runs along the coast. Seismic action gradually took its toll on the breakwaters, causing them to tilt down and settle into the seabed. Studies of seabed deposits at Caesarea have shown that a tsunami struck the area sometime during the 1st or 2nd century. Although it is unknown if this tsunami simply damaged or completely destroyed the harbor, it is known that by the 6th century the harbor was unusable and today the jetties lie more than 5 meters underwater. During the Byzantine period, Caesarea became the capital of the new province of Palaestina Prima in 390. As the capital of the province, Caesarea was also the metropolitan see, with ecclesiastical jurisdiction over Jerusalem, when rebuilt after the destruction in the year 70. In 451, however, the Council of Chalcedon established Jerusalem as a patriarchate, with Caesarea as the first of its three subordinate metropolitan sees. Caesarea remained the provincial capital throughout the 5th and 6th centuries. It fell to Sassanid Persia in the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, in 614, and was re-conquered by Byzantium in 625.
By Eric Alexander Sutherland, 1938. Diminutive, safe-shaped bank, obviously designed to give customers a feeling of solidity and safety. Granite base and block pediment. Carved “the Savings Bank of Glasgow Dumbarton Branch” between floors.
I was looking for a cheap second-hand lens for my wife for Xmas and ended up trying a couple of older lenses. This Nikkor 35-135mm f/3.5-4.5 AF lens immediately impressed me with its sharpness and solidity. When the shop agreed to go from NT$3200 to NT$3000 (US$100), I snapped it up. These shots are from standing in front of the shop and seeing what the lens would do, and then fiddling with it while waiting for my lunch to come.
The Praktik Metropol Hotel has been remodelled according to state-of-the-art criteria for comfort and style, safe-keeping the integrity and beauty of the original building while adding the practical, luxurious simplicities of the 21st century. Over 60 comfortable rooms with wi-fi, safe deposit boxes, hair dryer and telephone as well as the elegant solidity that is synonymous to Praktik Hotels; Hotel Praktik Metropol is proud to open its doors and invite you on a trip to enjoy Madrid with all your senses, starting with your hotel, at an incomparably affordable cost.
Arrechea Alexandre
The work of Alexandre Arrechea is rooted in the scrutiny of power structures. The visual manifestation of this reflection is constructed as a highly aesthetic display of surreal architectures and the absurd engineering of impossible mechanical devises as if born out of the set of a science fiction B movie.
An early interest in architecture was already manifest in the works that he made as a participant in the collective Los Carpinteros /The Carpenters, of which he was part since the trio’s student days in the Cuban Art School, in the 1990s, and has developed through his solo career which began in 2003. The highly elaborate wooden sculptures that became Los Carpinteros’ trademark gave way to a more personal language that allows Arrechea to explore mechanisms of control and the silenced but lethal presence of fear and mistrust in social relations. An example of this is his emblematic sculpture El Jardín de la Desconfianza/The Garden of Mistrust (2005), a life size sculpture of a tree whose branches are equipped with foliage made of CCTV cameras that follow the passerby, recording their movements into a database.
Κeeping with this Foucaultian approach, his drawings refer to the discomfort produced by the demise of utopian social models and their authoritarian formulas by means of distorted scale and the displacement of signs from the realm of dreams to the stage of the modern city. Employing watercolor in large format drawings of buildings, bridges and other architectural typologies, he creates a theatre of the absurd, where the intellectual heritage of socialism and its consequent contradictions are at play.
His latest video, Black Sun, premiered in Thessaloniki, marries the instability of the animated image of a wrecking ball in the moment of destruction with the apparent solidity of the setting: a large wall receiving the impact of a virtual ball. Here, the work acquires a new dimension as the image is projected over one of the remaining fragments of the original Byzantine wall that surrounded the city providing protection. As if an occurrence proper of Second Life, the psychological impact provoked by this unstable marriage of support and image revives the anxiety of the inevitable failure of violence, and of the failure of power to survive its own fears.
Gabriela Salgado
2009
The Postcard
A postally unused postcard published by C.V.
Note the large number of barrels on the dock.
Transbordeur Bridges
A transbordeur bridge has two tall metal pylons with a horizontal travel way fixed high above the river. A gondola (or platform) is suspended from a shuttle, usually powered by electricity, that runs along the travel way.
The gondola provides transport across the river, while the bridge itself still allows large ship traffic, such as sailing ships, to pass up and down the river. At least twenty-two transbordeur bridges have been built around the world, seven being in France (Bordeaux, Brest, Marseille, Nantes, Rochefort, Rouen, and a miniature one at Montceau-les-Mines). Five were also built in the UK.
Transbordeur bridges have their origin in the need to cross rivers used as maritime highways by sea-going sailing ships, particularly in port towns where providing the long approach ramp required for a very high road deck was impractical. The transbordeur bridge provided an elegant and efficient solution to this problem.
Ferdinand Arnodin
The transbordeur bridge design is generally regarded as being invented by Ferdinand Arnodin, a French industrial engineer who had previously specialised in cable-suspended bridges. He designed about 25 such bridges, inventing their spirally-wound double torsion steel wire ropes, as well as several other improvements to bridge safety and solidity.
The first of this new generation of suspension bridges built by Arnodin was the Pont de Saint Ilpize, Haut-Loire, completed in 1879. It still exists, having been repaired in 2004.
Arnodin was responsible for nine of the eighteen known transbordeur bridges to be built at the end of the 19th. century and early part of the 20th. century.
The Destruction of the Rouen Transbordeur
The Rouen Transbordeur was built in 1899. It had a span of 140 m and a pylon height of 70 m. It was destroyed on the 9th. June 1940 by French troops in order to slow the German advance.
Rouen
Rouen is a city on the River Seine in northern France, and is relatively close to the English Channel. Formerly one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe, the population of the metropolitan area is 702,945 (2018). People from Rouen are known as Rouennais.
“Upon approaching Rouen one is sure to be struck
by the insolent daring of its situation. Lying on a
sloping plain beside the river, it seems to disdain the
well-nigh impregnable site afforded by the steep cliffs
which rise just to the northeast.
The history of the city bears out the audacity of its
location. Through all the centuries, its inhabitants
concerned themselves so continuously in conquering
other peoples that little time was left in which to
consider the security of their own homes.”
-- Charles Hitchcock Sherrill, Stained Glass Tours in France (1908).
Rouen was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy during the Middle Ages. It was one of the capitals of the Anglo-Norman dynasties, which ruled both England and large parts of modern France from the 11th. to the 15th. centuries.
From the 13th. century onwards, the city experienced a remarkable economic boom, thanks in particular to the development of textile factories and river trade. Claimed by both the French and the English during the Hundred Years' War, it was in Rouen that Joan of Arc was tried and burned alive.
Severely damaged by a wave of bombing in 1944, Rouen nevertheless regained its economic dynamism in the post-war period thanks to its industrial sites and busy seaport, which is the fifth largest in France.
Endowed with a prestige established during the medieval era, and with a long architectural heritage in its historical monuments, Rouen is an important cultural capital. Several renowned establishments are located here, such as the Museum of Fine Arts, the Secq des Tournelles Museum, and Rouen Cathedral.
“Perhaps the most characteristic feature of Rouen
when viewed from a distance is the great number
of its spires that shoot up above the housetops,
earning for it the sobriquet of the City of Churches.”
-- Charles Hitchcock Sherrill, Stained Glass Tours in France (1908).
Sadly not all of those churches are still there because of the ravages of war.
Seat of an archdiocese, Rouen also hosts a court of appeal and a university. Every four to six years, Rouen becomes the showcase for a large gathering of sailing ships called "L'Armada"; this event makes the city an occasional capital of the maritime world.
Rouen Cathedral
Rouen Cathedral was commenced in the 12th. Century on the site of an earlier structure. It has a Roman crypt.
The Butter Tower dates from the 16th. century. The name of the Tour de Beurre comes from the fact that butter was banned during Lent, and those who wished to carry on eating it had to donate 6 Deniers Tournois towards the building of the tower. Practically everyone in Rouen must have carried on eating butter in order to fund a tower like that!
The Victorian cast-iron Lantern Tower in the centre of the building made the cathedral the tallest building in the world from 1876 until 1880, when it was overtaken by Cologne Cathedral.
The Lantern Tower was designed by the architect Jean-Antoine Alavoine who proposed the use of cast iron, a modern material for the time, because it was less combustible than wood, and lighter than stone. The Lantern Tower took 50 years to construct. The 151 metre height of the spire still makes Rouen Cathedral the tallest cathedral in France.
The presence of a lantern tower at the crossing of the transept is a frequent feature in churches in Normandy (St. Ouen in Rouen, and Bayeux) and in England (Gloucester, Salisbury, and Winchester).
The lantern is in a bulge in the ironwork near the top of the spire, which is surmounted by a weathercock.
The Cathedral holds the heart of Richard the Lionheart. His bowels were buried within the church of the Château de Châlus-Chabrol in the Limousin. The cathedral seems to have got the better end of that particular deal!
Claude Monet painted a series of studies of the cathedral's façade 1894. Roy Lichtenstein also made a series of pictures of the front of the building.
The Cathedral has had to put up with a lot of wilful destruction during its lifetime:
- The Calvinists damaged much of what they could easily reach during the religious wars of the 16th. Century - the furniture, tombs, stained glass and statuary.
- The French State nationalised the building in the 18th. Century, and sold some of its furniture and statues to make money. The chapel fences were melted down to make guns.
- In WW2 the Cathedral was first bombed in 1944, taking 7 bombs. The bombs narrowly missed destroying a key pillar of the Lantern Tower, but damaged most of the south aisle, and destroyed two medieval rose windows. One of the bombs was fortunately a dud and failed to explode.
- As a consequence of a subsequent WW II bombing, the north tower, on the left of the façade, was entirely burned. During the fire the stonework calcified and the bells melted, leaving molten metal on the floor. The cathedral is still being restored after the extensive damage incurred during World War II.
Also, during the violent storm of December 1999, a copper-clad wooden turret weighing 26 tons fell into the Cathedral and damaged the choir and the stalls. The three other turrets were removed for maintenance and safety purposes before being replaced in 2012.
The Execution of Jeanne d'Arc
Jeanne d'Arc was executed not far from the Cathedral in the Vieux-Marché on Wednesday the 30th. May 1431.
The famous depiction of 19 year old Joan of Arc's execution showing her on top of a pile of wood and straw is wrong.
The site for her execution comprised a stake at the centre of a large ring of wood, with a gap left for Joan to be led to the stake. Once she was tied to the stake and the gap closed, she was hidden from sight.
One authority has suggested that her body would have burnt in the following sequence: calves, thighs and hands, torso and forearms, breasts, upper chest and face.
However in all likelihood she would have died from heatstroke, loss of blood plasma and carbon dioxide poisoning before the fire attacked the upper parts of her body.
After Jeanne had expired, the English exposed her charred body so that no-one could claim that she had escaped alive, then burned her body twice more to reduce it to ashes in order to prevent the collection of relics.
They then cast her remains into the Seine.
A modern church now stands on the site of her execution.
"Half way around the world there is a little boy named Sussiso whose prized possession is a watch made out of paper. Last spring, I had the opportunity to work with him and other orphans in the community of Bambisana in the Transkei region of South Africa. Up to that point, I had been struggling a lot with my faith and finding a sense of solidity in my life because of the pressure I felt to fit in and do things "right." I found my peace in Bambisana.
Three nights into the trip I was sitting with my pastor, Schaun Collin, and talking to him about an open invitation he had given to anyone who wanted to be baptized. I remember telling him how lost I felt in life and how I knew that my faith wasn't in the right place. He told me exactly what I needed to hear; you are never at the end of your journey in faith. Everything you do is just a small step that you have to choose to take in the right direction. He told me that getting baptized was equivalent to getting married, or getting a tattoo. It doesn't make you a better person, it makes you committed to something permanent. The next day I was baptized in a river flowing into the Indian Ocean. Since then, not only have I been at peace with my faith, I've felt sure in my life path. I got my tattoo in the summer following my trip. The word "nolubabalo" means Grace in Xhosa, the language that was spoken in Bambisani. Not only is it a reminder of my faith statement and the time I spent in Africa, it's also a symbol of finding God's grace in times of struggle or anxiety.
I think that society places a negative image on tattoos, and it's still hard for me to explain the meaning to people or to justify that "yes, I know it will get wrinkly some day." My only real response is that my tattoo is for myself, and no matter the color it fades to or the looks I get for having it, the knowledge that it is there and the reminder of what it means outweighs any negative reactions from those around me. Life isn't about having things figured out early, looking like the pinterest-made girls on the Internet, or making sure you fit every mold society pressures you into. Life is about finding your own personal happiness by choosing to take those little steps in the right direction."
-Grace Amundson
From the museum label: At once austere and tender, this image belongs to a series of seven narrative scenes of the Life of Christ. The sophisticated depiction of the stable, viewed from slightly below, and the columnar solidity of the figures are typical of Giotto, considered the founder of Italian 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.
A striking art installation of fabric woven in between the neoclassical columns of the portico has been installed by UCL Slade School of Fine Art student Nicolas Feldmeyer.
The installation is part of the school’s 2012 MA/MFA Degree Show, which is open to the public between 9 -10 June from 10am to 5pm and 11-14 June from 10am to 8pm.
Untitled (Woven Portico)
Explaining the thought process behind the project, Nicolas said:
“Untitled (Woven Portico) is a project I have been working on for 14 months, since March 2011. From my first day at UCL I was interested in this elegant and empty Portico, finding it a dignified space full of potential, just waiting to be activated.
“After a lot of studies and sketches I found something that seemed to have been contained in the Portico for a long time and needed to be made visible. I knew the form, but couldn't say exactly where it comes from. It has to do with something very old and deeply human, with the archaic gesture of weaving, with a kind of architectural remembrance of past times, as if the Portico were remembering where it came from, when huts were made of wooden posts and woven branches.
I got a lot of encouragement from my tutors and fellow students at the Slade to try and "go as far as possible" with the project. I didn't think it would be possible to realise it at first.
Nicolas Feldmeyer
“It has to do with the physical contrast of heaviness and lightness, of fragility and solidity - light white fabric and Portland Stone. There was also something playful and of classical, geometric purity at the same time that I found interesting.
“The first opportunity I had to present the project in public was the ‘Moreover’ exhibition, organised jointly by the Slade and UCL Art Museum. In the Museum's archive I was shown the original drawings of William Wilkins, the architect of UCL's main building. I could measure the plans and re-build a 3D CAD model to produce plans and photomontages of my project.
“I got a lot of encouragement from my tutors and fellow students at the Slade to try and "go as far as possible" with the project. I didn't think it would be possible to realise it at first. The artist Julia Vogl, who created an installation last year on the Portico, has been very helpful and generous in sharing her knowledge.
“The structure is made of 226m2 of PVC mesh, heavy-duty straps and ratchets. The structure is attached on itself, supported only by the horizontal tension, so as not to touch the grade-1 listed building. The project cost £6,600, entirely funded by the Swiss Cultural Fund in Britain, UCL Business and Camden Council. UCL Business bought 15 prints of the preparatory drawings to fund the project.
“The fabric is going to be recycled into bags by BITA-Pathways, a social enterprise for people with mental health problems. The bags will be designed by Yasar Spoerndli, an award winning fashion designer and produced in BITA-Pathways workshops.”
From: www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/1206/01062012-woven-port...
Title Land Scape
Solidity collection
Art number SC123
Size M12 606mm×410mm canvas
spray paint art works.
"Compact, aggressive styling, embodying all of Alfa Romeo’s sporting tradition. The Alfa GT is pure design, created by the Bertone Style Centre in collaboration with the Alfa Romeo Style Centre. The car has compact, flowing lines, giving it the look of a sleek coupé, while underneath it has all the space and versatility of a saloon.” Alfa Romeo.
The overall impression is one of solidity and strength.
A National Historic Landmark
Otsego County, NY
Listed in NR: 10/07/1971
Designated an NHL: 06/24/1986
This remarkable limestone manor, begun in 1817, combines the high style grace of an English country house with the solidity and ingenuity of an American dwelling. It also happens to be one of early America’s most thoroughly documented buildings. Phillip Hooker designed it for George Hyde Clarke, and both the architect’s drawings and the owner’s bills survive. Architecturally, as a student of the house has aptly stated, Hyde Hall “stand with one foot in the English Regency and the other in the American Greek Revival.” It has been restored and is open to the public as a major attraction in Glimmerglass State Park.
Bridgwater looking strangely Kings Lynn glamorous? I was lucky enough to catch the town's West Quay at a slackwater high tide, and despite the solidity of its sediment capacity, which sometimes seem to border on the 'chewy' side of thick, the surface of the majestic River Parrett can be smooth enough to create this rather pleasing reflection. A sunny day and some judicious dredging to the right might have helped, but as the quays haven't been used for decades this seems an unlikely possibility.
Delugophiles among you may recognise this view as the one that briefly last year put Bridgwater into the national headlines, when overnight heavy rain served to collapse the quay wall at this point, on the night before Bridgwater's massive carnival, resulting in cancellation of the event for the first time in its history, on understandable safety grounds, while inspections were carried out on the state of the remaining quays and bridge foundations. I am happy to report that repairs are nearly complete, the few vehicles here involved in the tail of the work, just in time for Carnival 2013.
Los Angeles, California
Listed 7/23/2013
Reference Number: 13000509
The Boyle Hotel - Cummings Block is significant tmder Criterion A as an important anchor to the early commercial development of Los Angeles in the Boyle Heights neighborhood east of the Los Angeles River. When completed in 1889,6 it reflected expansion and growth outside the commercial core in Los Angeles. Now, as the last remaining commercial building from the early development of Boyle Heights in the 1880s, the building represents the late nineteenth century transition of Los Angeles from a small city surrounded by farmland to a burgeoning city center surrounded by suburban neighborhoods. Pre-twentieth century commercial buildings are extremely rare in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area and likely number fewer than a dozen. Extant pre-twentieth century hotels are even rarer and probably number fewer than five. The Boyle Hotel - Cummings Block is also significant under Criterion C for its rare and unique architectural design in a Queen A1me style. 8 The building embodies distinctive character defining features, including its highly decorative wall surface, ornamental spiral columns, parapets with patterned surfacing, comer turret, second story double window with an arched pediment, and decorative brickwork. The building commands a prominent position at the crest of a hill overlooking downtown, as well as at an important intersection, and its construction out of brick signifies solidity and durability at this important site.
National Register of Historic Places Homepage
Albi Cathedral is one of the most unique, awe-inspiring churches ever concieved, quite simply one of the wonders of the medieval world.
Although contemporary with the great gothic cathedrals of Northern France, this largely 13th century structure is radically different, being constructed almost entirely of brick and built like a mighty fortress; mostly unadorned walls rise uninterrupted from the ground like sheer cliff-faces of brick. The simplicity of the design gives it an almost modern appearance, and the massive scale gives it a quite overpowering presence.
The cathedral's powerful fortified appearance is largely down to two factors, the shape of the building is consistent with local forms of gothic churches in southern France and northern Spain, whilst thr fortified solidity can be associated with the supression of the Cathars in this area during the Albigensian Crusades, the building serving a lesson in strength and permanence as a warning to any rebellious locals.
The plain exterior was relieved in the more stable climate of the 16th century by the huge flamboyant porch on the south side of the nave, more like an enormous spikey canopy open on three sides. It remains the main entrance to the cathedral, the base of the enormous tower being so massively constructed as to leave no room for a traditional west entrance.
On entering this vast edifice one's senses are overwhelmed yet again, this time by the profusion of decoration in the cavernous interior. The walls and ceilings are entirely covered by frescoes dating from the early 16th century (mostly in Renaissance style, much of it colourful geometric patterns. The most memorable sections are the earliest frescoes at the west end from an enormous Last Judgement; the central section was sadly removed in the 18th century but the extensive and graphic depiction of the torments of Hell remains.
In addition this cathedral is rare in preserving it's 'jube' or choir screen), a late medieval masterpiece of decoration an sculpture which extends into a lavishly sculpted choir enclosure adorned with a riot of angels and saints.
All in all this unforgettable cathedral is a monument that defies description alone and bombards the senses!
looking northeastward, at the western and southern elevations.
Now one of the postindustrial gritty satellite cities that rings the Chicagoland metropolis, Joliet remains a remarkable town with a fascinating history, a real sense of enduring identity, and a school of architecture all its own.
The last, seemingly implausible statement is based on the fact that Joliet produced its own roster of interesting and talented home-town designers. These included Julian Barnes, the man who created this mixed-used facility in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. It's one of my all-time favorite stone buildings, and as I've noted in my forthcoming Chicago Suburbs in Stone and Clay, it looks as though it has emerged from a Edward Hopper streetscape. I wish that great American painter had indeed captured it in his typical way, in a state of timeless light and detached repose. It has that kind of quiet, sun-loving solidity to it.
I myself was not so lucky. I took this photo on one of those leaden-skied December days, when at least one of the streetlights had been tricked by the low deck of stratus clouds into switching on early. Still, the building presented itself proudly even in that gloom. I especially like the vintage light fixture beaming through the corner cupola's slit window.
As it so happens, there are two great Auditorium Buildings in northeastern Illinois. The other, older by two years, is Adler and Sullivan's famous work on Chicago's South Michigan Avenue. Its exterior is a medley of two granites (the Hinsdale and the Spruce Head) and one limestone (the Salem). Here, however, Barnes used a simpler scheme dominated by the locally quarried "Joliet Limestone," also sometimes marketed as "Joliet Marble." In other words, it's the Silurian-period Lemont-Joliet Dolostone (LJD).
I think this is one of the finest expositions of the LJD one can find anywhere in the land of its production, the Lower Des Plaines River Valley. Or, for that matter, anywhere.
In all likelihood the rock-faced ashlar and voussoirs were taken specifically from the Sugar Run Formation, which was known in this area as the "Building Stone Beds." In Joliet, some quarries did extend farther down into the Romeo Member of the Joliet Formation, but the vast bulk of the production was in the Sugar Run.
This Auditorium Building shows the LJD to its best advantage. The rock's original bluish ferrous-iron compounds have weathered to the ferric state, as signaled by the buttery-to-ocher tones. Barnes also garnished it with a bevy of columns of polished red granite. I'm quite sure it's Scotland's Aberdeenshire type.
You'll find the other photos and descriptions of this series in my Glory of Silurian Dolostone album.
Oil on canvas; 82 x 63.4 cm.
Massimo Campigli, born Max Ihlenfeld, was an Italian painter and journalist. He was born in Berlin, but spent most of his childhood in Florence. His family moved to Milan in 1909, and here he worked on the Letteratura magazine, frequenting avant-garde circles and making the acquaintance of Boccioni and Carrà. During World War I Campigli was captured and deported to Hungary where he remained a prisoner of war from 1916–18. At the end of the war he moved to Paris where he worked as foreign correspondent for the Milanese daily newspaper. Although he had already produced some drawings, it was only after he arrived in Paris that he started to paint. At the Café du Dôme he consorted with artists including Giorgio de Chirico, Alberto Savinio, Gino Severini and Filippo De Pisis. Extended visits to the Louvre deepened Campigli's interest in ancient Egyptian art.
His first figurative works applied geometrical designs to the human figure, reflecting the influence of Pablo Picasso and Fernand Léger as well as the Purism of "L’Esprit Nouveau". In 1923, he organized his first personal exhibition at the Bragaglia Gallery in Rome. During the next five years his figures developed a monumental quality, often with stylized poses and the limbs interwoven into a sculptural solidity. The importance given to order and tradition, the atmosphere of serenity and eternity were in line with the post-war reconstruction and the program of the “Twentieth Century” artists with whom Campigli frequently exhibited both in Milan from 1926–29 and abroad from 1927–31. In 1926 he joined the "Paris Italians" together with Giorgio de Chirico, Filippo de Pisis, Renato Paresce, Savinio, Severini and Mario Tozzi. In 1928, year of his debut at the Venice Biennial, he was very much taken by the Etruscan collection when visiting the National Etruscan Museum in Rome. He then broke away from the compact severity of his previous works in favor of a plane with subdued tones and schematic forms rich in archaisms.
During a journey in Romania he started a new cycle of works portraying women employed in domestic tasks and agricultural labor. These figures were arranged in asymmetrical and hieratic compositions, hovering on a rough textured plane, inspired by ancient fresco. These works were enthusiastically received by the critics at the exhibition held in the Jeanne Bucher gallery, Paris, in 1929 and at the Milione Gallery, Milan, in 1931. During the ‘thirties he held a series of solo exhibitions in New York, Paris and Milan which brought him international acclaim. In 1933 Campigli returned to Milan where he worked on projects of vast dimensions. In the same year he signed Mario Sironi’s Mural Art Manifesto and painted a fresco of mothers, country-women, working women, for the V Milan Triennial which unfortunately was later destroyed. In the following ten years other works were commissioned: I costruttori ("The builders") for the Geneva League of Nations in 1937; Non uccidere ("Do not kill") for the Milan Courts of Justice in 1938, an enormous 300 square metre fresco for the entrance hall, designed by Gio Ponti, of the Liviano, Padua which he painted during 1939–40. He spent the war years in Milan and in Venice, then after the war they divided his time between Rome, Paris and Saint-Tropez. In a personal exhibition at the Venice Biennial in 1948 he displayed his new compositions: female figures inserted in complicated architectonic structures. During the 60s his figures were reduced to colored markings in a group of almost abstract canvasses. In 1967 a retrospective exhibition was dedicated to Campigli at the Palazzo Reale in Milan.
"Cube Light";by Ai Weiwei (2008; glass crystals, lights, and metal)
"Begun in 2002, Ai's celebrated chandelier series includes large-scale installations composed of thousands of glass crystals. "Cube Light," a seminal piece in this body of work, extends Ai's interest in re-examining Minimalist artistic strategies and, more specifically, in questioning the perceived solidity and exactitude of the iconic cube. The artist's use of glass crystals exemplifies his interest in the manipulation of materials that interrogate conventions of culture, history, politics and tradition. According to Ai, an important inspiration for the series was a scene in Sergei Eisenstein's 1928 film "October", in which the shaking crystal chandelier suggests the instability of a society undergoing profound change."
Caesarea was developed over a period of 12 Years into a grand city and major seaport and he dedicated it to Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus, who had returned it to Herod after wresting it away from Cleopatra. It left a spectacular Roman amphitheater that is still used as a performance venue today. Caesarea, often simplified to Keisarya, and Qaysaria, is an affluent town in north-central Israel, which inherits its name and much of its territory from the ancient city of Caesarea Maritima. Located midway between Tel Aviv and Haifa. The ancient city of Caesarea Maritima was built by Herod the Great about 25â13 BCE as a major port. It served as an administrative center of the province of Judaea in the Roman Empire, and later as the capital of the Byzantine province of Palaestina Prima. During the Muslim conquest in the 7th century, it was the last city of the Holy Land to fall to the Arabs. The city degraded to a small village after the provincial capital was moved from here to Ramla and had an Arab majority until Crusader conquest. Under the Crusaders it became once again a major port and a fortified city. It was diminished after the Mamluk conquest. In 1884, Bosniak immigrants settled there establishing a small fishing village. Hellenistic and early Roman periods - In 90 BCE, Jewish ruler Alexander Jannaeus captured Straton's Tower as part of his policy of developing the shipbuilding industry and enlarging the Hasmonean kingdom. Straton's Tower remained a Jewish settlement for two more generations, until the area became dominated by the Romans in 63 BCE, when they declared it an autonomous city. Herodian city of Caesarea Maritima (22 BCE â 6CE) - Caesarea Maritima was built in Roman-ruled Judea under the Jewish client King Herod the Great during c. 22-10/9 BCE near the ruins of the small naval station of Straton's Tower. The site, along with all of Judea, was awarded by Rome to Herod the Great in 30 BCE. The pagan city underwent vast changes under Herod, who renamed it Caesarea in honor of the Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus. Caesarea Maritima was known as the administrative, economic, and cultural capital of the Palestinian province from this time. In 22 BCE, Herod began construction of a deep-sea harbor named Sebastos and built storerooms, markets, wide roads, baths, temples to Rome and Augustus, and imposing public buildings. Herod built his palace on a promontory jutting out into the sea, with a decorative pool surrounded by stoas. Every five years, the city hosted major sports competitions, gladiator games, and theatrical productions in its theatre overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Construction of Sebastos Harbor / King Herod built the two jetties of the harbor between 22 and 15 BCE, and in 10/9 BCE he dedicated the city and harbor to Emperor Augustus (Sebastos is Greek for Augustus). The pace of construction was impressive considering the project's size and complexity. At its height, Sebastos was one of the most impressive harbors of its time. It had been constructed on a coast that had no natural harbors and served as an important commercial harbor in antiquity, rivaling Cleopatra's harbor at Alexandria. Josephus wrote: "Although the location was generally unfavorable, [Herod] contended with the difficulties so well that the solidity of the construction could not be overcome by the sea, and its beauty seemed finished off without impediment." When it was built in the 1st century BCE, the harbor of Sebastos ranked as the largest artificial harbor built in the open sea, enclosing around 100,000 m2. The breakwaters were made of lime and pozzolana, a type of volcanic ash, set into an underwater concrete. Herod imported over 24,000 m3 of pozzolana from the name-giving town of Puteoli, today Pozzuoli in Italy, to construct the two breakwaters: the southern one 500 meter, and the northern one 275 meter long. A shipment of this size would have required at least 44 shiploads of 400 tons each. Herod also had 12,000 m3 of local kurkar stone quarried to make rubble and 12,000 m3 of slaked lime mixed with the pozzolana. Architects had to devise a way to lay the wooden forms for the placement of concrete underwater. One technique was to drive stakes into the ground to make a box and then fill it with pozzolana concrete bit by bit. However, this method required many divers to hammer the planks to the stakes underwater and large quantities of pozzolana were necessary. Another technique was a double planking method used in the northern breakwater. On land, carpenters would construct a box with beams and frames on the inside and a watertight, double-planked wall on the outside. This double wall was built with a 23 cm (9 in) gap between the inner and outer layer. Although the box had no bottom, it was buoyant enough to float out to sea because of the watertight space between the inner and outer walls. Once it was floated into position, pozzolana was poured into the gap between the walls and the box would sink into place on the seafloor and be staked down in the corners. The flooded inside area was then filled by divers bit by bit with pozzolana-lime mortar and kurkar rubble until it rose above sea level. On the southern breakwater, barge construction was used. The southern side of Sebastos was much more exposed than the northern side, requiring sturdier breakwaters. Instead of using the double planked method filled with rubble, the architects sank barges filled with layers of pozzolana concrete and lime sand mortar. The barges were similar to boxes without lids, and were constructed using mortise and tenon joints, the same technique used in ancient boats, to ensure they remained watertight. The barges were ballasted with 0.5 meters of pozzolana concrete and floated out to their position. With alternating layers, pozzolana-based and lime-based concretes were hand-placed inside the barge to sink it and fill it up to the surface. However, there were underlying problems that led to its demise. Studies of the concrete cores of the moles have shown that the concrete was much weaker than similar pozzolana hydraulic concrete used in ancient Italian ports. For unknown reasons, the pozzolana mortar did not adhere as well to the kurkar rubble as it did to other rubble types used in Italian harbors. Small but numerous holes in some of the cores also indicate that the lime was of poor quality and stripped out of the mixture by strong waves before it could set. Also, large lumps of lime were found in all five of the cores studied at Caesarea, which shows that the mixture was not mixed thoroughly. However, stability would not have been seriously affected if the harbor had not been constructed over a geological fault line that runs along the coast. Seismic action gradually took its toll on the breakwaters, causing them to tilt down and settle into the seabed. Studies of seabed deposits at Caesarea have shown that a tsunami struck the area sometime during the 1st or 2nd century. Although it is unknown if this tsunami simply damaged or completely destroyed the harbor, it is known that by the 6th century the harbor was unusable and today the jetties lie more than 5 meters underwater. During the Byzantine period, Caesarea became the capital of the new province of Palaestina Prima in 390. As the capital of the province, Caesarea was also the metropolitan see, with ecclesiastical jurisdiction over Jerusalem, when rebuilt after the destruction in the year 70. In 451, however, the Council of Chalcedon established Jerusalem as a patriarchate, with Caesarea as the first of its three subordinate metropolitan sees. Caesarea remained the provincial capital throughout the 5th and 6th centuries. It fell to Sassanid Persia in the ByzantineâSasanian War of 602â628, in 614, and was re-conquered by Byzantium in 625.. Caesarea was developed over a period of 12 Years into a grand city and major seaport and he dedicated it to Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus, who had returned it to Herod after wresting it away from Cleopatra. It left a spectacular Roman amphitheater that is still used as a performance venue today. Caesarea, often simplified to Keisarya, and Qaysaria, is an affluent town in north-central Israel, which inherits its name and much of its territory from the ancient city of Caesarea Maritima. Located midway between Tel Aviv and Haifa. The ancient city of Caesarea Maritima was built by Herod the Great about 25â13 BCE as a major port. It served as an administrative center of the province of Judaea in the Roman Empire, and later as the capital of the Byzantine province of Palaestina Prima. During the Muslim conquest in the 7th century, it was the last city of the Holy Land to fall to the Arabs. The city degraded to a small village after the provincial capital was moved from here to Ramla and had an Arab majority until Crusader conquest. Under the Crusaders it became once again a major port and a fortified city. It was diminished after the Mamluk conquest. In 1884, Bosniak immigrants settled there establishing a small fishing village. Hellenistic and early Roman periods - In 90 BCE, Jewish ruler Alexander Jannaeus captured Straton's Tower as part of his policy of developing the shipbuilding industry and enlarging the Hasmonean kingdom. Straton's Tower remained a Jewish settlement for two more generations, until the area became dominated by the Romans in 63 BCE, when they declared it an autonomous city. Herodian city of Caesarea Maritima (22 BCE â 6CE) - Caesarea Maritima was built in Roman-ruled Judea under the Jewish client King Herod the Great during c. 22-10/9 BCE near the ruins of the small naval station of Straton's Tower. The site, along with all of Judea, was awarded by Rome to Herod the Great in 30 BCE. The pagan city underwent vast changes under Herod, who renamed it Caesarea in honor of the Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus. Caesarea Maritima was known as the administrative, economic, and cultural capital of the Palestinian province from this time. In 22 BCE, Herod began construction of a deep-sea harbor named Sebastos and built storerooms, markets, wide roads, baths, temples to Rome and Augustus, and imposing public buildings. Herod built his palace on a promontory jutting out into the sea, with a decorative pool surrounded by stoas. Every five years, the city hosted major sports competitions, gladiator games, and theatrical productions in its theatre overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Construction of Sebastos Harbor / King Herod built the two jetties of the harbor between 22 and 15 BCE, and in 10/9 BCE he dedicated the city and harbor to Emperor Augustus (Sebastos is Greek for Augustus). The pace of construction was impressive considering the project's size and complexity. At its height, Sebastos was one of the most impressive harbors of its time. It had been constructed on a coast that had no natural harbors and served as an important commercial harbor in antiquity, rivaling Cleopatra's harbor at Alexandria. Josephus wrote: "Although the location was generally unfavorable, [Herod] contended with the difficulties so well that the solidity of the construction could not be overcome by the sea, and its beauty seemed finished off without impediment." When it was built in the 1st century BCE, the harbor of Sebastos ranked as the largest artificial harbor built in the open sea, enclosing around 100,000 m2. The breakwaters were made of lime and pozzolana, a type of volcanic ash, set into an underwater concrete. Herod imported over 24,000 m3 of pozzolana from the name-giving town of Puteoli, today Pozzuoli in Italy, to construct the two breakwaters: the southern one 500 meter, and the northern one 275 meter long. A shipment of this size would have required at least 44 shiploads of 400 tons each. Herod also had 12,000 m3 of local kurkar stone quarried to make rubble and 12,000 m3 of slaked lime mixed with the pozzolana. Architects had to devise a way to lay the wooden forms for the placement of concrete underwater. One technique was to drive stakes into the ground to make a box and then fill it with pozzolana concrete bit by bit. However, this method required many divers to hammer the planks to the stakes underwater and large quantities of pozzolana were necessary. Another technique was a double planking method used in the northern breakwater. On land, carpenters would construct a box with beams and frames on the inside and a watertight, double-planked wall on the outside. This double wall was built with a 23 cm (9 in) gap between the inner and outer layer. Although the box had no bottom, it was buoyant enough to float out to sea because of the watertight space between the inner and outer walls. Once it was floated into position, pozzolana was poured into the gap between the walls and the box would sink into place on the seafloor and be staked down in the corners. The flooded inside area was then filled by divers bit by bit with pozzolana-lime mortar and kurkar rubble until it rose above sea level. On the southern breakwater, barge construction was used. The southern side of Sebastos was much more exposed than the northern side, requiring sturdier breakwaters. Instead of using the double planked method filled with rubble, the architects sank barges filled with layers of pozzolana concrete and lime sand mortar. The barges were similar to boxes without lids, and were constructed using mortise and tenon joints, the same technique used in ancient boats, to ensure they remained watertight. The barges were ballasted with 0.5 meters of pozzolana concrete and floated out to their position. With alternating layers, pozzolana-based and lime-based concretes were hand-placed inside the barge to sink it and fill it up to the surface. However, there were underlying problems that led to its demise. Studies of the concrete cores of the moles have shown that the concrete was much weaker than similar pozzolana hydraulic concrete used in ancient Italian ports. For unknown reasons, the pozzolana mortar did not adhere as well to the kurkar rubble as it did to other rubble types used in Italian harbors. Small but numerous holes in some of the cores also indicate that the lime was of poor quality and stripped out of the mixture by strong waves before it could set. Also, large lumps of lime were found in all five of the cores studied at Caesarea, which shows that the mixture was not mixed thoroughly. However, stability would not have been seriously affected if the harbor had not been constructed over a geological fault line that runs along the coast. Seismic action gradually took its toll on the breakwaters, causing them to tilt down and settle into the seabed. Studies of seabed deposits at Caesarea have shown that a tsunami struck the area sometime during the 1st or 2nd century. Although it is unknown if this tsunami simply damaged or completely destroyed the harbor, it is known that by the 6th century the harbor was unusable and today the jetties lie more than 5 meters underwater. During the Byzantine period, Caesarea became the capital of the new province of Palaestina Prima in 390. As the capital of the province, Caesarea was also the metropolitan see, with ecclesiastical jurisdiction over Jerusalem, when rebuilt after the destruction in the year 70. In 451, however, the Council of Chalcedon established Jerusalem as a patriarchate, with Caesarea as the first of its three subordinate metropolitan sees. Caesarea remained the provincial capital throughout the 5th and 6th centuries. It fell to Sassanid Persia in the ByzantineâSasanian War of 602â628, in 614, and was re-conquered by Byzantium in 625.
Political language ... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
~George Orwell
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.
Caesarea was developed over a period of 12 Years into a grand city and major seaport and he dedicated it to Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus, who had returned it to Herod after wresting it away from Cleopatra. It left a spectacular Roman amphitheater that is still used as a performance venue today. Caesarea, often simplified to Keisarya, and Qaysaria, is an affluent town in north-central Israel, which inherits its name and much of its territory from the ancient city of Caesarea Maritima. Located midway between Tel Aviv and Haifa. The ancient city of Caesarea Maritima was built by Herod the Great about 25â13 BCE as a major port. It served as an administrative center of the province of Judaea in the Roman Empire, and later as the capital of the Byzantine province of Palaestina Prima. During the Muslim conquest in the 7th century, it was the last city of the Holy Land to fall to the Arabs. The city degraded to a small village after the provincial capital was moved from here to Ramla and had an Arab majority until Crusader conquest. Under the Crusaders it became once again a major port and a fortified city. It was diminished after the Mamluk conquest. In 1884, Bosniak immigrants settled there establishing a small fishing village. Hellenistic and early Roman periods - In 90 BCE, Jewish ruler Alexander Jannaeus captured Straton's Tower as part of his policy of developing the shipbuilding industry and enlarging the Hasmonean kingdom. Straton's Tower remained a Jewish settlement for two more generations, until the area became dominated by the Romans in 63 BCE, when they declared it an autonomous city. Herodian city of Caesarea Maritima (22 BCE â 6CE) - Caesarea Maritima was built in Roman-ruled Judea under the Jewish client King Herod the Great during c. 22-10/9 BCE near the ruins of the small naval station of Straton's Tower. The site, along with all of Judea, was awarded by Rome to Herod the Great in 30 BCE. The pagan city underwent vast changes under Herod, who renamed it Caesarea in honor of the Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus. Caesarea Maritima was known as the administrative, economic, and cultural capital of the Palestinian province from this time. In 22 BCE, Herod began construction of a deep-sea harbor named Sebastos and built storerooms, markets, wide roads, baths, temples to Rome and Augustus, and imposing public buildings. Herod built his palace on a promontory jutting out into the sea, with a decorative pool surrounded by stoas. Every five years, the city hosted major sports competitions, gladiator games, and theatrical productions in its theatre overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Construction of Sebastos Harbor / King Herod built the two jetties of the harbor between 22 and 15 BCE, and in 10/9 BCE he dedicated the city and harbor to Emperor Augustus (Sebastos is Greek for Augustus). The pace of construction was impressive considering the project's size and complexity. At its height, Sebastos was one of the most impressive harbors of its time. It had been constructed on a coast that had no natural harbors and served as an important commercial harbor in antiquity, rivaling Cleopatra's harbor at Alexandria. Josephus wrote: "Although the location was generally unfavorable, [Herod] contended with the difficulties so well that the solidity of the construction could not be overcome by the sea, and its beauty seemed finished off without impediment." When it was built in the 1st century BCE, the harbor of Sebastos ranked as the largest artificial harbor built in the open sea, enclosing around 100,000 m2. The breakwaters were made of lime and pozzolana, a type of volcanic ash, set into an underwater concrete. Herod imported over 24,000 m3 of pozzolana from the name-giving town of Puteoli, today Pozzuoli in Italy, to construct the two breakwaters: the southern one 500 meter, and the northern one 275 meter long. A shipment of this size would have required at least 44 shiploads of 400 tons each. Herod also had 12,000 m3 of local kurkar stone quarried to make rubble and 12,000 m3 of slaked lime mixed with the pozzolana. Architects had to devise a way to lay the wooden forms for the placement of concrete underwater. One technique was to drive stakes into the ground to make a box and then fill it with pozzolana concrete bit by bit. However, this method required many divers to hammer the planks to the stakes underwater and large quantities of pozzolana were necessary. Another technique was a double planking method used in the northern breakwater. On land, carpenters would construct a box with beams and frames on the inside and a watertight, double-planked wall on the outside. This double wall was built with a 23 cm (9 in) gap between the inner and outer layer. Although the box had no bottom, it was buoyant enough to float out to sea because of the watertight space between the inner and outer walls. Once it was floated into position, pozzolana was poured into the gap between the walls and the box would sink into place on the seafloor and be staked down in the corners. The flooded inside area was then filled by divers bit by bit with pozzolana-lime mortar and kurkar rubble until it rose above sea level. On the southern breakwater, barge construction was used. The southern side of Sebastos was much more exposed than the northern side, requiring sturdier breakwaters. Instead of using the double planked method filled with rubble, the architects sank barges filled with layers of pozzolana concrete and lime sand mortar. The barges were similar to boxes without lids, and were constructed using mortise and tenon joints, the same technique used in ancient boats, to ensure they remained watertight. The barges were ballasted with 0.5 meters of pozzolana concrete and floated out to their position. With alternating layers, pozzolana-based and lime-based concretes were hand-placed inside the barge to sink it and fill it up to the surface. However, there were underlying problems that led to its demise. Studies of the concrete cores of the moles have shown that the concrete was much weaker than similar pozzolana hydraulic concrete used in ancient Italian ports. For unknown reasons, the pozzolana mortar did not adhere as well to the kurkar rubble as it did to other rubble types used in Italian harbors. Small but numerous holes in some of the cores also indicate that the lime was of poor quality and stripped out of the mixture by strong waves before it could set. Also, large lumps of lime were found in all five of the cores studied at Caesarea, which shows that the mixture was not mixed thoroughly. However, stability would not have been seriously affected if the harbor had not been constructed over a geological fault line that runs along the coast. Seismic action gradually took its toll on the breakwaters, causing them to tilt down and settle into the seabed. Studies of seabed deposits at Caesarea have shown that a tsunami struck the area sometime during the 1st or 2nd century. Although it is unknown if this tsunami simply damaged or completely destroyed the harbor, it is known that by the 6th century the harbor was unusable and today the jetties lie more than 5 meters underwater. During the Byzantine period, Caesarea became the capital of the new province of Palaestina Prima in 390. As the capital of the province, Caesarea was also the metropolitan see, with ecclesiastical jurisdiction over Jerusalem, when rebuilt after the destruction in the year 70. In 451, however, the Council of Chalcedon established Jerusalem as a patriarchate, with Caesarea as the first of its three subordinate metropolitan sees. Caesarea remained the provincial capital throughout the 5th and 6th centuries. It fell to Sassanid Persia in the ByzantineâSasanian War of 602â628, in 614, and was re-conquered by Byzantium in 625.. Caesarea was developed over a period of 12 Years into a grand city and major seaport and he dedicated it to Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus, who had returned it to Herod after wresting it away from Cleopatra. It left a spectacular Roman amphitheater that is still used as a performance venue today. Caesarea, often simplified to Keisarya, and Qaysaria, is an affluent town in north-central Israel, which inherits its name and much of its territory from the ancient city of Caesarea Maritima. Located midway between Tel Aviv and Haifa. The ancient city of Caesarea Maritima was built by Herod the Great about 25â13 BCE as a major port. It served as an administrative center of the province of Judaea in the Roman Empire, and later as the capital of the Byzantine province of Palaestina Prima. During the Muslim conquest in the 7th century, it was the last city of the Holy Land to fall to the Arabs. The city degraded to a small village after the provincial capital was moved from here to Ramla and had an Arab majority until Crusader conquest. Under the Crusaders it became once again a major port and a fortified city. It was diminished after the Mamluk conquest. In 1884, Bosniak immigrants settled there establishing a small fishing village. Hellenistic and early Roman periods - In 90 BCE, Jewish ruler Alexander Jannaeus captured Straton's Tower as part of his policy of developing the shipbuilding industry and enlarging the Hasmonean kingdom. Straton's Tower remained a Jewish settlement for two more generations, until the area became dominated by the Romans in 63 BCE, when they declared it an autonomous city. Herodian city of Caesarea Maritima (22 BCE â 6CE) - Caesarea Maritima was built in Roman-ruled Judea under the Jewish client King Herod the Great during c. 22-10/9 BCE near the ruins of the small naval station of Straton's Tower. The site, along with all of Judea, was awarded by Rome to Herod the Great in 30 BCE. The pagan city underwent vast changes under Herod, who renamed it Caesarea in honor of the Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus. Caesarea Maritima was known as the administrative, economic, and cultural capital of the Palestinian province from this time. In 22 BCE, Herod began construction of a deep-sea harbor named Sebastos and built storerooms, markets, wide roads, baths, temples to Rome and Augustus, and imposing public buildings. Herod built his palace on a promontory jutting out into the sea, with a decorative pool surrounded by stoas. Every five years, the city hosted major sports competitions, gladiator games, and theatrical productions in its theatre overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Construction of Sebastos Harbor / King Herod built the two jetties of the harbor between 22 and 15 BCE, and in 10/9 BCE he dedicated the city and harbor to Emperor Augustus (Sebastos is Greek for Augustus). The pace of construction was impressive considering the project's size and complexity. At its height, Sebastos was one of the most impressive harbors of its time. It had been constructed on a coast that had no natural harbors and served as an important commercial harbor in antiquity, rivaling Cleopatra's harbor at Alexandria. Josephus wrote: "Although the location was generally unfavorable, [Herod] contended with the difficulties so well that the solidity of the construction could not be overcome by the sea, and its beauty seemed finished off without impediment." When it was built in the 1st century BCE, the harbor of Sebastos ranked as the largest artificial harbor built in the open sea, enclosing around 100,000 m2. The breakwaters were made of lime and pozzolana, a type of volcanic ash, set into an underwater concrete. Herod imported over 24,000 m3 of pozzolana from the name-giving town of Puteoli, today Pozzuoli in Italy, to construct the two breakwaters: the southern one 500 meter, and the northern one 275 meter long. A shipment of this size would have required at least 44 shiploads of 400 tons each. Herod also had 12,000 m3 of local kurkar stone quarried to make rubble and 12,000 m3 of slaked lime mixed with the pozzolana. Architects had to devise a way to lay the wooden forms for the placement of concrete underwater. One technique was to drive stakes into the ground to make a box and then fill it with pozzolana concrete bit by bit. However, this method required many divers to hammer the planks to the stakes underwater and large quantities of pozzolana were necessary. Another technique was a double planking method used in the northern breakwater. On land, carpenters would construct a box with beams and frames on the inside and a watertight, double-planked wall on the outside. This double wall was built with a 23 cm (9 in) gap between the inner and outer layer. Although the box had no bottom, it was buoyant enough to float out to sea because of the watertight space between the inner and outer walls. Once it was floated into position, pozzolana was poured into the gap between the walls and the box would sink into place on the seafloor and be staked down in the corners. The flooded inside area was then filled by divers bit by bit with pozzolana-lime mortar and kurkar rubble until it rose above sea level. On the southern breakwater, barge construction was used. The southern side of Sebastos was much more exposed than the northern side, requiring sturdier breakwaters. Instead of using the double planked method filled with rubble, the architects sank barges filled with layers of pozzolana concrete and lime sand mortar. The barges were similar to boxes without lids, and were constructed using mortise and tenon joints, the same technique used in ancient boats, to ensure they remained watertight. The barges were ballasted with 0.5 meters of pozzolana concrete and floated out to their position. With alternating layers, pozzolana-based and lime-based concretes were hand-placed inside the barge to sink it and fill it up to the surface. However, there were underlying problems that led to its demise. Studies of the concrete cores of the moles have shown that the concrete was much weaker than similar pozzolana hydraulic concrete used in ancient Italian ports. For unknown reasons, the pozzolana mortar did not adhere as well to the kurkar rubble as it did to other rubble types used in Italian harbors. Small but numerous holes in some of the cores also indicate that the lime was of poor quality and stripped out of the mixture by strong waves before it could set. Also, large lumps of lime were found in all five of the cores studied at Caesarea, which shows that the mixture was not mixed thoroughly. However, stability would not have been seriously affected if the harbor had not been constructed over a geological fault line that runs along the coast. Seismic action gradually took its toll on the breakwaters, causing them to tilt down and settle into the seabed. Studies of seabed deposits at Caesarea have shown that a tsunami struck the area sometime during the 1st or 2nd century. Although it is unknown if this tsunami simply damaged or completely destroyed the harbor, it is known that by the 6th century the harbor was unusable and today the jetties lie more than 5 meters underwater. During the Byzantine period, Caesarea became the capital of the new province of Palaestina Prima in 390. As the capital of the province, Caesarea was also the metropolitan see, with ecclesiastical jurisdiction over Jerusalem, when rebuilt after the destruction in the year 70. In 451, however, the Council of Chalcedon established Jerusalem as a patriarchate, with Caesarea as the first of its three subordinate metropolitan sees. Caesarea remained the provincial capital throughout the 5th and 6th centuries. It fell to Sassanid Persia in the ByzantineâSasanian War of 602â628, in 614, and was re-conquered by Byzantium in 625.
The Lafayette Building and former First Presbyterian Church in South Bend are new on Indiana Landmarks' 10 Most Endangered in 2015. Learn more at www.indianalandmarks.org.
Two South Bend landmarks on the 10 Most Endangered list sit next door to one another, across the street from the city’s historic courthouses. The city ordered both structures sealed until multiple code violations are cured.
Last fall, when slate began cascading from the roof of the long-vacant former First Presbyterian, the out-of-state owner replaced the slate with a tar paper roof. This year, finally, installation of a new imitation slate roof began on the vacant, damaged landmark.
Pittsburgh architect J. P. Bailey—creator of courthouses and schools from the Midwest to Maine—designed the 1888 sandstone and limestone church in the Richardsonian Romanesque Revival style. Local industrialists J. M Studebaker and J.D. Oliver, who each covered a third of the cost, favored the style’s expression of solidity and permanence.
The Lafayette Building dates from 1901 and 1903, when it went from three to five stories. The understated Neoclassical exterior gives no hint of the graceful interior, lit by a five-story skylighted atrium. In addition to its deteriorated condition, the property’s delinquent tax bill tops $1 million.
“Indiana Landmarks linked the two sites as a 10 Most Endangered entry because we think each affects the fate of the other, and because we believe the solution may be a redevelopment that unites them,” says Todd Zeiger, director of the organization’s northern office.
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.
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.
www.parino.it/console-table-kneeling-stool-lacquered-wood...
COD: 7199
Italian Console / kneeling-stool of the 20th century. Furniture made of two separable pieces in lacquered, golden and chiselled wood of great quality. Console table supported by four legs legs richly decorated of high solidity. Top floor with Latin inscription, shaped on the sides (see photo). Richly lacquered and golden base of great impact. Furniture for a room or salon of exceptional decoration. It shows some signs of wear and small drops of color, overall in good conservative state.
Measure: H 90 x W 99 x D 56 cm
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