Brother Michael Augustine O'Riordan

[Praxiteles]

The High Altar of the Abbey Church at Grimbergen in the Spanish Netherlands, built in 1660.

[Praxiteles]

The Chapel Royal of St. Joseph at Waterloo in Belgium built by Charles III of Spain in 1690 during the governership of Francois Antoine Agurto, Marquis of Castagna

[Praxiteles]

The St. Hubertus Altar, in St,. Adrian's, Adegem, in the Spanish Netherlands.

[Praxiteles]

The Church of St. John the Baptist in Mechelen

[Praxiteles]

The sanctuary of the Abbey Church of Averbode in the Spanish Netherlands showing two lateral latars at the Rood Screen

[Praxiteles]

Lateral Altars at the rood screen of St. James's in Antwerp

[Praxiteles]

St. Nicholas' in Raeren in the SPnish Netherlands

[Praxiteles]

Courtesy of EOD, we are able to post these shots of the St. Colman's Church, Cloyne, Co. Cork

[Praxiteles]

Courtesy of EOD, some further shots of St. Colman's Church, Cloyne, Co. Cork

The principal facade of this church has been severely and idiocyncratically altered but, as the lateral elevation shows, it was originally built in a classical idiom.

It interior has the great advantage of conserving what apper to be the two original side altars. The main altar does not appear to have durvived and I am not certain the added piece pneumatological iconography is original - it may have come from the ceiling of a pulpit sound-board,

[samuel j]

Would I be correct in saying that the external work and iffy slate cladding was done under the watchful
guidance of the bold Bishop.....

[Praxiteles]

Would I be correct in saying that the external work and iffy slate cladding was done under the watchful
guidance of the bold Bishop.....

Yes, but the more immediately responsible would be a brace of PPs of very dubious aesthetics!

[Praxiteles]

The Crucifixion in St. Colman's Church, Cloyne, Co. Cork clearly derives from 17th. century painting tradiion of the school of Seville in Spain and directly from the canons laid down by Francisco Pacheo in his Arte de la Pintura and enforced by the Inquisition of Seville. According to Pacheo, the best sources suggest that Our Lord was crucified with four nails rather than three. Hence, throughout the 17th. century painters such as Valazquez, Murillo and Zurbaran all distinctively depicted Christ's feet nailed separately to the Cross - as in the picture in Cloyne church.

[Rhabanus]

Yes, but the more immediately responsible would be a brace of PPs of very dubious aesthetics!

VERY dubious ....

[Praxiteles]

It is interesting to compare and contrast the altar arrangement in Kinsale with in Cloyne. Clearly, the Cloyne Altar arrangement is wider than that in Kinsale and incorporates the sacristy doors into the serliana while leaving both side altars outside of the serliana and flanking it. In both cases, however, the bediments of the side altars are practically identical. In the case of Kinsale pictures were hung above the side altars (which have disappeared) while in Cloyne arched recesses have been supplied for statues above both side altars. Again, both side altars have been fitted with tabernacles in a classical idiom closely resembling that in the church of St. Barrahane in Castlehaven, Co. Cork, which was originally located in the Pro-Cathedral of St. Patrick in Skibbereen, built in 1826. Most fortunately, the side altars in Cloyne surnd the appear to be original, in wcse they are the only remaining pair still in situ. In Kinsale, the sacristy door is not the sanctuary but in the left transcept.

The Kinsale Cruscifixion picture is clearly of Italianate inspiration, probably of the Roman/Bolognese school of Guido Reni, as is the altar piece in the chapel of the Ursuline Convent in Blackrock, Co. Cork..

[Praxiteles]

These are the central Altar Pictures in:

1. The Ursuline Convent Chapel in Blackrock, Co. Cork, which is clearly based on Guido Reni's picture in San Lorenzo in Lucina in Rome;

2. St. Colman's Church, Cloyne, Co. Cork, which is clearly based on the school of Seville and the canons of Francisco Pacheo;

3. St. Finnbarr's and All Angels in Inchigeela, Co. Cork, which is another version of Guido Reni's San Lorenzo in Lucina's altar piece;

4. St. Patrick's, Castletown Kinneagh, near Enniskeane, Co. Cork, which is clearly based on a crucifixion by Peter Paul Rubens.

[Praxiteles]

5. St. Barrahane's, Castlehaven, Co. Cork whose crucifixion is by the early 19th. century Cork painter, Forde, which, together with its accompanying pictures, formed the original altar arrangement of the Pro-Cathedral of St. Patrick in Skibbereen (1826).

[Praxiteles]

6. The central Altar in Bantry still has a crucifixion that seems to eb another version fo Guido Reni's San Lorenzo in Lucina.

Below are examples of Guido Reni (Galleria Estense in Modena); Francisco Zurbaran (Chicago) and Peter Paul Rubens in the Alte Pinakoteka in Munich.




For more cf. http://www.crosscrucifix.com/solitaryF.htm

[Praxiteles]

Two views of St. Lorenzo in Lucina, Rome, showing the High Altar with Guido Reni's Crucifixion of c.1650 which is distinguished from his version in the Galleria Estense in Modena by the blue colour of perisoma (the Estense perisoma is white) which is clearly visible in the copy in the Ursuline Convent in Blackrock, Co. Cork and in Inchigeela.

[Praxiteles]

Thanks to ET, Praxiteles is able to post te following pictures of Guido Reni's picture of the crucifixion in San Lorenzo in Lucina. The picture was painted between 1639-1642 for the Marchesa Cristina Duglioli Angelelli who bequethed it to San Lorenzo. (The Marchesa is buried in front of the High Altar). As Reni died on 18 August 1642, this picture must be counted among his very last works. A copy attributed to him is in the Szepmuveszeti Museum in Budapest

Theologically, the picture is significant in that the wide outstretched arms denote the universal salvific effect of Christ's death on the Cross as opposed to the more vertical arms common in paintings in Flanders, e.g. by Rubens and Van Dyck, which were influenced by contemporary Jansenism with its near Calvinist emphasis on the salvation of the elect :

[Praxiteles]

Here are images of the Flemish, jansenist inspired crucifixions, painted by Rubens (the first two) prior to 1620 and the third by Van Dyck in St. James in Antwerp.

[Praxiteles]

St. Patrick's Pro-Cathedral Church, Skibbereen, Co. Cork

The interior view shows the sanctuary as rebuilt by G. C. Ashlin. It has been altered recently.

[Praxiteles]

A drawing outlining a reconstruction of Andrea Palladio's High Altar for the Ospedale di Santa Maria dei Derelitti ai Santi Giovanni e Paolo (The Ospedaletto) in Venice, built 1574-1580. In 1575 Palladio was commissioned by Giovanni Battista di Pietro Contarini (1538-1599) to prepare plans for the construction of the High Altar in the new chapel of this orphanage. The altar was dismanteled, however, in subsequent reconstructions of the chapel most notably by Baldasare Longhena in the third quarter of the seventeenth century.

The original central altar piece depicted the Coronation of Our Lady and was painted Damiano Mazza, a pupil of Titian's. The picture still remains in situ but has been cut down to fit the subsequent dismanteling of the altar. It was also flanked by two other pictures: St. John receiving Our Lady into his own house on the epistle side and a Holy Family which are still in the chapel. The HIgh Altar is flanked by two doors leading to a sacristy behind the altar.

This liturgical arrangement was regarded as innovative in 1575 and was closely linked to the reforms of the Council of Trent when had concluded in 1562 and with the Somaschi, founded by St. Jerome Emiliano, for the care and education of the poor through hospitals and orphenages.

Praxiteles thinks that we can posit the High Altar designed by Andrea Palladio as the fundamental prototype for the altars to be found in Brother O'Riordan's early 19th. century churches.

[Praxiteles]

The Quattro Libri of Andrea Palladio:



http://www.sentieridelbarocco.it/BAROCCO/palladio/homePALLADIO.htm

[THE_Chris]

Think this is the building in question Prax

The derelict one here we think is the building Brother Michael Augustine O'Riordan built for Bishop Coppinger. Was derelict for a while, and was demolished recently to make way for a community centre.

[Praxiteles]

Thanks Chris!

This photograph solves a problem of finding an image of the school built for Bishop Coppinger in Cobh by Br. O'Riordan. Clearly, its demolition must be rated as another notch for the the knowledgeable persons running Cobh Urban District Council. I do not suppose that anyone made a study of the building before it was razed! Having done so would have enabled us to identified other works of O'Riordan.