Praxiteles

@Rhabanus wrote:

Shame on the Al-wahabi for his sacrilegious treatment of the communion gates. The garbage pail over the cross on the gate is abominable!

Fie upon the CCC as well for allowing this atrocity to continue.

Stop the sharade.

This reflects quite tellingly the level of faith and competence of the clergy in the region. Does the toffynosed Al-Wahabi still occupy the cabana?

TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY DYSFUNCTIONAL !

Indeed!!!

Kqnturk is indeed a very interesting case and it will be more than interesting to see how it pans out.

Church of the Immaculate Conception, Kanturk, Co. Cork

If Cork County Council is of the view that the gates have been removed from the altar rail simply for restoration and cleaning and will be returned at some undetermined time during the present millennium, then perhaps they might wish to ponder on the significance of the gauging out of the brass stays for the gates from the praedella of the sanctuary.

That little detail strikes Praxiteles as redolent of a quasi habitual intention of ensuring thay they will never return.

And finally, an excellent sarcophagus tomb which looks like dating from the 1830’s which is to be found on the south side against the massive screen boundary walls built by O’Riordan in 1826 – a feature also to be found at Doneraile.

P.S. Could anyone persuade the people in Skibbereen to take away those awful lamps depending from the drip courses right around the church?

Pro Cathedral Church of St. Patrick, Skibbereen, Co. Cork

Some further shots oft he west elevation with a detail of the of the symmetrical holy water stoups at either side of the main door and inset in niches whose architectural origins are to be found in the portico of the Pantheon in Rome..

The detail also provides an example of the proportionate scaling. The outer section consists of some 19 courses on a base; followed by 16 courses on a smaller base; followed by 12 courses on a recessed base; followed by the niche consisting of 5 courses. Transversely, we have 4 sctions on the outer lintel; 2 on the inner lintel; and 1 forming the arch of the niche.

Id anyone has the time, I am sure they will also discover that the size of the blocks is also proportionate to their positioning in the outer or inner recess or to the niche.

While the sides oft he recesses are not perpendicular, those of the niche are.

The font itself is differentiated by a change of colouring n the stone and is elaborated -not accidentially – in 3 superimposed hemispherical arcs of varying size; all articulate again in 3 parts.

The west facade is now missing two urns that originally stood on the plinths.

It would alos be interesting were someone to have the the time to track the origin of these proportions and massings to their origins in Vitruvius, Serlio, and Palladio.

Sub-prime expertise!!

Add at least another qualification: Sub-subprime …just think of the ecclesiastical “expertise” deployed on the project to devastate Cobh Cathedral.

St. mary’s, Castlemagner 1869

Cast iron trellis work windows

The stations of the Cross are also by Mayer of Munich but have been repained with peculiar tinctures.

St. Mary’s, Castlemagner, Co. Cork built in 1869.

Here is another example of these “T” shaped gothic revival churches of the mid 19th century.

Here unfortunately a complete devastation has been practised on the building. Following the awful butchery of Casey on Killarney Cathedral, the walls have been stripped of their plaster and decoration. The sanctuary has been completely gutted and re kitted in the most eccentric of manners.

However, even still the church is interesting. Firstly, the roof, with its king pin at the crossing, is exceptionally high and lemnd the church a tremendous sense of space. The chancel window is by Mayers of Munich and in its Immaculata and St, Jeseph clearly demonstarte influences deriving from Murillo. The original trellis work iron framed windows survive by some miracle of grace.

As with Liscarroll, the sacristy of this “T” shaped church is massed to side of the sanctuary. However, the dooor as it appears to-day opens into the transept – a falsification deriving from the demolition of the altar rail which once enclosed much of the span across the nave and the transepts. When the rail was in place, the sacristy door opened into the sancturay.

The church of Our Lady, Star of the Sea and of St. Patrick at Goleen, in West Cork.

An inscription over the main door tells us that the church was consecrated in October 1854.

It is of interest because of its ground plan which is “T” shaped and its roofing which comes together over the crossing in a king’s pin arrangement.

While traditionally churchese run in bays of odd numbers, this church is 4 bays.

It is also nteresting in that much (though not all) of its original features survive, including the High Altar – in front of which another altar has been erected on the outer edge of the altar praedella.

This church can be compared with the interior of the smaller (thoug not less interesting) church of St. Joseph, at Liscarroll, Co. Cork (of 1869), currently the subject of an appeal to ABP which shares many of its features..

One striking difference between the two churches is the double doors to the retro sacristy in Goleen – a feature taken over from the classical period. Liscarroll built 15 yeras later has a sacristy massed on the south side of the sanctuary with only one door – indicating the advance of gothic revival prinicples in the intervening years of the building of both churches.

All Saints, Barton Irwell, Manchester

The altar of the de Trafford mortuary chapel.

This family were notable recusants in the Manchester area. Despite the reformation and the penalties imposed on those who did not conform to the new religion, the de Trafforts remained Catholic and very much the centre of all Catholic activities in the Manchster area reight into the the early 20th century.

If Praxiteles is not very much mistaken, the dead Christ under the altar reflects Mantegna’s composition of the same subject.