Praxiteles
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This is the sanctuary in Castlecomer church, Co. Kilkenny. Evidently, it got a work over at some stage.
Johnglas!
Do you know of any proposals to “renovate” the interior of St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Glasgow?
Here is a beautiful set of pictures to illustrate the Rotunda Hospital Chapel
This picture of St. Patrick’s illustrates just how “easy” it is to see the interior of the church from street level.
@ake wrote:
hah! what bull crap!
In point of fact, the doors of St. Patrick’s Church must be at least 5 or 6 feet obove the level of the street. If the new porch doors afford a clear view into the church from the street, I cannot imaging the height of those on the street able to avail of this facility
To be fair to Bluitt and O’Donoghue, I think they deserve high praise for the restoration of the magnificent polycrome ceiling of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Castlecomer, CO. Kilkenny.
Read about it under CONSERVATION on the link below:
And finally, Praxiteles has managed to locate those responsible for the last interior make-over of Thurles Cathedral: Bluett and O’Donoghue, Chancery Street, Dublin 7.
I am amused at the tellingly unknowing reference to Giacomo della Porta’s Tabernacle and wonder if they have ever heard of him?
Read alòl about it at this link where it is filed under “CONSERVATION”:
http://www.boda.ie/And here is something else that praxiteles recently encountered: the works carried out to the porch fo St Patrick’s Church on the Lower Glanmire Road in Cork. The internal wooden screen have been removed and these highly inappropriate glass one installed instead. We are told that the afford a clear view of the church interior from the street – the last thing that you expect froma church which is supposed to be a fanum or sacred place which is screened from the profane. Indeed, it is a little incongruous to suggest that the classical temple on whihc St. patrick’s is based affforded a clear view of its interior to the by-passer – not at all. As we have seen, the doors of Roman Temples (and churches for a very long time) were hung with curtains.
Praxiteles is not much gone either on the celeste blue which has been replaced the more classical deep blue on the main doors of the church. The celeste blue lends a certain fée air to the place.
To Praxiteles’ great astonishment the style of this church is described as “Corinthian” on the webpage of the architectural practice.
The acrhitect responsible for this mess is Kelly, Barry,O’Brien, Whelan
Of all the horrenda exhibited on this site, the new chapel of the Bon Secours hospital in Galway must be the worst. And what is even more appalling, it received an award from the RIAI last year.
Designed by Murray O Laoire of Cork, this is what tehir website has to say about it: “The Bon Secours Hospital project, designed by Murray O’Laoire/Brian O’Connell Associates, includes the expansion and enhancement of the entrance facilities; a new-build day hospital and endoscopy facility including four new operating theatres and Central Sterile Services Department (CSSD) supported by a full radiological diagnostic suite. In addition the project included a new build Chapel which incorporates a liturgical painting by artist Hughie O’ Donoghue in a curved glass wall”.
@Antipodes wrote:
The Stephansdom Schutzmantelmadonna, one of the extraordinary collection of pillar saints, all of stone and poychromed, largely created between 1446 and 1465.
Yes these are very beautiful. Does anyone know if this type occcurs in the neo-gothic revival?
The Schuztmantelmadonna is another example of how medieval iconography connects directly with the classical world. In this case, it links directly to Roman law in which patronage or protection of a client was legally indicated by the patron’s enfolding the client in his cloak.
Overy has certainly put his finger on something here. WHen I read the article, I could not help thinking of Thomas Mann’s Zauberberg and its all pervesive sense of total un-reality. Such, it seems to Praxiteles, is the current situation of the rpactictioners of modern architecture – a clear example being Prof. Cathal O’Neill. Listening to his evidence at the Cobh Cathedral Oral Hearing, one was curiously, and coincidentially, struck by the Zauberberg and just how close to that sense of irreality the great professor O’Neill, at times, sounded.
http://www.hughpearman.com/2008/05.html
On the Zauberverg see here:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Zauberberg
or here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_Mountain
While here applied to the book, we could also apply it the destruction which has revaged much of the corpus of Irish ecclesiastical architecture over the past 50 years: “The outbreak of the First World War interrupted work on the book. The conflict and its aftermath led the author to undertake a major re-examination of European bourgeois society, including the sources of the wilful, perverse destructiveness displayed by much of civilised humanity.”
@johnglas wrote:
Prax: the only reference I can find is an exotic one – in Times, Chimes and Charms of Dublin by J Curtis (Verge Books Ltd, 1992, p.113) – where it is stated as having been built in 1912; there is naturally great detail about the bells, but no architect mentioned!
Thanks for that. It is a start. I cannot ubnderstand how such a fine church should be so completely overlooked.
The form was lso used as a protection against the plague. From the 18th.c on, it seems almost to have disappeared completely and at this point of time is as a good as unknown in Catholic iconography.
And Hans Holbein’s depiction of the Schutzmantelmadonna protecting the family of Jakob Mayer, the last Catholic mayor of Basel:
