Praxiteles
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Holy Cross, Croston Manor, Lancashire
Built for the Catholic de Trafford family by E. W. Pugin (1857)
The Holy Name of Jesus, Oxford Road, Manchester
The High Altar
The focal point of the church, was completed by the installation of the altar in 1886 to a design by J.A. Hanson’s son. The reredos of Caen stone contains statues in alabaster of ten Jesuits saints. From left to right they are, St. Ignatius (above), St. Aloysius, St. Francis Jerome, St. John Berchmans, St. Francis Borgia, St. John Nepomucene, St. John Francis Regis, St. Peter Claver, St. Francis Xavier (above), St Stanislaus Kostka. The altar itself is of alabaster inlaid with green Russian malachite. The frontal is based on da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’. The five main windows depict the Coronation of Our Lady and are by Hardman of Birmingham (1899).
Th Chapel of St Joseph
Exterior view
The tower as originally designed by Hansom would have been half as high again as the present tower, but was not built due to poor ground conditions under the foundations. The present tower was added as a memorial to Father Bernard Vaughan S.J., Rector of the Holy Name (1888-1901). It is 185ft. high and was completed in 1928 to the designs of Giles and Adrian Gilbert Scott. The tower contains a chime of 15 bells by Gillet and Johnson. A new mechanism was installed in 1995 and plays automatically the Angelus and some twenty hymn tunes as well as bell ringing before Mass etc. There is also a keyboard for manual operation.
The link address is: http://www.holyname.co.uk/
The Church of the the Holy Name of Jesus, Oxford Road, Manchester
Built by Joseph Aloysius Hanson for the Jesuits 1869-1871.
The building, while French neo-gothic of the 14th century, is, at the same time adapted to the post Tridentine liturgical concerns of the Jesuits – clear unobstructed view of the altar (hence slender pillars) and wide enough for easy preaching from the pulpit, emphasis on the Eucharist, and on devotion to the saints associated with the order adn to the Sacred Heart which they strongly promoted as an antidote to Jansenism.
The church is 186 feet East/ West; 112 feet North/South; and 100 feet in interior height.
Cobh Cathedral is 210 East/West; 120feet North/South; and 80 feet in interior height.Interestingly, the High Altar is in position and in use; as is the pulpit. This clearly indicates the liturgical fraud being pushed in the Cobh development.
An interesting view of the interior of Cobh cathedral showing the ceiling (based on that of Saintes Cathedral) to good advantage:
Following a financial disaster, E.W. Pugin went to America in 1873 to establish an office in New York. He stayed less than a year but while there produced drawings for at least one important commission; the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour at Roxbury, Boston. It is believed that many of E.W. Pugin’s projects in North America were executed by his brother Peter Paul Pugin – about whose work much research still awats and undertaker.
The Basilica at Roxbury before completion (1910) of the spires:
The basilica was consecrated on 7 April 1878.
The interior:
Cobh Cathedral, Lady Chapel
Titles of Our Lady3. PULCHRA UT LUNA (Beautiful as the Moon) ctd.
This is how Francisco Pacheo approaches the iconographic representation of the Pulchra ut Luna of the Canticle of Canticles.
@Praxiteles wrote:
The dominant influence on iconography in the 17th entury Seville school was Francisco Pacheo (1564.-1654), the father in law of Velasquez. In 1649, he published a definitive treatise on painting, El Arte de la Pintura. His comments on the painting on the Immaculate Conception are the direct source of the sculpted group in the arcade of the attic of the South Transept of Cobh Cathedral. The following are his comments on the painting of the subject: “Some say that (the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady) should be painted with the image of the Christ Child in her arms because she appears thus on some old images that have been found. The opinion is probably based ( as the learned Jesuit Father Alonso de Flores has pointed out) on the fact that Our Lady enjoyed freedom from Original Sin from the very first moment, since she was the Mother of God, even though she had not yet concieved Jesus Christ. Hence from this moment (as the saints know) she was the Mother of God, nor did she ever cease to be. But without taking issue with those who paint the Child in her arms, we side with the majority who paint her without the Child.
This painting, as scholars know, is derived from the mysterious woman whom St.John saw in the sky wiith all her attributes [Revelations XII,1-4]. Therefore, the version I follow is the one that is closest to the holy revelation of the Evangelist and approved by the Catholic Church on the authority of the sacred and holy interpreters. In Revelation she is not only found without the Child in her arms, but even before she ever bore him….We paint her with the Child only in those scenes that occur afer she conceived…
In this loveliest of mysteries Our Lady should be painted as a beautiful young girl, twelve or thirteen years old, in the flower of her youth. She should have pretty but serious eyes with perfect features and rosy cheeks, and the most beautiful long golden locks. In short, she should be as beautiful as a painter’s brush can make her. There are two kinds of human beauty, beauty of the body and beauty of the soul, and the Virgin had both of them in the extreme because her body was a miracolous creation. She resembled her Son, the model of all perfection, more than any other human being. ,,and thus she is praised by her Spouse: tota pulchra es amica mea, a text that is always written in this painting.
She should be painted wearing a white tunic and a blue mantle…She is surrounded by the sun, an oval sun of white and ochre, which sweetly blends into the sky. Rays of light emanate from her head, around which is a ring of twelve stars. An imperial crown adrons her head without, however, hiding the stars. Undr her feet is the moon. Although it is a solid globe, I take the liberty of making it transparent so that the landscape shows through. The upper part is darkened to form a crescent moon with the points turned downward. Unless I am mistaken, I believe I was the first to impart greater majesty to these attributes, and others have followed me.
Especially with the moon I have followed the learned opinion of Father Luis del Alcazar, famous son of Seville, who says: ‘Painters usually show the crescent moon upside down at the feet of this woman. But as is obvious to learned mathematicians, if the moon and sun face each other, both points of the moon have to point downward. Thus the woman will stand on a convex instead of a concave surface…’. This is necessary so that the moon, receiving its light from the sun, will illuminate the woman standing on it….
In the upper part of the painting one usually puts God the Father or the Holy Spirit or both, together with the already mentioned words of her Spouse. The earthly attributes are placed suitably in the landscape]http://www.wga.hu/detail/m/murillo/3/311muril.jpg[/IMG]
Cobh Cathedral, Lady Chapel
Titles of Our Lady
3. PULCHRA UT LUNA (Beautiful as the Moon)
The so called Luna, half moon, or sickle of the moon, also waning and waxing moon, is a sign of fertility, related to life and death, and thus a popular symbol in many religions. It pinpoints changing seasons, ebb and tide.
The half moon was the attribute of Luna and more specifically of Selene. It was later transferred to Diana (Artemis), known not only as virgin but also as protectress of the newborn and symbol of fertility in her own right.
Biblical references use the moon symbol to highlight cosmic events, divine epiphanies and the ephemeral nature of human life and history (see, for example, Isaiah 30,26; 60,19; Revelations 21,23). Patristic times saw in the symbol of the moon, or the “mysterium lunae”, i.e. the three phases of the moon: dying (waning), generating (waxing) and giving birth (full moon) a valid representation of the Church (ecclesia). Ecclesia is virginal and”dying” in the encounter with Christ, the bridegroom; she is maternal and lifegiving in her spousal relation with the Redeemer, and resplendent in her grace-filled existence.
John the Baptist is sometimes connected with the waning moon (Baptistry of Östr Hoby, Sweden, 12c) to explicate his role as the last prophet of the waning Old Testament which is regarded, simultaneously, as a promise of the New Testament. The moon contrasts here the sun as symbol of fulfillment, in other words, the New Testament, more specifically Jesus Christ himself, the sol invictus. The same contrast is used to signify ecclesia and synagoga. The latter is identified with the symbol of the waning moon.
Mary as the God-bearer is identified with ecclesia. She is standing on the waning moon which points out that the Old Testament and synagoga are the foundations of the Church. No doubt that we have here also the idea of the fulfillment of the synagoga in the Church. The motif of the luna is very old (~820, MS 99 Paris, Valenciennes) and is not used in the beginning as an attribute of Mary but of the Church. It is only in the 14/15c that a lateral transfer takes place, meaning Mary occupies now in iconography the place of the Church and inherits some of its attributes. The Katharinenthal Gradual of 1312 shows an image of transition, where the same feminine figure contains or bears the attributes of the Church, Mary and the Apocalyptic Woman. The figure stands on a personalized half moon. It is true that the visual elements, half moon, stars, sun, are borrowed from Revelations 12,1. Early representations of Ecclesia (10-12c) show her as the apocalyptic woman with the dragon. The motif of the apocalyptic woman is applied in a variety of ways to Mary.
There exists, beginning around 1348, a type of Marian sculpture called Madonna standing on the crescent moon (Mondsichel-Madonna) where the reference to the apocalyptic woman is largely dissociated from the use of the moon symbol (for example, wooden sculpture, Trier, 1480). It sometimes opposes — in representations of the Platytera — the sun born from Mary and the human race in need of salvation (moon) (Katharinenthal, 1312). The crescent moon is used in representations of Mary’s miraculous conception and birth (Joachim and Anna at the Golden Door, da Camerino, Tadino, ~1470). The crescent appears under Mary’s feet in paintings of the Assumption (Meister of the Luzien-Legende, 1485) and signifies her glory and victory over time and space. The most important application of the moon symbol occurred in representations of the Immaculate Conception. The obvious significance of victory over sin is enriched with the ideas of beauty and purity (pulchra ut luna, Litanies of Loreto) (see for example, Francesco Vanni, Altar of the Immaculate Conception, Montalcino, 1588). During baroque times we can observe frequent combinations of the Immaculata motif with that of Our Lady of Victory. In some of these paintings or sculptures Mary stands on a globe combined with the crescent moon.
The Lady Chapel, St. Colman’s Cathedral Cobh
Continuing on the literary sources and history of the titles of Our Lady, I am posting sections of a tutorial published by the Royal Danish Library explicitating the sources for these titles and quite correctly mentioning that without a awareness of the marian isogesis of the Canticle of Canticles they are completely impenetrable. It also has to be said that for research on this subject the text of the Latin Vulgate (prior to the Tridentine Sixto-Clementine revision of the text) has to be used. Unfortunately, the English is not pefect but a little patience will bring gold.
The tutorial is arranged as a commentary on a 15century French wood cut:
As sources for the text in Books of Hours were especially 3 books in the Old Testament important. The psalms are occupying the majority of pages, Ecclesiasticus furnished most of the capitula in the Hours of the Virgin (with the important predictions taken from Isaia), and the Canticum Canticorum was the foundation of the general Marian vocabulary, and source for a large number of antiphons and chapters.
Canticum Canticorum is a beautiful oriental erotic poem, for some mysterious reason included in the Old Testament. In medieval exegesis and theology did it serve as a song of praise for the Virgin Mary, and the vocabulary has penetrated all veneration of the Virgin, including the Horae beate Marie Virginis from the very beginning in the 12th cent. (The antiphons were already present in the earliest regular liturgical offices for the special feasts of the Virgin during the year).
In the complete text below are some of the most used quotations highlighted in blue incipits. These are capitula or antiphons used all over Western Europe (some are still found in the Officium parvum in the Roman Breviary). In some local uses are other textparts also included, and quotations of single phrases are found everywhere. The publication of a xylographic flemish edition of Canticum Canticorum as a beautifully illustrated block-book in the 15th cent. is well known. The reasons for the publication must be seen in the light of the dramatic increase in Marian devotion towards 1500, which eventually became so appalling to humanist intellectuals (like Melancthon), that it contributed to the protestant movements. In 13th century Hours from Liège did the Song of Songs also provide three lessons at Matins (2nd Nocturn) with responsories and versicles.The Latin Vulgata text was taken litterally, as it is illustrated in a french woodcut from around 1500 cut after a model by a good miniaturist working in Paris, and used in several parisian editions of Horae (prints among others by Th. Kerver and G. Hardouin), where scrolls of text are shown with a corresponding visualisation of the symbols and so-called “Names of Mary”. Without knowledge of the imposed Marian symbolism in Canticum Canticorum is the picture unintellegible: Lines like “Veniat dilectus meus in hortum suum”, or: “Descendi in hortum nucum, ut viderem poma convallium” and “Dilectus meus descendit in hortum suum — et lilia colligat.” are the background settings for the picture.
At the top is God as ruler of the World, saying:
Tota pulchra es amica mea et macula non est in te. [Cant. 4,7 – common antiphon]
To the left of the Virgin:
Pulchra ut luna. [Picture of the Moon, Cant. 6,9]
electa ut sol, [Picture of the Sun, Cant. 6,9]
Porta celi. [A city gate]
Plantacio rose. [A rose bush]
Cedrus exsaltata. [Scroll around a tree]
Puteus aquarum viventium [Water font in stone, Cant. 4,15]
Virga iesse floruit. [Branch in blossom, common typology to the birth of the Virgin, from Isaias 11,1]
Ortus conclusus. [Enclosed garden, Cant. 4,12 – common antiphon, cf. Speculum humane salvationis chapter 3: Ortus conclusus et fons signatus significat Mariam.]
To the right of the Virgin:
Stella maris. [A star, cf. the hymn: Ave maris stella, found in all Horae]
Sicut lilium inter spinas. [A lily, Cant. 2,2 – Parisian and Carthusian antiphon]
Turris david cum propugnaculis. [Tower in a city, Cant. 4,4 – Typology to the Marriage of Mary and Joseph in Speculum Hum. Salv. chapter 6]
Oliva speciosa. [Scroll around a tree]
Speculum sine macula. [A round mirror]
Fons ortorum. [A fountain, Cant. 4,15 – common antiphon]
Civitas dei. [The city of God, i.e. the Heavenly Jerusalem]See also the influence of the Book of Ecclesiasticus, chapter 24
The Lady chapel at Cobh Cathedral
Concerning the titles of Our Lady displayed on the mosaic floor of the chapel, the following literary sources may be of use in understanding their conceptual complexity and iconographic antiquity.
1. ROSA MYSTICA (Mystical Rose)
Mystical Rose: Since antiquity the rose was considered a symbol of mystery, for early Christians the rose is a visual expression for paradise (Catacombs of Callixtus, 3rd century) but also for martyrdom (Cyprian, Ep. 10). The Marian interpretation of this symbol dates to the 5th century (Sedulius Caelius). He is probably the first to call Mary a “rose among thorns” (Carmen paschale II, 28-31). Theophanes Graptos (Monk and metropolite of Nikaia, +845) uses the same symbolism to express Mary’s purity and the fragrance of her grace (Oktoechos, Friday of the sixth week). Frequent Marian references to rose and rosebush were made in medieval times with special reference to Isaiah 11,1 (“…a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse / and from his roots a bud shall blossom.”). This typology is very old. We find it in Tertullian (Adv. Judaeos, 9) and Ambrosius (Exp. Gr. Luc. II, 24). For these authors the root is a reference to the davidic genealogy, the sprout (virga, bush) is Mary, and Christ is the flower (rose). Medieval authors had a second source for their use of mystical rose: the verse from Sir. 24, 14 (“like a palm tree in Engedi, like a rosebush in Jericho”) which makes reference to God graced fertility and growth, again a reference to the mysterious generation of Christ from the womb of Mary. It is based on these two traditions that the expression rosa mystica was coined by the author of the Litanies of Loreto, and subsequently used in hymns (“Es ist ein Ros…”) and art (center of the labyrinth of Chartres).
2. STELLA MATUTINA (Morning Star)
Stella matutina or morning star is first used in the Padua version of the Litanies of Loreto (14th century; Capitolare B63). In a Parisian manuscript of the 12th century we find the expressions “Stella marina” and “lux matutina” (“star of the sea” and “light of the morning”) (Paris, Nat. lat. 5267). It is believed that the author of the Padua Litanies combined these two titles into one to become “stella matutina.”
The morning star is a sign of the coming day, the announcement of the rising sun; it is a promise of light. It announces the coming “sun of justice” (Mal 4,3), the “daybreak from on high visiting us” (Lk 1,78). Mary is morning star not for and through herself but she is only the reflection of the creator and redeemer. She exalts his glory. When she emerges from darkness we know that the day is near (Newman).
The meaning of Morning Star is related to that of Star of the Sea (see the question: Star of the Sea). According to S. Bernard Mary may be compared to a star. A star radiates light without losing its brightness; Mary thus did not lose her virginity giving birth to Christ. She is the star which goes out from Jacob and whose light illumines the world. This star kindles the fire of the spirit, hastens the growth of virtues and burns out vices. Mary, the star, has a role as spiritual model and ideal (De laudibus Virg. Matris 2.17; PL 183, 70f).
2b. STELLA MARIS (Star of the Sea)Star symbolisms on behalf of Mary refer to two types of stars:
a) six-pointed stars indicate Mary’s Davidic origins and Jewish character;
b) stars with eight radiating points highlight Mary’s role in salvation as helper in the “restitutio perfectionis” (8=perfection) or “reparatrix parentum et totius orbis.”
More generally (independently from the number of radiating points), the star symbolism may be used to articulate one or all of the following characteristics of Mary:a) Her privileges, in particular, her mission as Mother of the Redeemer, or her holiness (full of grace);
b) Her anticipatory or demonstrative role (forerunner, announcer …) with regard to Christ [“she is the dawn, Christ the Rising Sun”] and the Trinity;
c) Her role as luminous and enlightening.
The biblical and/or theological foundation of this title (Mary, Star of the Sea) may be based on 1 Kings 18:41-45. This text refers to a little cloud appearing above the sea as a sign of hope, implying that rain will come and free the land from drought. The little cloud (small as a man’s hand) seen from Mt. Carmel is believed to be the “Star of the Sea” and Mary, thus, the sign of hope which announces freedom and renewal. The Carmelites built a church on Mt. Carmel and gave it the title “Stella Maris.”The origin of the expression “Stella maris” is commonly attributed to St. Jerome (d. 420). However, Jerome called Mary “stilla maris,” meaning a drop of the sea. Perhaps a copyist transcribed this as “Stella maris.” Other authors recording the same Marian symbol include: Isidore of Seville (d. 636); Alcuin (d. 804); and Rhabanus Maurus (d. 856).
An explicit reference occurs in Paschasius Radbertus (d. 865):
Mary, Star of the Sea, must be followed in faith and morals lest we capsize amidst the storm-tossed waves of the sea. She will illumine us to believe in Christ, born of her for the salvation of the world.
Hincmar of Reims (d. 882) spoke of Mary as “a star of the sea assumed into the heavens.”There are also some ancient Marian hymns related to the title: “Ave Maria Stella” (8th-9th century); and “Alma Redemptoris Mater” (by Hermann of Reichenau, 11th century).
Very important for this title is the following twelfth-century prayer from St. Bernard of Clairvaux:
If the winds of temptation arise;
If you are driven upon the rocks of tribulation look to the star, call on Mary;
If you are tossed upon the waves of pride, of ambition, of envy, of rivalry, look to the star, call on Mary.Barton-upon-Irwell, Manchester
Attached is a detail from the wall paintings of the Chancel depicting the adoration of the Lamb. On the left, E.W. Pugin is depicted holding a plan of the church.
Fortunately, this interior has survived almost perfectly intact. We should be grateful to English Heritage for that. They could teach our mick mouse heritage protection outfit in Ireland a lesson or two – especially as far as the heritage officer on Co. Cork is concerned.
Attached is an elusive photograph of the interior of E. W. Pugin’s fine parish church at Barton-upon-Irwell, Manchester The alternating courses of the Porta Coeli arch and of the lateral arches reminds one instantly of the Cathedrls of Siena and Orvieto.
I wonder whether the Vulagte conculcabis might not also be applied to Cathal O’Neill and his accomplices …? If not, they at least deserve a calceamentum!
To complete what I had to say about the Physiologus, I now include a short article from the Catholic Encyclopaedia about Bestiaria and their importance for any understanding of depictions of animals and their symbolic and religious meaning in Western art since the middle ages.
Bestiaries
Medieval books on animals, in which the real or fabulous characteristics of actually existent or imaginary animals (such as the griffin, dragon, siren, unicorn, etc.) were figuratively treated as religious symbols of Christ, the devil, the virtues and vices. The origins of a symbolism of this character, taken from nature, are to be sought in antiquity and above all in the ancient East. Eastern literature, as well as the Greco-Roman literature dependent on it, ascribed to certain animals, whether fabulous or real (the lion, the tiger, the snake, the eagles) a certain connection with the life and actions of man and the gods, and made a corresponding religious use of them. This is exemplified in the Oriental and especially Egyptian worship of animals. Many reminiscences of this animal symbolism are encountered in the Old Testament. From the earliest period Christian fancy interpreted these animals according to the symbolism of the Old Testament, and so depicted them in Christian art. Thus, for example, in the Catacombs some are symbolic of what is good, e.g. the lamb or sheep representing the soul or the believer, the dove the soul, the phoenix Christ or immortality, and the peacock immortality; others symbolic of what is bad, e.g. the serpent representing the devil; still others, especially in later times, are to be interpreted in various senses; thus the lion may symbolize either Christ or the devil. An early compilation of such allegorical interpretations of the nature of plants and animals, made up partly from antique materials, is still extant in the “Physiologus”, the much copied and much used “natural history” of the Middle Ages, and the basis of all later bestiaries. Similar compilations are the “Liber formularum” of Eucherius, some parts of the “Libri originum” of Isidore, parts of the writings of Bede and Rabanus, and the treatise long ascribed to the second-century Melito of Sardes, and known as “Clavis” or “The Key”, which appeared in its present form towards the eleventh century. Later bestiaries obtained much valuable material from the “Libri moralium” of Gregory the Great. The medieval bestiaries are more or less exact translations or imitations of the “Physiologus”; e.g. the bestiary of Philippe de Thaun, about 1121, edited by Thomas Wright (London, 1841), and two bestiaries of the thirteenth century, one by Pierre of Picardy, the other by Guillaume of Normandy published by Hippeau (Caen, 1852). The bestiary appears in its complete development in Richard de Fournival’s “Bestiaire d’Amour”, written in the fourteenth century and published by Hippeau (Paris, 1860), in the treatise “De animalibus” attributed to Bl. Albertus Magnus, in the “Tractatus de bestiis et aliis rebus” supposed to have been written by Hugo of St. Victor, above all in the “Speculum naturale” of Vincent of Beauvais.
The influence of the symbolism of the bestiaries is plainly seen in the various forms of medieval intellectual life. It was evident in the sermon and also in the liturgy as shown by the symbolic use of the bee in the blessing of Easter candles and the blessing of wine on the feast of St. John as a preventive of poisoning from snake-bites. The metrical animal fables, particularly, exhibit the widespread taste for this form of allegory. The influence of the symbolism of the bestiaries is still more manifest in medieval sculpture, both Romanesque and Gothic. Though the use of animal subjects in the oldest Irish and Merovingian art has apparently no deeper aim than the enjoyment of grotesque forms, yet animal symbolism appears from the earliest date as an element of Romanesque art, especially in miniature and sculpture, in both of which it often exhibits a close dependence on the bestiaries. (See ANIMALS IN CHRISTIAN ART; SYMBOLISM.)
For a concrete example of a Bestarius, please follow this link which will bring you the very beautiful example that we have in the Aberdeen Bestiary:
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/translat/1r.hti
This link should bring you to an interesting article on animal symbolism in ecclesiastical architecture:
This link will take you to a manuscript of Isodore of Saville’s Etymologiae conserved in Royal Danish Library (GKS 422 2
The Lady Chapel in Cobh Cathedral is located to the north of the Chancel and measures 15x30feet. Again the the floor is by Ludwig Oppenheimer. Unfortunately, I cannot supply a panorama of this truly magnificent floor because it now cluttered with surplus benches that are vagrant since the so called antiphonal style of arranging seating was introduced to the transcepts. This is another example of the how idiotic the planning laws are being applied and supervised by the heritage officer of Co. Cork. The benches cannot be removed from the building so they have to be put somewhere. In this case, they have been dumped into the Lady Chapel and occupy a space never intended to have seating. The sum effect of this, apart from the visual problem, is that the bences will inevitaly (and have) cracked and damaged the fine mosaci on the floor which is totally obscured by them.
The iconography of the floor has a marian theme, connected to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, which dogma was defined in 1854 Рsome 40 years before the floor was installed. It it richly s̩mi with marian motives and contains five roundels: one large central superimposed on a Cross, and four smaller roundels depicting marian themes also inset on floral crosses.
This is the mosaic of the Chancel in Cobh Cathedral. The area is some 50×50 feet. The entire floor is sémi with shamorcks. The central roundel contains the sacred monogram IHS (standing for the Holy Name of Jesus), this is surrounded by a crown of throns, represening his Passion. All is at the centre of a Greek Cross, the ends of which contain medallions representing the Four Evangelists. The spaces between them occupied by crowns representings Christ’s triumph over death. The entire central roundel is surrounded by Passion Flower – with its obvious reference to Christ’s Passion and death – with their gynacia depicting the three nails.
The plan is to lift this entire piece. We are told that this is technically possible – though I have seen no guarantees that it can be done without loosing or damaging part of the mosaic. The mosaic is then to cut up into little pieces. The vestiges of the central roundal will be set into a new, and differently shaped floor, several feet lower than the present floor. The “unused” bits are to be stored or “displayed” in the typical bar, grill and art gallery style.
