Praxiteles
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@apelles wrote:
I have only found 1 actual photograph of their work on the site ..anyone recognise the architecture or care to have a guess as to where it was taken?
Black and white photograph of painted lunette section of apse. Depicts the Assumption of the Virgin on clouds, surrounded by 5 angels.On an off chance, could it be the chapel decorqted for the Sisters of the Assumption in Cork a drawing for which is contained in the datqbank?
@apelles wrote:
I can’t belive I never happened on this site before now,it archives an ecclesiastical decorating company from Dublin & Catalogues many of their design ideas & features many of church’s talked about on this thread, some of the designs are as yet unidentified or may never have been completed.
this is described as [Design for decorative scrolling ornament, including roundels containing images of St Patrick, Christ, the Lion of St Mark, and the angel of St Matthew/I]in St Patrick’s Church,corkAnd here we have a Coloured design for decoration of side walls of chancel of Ballaghdereen Cathedral, including diaper-work, designs for window surrounds, roundels containing Angels and Saints, and designs featuring angels with scrolls for the ceiling panels.These ceiling panels were still there this time last year.
here we have an unidentified Coloured design for decorative paint effects for part of chancel and apse.
http://nival.ncad.ie/earley/EC%20155.jpg
This is the archive of one of the largest and most prestigious ecclesiastical decorators in Ireland and the UK which operated out of their office and workshops in Dublin’s Camden Street from 1852-1974. The archive, consisting of 337 design drawings and 30 bound volumes of supporting documentation, was donated by the Earley family to the National Irish Visual Arts Library at the National College of Art and Design between 2002 and 2005. A project to index and digitise the drawings was completed in 2004 and this material made available to the public on the NIVAL website.
http://nival.ncad.ie/about_earley.htm
http://nival.ncad.ie/earley_search.htm click Record Details in orange to bring up a small thumbnail at the bottom of the page then click that to enlarge
About the Earley & Company Archives
There are 337 drawings in the collection, executed in pen and ink or pencil with watercolour on paper. The designs are for stained glass, altarpieces, baptisteries and pulpits, as well as decorative and figurative designs for walls and ceilings. The collection also contains some documentary photographs.Earley & Company originated as Earley and Powells in Dublin in 1864. The firm was one of the largest and most prestigious ecclesiastical decorators both in Ireland and the U.K. The company secured its prominence through its versatility in being able to produce sculpture, painted decoration, glass and metal work, and through its well-established links with the Catholic hierarchy. All the designs in this collection have come from the company’s premises at 1, Upper Camden Street where they were based until 1975. During the period of their operation, the firm designed and executed a very large number of projects for churches in Ireland and England , with a few commissions from Australia and the United States .
The majority of the designs are for stained glass windows and altars, and this reflects the emphasis of the company’s activities and the most popular commissions. Most of the drawings date from the earliest periods when the company was run by Thomas Earley (1819-1893) and his nephews John Bishop Earley (1856 -1935) and William Earley (1872-1956). There are very few drawings from the firm’s activities of the later period.
The designs are highly finished and appear to have been used for display to prospective clients. There are few actual working drawings or cartoons.
The designs are rarely personally credited. Some may contain initials or a signature, but the majority are signed ‘Earley & Powells’ or ‘Earley & Co.’ This indicates a strong workshop ethos and corporate identity.
About the Earley Database
In 2004, the Library completed a project of digitising the Earley designs and establishing a searchable database of the collection. This project was carried out by Eneclann, Ltd., an archives and records management company, and was funded by the National College of Art & Design and the Heritage Council.
The database records contain summary information extracted from the designs, as well as an image index number. The majority of records also display a large thumbnail image for quick reference. To view a full-screen image, click on the thumbnail or the image index number where appropriate.
The original drawings and large scale, preservation quality images of the complete collection are available to view on disc in the Library. Additional background information on the Earley’s can also be found in the Library.
Indeed Apelles this is a very valuable find and of enormous importance. It joins the growing number of firms whose archives are becoming available. This archive will require close exqmination and from a cursory glance it is clear that it is far from complete. For example, this company did the High Altar for Cobh Cathedral but no trace of it is to be found on the data base.
Also, Praxiteles understands that Early and Powell was founded in Dublin as an Irish “subsidiary” of Pugin, Powell and Hardmann in Birmingham to avoid criticism that that company’s work was completely imported. It subsequently went independent but maintained close contacts with Hardmann’s – for example, the candlesticks made for the High Altqr in Cobh Cathedral had their drip pans and finials made in Dublin but thier shafts and bases made in Birmingham. They were assembled in Dublin.
@johnglas wrote:
fearg: thanks for those images; I was particularly intrigued by Armagh. These must be very early photographs, since the ceiling (a particular glory of the present building) is completely undecorated. Also, the sanctuary fittings precede those which were so crudely vandalised before the most recent (and a bit timid) restoration (of sorts). So, Armagh has had FOUR sanctuary fit-outs in its history (a bit like fussy housewives and new kitchens). I wonder who profited from flogging-off all the junked marble and whether any of this was done in consultation with the long-suffering (and no doubt silently despairing) diocesans of Armagh who had to pay for it all.
Fussy housewi.uves and new kitchens! Hmmm…..
Would anyone have any informnation concerning a company of 19th. century Cork builders called Barry McMullan?
This photograph of teh consecration of Mullingar Cathedral shows the layout of the piles of ashes along the central aisle on which the of the Greek and Latn alphabeths are traced during the ceremony of consecration.
http://digital.nli.ie/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/glassplates&CISOPTR=7637&CISOBOX=1&REC=5
Praxiteles is inclined to think that teh Armagh photographs represent the interior at two stages: an early sanctuary (provisional one) deliniated by wooden altar rails and the (possibly) the 1904 rails whch do not hsow the High Altar.
Care should be taken about canonizing anything of the earlier photographs since they represent the building still in fieri and without having reached its completion.WHile it its arguable that the 1904 arrqngement may have been stylistically a little OTT, at the same time NOTHING could excuse the vandalism practices on it by McCormack and the awful neo-pagan hoards in his train.
Again tnakns to Ferg for locating this valuable collection. If Praxiteles recalls correctly, there should already be pictuires of the previuous internal arrangements in Armagh on this thread.
Well thanks to Ferg the riddle of Monaghan has been solved.
It would appear that many of the fixtures were based on Italian quattorcento prototypes. Note the Baptistery font and compare with that of Siena and the pulpit and that of Pisa. Also note the two rather fine looking statues of Christ and St John the Baptist just outside of the sanctuary and compare the arrangement and type with the examples in Orvieto.
http://tinyurl.com/l9z99rI wonder where they now are?
@johnglas wrote:
searbh: My recollection of this practice is that it isn’t at all accidental and has deep theological roots. As many (but not all!) medieval churches were cruciform (cross-shaped) in imitation of Calvary, so the nave was seen as Christ’s body, the transepts as his outstretched arms and the choir as his head, inclined to one side after death. Perhaps a better expert than me can give you a fuller explanation, but that’s how I’ve always understood this ‘misalignment’.
gunter: Torphichen’s well worth a trip, if not a mass! (It’s in a quite Prod part of West Lothian.) As for Mr Myers – a ranter and I thought he was grossly unfair to Liam McCormick – you can crit his style, but many of his churches are an effort to achieve a ‘new vernacular’ for his times (although from what I’ve seen in illustration the interiors are a bit bare and disappointing, if dramatic).
On the subject of misalignment, Praxiteles has been looking around for an online version of William Durandus Rationale which may very well give you an exposition of its symbolism along the lines that Johnglas mentioned. So far, only book three has turned up which is posted as a preview of more to come:
St Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh, Co. Cork
The heritage Council of Ireland under the Significant Places of Worship Grant Scheme has made an allottment of some Euro 70,000 to the Cobh Cathedral Restoration Fund which had applied for a grant of Euro 120,000. The grant ie earmarked for repairs to the south arcade and clerestory following the collapse of masonery on Christmas eve 2007. The consultants who have been retained are Chris Southgate and Associates.
It will be recalled that the collapse of the masonery in the south arcade was caused by water ingress following the replacement of the roof during the last “restoration” campaign for which the Heritage Council of Ireland also made a grant of £250,000 but do not appear to have made any check to ensure that such public funds were spent in the best interest of the building or, indeed, to the best advantage of the general public. In the present public financial crisis, can we expect that the public interest will be properly served by ensuring that the works which have to be carried out will indeed not only be to best conservation standard but, perhaps more to the point, of a level commensurate with excellence of the fabric and workmanship of Cobh Cathedral?
It is also heartening to see that public funds can be made available by a public body to a private entity such as Cobh Cathedral Restoration Steering Committee which thought nothing of squandering very considerable sums of money on professional fees in its stubborn attempt to bulldoze through a scheme of wreckage on the building they are supposed to be restoring – and while that private entity still has considerable funds available on deposit as can be seen from its returns to the Companies Registration Office- and whose prospects of raising further funds from the general public are rather gloomy in view of the questions that can be raised about its past record. Did someone say that we had a recession? Or, is the government also about to institute an architectural/heritage/cultural equivalant of NAMA?
@johnglas wrote:
Prax: it’s a splendid pile (but note the seigneurial-looking abbey buildings, hence the Revolution), but the spire is very, well, English – reminiscent of a parish church in the Midlands?
That the spire should look “English” is not that surprising since we are in Poitou – a part that made its influence felt in England. What is interesting about the spire -and perhaps no so visible from the pictures – is the fleureon work.
A spectacular example of misalignment is to be found in the Cathedral of St. Etienne in Toulouse. Here the choir and sanctuary are practically parallel to the nave which closes with its own nave altar.
St Sevin
The Romanesque Abbey Church of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe, begun in the mid 11th century, contains many beautiful 11th- and 12th-century murals which are still in a remarkable state of preservation. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983. It is located in Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe, in Poitou, France.
The cruciform church carries a square tower over its crossing. The transept was built first, then the choir with its ambulatory with five radial chapels in the polygonal apse. In the next building campaign, three bays of the nave were added, the bell tower and its porch, and finally the last six bays of the nave. The bell tower is finished by a fine stone spire more than 80 meters high, added in the 14th century (and restored in the 19th century).
Some further information:
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/saint-savin-sur-gartempe.htm
Abbey Church of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempeto the east of Poitiers
French prototypes for the mid 19th century neo Gothic revival:
St Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh, Co. Cork
This is the High Altar of Cobh Cathedarl as used for the Solemn High Mass celebrated there on 13 July 2009 for Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney.
An article by Kevin Myers in the Irish Independent of 31 July 2009. Readers will be familiar with many of the characters from the perusal of this thread.
This was a primal heresy, for churches should not be inspired by heathen citadels but by Calvary
By KEVIN MYERS
Friday July 31 2009
After all the battering that the Catholic Church has received in recent years, and all the apologies it has uttered for everything from the Inquisition to Swine Flu, the ragwort infestation and this summer’s plague of horseflies, it was rather encouraging to hear the Bishop of Galway offer a defence of anything it believes in.
On this occasion, it was the right of the Catholic Church to have the final say over what goes on in its buildings — that is, whether open coffins should be allowed to overnight in churches. Bishop Drennan says that that practice should be confined to funeral homes. In the parish of Liscannor, they beg to differ.
But the parish of Liscannor is not an autonomous, free-thinking, independent church. It is part of the Holy Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Church. To be sure, every single parishioner at Liscannor can decide to become a Methodist or a Presbyterian, and they can then go and open their own church. But the present church is owned by the diocese. That’s where the title deeds lie. And the rules of that particular church are not set by the parishioners, but by the hierarchy of the church to which as free men and women they have given their loyalty. They can put that loyalty in their pockets and walk away. But the church remains the property of the bishop, and it will be inherited by his successor, who — as it happens — will probably be a Zambian or an Ibo.
The issue here isn’t whether open coffins should be tolerated in a church (when did we in Ireland start using the word “casket”?). The issue is whether we have forgotten what the Catholic Church is. We apparently have. And the people who started that process were in the upper reaches of the Catholic Church itself, a generation and more ago, when it decided to “modernise” itself.
The abandonment of the old liturgy happened universally — and catastrophically, as a result of Vatican II. However, the construction of a plague of ugly buildings — which abandoned the ancient cruciform style of architecture, which you can see in Glendalough, Gougane Barra and the Skelligs — was almost uniquely Irish, and was far more deadly.
Traditional church-building embodied purpose. Form followed function. The cross-shape was not merely an architectural image of the gibbet of Calvary: it was a statement of authority. For at the top stood the priest, with the altar resting in the position where the head of Jesus lay on the original cross.
The Catholic Church is not a democracy: and the churches it built reflected that hierarchical, hieratic truth: until the 1960s, that is, and the dawn of the ecclesiastical wigwam.
The inspiration for this tragedy was the finest Irish architect of the 20th century — Liam McCormick. He was a genius: but his talents were misplaced. He should have been designing secular buildings, and not corrupting ecclesiastical architectural traditions which are as old as Christianity. For McCormick’s churches deliberately echoed the pre-Christian era, which was what St Patrick and the early fathers had striven to banish. Thus his first great commission, St Aengus’ Church, Burt, in Donegal, was inspired by the Grianán of Aileach, a Bronze Age fort.
That was a primal heresy, for churches should not be inspired by heathen citadels, but by the cross of Calvary. Forget that and soon you will forget everything. His next famous commission, St Michael’s Church in Creeslough, was even worse; looking like a block of concrete set in a bog, it was intended to reflect Table Mountain nearby. Sorry, wrong hilltop: did Liam McCormick ever think about Golgotha as inspiration?
Not merely did McCormick become internationally acclaimed, but across Ireland a blight of copycat churches soon spread: a franchise of hideously tacky Little Macs, usually built to replace churches which had been raised after the Penal Days. Despite two centuries of oppression, our forefathers back then had known how to make churches. But by the 1960s and ’70s, the Catholic Church had completely forgotten. It also introduced mumbo-jumbo “folk-masses”, with spotty girls with guitars singing “Kumbaya” — and hello, an ecumenical dance troupe of Buddhists, Presbyterians and atheists will now entertain us during the Consecration with their interpretation of the birth of the Lord Krishna.
Is it surprising that once the official Catholic Church forgot its central purpose, its adherents grew a little woolly about that purpose also? When doctors forget the Hippocratic oath, the patients are unlikely then to remember it.
Then the bishops woke up one morning, and dumbfounded, they saw the President taking Anglican communion, as if it were exactly the same as that of the Roman Catholic Church. Worse, when they complained, almost no-one understood their gripe. Decades of moral equivalence had obliterated the core belief that the Eucharist, being literally the body and blood of Jesus Christ, was the defining element of Roman Catholicism.
It’s no wonder that some people today don’t know the difference between churches and funeral homes. Why, not so long ago, the Catholic Church didn’t know the inspirational difference between the Cross of Calvary and a Neolithic stockade.
– KEVIN MYERS
@Praxiteles wrote:
St Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh, Co. Cork
This photograph well illustrates the ceiling of the cathedral with its gilt bosses as well as the less welcome sight of the extent of water ingress along the South arcade.
It has been mentioned before that the classic contrast of dark wooden ceiling and white stone walls that we have in Cobh Cathedral has precedents in France such as Saintes Cathedral.
St Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh, Co. Cork
This photograph well illustrates the ceiling of the cathedral with its gilt bosses as well as the less welcome sight of the extent of water ingress along the South arcade.
@samuel j wrote:
Do we have one…:confused:
I asked for one to attend a case where there was damage to a protected structure that the council themselves had put on their conservation list….. no one ever came on site and everyone ducked and dived. Took private legal action to get it sorted with no help from anyone in the council or any conservation office or officer….. 😡A joke if you ask me, no one cared and no one wanted to lift a finger.
The only thing Cobh Town Council conserve, is their energy:mad:They could not be trusted to conserve a brick Sh1thouse, so god help St. Colmans
A very good question!
