Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Funerary Monuments in Croatian Cemeteries

Ivan Rendic was a Croatian sculptor who studied in Italy - including in Venice - and later worked extensively out of Trieste. He made numerous funerary monuments in the cemeteries around Rijeka (including Kozala, Trsat-Susak, Opatija and Bakar), some of which Salviati also decorated with enamel mosaics. A catalog prepared for the 1893 World Columbian Exposition does not detail exactly which memorials Salviati worked on (and erroneously lists Trieste as the location of the cemeteries), but the following examples were all made by Rendic before 1893 and are embellished with mosaics.


The interior of the Gorup family mausoleum from 1882 in Rijeka's Kozala cemetery. Josip Gorup had the memorial built after the death of his wife in childbirth, and the carved relief shows the separation of a mother from her eight children.


The Devet/Spilar-Ambrozic memorial from 1885 in the Kozala cemetery.


The Pilepic monument from 1890.


The Stiglich family tombstone from 1891.

The Bakarcic monument from 1892 in the Kozala cemetery.

Sources:
Barr, Sheldon. Venetian Glass Mosaics: 1860-1917. London: Antique Collectors' Club, 2005. 126.
Metzger-Sober, Branko. "Funerary Monuments by Ivan Rendic in the Croatian Littoral." Ars Adriatica. 3. Dec 2013.
Wikipedia

Monday, February 24, 2014

St. Andrew's Moreton on Lugg

This Medieval church was reconstructed in 1867 by W.H. Knight of Cheltenham.


Salviati added the chancel wall mosaics of the "Heavenly Jerusalem" in 1887 after a commission by Harriet Evans, widow of Thomas Evans, owner of the nearby Morton Court.



Sources:
British Listed Buildings
Wikimedia Commons from Philip Halling
Pevsner, Nikolaus. Buildings of England: herefordshire. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1963. 256.
National Churches Trust
Duncumb, John et al. Collections Towards the History and Antiquities of the County of Hereford. Vol 3. London: John Murray, 1882. 145.
Kelly's Directory of Herefordshire (1895). 143.

Monday, February 3, 2014

Cast Court, South Kensington Museum

Two architectural courts were designed by General Henry Scott in 1870 for the museum to house both cast reproductions of architectural elements, as well as some original pieces. The space opened in 1873. Salviati and Company made two mosaic reproductions that originally hung on the walls of the south-east Court.

The Good Shepherd is a copy of the lunette above the entrance of the Chapel of Galla Placida in Ravenna Italy originally from the 5th century.


The Salviati mosaic lunette on top right in the Weston Cast Court, 2016.


The original mosaic in Ravenna

The mosaic Figure of Christ is a copy from St. Mark's Basilica in Venice from the 13th century. It depicts the Savior giving a benediction (item 8036-1862), acquired by the museum in 1862 for 200BP, but which is now in storage. Salviati made another copy of a St. Mark's mosaic image of Christ for St. Augustine's College in Canterbury.

The museum also bought in 1864 a mosaic medallion of the head of St. John the Evangelist (item 797-1864) from Salviati for 25BP, but it is now also in storage.

Sources:
The Victoria and Albert Museum
Appell, William. Christian Mosaic Pictures: A Catalogue of Reproductions of Christian Mosaics. London: South Kensington Museum, 1877. 17.
Wikimedia Commons
Film London
Metaphor
V& A Search.
Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, arranged According to the Dates of their Acquisition. Vol. 1. London : Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., 1868.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Sa'id Pasha's Palace, Mex (Alexandria)

Mohamed Sa'id Pasha was Egypt's Viceroy from 1854 until his death in 1863. He was educated in Paris and he began the development of the Suez Canal. In addition to the Qasr al Nil, his grand palace in Cairo, Sa'id Pasha built a palace on the old (or west) Alexandria harbor at Mex  (or Meks, Maks, or Al-Maqs). Unlike Sa'id's other Alexandrian palace at Gabari, the one at Mex was never finished.

The floor and walls of the palace's saloon were decorated with Salviati mosaics, which were ordered in 1860 at the cost of about 250,000 francs. Unfortunately, by 1878 the palace was a "bulbous ruin".


The abandoned palace compound at Mex, 1870.


Illustration of the entry gate at Mex palace.


Map of Alexandria from 1908. Meks is on the lower left.

Sources:
Salviati, Antonio. On Mosaics (generally). Leeds, 1865. 42.
Barr, Sheldon. Venetian Glass Mosaics: 1860-1917. London: Antique Collectors' Club, 2008. 132.
Salviati, Antonio. Les manufactures Salviati & Cie à Venise et Murano. Mosaïques, verres Paris, 1867. 15.
Rogers, Edward Thomas. "The Land of Egypt." The Art Journal. London: D. Appleton & Company. 5. 1879. 68-70. 
Lane-Poole, Stanley. Social Life in Egypt: A Description of a Country and Its People. 5. New York: P.F. Collier, 1884. 117-120.
Allatson, Wendy. Egypt.  New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. 546.
Burton, Richard Francis. The gold-mines of Midian and the ruined Midianite cities. London: C. Kegan Paul & Co. 1878. 4.
Wikipedia 
usbpanasonic's flickr Photostream

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

St. George Church, Clyst St. George

The ancient church was rebuilt in 1854-55, but it was gutted by air raid fire in 1940. It was rebuilt again in 1952.



Sometime between September 1862 and October 1863, Salviati decorated the church's western wall with mosaics of angels with widespread wings supporting scrolls of Scripture on the request of the same Reverend Ellacombe who supervised the 1850s restorations. Unfortunately, the mosaics did not seem to have survived the World War II damage.

Sources:
Salviati, Antonio. On Mosaics (generally). Leeds, 1865. 46.
Wikipedia
Cherry, Bridget and Nikolaus Pevsner. Devon. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991.  271.
Ellacombe, Henry Thomas. The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Clyst St. George Exeter Diocesan Architectural Society, September 22, 1862. 70.
Robin Drayton on Geograph
Robert Slack's flickr Photostream

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Portraits II

Singapore's Peranakan Museum holds the two Salviati mosaic portraits made for local businessman Tan Soo Bin.



Previously, the portraits apparently were hung in the family's home Panglima Prang that was built before 1860 and demolished in 1982.


The National Museum of Bavaria purchased Salviati's mosaic portrait reproductions of Hagia Sophia's 10th century depictions of Justinian and Theodora (which themselves are copies of those from the 6th century in Ravenna) at the 1873 Vienna Universal Exposition.


Original mosaics of Justinian and Theodora from Hagia Sophia, Istanbul (not Salviati - illustration only)

Salviati and Burke exhibited a mosaic portrait of Titian, as well as the head of Christ after Guido Reni at the fall 1884 meeting of the Architectural Association in London.


Reproduction of Thorn-crowned Christ after Guido Reni by A. Orsoni of Venice (not Salviati - illustration only)

Sources:
"Architectural Association." The Building News and Engineering Journal. October 17, 1884. 612.
Artistic Mosaic Catalog of Works 
Reports on the Vienna Universal Exhibition of 1873. 3. H.M. Stationery Office, 1874.  16.
The Hagia Sophia: A Tribute to Justinian. pdf.
Barr, Sheldon. Venetian Glass Mosaics: 1860-1917. London: Antique Collectors' Club, 2008. 119.
Cylee's flickr Photostream
Liza Rahmat's flickr Photostream
Wright, Arnold and H.A. Cartwright, eds. Twentieth Century Impressions of British Malaya. London: Lloyd's Greater Britain Publishing Co., Ltd, 1908. 631-32.
Ming Blue. "A Great House of the Past." Featherglass. 2011.
Singapore Infopedia

Monday, January 27, 2014

National Museum of Scotland


A mosaic reredos of The Last Supper, as well as a copy of a 9th century mosaic featuring the portrait of a saint were purchased by the museum - known at the time as the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art - at the 1873 Vienna Universal Exposition.




The mosaic is almost identical to the one made by Salviati in 1875 for the reredos in St. Andrew's Church, Earl's Colne.


Sources:
Reports on the Vienna Universal Exhibition of 1873. 3. H.M. Stationery Office, 1874.189.
PeterEdin's flickr Photostream
David Dorren's flickr Photostream
Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P.'s flickr Photostream