Showing posts with label Roundel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Roundel. Show all posts

Monday, December 9, 2013

Octavia House

The house at 54 Ayres Street (formerly Whitecross Street) in the Southwark neighborhood of London is from the 1950s. It stands next to a garden and six cottages that were built in 1887 for the poor under the direction of social reformer Octavia Hill.

Two mosaic roundels originally decorated the garden wall. One was "The Sower" donated by Julia Minet in 1896 and made by Powell and Sons. It was on a wall in the north-west corner overlooking the Red Cross Garden, but it's since been relocated to the rear of the current Octavia House building.



The second mosaic roundel was "The Good Shepherd" presented by a Mrs. Lynch and Miss Gregg. It was made by Salviati; however, it is now thought to be lost.

Sources:
English Heritage
Bowers, Robert Woodger. Sketches of Southward Old and New. London: W. Wesley and Son, 1905. 467.
British Listed Buildings
Google Maps

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Opera Garnier, Facade Loggia

In addition to the mosaic ceiling in the Avant Foyer, Salviati also made five mosaic roundels of smiling or frowning grotesque masks for the ceiling of the opera's facade loggia.




Sources:
Barr, Sheldon. Venetian Glass Mosaics: 1860-1917. London: Antique Collectors' Club, 2008. 29.
Steven Zucker's flickr Photostream
Travel to Eat
crystalseas' flickr Photostream

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Neuchatel Museum of Art and History

Located in western Switzerland, this building by architect Leo Chatelain that was constructed between 1880 and 1884 to house what was then called the Museum of Fine Arts and Museum of Painting.


The large mosaic tympanum on the facade depicts The Glorification of Art and was completed around the same time as those in the half dome of the apse of St. Stephen's Basilica in Budapest (1891-1905). While the tympanum is bare on an 1886 etching, a postcard from 1898 shows the completed mosaic, further narrowing down the date.


The facade also contains twelve medallions featuring heads representing different types of human races.

Sources:
Wikipedia
ErikDarcy's TrekEarth Photos
Adventures in Architecture
Barr, Sheldon. Venetian Glass Mosaics: 1860-1917. New York: Antique Collectors’ Club Ltd., 2008. 133 & 139.
e-Pics
Amecoleour