Wednesday 17 August 2016

More Arts and Crafts Delights During a Visit to Italy. Part 2 of 2: Rome

A few more pictures and a bit more information on WMSC member Gianna Wichelow's summer visit to Italy.

I didn't plan to find anything of an Arts and Crafts nature while in Italy; that wasn't in the plans. But when I got to Rome, just a bit of googling resulted in me deciding to carve out some time to visit two promising locations.

Just as Florence has its English church, St. Mark's, so Rome has its American church, St. Paul's Within the Walls (Episcopal), noted for being the first Protestant church built in Rome. Designed by George Edmund Street in Gothic Revival Style, it opened in 1880 and features- wait for it - a stunning set of mosaics by Edward Burne-Jones!

Which is all very exciting until I got there and found out that the murals were OUT FOR REPAIR (estimate time: a year) and so they'd hung printed screens to approximate the look of the mosaics, which I thought was very good of the chuch, but I wanted to see the real thing! Well, I guess I'll have to go back when they're in place once more! You can see pictures of the real things here, on the church's website.

And now this, straight from Wikipedia:

Burne-Jones designed cartoons which he sent to Venice, together with specifications for the colours to be used. The Venice and Murano Glass and Mosaic Company mounted tesserae onto the cartoons, and the resulting assemblies were then installed in the church. The selection of colours, based on sample tiles sent to England by the company, was a collaboration between Burne-Jones and William Morris. Burne-Jones did not travel to Italy to supervise the work, instead sending his assistant, Thomas Rooke. There are four Burne-Jones mosaics. The Annunciation and The Tree of Life, both completed in 1894, are over successive arches of the chancel, leading towards the apse, whose semi-dome displays Christ Enthroned in the Heavenly Jerusalem, completed in 1885. The fourth mosaic, known as The Earthly Paradise or The Church Militant, lower down on the wall of the apse, was completed in 1907 by Rooke, after Burne-Jones's death.



































My second point of interest was the Quartiere Coppedè, also known as Rome's fantasy neighbourhood. Okay, this is a little crazy. Architect Gino Coppede was basically given carte blanche and he had fun with it, erecting the buildings between 1913 and 1927. You can read more about it in this New York Times article from 1997, "Rome's Mischevious Architect". My pictures don't do it justice (these do) but you can get an idea of the jumble of styles, all exuberantly justaposed, from Medieval to Baroque, Ancient Greek to Art Deco. Once you go under the massive arch that welcomes you, you'll be in the Piazza Mincia with its ornate frog fountain... it's just gorgeous, fun and untamed, and, not surprisingly horror film director Dario Argento has filmed some of his movies here. The decoration is remarkable, and certainly elements of Art Deco and Art Nouveau feature prominently. Morris may not have thought much of it, but I think it's worth a visit for your next Roman holiday.

















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