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Mosaics
Part VI - The Journey proceeds
After all the activity in the early 1960s, there was a prolonged lull
in the Cathedral decoration which really only came to an end as the millennium
itself drew to a close.
There were three reasons for the absence of activity. Cardinal Heenan
had succeeded as Archbishop of Westminster in 1963, and although he allowed
the work underway to continue, he believed that there things should end.
In the words of his new Administrator in 1964 "it is time to turn
our minds to the plight of men and women in undeveloped countries".
Secondly the Second Vatican Council was underway, one of its aims being
to concentrate on essentials. Thirdly there was no money.
So it was that no new mosaics went up until 1982 when, to commemorate
the visit of Pope John Paul II that year, a mosaic designed by Nicolete
Gray was installed over the unused north-west entrance from Ambrosden
Avenue. In 1895 John Bentley, the Cathedral Architect, had produced a
pencilled sketch for a mosaic here, showing Our Lady and the Christ child
seated with a saint on either side. This was now ignored in favour of
the inscription 'Porta sis ostium pacificum par eum qui se ostium appellavit,
Jesus Christum' (May this door be the gate of peace through him who called
himself the gate, Jesus Christ).
Nicolete Gray was an epigrapher, a maker of designs with capital letters.
She also designed the memorial of the Pope's 1982 visit in front of the
main sanctuary and the inscription on Cardinal Heenan's tomb (1976) in
the south aisle, but her design for the north-west entrance was her first
in mosaic. It was executed by the mosaicist Trevor Caley. Fifteen years
later he returned to the Cathedral for its next mosaic at the entrance
to St Patrick's Chapel. Caley initially envisaged an interpretation of
the 7th century stone cross at Carndonagh in Donegal but this was changed
to one of St Patrick shown holding a shamrock and crozier with a writhing
snake beneath. Using a mixture of unglazed ceramic material and glittering
glass tesserae from Cathedral stocks, Caley produced the mosaic on board
in the studio and installed it in March 1999.
The next mosaic appeared on the opposite side of the nave two years later.
It was of St Alban, the Romano-British soldier executed for his faith.
Designed by Christopher Hobbs, it was assembled by Tessa Hunkin in the
Hackney studio of Mosaic Workshop using the indirect method and installed
in the Cathedral by her and Walter Bernadin in June 2001, in cement composed
of ceramic tile adhesive with an additive to increase adhesion and flexibility.
The striking representation of St Alban is heavily influenced by early
Byzantine iconography, the saint carries a cross as a demonstration of
his faith and his other hand is raised in blessing. The red line around
his neck symbolises decapitation.
The next project was the completion of St Joseph's Chapel with mosaics,
a costly undertaking requiring £300,000. After his success with
St Alban, Christopher Hobbs was again chosen as the designer. In 2002
his representation of the Holy Family, clearly also drawing on the Byzantine,
was projected onto the apse of the chapel with an overhead projector,
and outlines traced onto the surface. The mosaic was made and installed
by Mosaic Workshop in 2003, once again using the indirect method. Hobb's
designs for the west wall show craftsmen building the Cathedral, while
the vault has been decorated with a multi-coloured basket-weave pattern.
Installation was completed in 2006.
Meanwhile the Friends
of the Cathedral, including those in America, have raised the £200,000
for the mosaics in the Chapel of St Thomas Becket (the Vaughan Chantry).
Christopher Hobb's designs for the east wall show St Thomas standing in
front of the old Canterbury Cathedral and those for the west show his
martyrdom, with a delightful pattern of tendrils, flowers and roundels
against a deep blue background for the vault above.
The designs are a masterly combination of medieval English scenes with
the Byzantine style. Installation by Mosaic Workshop took place in 2004.
There are also plans for St George's Chapel and mosaics of St Francis
and St Anthony in the narthex, while discussions continue regarding St
Patrick's Chapel and the Baptistery.
First
published in Oremus the magazine of Westminster Cathedral January 2005
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Read more about Cathedral Mosaics -
Part I - Trial and Error
Part II - Opus Sectile and the Italian Method
Part III - The Arts and Crafts Men
Part IV - The Impossible Dream
Part V - A Russian Perspective
Part VII - The Mystery Mosaics
The
mosaic of Saint Patrick
St Alban designed by Christopher Hobbs and installed in 2001
'The Murder of Becket' designed by Christopher Hobbs and
installed in the Becket Chapel in 2006
A
detail on the vault of the Chapel of Saint Thomas Becket,
known also as the Vaughan Chantry.
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