Thursday, September 26, 2013

St. Augustine's College, Canterbury

First serving as the Missionary College of the Church of England (1848 to 1947), and later as the Central College of the Anglican Communion (1952 to 1967), these buildings are now part of King's School.


Salviati made the mosaic of Christ that hung above the Warden's Chair in the college's Great Hall, which was used as a formal dining room. It was presented to the college by Dr. Henry Bailey, the school's second warden from 1850 to 1875, and was already in the room by 1882.


This may be the same mosaic the Venice and Murano Company showed at the 1880 Melbourne Expo.


It was an approximately 1/5th copy of the apse dome mosaic in St. Mark's Basilica, Venice shown below.



Above, the dining room today. However, the near wall that used to hold the mosaic cannot be seen, so it's current status is unknown.

Sources:
Ewell, Robert. Guide to St. Augustine's Monastery and Missionary College. Canterbury: Cross and Jackman, 1896.
Historic Canterbury
Thomson, Mortimer. The Divine Comedy of Patriotism. London: Simkin, Marshall & Co., 1882. 40.
Wikipedia
Dennis Jarvis' flickr Photostream
Summer Language School

2 comments:

  1. A very similar mosaic to this one hangs in All Saints Anglican Church, Chapel Street, East St Kilda, Victoria, Australia.
    http://www.allsaints.org.au/index.php/gallery

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for letting me know! It certainly does look familiar. I'll have to see if it's also a Salviati, but there's a great chance that it is!

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