BENEDICTIONES MENSAE (PRAYERS AT THE TABLE). ANTE PRANDIUM. (GRACE BEFORE MEALS). Benedic, Domine, nos et haec tua dona, quae de tua largitate summus sumpturi. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts,
which we are about to receive through Thy bounty.
Through Christ Our Lord.
Français : Edward Burne-Jones. Nationalité britannique 1833, Birmingham (Royaume-Uni) - 1898, Fulham (Royaume-Uni). Sainte Marguerite 1894 Carton de vitrail réalisé par la firme W. Morris, pour l'Eglise Sainte-Marguerite de Rottingdean (grande-Bretagne) Craies de couleur sur papier marouflé sur toile 214 x 61 cm H.G.: Rotting Dean.St.Margaret's Ch. two light window right hand light. S.Margareth Achat à Georges Martin du Nord (Paris) en 1968
Musée d'Art moderne et contemporain de la Ville de Strasbourg.
THE TENTH DAY OF JUNE.
Saint Margaret, widow, Queen of Scotland, who slept in the Lord on 16 November.
At Rome, on the Via Salaria, the passion of Blessed Getulius, a most famous and learned man (the father of the seven holy brethren, whom his wife, Symphorosa, bore him), and his companions, Caerealis, Amantius and Primitivus. At the command of the Emperor, Hadrian, they were arrested by the Governor, Licinius, and, first of all, scourged, then cast into prison, and, lastly, delivered to the flames: But, since they were in no wise hurt thereby, they fulfilled their Martyrdom by their heads being broken with sticks. Symphorosa, the wife of blessed Getulius, gathered up their bodies and buried them with honour in a sandpit in her villa.
Likewise, at Rome, on the Via Aurelia, the birthday (in Heaven) of Saints Basilides, Tripos, Mandal, and twenty other Martyrs, under the Emperor, Aurelian, and Plato, Prefect of the City.
At Naples, in Campania,, Saint Maximus, Bishop and Martyr, who, for his strenuous confession of the Nicene Faith, was exiled by the Emperor, Constantius, and, worn out by toilsome misery, he died there.
At Prusiada, in Bithynia, Saint Timothy, Bishop and Martyr, under Julian the Apostate. He was beheaded, by order of this Emperor, because he refused to deny Christ.
At Cologne, Saint Maurinus, Abbot and Martyr.
At Nicomedia, Saint Zachary, Martyr.
In Spain, the holy Martyrs, Crispulus and Restitutus.
In Africa, the holy Martyrs, Aresius, Rogatus, and fifteen others.
At Petra, in Africa, Saint Asterius, Bishop, who suffered much for the Catholic Faith at the hands of the Arians, and was sent into exile in Africa by Emperor Constantius; he was finally restored to his Church, and died a glorious Confessor.
Permission: Dieses Bild darf frei verwendet werden. Es gelten die Lizenz-Bedingungen der Creative Commons 'Namensnennung - Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 2.0 Deutschland' (abgekürzt „cc-by-sa/2.0/de“).
The reconstruction of the territories, devastated by the Ottomans, was carried out in the Baroque style in the 18th-Century. Intact Baroque townscapes can be found in Győr, Székesfehérvár, Eger, Veszprém, Esztergom and the Castle District of Buda. The most important Baroque Palaces in Hungary were the Royal Palace in Buda, Grassalkovich Palace in Gödöllő, and Esterházy Palace in Fertőd. Smaller Baroque edifices of the Hungarian aristocracy are scattered all over the country. Hungarian Baroque shows the double influence of Austrian and Italian artistic tendencies, as many German and Italian architects worked in the country.
Deutsch: Blick über die Donau auf den Burgpalast auf der Budaer Seite von Budapest, Ungarn.
English: View over the River Danube to Buda Castle in Budapest, Hungary.
Magyar: A Budai vár látképe Pestről.
Italiano: Il Castello di Buda visto dalla sponda opposta del Danubio, a Pest.
The main characteristics of the local version of the style were modesty, lack of excessive decoration, and some "rural" flavour, especially in the works of the local masters. Important architects of the Hungarian Baroque were Andreas Mayerhoffer, Ignác Oraschek and Márton Wittwer. Franz Anton Pilgram also worked in the Kingdom of Hungary, for example on the great Premonstratensian Monastery of Jászó. In the last decades of the 18th-Century, Neo-Classical tendencies became dominant. The two most important architects of that period were Melchior Hefele and Jakab Fellner.
By this time, Hungarian varieties of Baroque architecture had appeared, with several type of forms, shapes and decorations. Those that have became famous and nice, have been copied. That's why the Hungarian Baroque edifices make groups, based on similarities. The major kind of buildings included the Eszterháza-type. These buildings were designed by the famous Moravian architect, Jakab Fellner for the noble Eszterházy family. The Catholic Church and Monastic Orders built larger edifices.
The Stable-Side entrance of Esterhazy Palace, Hungary.
The centre of Baroque secular architecture was France, where the open three-wing layout of the Palace was established as the canonical solution as early as the 16th-Century. But it was the Palais du Luxembourg, by Salomon de Brosse, that determined the sober and classicising direction that French Baroque architecture was to take. For the first time, the corps de logis was emphasised as the representative main part of the building, while the side wings were treated as hierarchically inferior and appropriately scaled down. The Mediaeval Tower has been completely replaced by the central projection in the shape of a monumental three-storey Gateway.
De Brosse's melding of traditional French elements (e.g., lofty mansard roofs and a complex roof-line) with extensive Italianate quotations (e.g., ubiquitous rustication, derived from Palazzo Pitti in Florence) came to characterise the Louis XIII style. Probably the most accomplished formulator of the new manner was François Mansart, a tireless perfectionist credited with introducing the full Baroque to France. In his design for Château de Maisons (1642), Mansart succeeded in reconciling academic and Baroque approaches, while demonstrating respect for the Gothic-inherited idiosyncrasies of the French tradition.
Two of the most eye-catching creations of Spanish Baroque are the energetic façades of the University of Valladolid (Diego Tomé, 1719) and Hospicio de San Fernando in Madrid (Pedro de Ribera, 1722), whose curvilinear extravagance seems to herald Antonio Gaudí and Art Nouveau. In this case, as in many others, the design involves a play of tectonic and decorative elements with little relation to structure and function. The focus of the florid ornamentation is an elaborately sculptured surround to a main doorway. If we remove the intricate maze of broken pediments, undulating cornices, stucco shells, inverted tapers, and garlands from the rather plain wall it is set against, the building's form would not be affected in the slightest.
The combination of the Native American and Moorish decorative influences, with an extremely expressive interpretation of the Churrigueresque idiom, may account for the full-bodied and varied character of the Baroque in the American colonies of Spain. Even more than its Spanish counterpart, American Baroque developed as a style of stucco decoration. Twin-towered façades of many American Cathedrals of the 17th-Century had mediaeval roots and the full-fledged Baroque did not appear until 1664, when a Jesuit shrine, on Plaza des Armas, in Cusco, was built. Even then, the new style hardly affected the structure of Churches.
Mexico City Cathedral, as seen from Madero Street.
Photo: December 2006.
Source: Own work.
Author: Juan Fernando Ibarra.
(Wikimedia Commons)
English: Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary.
Mexico City Cathedral, with the Metropolitan Tabernacle to the right.
Español: Catedral Metropolitana de la Asunción de María.
Catedral Metropolitana de la Ciudad de México,
el templo principal de la Arquidiócesis Primada de México.
To the North, the richest Province of 18th-Century New Spain - Mexico - produced some fantastically extravagant and visually frenetic architecture known as Mexican Churrigueresque. This ultra-Baroque approach culminates in the works of Lorenzo Rodriguez, whose masterpiece is the Sagrario Metropolitano in Mexico City. Other fine examples of the style may be found in remote silver-mining towns. For instance, the Sanctuary at Ocotlán (begun in 1745) is a top-notch Baroque Cathedral, surfaced in bright red tiles, which contrast delightfully with a plethora of compressed ornament lavishly applied to the main entrance and the slender flanking towers.
Español: Panoramica de la Basílica de Ocotlán, Mexico.
Source: Own work.
Author: This file is lacking author information.
(Wikimedia Commons)
The true capital of Mexican Baroque is Puebla, where a ready supply of hand-painted ceramics (talavera), and vernacular grey stone, led to its evolving further into a personalised and highly-localised art form with a pronounced Indian flavour. There are about sixty Churches whose façades and Domes display glazed tiles of many colours, often arranged in Arabic designs. The interiors are densely saturated with elaborate gold leaf ornamentation. In the 18th-Century, local artisans developed a distinctive brand of white stucco decoration, named "alfenique" after a Pueblan candy made from egg whites and sugar.
The Peruvian Baroque was particularly lavish, as evidenced by the Monastery of San Francisco at Lima (1673). While the rural Baroque of the Jesuit Block and Estancias of Córdoba in Córdoba, Argentina, followed the model of Il Gesu, provincial "mestizo" (cross-bred) styles emerged in Arequipa, Potosí, and La Paz. In the 18th-Century, architects of the region turned for inspiration to the Mudéjar art of mediaeval Spain. The Late-Baroque type of Peruvian façade first appears in the Church of Our Lady of La Merced, in Lima. Similarly, the Church of La Compañia, in Quito, suggests a carved Altarpiece with its richly sculpted façade and a surfeit of spiral salomónica.
Notwithstanding a prodigality of sensually-rich surface decoration associated with Baroque architecture of the Iberian Peninsula, the Royal Courts of Madrid and Lisbon generally favoured a more sober architectural vocabulary distilled from 17th-Century Italy. The Royal Palaces of Madrid, La Granja, Aranjuez, Mafra, and Queluz, were designed by architects under strong influence of Bernini and Juvarra. In the realm of Church architecture, Guarini's design for Santa Maria della Divina Providenza, in Lisbon, was a pacesetter for structural audacity in the region (even though it was never built).
In Portugal, the first fully-Baroque Church was the Church of Santa Engrácia, in Lisbon, designed by Royal architect, João Antunes, which has a Greek Cross floorplan and curved facades. Antunes also designed Churches in which the inner space is rectangular, but with curved corners (like the Menino de Deus Church in Lisbon), a scheme that is found in several 18th-Century Churches in Portugal and Brazil. The Court of King John V, on the other hand, favoured Roman Baroque models, as attested by the work of Royal architect, Ludovice, a German, who designed the Royal Palace of Mafra, built after 1715.
The Clérigos Church (Portuguese: Igreja dos Clérigos:
By the Mid-18th-Century, Northern Portuguese architects had absorbed the concepts of Italian Baroque to revel in the plasticity of local granite, in such projects as the surging 75-metre-high Torre dos Clérigos in Porto. The foremost centre of the national Baroque tradition was Braga, whose buildings encompass virtually every important feature of Portuguese architecture and design. The Baroque shrines and Palaces of Braga are noted for polychrome ornamental patterns, undulating roof-lines, and irregularly shaped window surrounds.
Brazilian architects also explored plasticity in form and decoration, though they rarely surpassed their continental peers in ostentation. The Churches of Mariana and the Rosario at Ouro Preto are based on Borromini's vision of interlocking elliptical spaces. At São Pedro dos Clérigos, Recife, a conventional stucco-and-stone façade is enlivened by "a high scrolled gable squeezed tightly between the Towers".
Even after the Baroque conventions passed out of fashion in Europe, the style was long practised in Brazil by Aleijadinho, a brilliant and prolific architect, in whose designs hints of Rococo could be discerned. His church of Bom Jesus de Matozinhos, at Congonhas, is distinguished by a picturesque silhouette and dark ornamental detail on a light stuccoed façade. Although Aleijadinho was originally commissioned to design São Francisco de Assis, at São João del Rei, his designs were rejected, and were displaced to the Church of São Francisco in Ouro Preto, instead.
The Basilica of the Fourteen Holy Helpers (also Basilika Vierzehnheiligen) is a Church located near the town of Bad Staffelstein, near Bamberg, in Bavaria, Southern Germany. The Late-Baroque-RococoBasilica, designed by Balthasar Neumann, was constructed between 1743 and 1772. It is dedicated to the Fourteen Holy Helpers, a group of Saints venerated together in the Catholic Church, especially in Germany, at the time of the Black Death. [Editor: Another name for these Saints is the Fourteen Auxiliary Saints.]
English: The Basilica of Vierzehnheiligen, Bamberg, Germany.
Español: Basílica de Vierzehnheiligen.
Photo: 4 September 2005.
Source: Own work.
Author: Schubbay.
(Wikimedia Commons)
The last phase of Baroque architecture in Italy is exemplified by Luigi Vanvitelli's Caserta Palace, reputedly the largest building erected in Europe in the 18th-Century. Indebted to contemporary French and Spanish models, the Palace is skillfully related to the landscape. At Naples and Caserta, Vanvitelli practiced a sober and classicising academic style, with equal attention to aesthetics and engineering, a style that would make an easy transition to Neoclassicism.
In the North of Italy, the Monarchs from the House of Savoy were particularly receptive to the new style. They employed a brilliant triad of architects - Guarino Guarini, Filippo Juvarra, and Bernardo Vittone - to illustrate the grandiose political ambitions and the newly-acquired royal status of their dynasty.
Guarini was a peripatetic Monk who combined many traditions (including that of Gothic architecture) to create irregular structures remarkable for their oval Columns and unconventional façades. Building upon the findings of contemporary geometry and stereometry, Guarini elaborated the concept of architectura obliqua, which approximated Borromini's style in both theoretical and structural audacity. Guarini's Palazzo Carignano (1679) may have been the most flamboyant application of the Baroque style to the design of a private house in the 17th-Century.
Fluid forms, weightless details, and the airy prospects of Juvarra's architecture anticipated the art of Rococo. Although his practice ranged well beyond Turin, Juvarra's most arresting designs were created for Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia. The visual impact of his Basilica di Superga (1717) derives from its soaring roof-line and masterful placement on a hill above Turin. The rustic ambiance encouraged a freer articulation of architectural form at the royal hunting lodge of the Palazzina di Stupinigi (1729). Juvarra finished his short but eventful career in Madrid, where he worked on the royal Palaces at La Granja and Aranjuez.
English: The Pilgrimage Church of Saint Anne, Haigerloch, Germany.
(Multi-license with GFDL and Creative Commons CC-BY 2.5).
(Wikimedia Commons)
Among the many who were profoundly influenced by the brilliance and diversity of Juvarra and Guarini, none was more important than Bernardo Vittone. This Piedmontese architect is remembered for an outcrop of flamboyant Rococo Churches, quatrefoil in plan and delicate in detailing. His sophisticated designs often feature multiple vaults, structures within structures and Domes within Domes.
The island of Malta contains a variety of Baroque architecture, most importantly the capital city of Valletta. It was laid out in 1566 to fortify the Knights of Rhodes, who had taken over the island when they were driven from Rhodes by Islamic armies. The city, designed by Francesco Laparelli on a grid plan, and built up over the next century, remains a particularly coherent example of Baroque urbanism. Its massive fortifications, which were considered state of the art until the modern age, are also largely intact. Valletta became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980.
As Italian Baroque influences penetrated across the Pyrenees, they gradually superseded in popularity the restrained classicising approach of Juan de Herrera, which had been in vogue since the Late-16th-Century. As early as 1667, the façades of Granada Cathedral (by Alonso Cano) and Jaén Cathedral (by Eufrasio López de Rojas) suggest the artists' fluency in interpreting traditional motifs of Spanish Cathedral architecture in the Baroque aesthetic idiom.
In contrast to the art of Northern Europe, the Spanish art of the period appealed to the emotions rather than seeking to please the intellect. The Churriguera family, which specialised in designing Altars and Retables, revolted against the sobriety of the Herreresque classicism and promoted an intricate, exaggerated, almost capricious style of surface decoration known as the Churrigueresque.
Within half a century, they transformed Salamanca into an exemplary Churrigueresque city. Among the highlights of the style, the interiors of the Granada Charterhouse offer some of the most impressive combinations of space and light in 18th-Century Europe. Integrating sculpture and architecture even more radically, Narciso Tomé achieved striking chiaroscuro effects in his Transparente for Toledo Cathedral.
The development of the style passed through three phases. Between 1680 and 1720, the Churriguera popularised Guarini's blend of Solomonic Columns and composite order, known as the "supreme order". Between 1720 and 1760, the Churrigueresque Column, or Estipite, in the shape of an inverted Cone or obelisk, was established as a central element of ornamental decoration. The years from 1760 to 1780 saw a gradual shift of interest away from twisted movement and excessive ornamentation toward a neoclassical balance and sobriety.
The following is taken from the Forty Hours' Devotion Newsletter of Our Lady of The Rosary Catholic Church, Blackfen, Kent (Web-Site http://www.blackfencatholic.org/). Images taken from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia, unless otherwise stated.
The Forty Hours' Devotion began in the 16th-Century, as a response to the excesses of the "Carnival"; it soon developed a universal appeal, which included the Solemn Prayer for Peace.
Pope Clement VIII established particular procedures for the devotion, which, in large part, we are following, today.
After the Second Vatican Council, the devotion fell into disuse in many places, where it had previously been a major part of Catholic life. In more recent years, however, it has seen a revival, along with other expressions of Catholic devotion to the Most Holy Eucharist.
Following the Letter Summorum Pontificum of [then] Pope Benedict XVI, there is no longer any scruple about following the Traditional practices related to the Devotion.
The "Forty Hours", in most cases, are not exactly equal to Forty Hours. The principal characteristic is that the Devotion continues over three days.
THE FIRST NIGHT. Thursday, 6 June 2013. 2000 hrs (8 p.m.) Solemn Latin (Extraordinary Form) Mass of Exposition with Procession and Litany of the Saints.
The first night sees the Solemn Mass of Exposition, which is followed by a Procession of The Blessed Sacrament within the Church, rather as is the custom on Maundy Thursday. After the Procession, the Litany of the Saints is sung, in order to beg the intercession of the Saints for all our needs.
The Blessed Sacrament is then left Solemnly exposed on the High Altar, with at least twenty candles lit in honour. At all times, there should be people watching in the Church, and, when possible, one or more Clerics in the Sanctuary, vested in Cassock and Surplice.
THE SECOND DAY. Friday, 7 June 2013. 1000 hrs (10 a.m.) English Mass for Peace. With Hymns. 2000 hrs (8 p.m.) Solemn Latin (Extraordinary Form) Mass for Peace. At the Lady Altar.
On the second day, the Mass is celebrated "For Peace". In our day, this intention is ever more pressing. We have Masses in both the newer and the older Form of the Roman Rite. These Masses are celebrated at the Lady Altar, at the side of the Church, rather than at the Altar where The Blessed Sacrament is exposed.
THE THIRD DAY. Saturday, 8 June 2013. 1030 hrs (1030 a.m.) Solemn Latin (Extraordinary Form) Mass of Reposition. With Liturgy and Procession.
After the second night, the Final Mass is celebrated at the High Altar, followed, this time, by the Litany, first, and the Procession, afterwards. Thus concludes this great expression of Devotion to Our Eucharistic Lord, who is present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, in The Most Holy Sacrament.
According to the rules for Indulgences, set out by Pope Paul VI, anyone may gain a Plenary Indulgence, once a day, by spending half an hour in Adoration of The Blessed Sacrament. During The Forty Hours, many people spend a whole hour in Adoration.
To gain the Indulgence, one must Pray for the intentions of the Holy Father (by saying, for example, the Our Father and the Apostles' Creed, or the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be), one must receive Holy Communion, and one must make a Sacramental Confession. The Parish Priest will be happy to hear Confessions at any time he is in the Church, as well as the usual advertised times.
The Forty Hours is a great Blessing for the Parish. The Parish Priest encourages all Parishioners to make full and generous use of the opportunity for gaining many Graces for ourselves, our Parish, our Deanery and for the whole Church.
Though the tendency has been to see Baroque architecture as a European phenomenon, it coincided with, and is integrally enmeshed with, the rise of European colonialism. Colonialism required the development of centralised and powerful governments, with Spain and France the first to move in this direction.
Colonialism brought in huge amounts of wealth, not only in the silver that was extracted from the mines in Bolivia, Mexico and elsewhere, but also in the resultant trade in commodities, such as sugar and tobacco. The need to control trade routes, monopolies, and slavery, which lay primarily in the hands of the French during the 17th-Century, created an almost endless cycle of wars between the colonial powers: The French Religious Wars; the Thirty Years' War (1618 and 1648); Franco–Spanish War (1653); the Franco-Dutch War (1672–1678), and so on.
English: The High Altar, Saint Stephan's Church, Tulln, Austria.
Deutsch: Hochaltar in der Pfarrkirche St. Stephan, Tulln.
The initial mismanagement of colonial wealth, by the Spaniards, bankrupted them in the 16th-Century (1557 and 1560), recovering only slowly in the following century. This explains why the Baroque style, though enthusiastically developed in Spain, was to a large extent, in Spain, an architecture of surfaces and façades, unlike in France and Austria where we see the construction of numerous huge Palaces and Monasteries.
In contrast to Spain, the French, under Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619–1683), the Minister of Finance, had begun to industrialise their economy, and thus, were able to become, initially at least, the benefactors of the flow of wealth. While this was good for the building industries and the arts, the new wealth created an inflation, the likes of which had never been experienced before. Rome was known just as much for its new sumptuous Churches as for its vagabonds.
A number of ecclesiastical buildings, of the Baroque period in Rome, had plans based on the Italian paradigm of the Basilica with a crossed Dome and Nave, but the treatment of the architecture was very different to what had been carried out previously. One of the first Roman structures to break with the Mannerist conventions, exemplified in the Gesù, was the Church of Santa Susanna, designed by Carlo Maderno. The dynamic rhythm of Columns and Pilasters, central massing, and the protrusion and condensed central decoration, add complexity to the structure. There is an incipient playfulness with the rules of classic design, but it still maintains rigour.
English: Facade of Santi Luca e Martina, Rome, Italy.
Italiano: Santi Luca e Martina, chiesa di Roma, facciata.
The same concerns with plasticity, massing, dramatic effects and shadow and light is evident in the architectural work of Pietro da Cortona, illustrated by his design of Santi Luca e Martina (construction began in 1635) with what was probably the first curved Baroque Church facade in Rome. These concerns are even more evident in his reworking of Santa Maria della Pace (1656 - 1658). The facade, with its chiaroscuro half-Domed Portico and concave side wings, closely resembles a theatrical stage set and the Church facade projects forward so that it substantially fills the tiny trapezoidal Piazza. Other Roman ensembles, of the Baroque and Late-Baroque period, are likewise suffused with theatricality and, as urban theatres, provide points of focus within their locality in the surrounding cityscape.
English: Santi Luca e Martina is a Church in Rome.
Probably the most-well-known example of such an approach is Saint Peter's Square, which has been praised as a masterstroke of Baroque theatre. The Piazza, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, is formed principally by two Colonnades of free standing Columns centred on an Egyptian obelisk. Bernini's own favourite design was his oval Church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, decorated with polychrome marbles and an ornate gold Dome. His secular architecture included the Palazzo Barberini, based on plans by Maderno, and the Palazzo Chigi-Odescalchi (1664), both in Rome.
Bernini's rival, the architect Francesco Borromini, produced designs that deviated dramatically from the regular compositions of the ancient world and Renaissance. His building plans were based on complex geometric figures, his architectural forms were unusual and inventive and he employed multi-layered symbolism in his architectural designs. Borromini's architectural spaces seem to expand and contract when needed, showing some affinity with the late style of Michelangelo.
English: Church of Saint Charles at the Four Fountains, Rome.
His iconic masterpiece is the diminutive Church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, distinguished by a complicated plan arrangement that is partly oval and partly a cross and so has complex convex-concave wall rhythms. A later work, the Church of Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza, displays the same playful inventiveness and antipathy to the flat surface, epitomised by an unusual “corkscrew” lantern above the Dome.
Following the death of Bernini in 1680, Carlo Fontana emerged as the most influential architect working in Rome. His early style is exemplified by the slightly concave façade of San Marcello al Corso. Fontana's academic approach, though lacking the dazzling inventiveness of his Roman predecessors, exerted substantial influence on Baroque architecture both through his prolific writings and through a number of architects he trained, who would disseminate the Baroque idioms throughout 18th-Century Europe.
