Charles Mahoney:
Design for the wall above the altar at Campion Hall, Two Angels Overlooking a Garden
Framed (ref: 220)
Oil on paper
17 1/2 x 15 in. (45 x 38 cm)
Tags: Charles Mahoney oil flowers murals religion TOP 100 Murals catalogue RELIGION
Provenance: The Artist's Estate
In a shaped gilded oak frame.
Mahoney was commissioned to produce a mural scheme for the Lady Chapel
at Campion Hall in 1941. The scheme was to be made up primarily of
three large panels: the Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds, the
Coronation of the Virgin, and Our Lady of Mercy. In detail and
composition the paintings owe much to early Italian example. The most
notable case is Our Lady of Mercy (Autumn), clearly inspired by Piero
della Francesca's altarpiece at Borgo San Sepolcro. Electing to paint
directly onto canvas fixed to the walls and by daylight hours only, the
project inevitably became drawn out and Mahoney could only work in situ
during the Easter and summer vacations when he was not teaching. The
project continued into the following decade and coincided with a
serious decline in the artist's physical health. In spite of these
problems, Sir John Rothenstein, who chose to reproduce one of the
murals as a plate in British Art since 1900 (1962, pl.60), was moved to
describe the scheme as
as second ...only to that by Stanley Spencer at Burghclere�.
Above: The Lady Chapel at Campion Hall
A full account of the circumstances of the commission and some of the
problems involved can be found in Sir John Rothenstein's Tribute to
Mahoney in the catalogue of the Memorial Exhibition held at the
Ashmolean Museum in 1975.
