DECORATING WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1740, 3 May 1913, Page 18

DECORATING WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL.

BEAUTIFUL DESIGNS OP FOUR PROPHETS. High above the dim precincts of Westminster Roman Catholic Cathedral, her eyrio platform surrounded by canvas, an accomplished lady is completing some beautiful mosaics. The work upon which sho is engaged is of especial beauty, but it possesses an additional interest, inasmuch as tile lady, Miss Gertrude Martin, is the onlv woman master mosaic worker in England. Jliss Martin is engaged .011 designs bv Mr. Aiming Bell, representing Daniel, Ezckiel, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. Each cartoon occupies a niche. The panel of tho Virgin and Child behind tho Altar in tho Lady Chapel has iust been completed, and the effect of the figures seen from a distance is that of arresting beauty. Attired in her blue working smock and a necessary cap, Miss Martin told a representative of the. Daily iNews and Leader", that her work in the Cathedral represented the first step in her career as a master "I know,", she said, "that there are other women mosaic-workers, but i tlunu I can justly claim to be the first waiter. , I always longed to be an artist, and after •' sponding some years in the art schools 1 hero decided to go .on to Pans. Mosaic ' work particularly interested me, anil J. • gladly accepted an offer to learn tho ait ■ some ten years ago." 1 This of course, meant tho unlearning . of many of those brqad principles which > every artist is bound to assimilate, io work in paint and to work 111 mosaic are far different things. Pnncin es 0! light and shade and intricate modelling have to - bo revised, for. tho mosaic worker has >o bear tho character of tho medium in wind. . . . -u;--Particularly surprising was Mi.-.-5 Mai-tin's statement that she works with her left hand. . ~ , t "This head of Isaiah, she added, J "kept me occupied for a fortnight, and 3 you would bo surprised at the number 0 - pieces of glass which had to.be "M}*?}, 3 to transfer to the wall the'line* of this - P °As°?ai° f as ll tlKi 1 Cathedral is concerned, ; the work has to bo done by artificial l'Sj}*' 1 a factor which by no means lessens the 3 difficulty of tho task. Miss Martin only concerns herself with the actual figures, - the backgrounds being ontrusted to hei 1 billed assistants. The mosaics are in s harmony with the spirit of the building, 1 in that Miss Martin s methods are pree cisely those utilised by. tho workmen of old to encrust the interior of St. Marks f at Venice.