The Rotunda, dedicated in honour of Ernest and Elizabeth Samuel, features one of the Museum’s most magnificent architectural treasures—a spectacular mosaic dome.
Charles T. Currelly, the first director of the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, conceived of this mosaic introduction for the 1933 addition. As the main entrance to the Museum from 1933 to 2005, the Rotunda’s mosaic ceiling reflected the breadth of the collections to visitors; its patterns and symbols representing cultures throughout the ages and around the world.
The ceiling is made from more than a million tiny coloured squares of imported Venetian glass. Its sparkling gold, rust and bronze background is inset with red, blue and turquoise patterns, recalling the magnificent mosaics of the Byzantine world and Eastern Europe. A team of skilled workers laboured for eight months to install the ceiling.
The central panel is inscribed with a passage from the Book of Job in the Old Testament: “That all men may know his work”.
Source Royal Ontario Museum.
The Rotunda, dedicated in honour of Ernest and Elizabeth Samuel, features one of the Museum’s most magnificent architectural treasures—a spectacular mosaic dome. Charles T. Currelly, the first director of the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology, conceived of this mosaic introduction for the 1933 addition. As the main entrance to the Museum from 1933 to 2005, the Rotunda’s mosaic ceiling reflected the breadth of the collections to visitors; its patterns and symbols representing cultures throughout the ages and around the world. The ceiling is made from more than a million tiny coloured squares of imported Venetian glass. Its sparkling gold, rust and bronze background is inset with red, blue and turquoise patterns, recalling the magnificent mosaics of the Byzantine world and Eastern Europe. A team of skilled workers laboured for eight months to install the ceiling. The central panel is inscribed with a passage from the Book of Job in the Old Testament: “That all men may know his work”. Source Royal Ontario Museum.
Beautiful shot
Nice work Joe