The Honan Chapel - Gallery Collection


Image TitleHonan Chapel: detail of the Tabernacle
DescriptionThe enamel front of the Tabenacle was made by Oswald Reeves, the leading enamelist in Ireland in 1916. The iconography relates to the Trinity and the Adoration of the Lamb as recalled in the Book of Revelation. In Sir John Robert O´Connell´s guidebook to the chapel entitled The Honan Hostel Chapel Cork: Some Notes on the Building and the Ideas which Inspired It(Guy & Co., Cork, 1916) O´Connell refers to the Altarpiece of the Lambas the source of inspiration. The compositional arrangement resembles theThe Adoration of the Lamb from The Ghent Altarpiece (1432) by Jan and Hubert Van Eyck. The Lamb, representing Christ, bleeds into a chalice and stands on an altar with a hanging like those in the Honan Chapel. Angels, on either side, carry the Arma Christi, the symbols of Christ´s Passion: the Pillar; the Nails; the Lance; the Scourge; the Reed and the Crown of Thorns. In addition, an angel carries the Cross. Below the altar is a River of Life recalling the river flowing from the Garden of Eden and the River of Life flowing through the nave of the Honan Chapel.
ContributorOswald Reeves, Dublin
Contribution Year1916
  
PhotographerRory Long
CopyrightHonan Trust
Date of Photograph2003
CollectionInterior