the domincian sisters of st. cecilia motherhouse, granda liturgical arts, talleres de arte granda, los rosales. liturgical arts, church design,church building renovation,church renovation projects,church interior designers,church renovation,church renovations,interior design churches,church artwork,liturgical arts,church interior designs,catholic church renovation,church art,church artworks,church remodeling,church renovation project,liturgical art,church art on linecatholic church art,church construction,church art online,granda liturgical arts,church interior design,church restoration,church interior The Domincian Sisters of St. Cecilia MotherhouseNashville, TNThe Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia established their Motherhouse in Nashville, Tennessee in 1860. The community has prospered in recent years, as its classical sense of the Dominican charism has attracted numerous vocations. Having outgrown the old facilities, the Order recently completed an ambitious project to renovate and expand their Motherhouse. New buildings for residence and work were constructed, as well as a new refectory, library, infirmary and chapel. The order is devoted to teaching, but maintains many monastic practices including communal, choral recitation of the Divine Office. A new chapel, large enough to include the entire community, was necessary to accommodate the growing population of more than 200 sisters.The Sisters wanted a chapel whose art and architecture would express the personality of the community: traditional but simple, bright and feminine. An Italian Renaissance style, similar to that of the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Nashville, was chosen for the building. The classical architecture firm of Franck, Lohsen and McCrery made the initial designs; Talleres de Arte Granda provided interior appointments in harmony with the architecture, its reserved Ionic order and its rose and white colors.A baldacchino was erected in the apse, on six slender Ionic columns that support a curved entablature. The frieze bears the inscription: Here God lives among men. They will be his people and He will be their God. Six semicircular half-arches project above the entablature and meet at an emblem of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. The entire baldacchino is made from wood, and finished in white with gilded details. A hand-carved crucifix is suspended before it.Talleres de Arte Granda created the tabernacle and the marble pedestal below the baldacchino. The tabernacle is made from pale green onyx, with a gold-plated interior, dome, and door depicting the Coronation of Our Lady. Kneeling beside it on the marble pedestal are two hand-carved statues of adoring angels, with garments and wings covered in authentic gold leaf.The altar of sacrifice is a solid block of marble, with eight supporting Ionic columns and a marble top. The details are gilded, and a mosaic of the Agnus Dei is on the front. The ambo, credence tables and chairs are of similar design.The Dominican Sisters collaborated closely with the designers and artists of Talleres de Arte Granda for four polychromed wooden statues created for the chapel, specifying details of their countenances and their attributes. Several Sisters from the community visited the Talleres de Arte Granda workshops in Spain, to inspect the clay models for the faces of these statues and offer suggestions for changes. A creative program of symbolism was developed for the four statues. Our Lady and St. Joseph, who are place to the left and right of the apse, appear as they would at the Presentation of Our Lord; Mary holds the Child Jesus, and St. Joseph holds a birdcage with the sacrificial doves.Statues of St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena, saints especially beloved by the Order, are also in the chapel; St. Dominic is sculpted holding a book and preaching. St. Catherine is sculpted holding a ship upon her shoulder. This is St. Peter's Bark symbolizing the Church that she sustained in a time of schism through her prayers and works. Praying in the Old Basilica of St. Peter in Rome, St. Catherine asked God to let her carry the weight of all the sins afflicting the Church; she saw a ship leave a mosaic and land upon her shoulders. For three months she bore in agony the pain of its crushing weight, and then died.Talleres de Arte Granda contributed to the fabric of the building itself, building the backdrops and pedestals for the statues; carving the capitals in the apse; and adding a gilded inscription around the clerestory, of the Cantantibus organis, an antiphon from the Vespers for the Feast of St. Cecilia:Cantantibus organis, Caecilia Domino decantabat, dicens: Fiat cor meum immaculatum, ut non confudar.While organs played, Cecilia sang to the Lord, saying: Make my heart immaculate that I may not be put to shame.Two hand-carved decorative medallions were set into the walls above the statues of Our Lady and St. Joseph. A large oil painting on canvas depicts the emblems of the order surrounded by flowers. Talleres de Arte Granda also created candlesticks, sanctuary lamps, dedication crosses, vestments and holy water fonts.Talleres de Arte Granda was able to express the distinct character and charism of a religious community through simple but elegant interior appointments in various materials. Carpentry, masonry, metalwork, mosaic, sculpture, relief, painting and gilding are all employed fittingly, with a sensitivity to the architecture in which they are built and the religious traditions which they serve.
