Mosaics in the Portico
tread gently
you walk
on sacred ground
The first picture that greets visitors to the National Gallery is not an Old Master, nor an Impressionist. Nor does it even hang on a wall. Set into the floor of the first landing in the Gallery’s Portico entrance is ‘The Awakening of the Muses’, a marble mosaic laid in 1933 by the Russian-born artist Boris Anrep (1885-1969).
Between 1928 and 1933, the National Gallery commissioned Anrep to lay two mosaic pavements in the vestibule of the Main Hall to illustrate ‘The Labours of Life’ and ‘The Pleasures of Life’. In 1952, Anrep laid a third pavement, ‘The Modern Virtues’. The resulting mosaics are a celebration of everyday life, which lies underfoot in a busy public place.
Anrep was an associate of the Bloomsbury Group of artists and writers, who notoriously championed modern art and modern attitudes. His Muses are not heavenly immortals, but portraits of people from his own world. Many of the characters are played by Anrep’s Bloomsbury friends. I love that. And the photos dont do justice to the beauty of all these fine old tiles that people walk on and many not even noticing .
Compromise
Rest
Curiosity