Missions Accomplished - #2 & #3!

You may recall that two of those missions I was determined to accomplish while in Manila were:

1) (actually #2) see the 3-D reliefs on the ceiling of San Agustin.

2) (actually #3) see the stained glass windows in Manila Cathedral.

Missions accomplished.

Please judge for yourself, however here's what I think:

SAN AGUSTIN'S CEILING!

San Agustin!

1) The 3-D reliefs of San Agustin were great, although not GREAT!  I have seen two trompe d'oeil ceilings that are better, although both of those were in Rome - one a Cardinal's palace and the other ... gosh, St Stephens' Basilica? - both of which are beyond breath-taking.

A small sample  of San Agustin's:

OK, looking at this photos now, I see I've misjudged because they really are amazing!  Honestly, I'm just too too critical, aren't I!

And I do have the story behind this trompe e'oeil someplace but can't lay my hands on it at this moment, although I do recall it was painted by two priests and a young Filipino boy, who went on to become a famous artist in his own right, back in the 16th - or was it 17th? - century.

MANILA CATHEDRAL'S WINDOWS!

 Manila Cathedral!

2) The stained glass windows in Manila Cathedral are completely stunning. In fact, let's throw in breath-taking, amazing, GREAT!  Yes, everything you've ever been told about the beauty of the glass is correct. I kept running back to take photos of ones I'd already photographed because the light had changed slightly and they were again different. Really quite astonishing!

If you know the story of the glass in these windows, it was - or so I've been told - The Vatican's attempt to reproduce the glass in the windows of Chartre's Cathedral in France, the casting of which is meant to be all sorts of "De Vinci Code" secret mystical voodoo-type stuff, a secret procedure that was meant to be kept out of Vatican hands etc, etc.

Anyway, after Manila was so brutally destroyed during WWII, with just about every building flattened and so many 100s of thousands of lives lost, The Vatican offered to rebuild this particular Cathedral exactly according to the original blue-prints, which they did - thank you Vatican! - but, as a special treat and acknowledging the vast level of suffering the Filipinos had gone through, they attempted to give the place very special windows with exceptionally beautiful stained glass ... and so chose to make the best examples of the glass they'd come up with during their experiments to find out exactly how the Chartre's Cathedral's glass was made.

It would be interesting, wouldn't it, to assay samples of the Chartre's glass and the Manila glass to find out how close The Vatican came to getting it right!

Anyway, here's a small sample of the stained glass in Manila Cathedral, although I must warn you that my limited camera skills hardly do it justice:

 Not so stunning, yes! 

But the fault is mine!

Let me try again!

 Window and close-up detail!

And two photos showing how the light kept changing?

 OK, I haven't done these windows justice.  It's so difficult choosing from thumb-nails.  OK, I'll go through them on large and select my favourites then ... although you will have to wait for them!

So, that's it for now!  Two missions down!  And, yes, more still to come!