The Most Reverend Joe S. Vasquez, Bishop of the Diocese of
Austin, dedicated a record-setting mosaic dome at St. John Neumann Roman
Catholic Church in Austin on September 11th, 2016. The awe-inspiring,
seventy-two foot round mosaic dome (comprised of over 30,000,000 intricate
pieces) was installed by an international team of artisans and is the crown
jewel of a new 37,000 square-foot sacred space promoting the theme,
“Trinity through the Cross.” For nearly a decade, Liturgical Design Consultant
Rolf Rohn of Rohn & Associates Design, Inc., worked faithfully with
Pastor Fr. Bud Roland and his parish Art & Environs Committee to
advance a liturgically correct sacred plan that would inspire participation in
their faith-based community dedicated to serving those in need and emphasize
the liturgical characteristics of the exquisite modern Renaissance-inspired
artwork.
Rolf guided the design process through the A&E
Committee and various parishioners so he could align everyone’s ideas and
create a fluid liturgical design for the entire church and related support
spaces. The focus of his preliminary drawings was to modify the style of the
church to better fit into the city and property limitations. The vaulted design
provides ideal liturgical harmony that inspires the faithful. Once the style
was finalized, the team focused on amplifying the relationship between the
people of God in the past, present, and future through the meticulous use of
space and art.
In addition to interior architectural and liturgical harmony
within the sanctuary, Rolf introduced congregation-friendly seating and
intricately patterned stone mosaic-tiled aisles to provide an enhanced sense of
community gathering around the altar, which promotes deeper participation in
the liturgy. The crown jewel of the project was a more elaborate dome with
powerful imagery in mosaic that would become the focal point of the main theme,
which ties the hand-carved
9’
crucifix, massive marble altar table, and reserved Eucharist tabernacle into
the Lord's Prayer.
The dome itself is the result of twenty-four months of meticulous planning and design development. Rolf engaged Monsignor James P. Moroney, Rector of St. John Seminary, Archdiocese of Boston, as a liturgical consultant who was tasked with developing the theological characteristics of the dome, which features the heavenly kingdom of God, the victorious lamb, Four Evangelists, four Eucharistic scenes, the Lord’s Prayer, and four archangel pendentives. Rolf, along with Rohn Custom Studio Artist Renate Rohn (who originally conceptualized the dome with the A & E Committee), Liturgical Designer Kathy Maglicco, and Designer Maria Hubbard, directed the dome project from concept into a full-blown theological drama of the St. John Neumann church history.
The preliminary design and research phase took eight months
to complete. Rolf developed the specifications and recommended Florence-based
Mellini Art Glass and Mosaics studio to create the full-size drawings and ultimately the
final mosaic fabrication and installation. Studio owner Massimo Mellini hand-picked
the renowned Italian religious artist Romano Cosci—whose
work also adorns the Vatican—to complete the final details and the life-sized
drawings for what was to become one of his final works.
In Pietrasanta, Italy—a town where Michelangelo once
worked—a mock dome wall was constructed in a warehouse that precisely
matched the size and curvature of St. John Neumann’s dome. Early on during the
construction phase, all measurements and proportions were taken by Massimo and
Mellini’s dedicated US representative Francesca Lofaro in order to create a
faithful replica of the actual size of the dome in the Florence studio.
The process of making the full-size drawings started with special
paper that was used as the initial backing for the mosaic tiles and hung from the mock wall. As he sketched, Maestro
Cosci used a huge rolling scaffold to reach
each critical point of the drawing area. In places that could not be
reached, he used charcoal taped to the end of a long pole.
Once the drawings were completed, a crew of Mellini mosaic
artists working with the A & E Committee and Rolf’s team chose 1,300
specific colors and shades of smalti glass mosaic tiles, from which the dome
would come to life. Working in the warehouse in Pietrasanta, Mellini’s team
hand-chiseled
and cemented over ten million pieces of mosaic tile onto the drawings. This
painstaking process took ten artists nearly thirty-six months to complete.
Rolf collaborated on the final phase of the project with
Mellini, orchestrating the many complex aspects required to install this breathtaking work of art. The installation, removal of the scaffolding, and
lighting implementation was coordinated by Joanne Senn, pastoral associate at
St. John Neumann, who worked on the project from fabrication to its completion.
The dome mosaic will enjoy the distinction of being the largest mosaic of its
kind in Texas, as well as the one of the ten largest in the United States.
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