• INTRO
  • RESTORATION
  • HISTORY
  • ARCHITECTURE
  • GALLERY

  • ceiling
  • glass
  • light
  • marble
  • metal
  • mosaic
  • organ
  • wood
Hildreth Meière was commissioned with the design of the mosaics that adorn the areas on which the main decorative treatment of the Sanctuary was focused - the ark and bimah. The Emanu-El commission brought her into a creative partnership with the Berlin-based Ravenna Mosaic Company. Meière's detailed sketches were turned into full-scale outlined designs, known as cartoons, which were covered with an adhesive onto which the pieces of glass and tile were laid. The tiled cartoons were then affixed directly to the wall. The entire project was overseen by Gerhard Wagner, director of the Ravenna Mosaic Company in the United States.
Photos by Sam Calello, Calello Photography
Meière, a distinguished Art Deco muralist, mosaicist, painter, and decorative artist, ranks among the very small number of women whose achievements gained the recognition of the established art world during the first half of the twentieth century. She became the country's leading practitioner of the art of mosaic, and one of America's most gifted embellishers of architectural environments. In New York, her designs include the Art Deco plaques on the exterior wall of Radio City Music Hall, and her work can also be found in St. Patrick's Cathedral, St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church, and The Bank of New York at One Wall Street.

For Emanu-El, Meière incorporated Jewish imagery into the eight-story-high arch encasing the bimah. One can find images of a Torah, menorah, Eternal Light, wedding canopy, Star of David, shofar (ram's horn), and a tallit (prayer shawl); at the apex of the arch is a creation scene depicting the separation of the sky from the sea. In her designs, Meiere stylized many of the elements of Art Nouveau into new forms that would eventually become known as Art Deco. Her mosaics feature rich jewel-tones and shimmering gold, and representational images combine with abstracted geometric and organic patterns to create an elegant and complex style.

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