In March 2024, we completed the first phase of our plan of works, revealing once again the stunning paintings of the life of St Aloysius in our sanctuary.
The two large murals, painted by Gabriel Pippet in the first decade of the twentieth century, depict the life of St Aloysius Gonzaga, the patron of our church. With vibrant colours, gold leaf and exquisite pattern, the paintings represent some of the finest decoration of the Catholic Arts and Crafts movement.
These wall paintings now unlock the details of colours and patterns used by Pippet throughout the sanctuary, and as we cannot begin other major works until the decorative scheme is in hand, this project has been key to the whole restoration.
While we knew the Oratory church once had beautiful painted decoration, we had no real sense of the extent of it. A search in the Jesuit archives led to a remarkable discovery. There in a faded photograph were displayed the delicate lines and depth of detail characteristic of Gabriel Pippet’s work. In November 2022, we began a period of investigation into the Pippet decoration with the help of Cliveden Conservation, one of the UK’s leading experts in the conservation of historic wall paintings. After just an hour, small panels of colour, details of stencilling, gilding and the faces of the saints looked out from the murals once more onto the sanctuary of our church. They were in excellent condition beneath the layers of modern paint.
The first scene shows St Aloysius’ first Holy Communion at the hands of St Charles Borromeo on the left. On the right, St Aloysius receives his father’s blessing to renounce his inheritance and join the Society of Jesus.
Around the scenes are IHS and SA monograms, representing the Holy Name of Jesus and “St Aloysius”.
Underneath the layers of grey paint, we discovered there was actually a pretty serious crack in the plaster on this side. It’s not even possible to see where it was now, thanks to the excellent work by the conservators.
The next scene show St Aloysius’ professing his vows as a member of the Society of Jesus. Unusually for a scene from a saint’s life, it depicts Aloysius with his back to us. This highlights his turning his back on the world to serve Christ alone. Jesuits make their vows during Mass directly to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament just before Communion. A particular highlight of these murals can be seen in the beautiful detail of the acolyte’s candle, where the flame is depicted by a star in gold leaf.
The final scene shows St Aloysius on his death bed aged 23, having caught the plague from those he had been nursing.
As well as the stunning scenes from St Aloysius’s life, this work has unlocked some of the general patterns that continued in other parts of the sanctuary. Notice how the leaf and vine pattern actually continues the mouldings above the reredos statues. It also ties in with the gold decoration behind the tabernacle and crucifix, and the brass railings beside the lecterns, showing us how the original decoration of our sanctuary all came together.
This work enables us now to reconstruct the decoration of the rest of the sanctuary, which has not survived under the modern paint in the same way as these murals, suffering from damp and flaking plaster over the years.
It is astonishing how quickly Cliveden Conservation were able to uncover these paintings that had been lost for 60 years. Thank you to all our generous benefactors who made it possible to begin this work so quickly.
The elusive Mr Pippet
The relatively unknown artist, Gabriel Pippet, was born in Solihull in 1880 where he died in 1962. Influenced by his own family of Catholic artists, he also drew inspiration from the Pre-Raphaelites, the Arts and Crafts Movement, Byzantine decorative arts and Western medieval manuscripts.
Between 1913 and 1917 he became influential in wider Catholic artistic circles, illustrating books and taking commissions for churches. From 1922 to 1933, Pippet undertook his largest commission yet: the design and decoration of mosaics and wood carvings at the church of the Sacred Heart and Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Droitwich. His earliest ecclesiastical work was, however, St Aloysius’ Church, Oxford. From 1905 to 1907 he was engaged by the Jesuit fathers to decorate our Sacred Heart Chapel and the Sanctuary. In 1913, he painted the beautiful Paleo-Christian murals in our relic chapel.
