9/19/2023 0 Comments Photo theater for windowsHere you can see a photo from a Graduation Ceremony. The students have to wear the University of Oxford’s uniform, the ‘Sub Fusc’ – white shirt, black trousers/skirt, black gown and mortar board hat. Matriculation is when new students are officially added to the ‘Matricula’ or University membership roll and become full members of the University. Have a look at the following picture to see the interior of the Sheldonian during a Matriculation Ceremony. The ceiling was also apparently an allegory celebrating the Restoration of the British Monarchy under Charles II after the years under Oliver Cromwell’s Puritans. If you want to see him, come to Oxford and let us show you the Sheldonian Theatre. Ignorance is a man with snake for hair, who appears below the bottom of this picture. The ceiling was teaching a lesson about the supremacy of truth over the University disciplines and, unfortunately not visible here, it also shows ignorance being expelled. However, the advantage of the painted ceiling was that the sky could be populated with all the representatives of the arts and sciences seated around a cherub representing truth. Christopher Wren was clearly at pains to pretend that there wasn’t really a roof to his building. In Roman theatres, the lack of a roof was compensated by such a cloth, which was pulled across the open roof in inclement weather. Criss-crossing the ceiling are golden ropes. It may not be immediately obvious, but you are looking at a cloud on the background of a blue sky with a red cloth rolled back around it. This consists of 32 panels, painted by Robert Streater, who was the court painter to Charles II. Inside, the theatre is as impressive as it is outside, in particular because of its extraordinary ceiling. This also means that the University of Oxford doesn’t just have one ‘Graduation Day’ but has around 20 per year. It serves for large University gatherings: matriculation and graduation ceremonies and meetings of Congregation, the sovereign body of the University consisting of about 5,500 members – unfortunately, they can’t all come at once, since the Sheldonian today has a capacity of 750 people. This (below) is what the Sheldonian Theatre looks like today. However, the original roof was an impressive structure, all the more so because it spanned 70 foot without using any columns at all. The cupola was also later re-designed by Edward Blore. This was partly because it was to house the Oxford University Press, but the windows proved impractical and leaky and were removed in the 19th century. As you can see, the roof was surrounded by oval windows. This (below) was how the Sheldonian originally looked. Given the notoriously unpredictable and frequently rainy British weather, he decided that building it without one was not an option. His main addition, of course, was a roof. As you can see, he didn’t copy it exactly. So, he looked around for inspiration and found the Theatre of Marcellus in Rome. Wren’s only big project to date had been the chapel of Pembroke College, Cambridge. Sheldon approached Christopher Wren, who was the Savilian Professor of Astronomy and was just at the beginning of his architectural career. On this basis, it seemed reasonable for it to be named after him. He ended up paying for the entire project, around 12x what he had anticipated. Archbishop Sheldon, former student of Trinity College and Chancellor of the University from 1667 to 1669, decided that the University had outgrown the church and pledged some of his own money for a new building. Previously, the University Church had been used for large University gatherings and ceremonies. It was built as a ceremonial and assembly hall for the University of Oxford. One of the most classically-inspired buildings in Oxford is Sir Christopher Wren’s Sheldonian Theatre.
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