Monday 23 January 2017

Belgrade Theatre Relief Panel

Belgrade Theatre
Exterior Wall - facing Corporation Street


This large relief panel was created and designed 
in 1958 by James C Brown, sculpture.

Below is a full description I found in records of the
Public Monuments & Sculptures Association's
website which I quote.... 

'Sculptured concrete panel over the main entrance to the Belgrade Theatre symbolising the city of Belgrade and is based on a 1684 engraving by Giacomo de Rossi.  The relief shows a fortress on a hill above a walled city, surrounded by the river Danube. The city arms and its name in Cyrillic script on a banner are at the top of the relief. The dark colour of the textured panel provides a visual interruption form the smoothness of the surrounding windows. The relief shows a fortress on a hill above a walled city, which is surrounded by a river. At the top left, the city's coat of arms appear and at top right, its name is shown on a banner in Cyrillic script. The city is presumably Belgrade, given the name of the theatre. 

James Brown was asked by the city architect to design and make the relief. The Yugoslav Embassy was consulted about the project, and they supplied the Giacomo de Rossi engraving upon which Brown based his design. Brown first made the relief in brick clay and then had it cast in cement fondu with Penmaenware granite chippings for aggregate. 

The theatre was named after the Yugoslav city as a gesture of friendship between the two cities and in recognition of a gift of timber to furnish the interior of the building.'

Apologies for a large amount of text, but
I thought it best to quote the full description.




The Belgrade Theatre is a live performance theatre, seating 858 people.
The Belgrade was the first civic theatre to be built after WWII in Britain.

Participating in Monday Mural


14 comments:

Gunn said...

What a nice and interesting posting.
Love all the colours, sunshine and shade in the second image.

Lowell said...

Well, this is a most interesting post. A first, I thought maybe you were vacationing in Serbia! But you made it all make sense! That's quite a panel. Thanks, too, for your kind comments on Ocala; they are very much appreciated!

Sharon said...

It's a beautiful relief and great information about the piece.

Tom said...

...very nice!

RedPat said...

I thought you were on holidays too! I hope people notice this piece.

Bev said...

That piece looks great!!

William Kendall said...

Great work on that piece!

Fun60 said...

That's a very interesting find. Good research skills.

Tanya Breese said...

what a great panel and i love the warmth and sunshine in the 2nd photo!

Petrea Burchard said...

What a beautiful thing! I could look at it all day.

Bill said...

A very impressive panel and some great research. Well done! Thanks for the well wishes concerning my cataract surgery. It went well and I'm back home now.

Oakland Daily Photo said...

Beautiful panel. The shadows falling across it give even more depth and texture. Thanks for contributing to this week's Monday Mural.

Merisi said...

Very interesting!
No apologies needed, it really helps to read the information to fully understand what this relief is all about. Thank you!

Jack said...

This is such an interesting tale. Otherwise, how would we know of a connection between (the former) Yugoslavia and Coventry?