The Art of the Craft – part 1
W Bro Vinny Cochrane writes
Freemasonry is influenced by the arts in every form – most obviously the theatrical spectacle of our ceremonies. These are beautiful performances which have the precision and poise of dance. Music is also integral, and good organists introduce the occasional comic riff (I once heard a Grand Inspector piped in to the Star Wars Imperial March, aka Darth Vader’s theme).
Undoubtedly the epicentre of Masonry’s relationship to creativity is Grand Lodge, where so many treasures are housed. London is spoilt in this respect. In this dispatch, I will give a general survey of some of its more curious creations.
The most obvious starting point is the building itself, amusingly described by one friend of mine as “a beast of a thing”. The architectural style is immediately arresting because it is mostly art-deco; and despite its cathedral scale, is strikingly modernist in flavour. Thus, it is, if not entirely secular, religiously neutral. Its great tower dominates Great Queen Street, announcing 1717 as our foundation date. The current site was designed by Henry Victor Ashley and F. Winton Newman and completed in 1933 after six years of building.
It is melancholy to reflect that it was intended as a memorial to the Great War, but very shortly afterwards it could add an even more horrifying conflict to its commemorative duty. It is widely known that European Freemasons were brutally suppressed.
Now, to the Museum. This place is a time-capsule of breathtaking oddities. The first thing most visitors notice is an implausibly large throne. This gargantuan piece of upholstery dates from 1791. It was made for the then Prince Regent, Prince of Wales, who became George IV after his benighted father died. Renowned for his extravagance and profligacy, I’m not sure if the mega-throne was commissioned by himself, as Grand Master, or if Grand Lodge simply predicted his grand ambitions and made it as a kind of rib on his reputation for excess. The average size of men in the 1700s was significantly smaller than today, so his legs would have dangled off the edge. In any case, it’s a splendid piece of Masonic art, and one thinks it will remain a centrepiece of the Museum’s collection forever.
Next comes the Kent Room. This is a significant piece of theatrical mise-en-scene. Visitors mostly know, in an imaginary sense, what a Lodge room looks like. But will they ever see one? This makes it possible. A very fine portrait of George VI presides over this small window into the set-up of a room. Finely-carved seats for the Officers are there, plus the columns and the texts.
Residing in one corner of the room is a large bust of our Grand Master from whom this room takes its name: the Duke of Kent. Any visitor seeing this theatrical set would surely think they would like to belong to Freemasonry; it is an oxymoron – at once private and open. The room is a 3-dimensional painting of what the society represents, offers, and gives.
The Library reminds me of my days as a student. Not just the books and oak-panels and reverential silence. It has a very high ceiling with a gallery, ranged around with old thrones and cabinets with ancient engravings; sequestered exhibition texts which are so protected, you’d think a human finger would make them collapse into dust.
For those who mistake Freemasonry as a private, clandestine organisation, you might be surprised that a commercial ceramics operation began in the 18th Century, domesticating the society through very fine china and teacups, all viewable in the museum, as well as silverware and other dining accoutrements in London society circles. And so, one must say, Freemasonry has never been a “closed shop”.
At the end of this first dispatch on Masonry’s relationship with the arts, it’s easy to say that it has been both powerful and demotic, as befits Freemasonry’s inclusive nature. From the grand to the domestic, Freemasons have always been, deep down, poets of life.
This article is part of the Arena Magazine, Issue 56 Winter 2024 edition.
Arena Magazine is the official magazine of the London Freemasons – Metropolitan Grand Lodge and Metropolitan Grand Chapter of London.
Read more articles in the Arena Issue 56 here.
