Renaissance Room
Considered by many to be the crowning achievement of the restoration project, the Renaissance Room may well be the most beautiful lodge room in the Masonic world. Its color and scope are breathtaking, from the restored original murals (depicting the seven muses, the four cardinal virtues, Athena, and Apollo) painted on canvas and placed in arched recesses around the ceiling, to the marbleizing (faux marble) of wall panels with alternating emerald and burgundy coloring. These are surmounted with marbleized rondels, surrounded by copper, silver and gold leaf shadings.
The ceiling murals are also painted on plaster as are the surrounding rectangles and triangles, which are filled with representations of clouds, fruits, flowers, winged creatures.
In the East, the stained glass windows are in the style of Lewis Comfort Tiffany, and may have been crafted by this world-famous artisan. The principal designer, Felix Chavez, developed a process of leafing that was used in most of the restored rooms, and extensively in this room. Essentially, it involved applying a liquid adhesive to the surface to which is quickly pressed aluminum leaf or Dutch metal leaf (which looks like gold leaf, but contains no gold). This is then covered with a glaze comprising multiple layers of varnish tinted with a two per cent Japan pigment, sometimes with several layers of tints. A similar glazing technique, used for antiquing scrolls and brackets, employs sienna tints over semigloss white enamel paint.
