A New Image of Mary for Christmas and the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God by Philippe Lefebre

I received this Christmas card from Philippe Lefebvre, whom I met first when I was living in Oxford several years ago. He was interested in learning how to paint icons and went to train with the Russian teacher based in Belgium, Irina Gorbunova-Lomax. He has now completed his training and we can see in this simple card how well Irina (whom I do not know personally at all) has taught him, and how well Philippe has learnt from her. I suggest to you on the evidence of this that first, Philippe should be considered for commissions in your church or home; and second, Irina is very good teacher whom anyone seeking to learn iconography should consider as a possible teacher.

First of all, his style as it is now is similar to his teacher's (you can see her work if you go through the link above). This is as it should be at this stage, just emerging from the school. We train by following the path of past master in our chosen style, copying with understanding under the direction of the teacher. In time, while this will always be at the heart of what he does, I have no doubt that Philippe will start to develop gradually and organically, his own voice in such a way that it magnifies, rather than undermines, the holiness of the images he produces.

Notice how much in this one image we see how the skill of representing of form in line is crucial to icon painting. There is a grace and flow that gives it beauty. The variation in thickness of each line is used adeptly so that each fold of cloth is clearly readable. Many poor icon painters try to hide a lack of drawing ability behind overly exaggerated stylistic flourishes (a bit like the way that many landscape painters might try to hide a lack of skill behind pseudo-impressionistic flourishes in an oil painting). In fact, every good icon painter is a good draughtsman as well. Eech image must read visually so that the cloth looks as though it is draping naturally around a human form. This means that we need to have an acute observation of nature, which is represented in the image and then transformed into the iconographic style without comprising on naturalistic accuracy.

This is a simple image for a Christmas greeting and so Philippe has painted it on card. It is an characteristic stylistic feature of this school to use a coloured base and then let then speak through the painting. The image is simple in form. It relies on a very well drawn line image, that is then skillfully painted so that each line is given a width and slope that is in accord with what is represented. The majority of lines in this painting portray the tonally darkest areas of the form.

Once you have this, then he uses simple, flat and transparent washes to colour in chosen areas. It looks from the photograph that perhaps in the coloration for the Our Lady's robe has a couple of different colours (there is a darker bluish earth colour shining through, I think - certainly it is what I would do if I were painting this). This use of slightly differing tones and colours as transparent glazes, subtly creates a greater luminescence and visual interest  than two washes of identical colours, which looks even but dull and sterile.

For the image of Our Lord  he adds the third element of white highlights, which are simple but skillfully applied with both line and graded tonal work.

The graded tonal work is minimal altogether, other than the highlights I see only the subtlest application of a reddish or purplish tone in the shadows of flesh areas.

The combined effect is one of restraint and sophistication (using the word in a positive sense). Philippe has pared the elements of tonal and colour variation down to the basic constituents - the darks (which are his lines), the mid-tones (which are his flat washes) and the highlights (which are a combination of lights and graded tone in white). All icon images, even those that have far more complex colour schemes and modelling, break down to these three essential elements. Unless you understand how to simplify in this way, I suggest, you won't be able to do the more complicated well.

For those who might struggle to read the detail in his card, Philippe's website is epiphanie-creation.fr

Award Winning Catholic Architecture Student Describes His Inspiration

Incorporating the values of the liturgy into architecture I was delighted to hear again recently from Geoff Yovanovic. I first met Geoff about 4 summers ago when he attended the Way of Beauty summer school. He wanted to learn about classical proportion and design methods and we had an enjoyable time swapping ideas. We have stayed in touch ever since. He went on to study at Notre Dame School of Architecture for his graduate studies and has now graduated from there. I was delighted to learn that he had just won an prestigious award for one of his designs for a plot next to the river at South Bend Indiana. He wrote the following article in which he describes how he tried to make the liturgy the source of inspiration for his design, which I happily reproduce along with pictures of his design, and the award itself.! You can see them all at the link to his website above.

Before we have Geoff's article, here is a view of the site by the river that he was tasked to fill.

Geoff writes:

In the spring of 2012, David Clayton wrote an entry on his The Way of Beauty blog which introduced me to Fr. Jean Corbon’s modern classic The Wellspring of Worship.  This mystical account of the Sacred Liturgy explores beyond the rubrics, and reveals to the reader the Liturgy as the outpouring Love of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for the Church.  This “Cosmic Liturgy”, is the essence of life and worship.  Mr. Clayton first provided me with a fuller understanding of the Liturgy in 2011 when I attended his two week Way of Beauty Atelier at Thomas More College.  During the seminars, we explored how Liturgy was the source of inspiration for art, especially in the secular world, and how art aided us in our participation of the Liturgy.  As a recent graduate from architecture school, this new found truth reinvigorated my passion for design.  The Wellspring of Worship delved even deeper and unveiled even more truths about the Liturgy, and in the end provided the inspiration for an award winning design project.

Shortly after reading Mr. Clayton’s article, I began graduate studies in architecture at the University of Notre Dame.  Almost immediately upon arriving, I took advantage of one of the greatest pleasures on a university campus: the library.  After reading The Wellspring of Worship, I have to admit that while I found some parts captivating, other parts would become more apparent only following a subsequent reading.  Nevertheless, the wealth of imagery throughout the book provided unexpected design inspiration.

In the following spring semester, I had the honor of studying with Thomas Gordon Smith.  Professor Smith is a passionate and gifted architect who has designed many buildings including Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Denton, Nebraska as well as Annunciation Monastery in Clear Creek, Oklahoma.  He is also responsible for transforming the curriculum at Notre Dame which has subsequently produced hundreds of young architects with a renewed appreciation for tradition.  In his studio that Spring, Professor Smith presented to the class a theoretical design assignment for a Franciscan novitiate on a small lot along the St. Joseph River in downtown South Bend.  The trapezoidal site sat eighteen feet below street level, and then plummeted an additional thirty-five feet to the river below.  The proposed novitiate was to house and form fifteen novices.  Among other ancillary spaces, the chapel, the refectory, and the cloister were given significant importance.

Because the site for the novitiate was situated along the river, Corbon’s emphasis on “the river of life,” the mysterious divine communion between the Trinity, brought new vigor to my project.  My imagination was still saturated with the water imagery that Corbon had used throughout his book.  He began his book by introducing “the river of life” found in the final chapter of the book of Revelation:

“Then the angel showed me the river of life, rising from the throne of God and of the Lamb and flowing crystal-clear down the middle of the city street, on either bank of the river were trees of life, which bear twelve crops of fruit in a year, one in each month, and the leaves of which are the cure for the nations.”  (Rev 22:1-2)

Building upon this passage and reinforcing it through additional scripture which referenced water, Corbon explains the symbolism of the ever refreshing waters of the Liturgy, this Trinitarian communion which is the river of life.   This river of life entered our world through the Incarnation and sprung from Christ through the Cross and Resurrection.  

In addition to Corbon’s writing, the Church more directly connects water symbolism and the physical church building through its cycle of readings.  The first reading on the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, the Cathedral of Rome and one of the four Constantinian churches, is taken from Ezekiel:

“Then he brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water flowing out from beneath the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the facade of the temple was toward the east….This water flows into the eastern district down upon the Arabah, and empties into the sea, the salt waters, which it makes fresh.  Wherever the river flows, every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live, and there shall be abundant fish, for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh.”  

These passages poetically present the refreshing waters from the Love of the Trinity found in the Liturgy.   As water can bring about new life in the spiritual sense, it is without argument that it has done so throughout human history.  It is no surprise that, in both spiritual and historical matters,men have continually forsaken God, who is “the source of living waters; [and] they have dug themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that hold no water.” (Jer 2:13)  Throughout man’s history, we find the fall of Rome and the consequentsevering of the ancient aqueducts.  Following centuries saw Rome languish from the once great city into oneoverrun by pastures and grazing animals with a merefraction of the population. Foreshadowing the Renaissance, Pope Nicholas V began what would become a series of public works reconnecting the fountains throughout the city.  But where our water is delivered to us through a series of hidden pipes buried in the dark below the ground, Nicholas celebrated the arrival of water into the city through architecture.  Great monumental fountains sprung up throughout Rome, and  would rush forward with revitalizing waters at the same time that the Renaissance saw the rebirth of Rome from its ancient ruins into the city known today.

As the inspiration for the design of the novitiate drew from scripture’s water imagery and was complemented by man’s history, the architectural design of the project was built upon the historical precedent of the Roman fountain.  Two such fountains, the Aqua Felice and the Aqua Paolo,  were inspired by the ancient Roman Trofei di Mario based upon the three arched triumphal arch motif.  The use of this motif celebrating the arrival of water into the city is easily understood when drawing comparisons to the ancient triumphal arches which were built to celebrate a conquering Roman general’s entry into the city.  Since the legalization of Christianity, the triumphal arch motif has been widely used in the design of churches to represent Christ’s triumph over death.  Few uses have been as successful as Leon Battista Alberti’s design for S. Andrea in Mantua where the triumphal arch is not only prominent on the facade, but is also carried through the interior by the walls of the nave.  The inscription above the three arches in the Renaissance fountains loudly proclaimed the Pontiff responsible for bringing water to Rome.  In the novitiate design, this pompous billboard is replaced with the aforementioned passage from Revelation trumpeting the river of life, the true giver of all refreshing waters.

While the Aqua Paolo inspired the novitiate’s entrance, the architecture of the novitiate worked within the traditions and lessons of great masters of architecture such as Raphael, Francesco Borromini, and Guarino Guarini.  From studying the domes of Raphael at the Chigi Chapel and at Saint Eligio of Orefici, to studying the movement as well as proportions and room sizes of Borromini, and finally the spatial manipulation of Guarini, the design was strongly influenced through many of the ideas evident in the Baroque.

Architecture has always had the ability to communicate to man.  Even today where much of art is intentionally meaningless, it still provides a glimpse of ourselves. We still recognize the strength and solidity of a stone building, the soaring aspirations of a Gothic spire, and even the emptiness and temporality of shocking contemporary structures.  The South Bend novitiate design project was an opportunity to explore the design possibilities within the idea of the “river of life.”  One exploration was through the use of the Renaissance fountain.   As Corbon explains, the river of life is the  Liturgy which wells forth into our world and flesh through Jesus Christ.  He is a “fountain to purify from sin and uncleanness.” (Zech 13:1)

And finally, In October, I received an award from the Florida Chapter of the Institute of Classical Art and Architecture for this design project.  The Addison Mizner Medal, whose namesake was a Palm Beach architect in the early half of the 20th Century, is presented each year in a variety of different categories ranging from Residential projects over 4,000 square feet to landscape architecture.  The South Bend Novitiate was awarded with the Emerging Classicist medal for a project completed by a student.

The Landscapes of John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent (1856 - 1925) may well be the last great artist in the academic tradition. He was an American, born in Florence in Italy and who spent much of his life in Europe. He was prolific, painting hundreds of oil paintings and thousands of watercolours and sketches. Painting alongside the Impressionists (and sometimes referred to as one) he has clearly incorporated their sense of shimmering light. He copes well with sunlight and shadow and the balance between general impression and focus on particular detail (especially in regard to foliage). His compositional style is affected, again like the Impressionists, by Japanese landscape prints, and so he generally provides a focus in the foreground, large and near to the viewer. Although, as I mentioned, he is often grouped with the Impressionists, in my opinion he is superior because he retains that balance of focus and soft edge that one associates with a baroque style (the Impressionist tending towards an even blurr). The spontaneity of his watercolours is wonderful and because the medium forces him to summarise far more, it gives us an insight into how he looked at what was in front of him.

Interestingly, Sargent had no faith at all, to my knowledge. He is one of those people who just seems to have been naturally open to inspiration in his painting. God inspires whomsoever He pleases!

Sargent was a very popular society portrait painter and his focus on the personalities of those he paints always comes through. His more conventional portraits, incidentally are wonderful too, and you can see why he was in demand, but that’s for another day.

Corfu

Graveyard

Venice

Vespers

Interview With Catholic Composer George Sarah

Here is an interview with composer George Sarah, someone I have written about before on this site. It is a fascinating account of his conversion from atheism after a near death experience in a car crash in which Our Lady played a great part. He also talks about his devotion to the Latin Mass and his work in promoting it in Hollywood. George really is a figure who is engaging with contemporary culture in an unusual way. He is aware of the Catholic cultural tradition and incorporates this into what he does, and he is reaching many many people with his music. He has released 10 albums and is part of the Hollywood establishment, writing many TV and film scores. He thinks very carefully about the form of his music and how his faith might inform it. He is not composing music for the liturgy, but is aware of how contemporary culture ought in some way to be derived from it and point to it. He cites numerous influences and if I were to characterize what he does it is a sort of mixture of baroque, Erik Satie and 80s drum 'n' bass. To give you a sense of it, when he performs his music he will set up the electronic instruments and rhythm generators and hire a string quartet to play with him to whom he hands the score.. It's an eclectic mix that produces something original ...drums n bass n violins

This interview is in Regina Magazine which is interested as well in his devotion to the Latin Mass. You can read the interview here, and hear music at his FB page here.

http://reginamag.com/hollywood-traditional-latin-mass/

https://www.facebook.com/GeorgeSarahMusic

Composer on composer - Roman Hurko reviews Paul Jernberg's Mass of St Philip Neri

When listening to, and singing Paul Jernberg's music for the liturgy, I am excited by a number of things. This music is accessible to the ear - it has beauty and dignity appropriate to the Mass in my opinion, so without compromising on traditional principles I have noticed that even congregations who are not schooled in traditional chant and polyphony enjoy it.

It is also, I discovered, accessible for the singer - I would say that most parish choirs could sing this well (although not all perhaps as beautifully as the professional choir on the CD). I could also hear different influences in his style, especially liturgical music for the Eastern rite. Nevertheless it seems wholly appropriate for the Roman rite for which this is written. I was curious therefore to know of the opinion of an established composer in the Eastern rite, Roman Hurko, so I asked him what he thought about it and, if he liked it, would he write a review of it for us.

Roman writes for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic liturgy. I have put a recording of his music at the bottom of this article along with some of Paul's music. You can hear more at www.romanhurko.com and if you want to purchase his music on iTunes, then the link is here.

Roman wrote as follows:

'Composer Paul Jernberg has composed a new setting of the Roman Catholic Mass for a cappella choir. It was recorded this past summer with the Schola Cantorum of St. Peter the Apostle in Chicago under the direction of Maestro J. Michael Thompson, and is now available for purchase at: www.pauljernberg.com

'I find this Mass setting very beautiful; very contemplative. As a composer from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic church tradition, I feel very much at home in its aesthetic, one that I would characterize as eschewing the harshness of electric light in favor of the soft glow emanating from candlelight.

'As in the Eastern church tradition, this Mass setting is sung completely from A – Z by priest, choir, and readers. Mr. Jernberg’s musical transitions between priest and choir are stylistically coherent and seamless. I would recommend that all young composers study Mr. Jernberg’s organic setting, as I have often found it jarring when a priest sings chant and is then responded to by the choir in a completely different musical style.

'Another eastern rite similarity is the use of a melody over an ison, or drone. This essentially monophonic device is complemented in this setting by polyphonic consonant harmonies, with a judicious use of suspensions and appoggiaturas, often ending with stern, medieval sounding open fifth chords. However, no matter the harmonic texture, the text of the prayers is always clear to the listener (kudos to Maestro Thompson and his choir!), and is always served beautifully by the music. Clearly, Mr. Jernberg was guided in his compositional process by the principle of Noble Simplicity, and although there are similarities to the Eastern polyphonic style in this setting, it is clearly grounded in the greatness of the Western tradition.

'Finally, in a mere forty years, the year 2054 will mark the millennium of the Great Schism between the ‘two lungs’ of the church: Eastern and Western. To my mind, Mr. Jernberg’s setting helps bring these two traditions closer together. Kudos to Mr. Jernberg and kudos to the Schola Cantorum of St. Peter the Apostle under the direction of Maestro Thompson!'

A couple of notes: when Mr Hurko refers to the 'polyphony' of Paul's music I understand that he is using the word in the broadest sense ie 'many sounds' rather than the narrower meaning some will be used to, which refers to the form of music dominated by counterpoint as in for example, the polyphony of the High Renaissance. Some might use the word 'h0mophony' to apply to Paul's music instead.

Also, if anyone like me didn't know, an appoggiatura is a non-harmonic tone that happens on a strong beat or strong emphasis in the melody and ultimately resolves into the main note. Paul uses these judiciously, but in way that adds greatly to the beauty of the overall piece. Without knowing the technical word, I could hear that he was momentarily 'stepping out', so to speak, in order add to the sense of resolution when he steps back in again at the end of a phrase.

Below we have the Our Father from Paul Jernberg's Mass and below that Holy God from Roman Hurko's Liturgy No.3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-0r5glY104

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdyGJUinKGE

New Coloring Book for Children on the Sacred Heart of Jesus

New book highlights the importance of devotions in a liturgically centered piety? This is a book intended to help teach about this great Catholic devotion. One hopes also that it might reawaken an interest in a few of the grown up parents as well as their children! It is written by Dr William Fahey, president of Thomas More College of Liberal Arts and who has dedicated the college to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Illustrations are by myself.

Devotions are very important in the Catholic lexicon of prayer and they play a large part in forming the culture of faith which is the springboard of all culture. A well balanced prayer life has liturgical piety at its heart, but has also-liturgical prayer, devotional prayer and personal prayer. The non-liturgical elements should be ordered so that in the prayer life of the person, each relates to the other and each is derived from and points to this liturgical center. In this way they act as another part of that spiritual bridge between Sacred Liturgy and those aspects of liturgy, considered in its broadest meaning - completing the work of God, which involve love of God through love of neighbor.

The book costs only $7 and is available from the Sophia Institute Press website here.

The Real Eden Project - Liturgy and Ecology

Here is an article taken from the Orthodox Arts Journal which appears to be consistent with the ideas that I have proposed about the connection of the garden to the liturgy

This was sent to me by reader James Morgan (thank you James!). It is one of a series of called An Icon of the Kingdom of God - the Integrated Expression of all the Liturgical Arts (h/t James Morgan). It is written by Andrew Gould the architect (and it seems garden designer).

This is right in line also with my own thoughts on the importance cultivating for beauty; that a proper ecology is one in which man, by God's grace, manages the environment by working harmoniously with it. As a result he builds it up to what it ought to be which, as a general rule, is greater and more beautiful than it is as untouched wilderness. Accordingly gardening is in some way recreating Eden, or even the paradise of the redeemed world (which perhaps some might consider to be very similar but perhaps not exactly the same thing).

There is a hierarchy. Well farmed land is more beautiful than the wilderness it replaced. And then a garden cultivated for the contemplation of its beauty is more elevated still. So in my mind, it is more noble thing to grow flowers in your back garden than to grow vegetables...or keep chickens.

Read the article here...

The pictures below are taken from the article:

The flower garden of the Stretensky Monastery, Moscow

Western European style with the cross-in-square archetype of paradise in the Alcazar, Cordoba, Spain

Byzantine courtyard athe Kaisariani Monastery, Greece

St Anthony's Monastery, Egypt

Medieval style garden designed by the author in South Carolina

The following photographs are of the gardens of the Alhambra palace in Granada in southern Spain.

Recently Commissioned Relief Carving of St Vincent de Paul

Another heartening example of parishioners and priest working together to commission sacred art

Thank you to Fr Riley Williams who recently contacted me to tell me of the commissioning of a triptych of the patron of his church in Attleboro, Massachusetts. This relief carving of St Vincent de Paul has just been installed. It is fine piece carved by Jonathan Pageau (who will very likely be known to NLM readers). Once again this is a great example of priest and congregation working together constructively to commission good quality sacred art. Fr Williams has written a detailed explanation of the contents on the parish newsletter which I encourage you to read, here. The work is the focal point of a shrine to St Vincent in the church itself.

When St Pope John Paul II called for a dialogue between artists and the Church in his Letter for Artists, in 1999, one could have interpreted that as a call for conferences in the Vatican attended by prominent clerics and world famous artists, from which policy statements and newspaper articles might ensue. Well, that may be so, but if those events have any value, it is to the degree that they inspire the sort of dialogue that really produce results: right down at the grassroots and comprising personal conversations between an artist, priest and people, all pulling together to a common goal.

When each works together to produce something worthwhile for themselves and future generations then I am heartened that we are starting to see the beginning of a cultural renewal.

15th Century Wall Paintings Uncovered in a Small Welsh Church

I am indebted to reader Gina Switzer. for bringing to my notice this story of the uncovering of wall paintings in St Cadoc's, Llancarfan in the Vale of Glamorgan, south Wales. Experts were called in after the architect noticed a single red line high up close to the rafters on a wall where a tiny patch of an estimated 27 layers of whitewash had fallen away from the plaster underneath. Gradually the whitewash was removed to reveal on one side of the church a large, floor-to-ceiling painting of St George and the dragon, and pictorial portrayals of the seven deadly sins. The church was found on the site of a monastery around 1200 and these painting are thought to date from the late 15th century, largely because of the dress of the figures which is contemporary to that period. The photo top left is of avarice and the other details are of St George and the princess.

As usual, what strikes me about this is how during this gothic period the whole church was covered with imagery.

BBC Wales has a video describing the restoration here.

Above: the exterior of the church and, below, the interior before, during and after restoration

Wonderful Sculpture of Archangel Michael by Cody Swanson

Shortly after posting images of the work of Cody Swanson for the first time just a few weeks ago, NLM reader Robert Ramirez sent me photos of another newly commissioned work and unveiled in time for the vigil of the Feast of St Michael on September 28th.. Again, I see in this the strongly emphasized, deep cut lines in the drapery (in the manner of Bernini) which give it strength and vigour and sufficient idealization in the features in the face to stop it from looking like a portrait of one of the neighbour's children dressed up in theatrical clothing (this is something that is difficult to avoid incidentally.) What is particularly heartwarming about this project is that it was paid for entirely by the voluntary subscriptions of a considerable number of interested parishioners and friends.

More information about Cody Swanson and his work is available at codyswansonsculpture.com/.

Robert describes the sculpture as follows: 'The statue, commissioned together with its plinth by members and friends of a parish in the southern United States, represents the Archangel as an eschatological figure: standing atop the serpent – a reminder of primeval victory vouchsafed to Michael, which prefigured the definitive victory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Archangel appears as an actor in the Eucharistic liturgy, bearing to the heavenly altar the Victim present upon all the altars of this world.

In his right hand he holds a standard with the Trisagion, the “Holy Holy Holy” eternally repeated by the angels surrounding the heavenly throne. In his left hand he presents a paten bearing the image of the Holy Face of Manopello, unveiled for presentation to the Father. It’s the Holy Face that’s the hinge and focus of the entire composition, presented before the unseen heavenly altar where Michael’s attention and devotion are focused.'

I have been asked for various reasons not name the parish publically at this point, but any who are interested in more information can contact Mr Robert Ramirez at bobbyr@1st-lake.com.