Paul Nash War Artist

Paul Nash 1889 - 1946

We are making a New World

1918

Oil on canvas

711 x 914 mm

Imperial War Museum, London

Nash was an official British war artist in the two great conflicts of the twentieth century: 1914-1918; and 1939 - 1945

At this time Nash was an rtist involved in the Symbolist movement

The biting satire of the title of the image above is clearly evident from this work and others by Nash executed at this time

In light of subsequent events, the satire is quite prophetic

In the image below we see the reality of the horrific damage of war this time in Inverness Copse in Belgium (near Ypres) where two bombed out abandoned British tanks can be seen

Paul Nash 1889 - 1946

Inverness Copse

1919

Watercolour and charcoal on paper

246 x 356 mm

Imperial War Museum, London

In war  paintings we think of the horrendous loss of life first and foremost. As it should be.

However one might think that the destruction to the country landscape was of no moment

However as a distinguished landscape painter Nash knew that the landscape  destroyed was the work of over a thousand years of the labour of mankind in tilling a wild landscape to agricultural purposes.

South of the Alps, Saint Pope Pius X died in 1914 and Pope Benedict XV was elected Pope. In November 1914 he issued his first Encyclical Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum (1st November 1914) which in many ways was also quite prophetic in view of the fact that many still thought that the conflict was going to be a short war and not very different from those which had preceded it

" On every side the dread phantom of war holds sway: there is scarce room for another thought in the minds of men. The combatants are the greatest and wealthiest nations of the earth; what wonder, then, if, well provided with the most awful weapons modern military science has devised, they strive to destroy one another with refinements of horror. 

There is no limit to the measure of ruin and of slaughter; day by day the earth is drenched with newly-shed blood, and is covered with the bodies of the wounded and of the slain. 

Who would imagine as we see them thus filled with hatred of one another, that they are all of one common stock, all of the same nature, all members of the same human society? Who would recognize brothers, whose Father is in Heaven? 

Yet, while with numberless troops the furious battle is engaged, the sad cohorts of war, sorrow and distress swoop down upon every city and every home; day by day the mighty number of widows and orphans increases, and with the interruption of communications, trade is at a standstill; agriculture is abandoned; the arts are reduced to inactivity; the wealthy are in difficulties; the poor are reduced to abject misery; all are in distress."

A rather mysterious Madonna della Pace

Antonio Rizzi (1869-1940)

Madonna della Pace

1927

Oil on canvas

Gallery of Modern Art, Pitti Palace, Florence

Antonio Rizzi, the Italian symbolist and then later Liberty artist was responsible for a number of patriotic mosaics added to the Victor Emmanuel Monument in Rome after the First World War: La Pace, il Libero pensiero, L' Unione, La Legge, Il Valore

He embraced the Risorgimento

He reflects a society going from largely agrarian to industrial. But his sympathies are with the people of the countryside

His work is largely theatrical in nature

There is an ambiguity and mysteriousness to this depiction of the Madonna della Pace

Confessionale

St Antoninus of Florence (1389-1459)

Confessionale "Defecerunt ... Scrutantes aliorum peccata sunt confessores" (Prologue)

1474

Bavarian State Library, Munich

The Observant Dominican reformer St Antonino (or Antoninus) was Archbishop of Florence from 1446 until his death in 1459.

Pope Pius II himself   presided over the funeral and his cause was promoted by Pope Adrian VI (who died) but was then canonised by his successor Clement VII in 1523 

Amongst other great works, he wrote a number of manuals for confessors (one in Latin and three in Italian) containing abridgments or extracts from his magnum opus, the Summa Theologica Moralis. All are distinguished by their opening words

The text discusses the powers of the confessor, the seven deadly sins, the manner of interrogating people of different status, and absolution and imposition of penance

Here is another of the works on penance by St Antoninus (1473) on the Library website of the University of Cologne

And another on the website of the library of the University at Darmstadt

He was regarded as a saint almost from the moment of his death

He was one of the great masters of what we would now call pastoral theology. He was no mystic. His advice is down to earth and full of common sense.

The Florentine humanist Ugolini Verrini wrote of him:

"In our time there was Antonino, celebrated as a new Thomas Aquinas, because of his character, his exemplary nature and his written works. He healed the clergy, kept the city free from corruption and was a zealous shepherd who protected his sheep in such a way as to keep their fiercest enemy, the wolf from capturing and slaughtering them if unattended."

Pope Francis too has often spoken of the need for regular attendance at Confession.

In April he preached again on the subject. 

He said that the confessional is neither a “laundromat” for sin removal nor “a torture session” where sins are exchanged for beatings. Confession is a meeting place with Jesus, a place of tenderness. 

He stressed tht we need to approach this sacrament meekly, gladly, with simplicity, with trust and armed with “blessed shame”, the “virtue of humility” by which we recognise ourselves as sinners.

Passa il viatico

Francesco Gioli (1846 – 1922)

Passa il viatico (The Viaticum)

1878

Oil on canvas

Galleria d'arte moderna, Pitti Palace, Florence

Gioli was one of the Macchiaioli, the Italian precursors of the French Impressionists

They are now regarded as the initial movement in modern Italian painting

Gioli exhibited what is now one of his most famous paintings, Passa il viatico,  in Paris in 1878

The work made his name to a huge audience. Amongst his many admirers was Degas

The scene is set in the Italian countryside in the nineteenth century.  The priest and his entourage are about to visit a dying person to administer the sacraments - the Viaticum

Such a public scene is never seen today although it was seen fairly recently and certainly within the living memories of many

The usual sacraments were Penance, Holy Communion and Extreme Unction

If the person had not been baptised then also Baptism and with the delegated power from the Bishop - Confirmation

The Catholic Encyclopedia says of the Viaticum:

"The priest, having placed the pyx in the burse, which should hang on his breast by a cord round his neck goes to the sick person's house, reciting on the way the "Miserere" and other psalms and canticles he may know by heart."

The Catechism of the Council of Trent (De Euch. sacr., n. 3) said of the Viaticum: 

"Sacred writers call it the Viaticum as well because it is the spiritual food by which we are supported in our mortal pilgrimage, as also because it prepares for us a passage to eternal glory and happiness".

The present Catechism says:

"V. Viaticum, the Last Sacrament of the Christian 

1524 In addition to the Anointing of the Sick, the Church offers those who are about to leave this life the Eucharist as viaticum. Communion in the body and blood of Christ, received at this moment of "passing over" to the Father, has a particular significance and importance. It is the seed of eternal life and the power of resurrection, according to the words of the Lord: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." The sacrament of Christ once dead and now risen, the Eucharist is here the sacrament of passing over from death to life, from this world to the Father. 

1525 Thus, just as the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist form a unity called "the sacraments of Christian initiation," so too it can be said that Penance, the Anointing of the Sick and the Eucharist as viaticum constitute at the end of Christian life "the sacraments that prepare for our heavenly homeland" or the sacraments that complete the earthly pilgrimage."

We remember James 5

"13 Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone in good spirits? He should sing praise.

14 Is anyone among you sick?  He should summon the presbyters of the church, and they should pray over him and anoint (him) with oil in the name of the Lord,

15 and the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven. 

16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful."

Ligari

Pietro Ligari 1686 – 1752

San Francesco Saverio battezza una principessa indiana /Saint Francis Xavier Baptizing the Indian Princess Neachile 

1717

Oil on canvas

185 x 320 cm

Collezione Banca Popolare di Sondrio, Sondrio

Pietro Ligari 1686 – 1752

Davide consacrato re dal profeta Samuele / Samuel Anointing David

 c. 1717

Oil on canvas

118 x 147 cm

Collezione Credito Valtellinese, Sondrio

The Valtellina is  the small Alpine valley on the border between Lombardy and Switzerland. 

Its importance was established during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. St Charles Borromeo attempted a re=establishment of Catholic faith in the area.

However its strategic location was the cause of the initial stages of the slaughter that we now know as The Thirty Years War

It was the 17th century precursor to Serbia in 1914

Ligari and his son Cesare were the most important artists of the seventeenth century Valtelline

Pietro  created large altarpieces characterised by a balanced composition and strongly contrasting luminosity. 

He produced his most beautiful canvases during this Milanese period of classical tendencies, around 1717-1720, including the Immaculate Conception,  Saint Francis Xavier Baptizing an Indian Princess and Scenes from the Life of King David

Both father and son are strong representatives of the 17th and 18th century Lombard school of painting. 

Their allegiance was to Milan and the forces of the Counter-Reformation

The work celebrating the Jesuit missionary and Saint St Francis Xavier was originally commissioned for the Oratorio di Palazzo Sertoli in Sondrio.  It was commissioned by Francesco Saverio Sertoli, the name sake of the saint

The work commemorates the conversion and baptism of an Indian  Moslem princess in the Far East. Also in the picture is depicted the father of the princess Neachile, King Almanzor (in the red silk cloak) Before her baptism, the princess has laid down her coronet and her pearls

It is the artist`s most famous work

In the second work David is anointed by the prophet Samuel at the command of God. . This occasion is narrated in  1 Samuel 16

"Then Samuel, with the horn of oil in hand, anointed him in the midst of his brothers, and from that day on, the spirit of the LORD rushed upon David."

The Communion of Saints

Master of Egerton 1070

Miniature of All Saints and an historiated initial 'D' with a censing angel, with partial foliate border carried by an angel.

From The Hours of René d'Anjou

c. 1410

Manuscript

220 x 165 mm

Egerton 1070   f. 73v 

The British Library, London

This Book has a strange provenance

It was owned by a member of the Anjou family, descendants or relatives of René d'Anjou (1409 - 1480), King of Naples, a fascinating figure in  medieval history

Then by George Strangways, Archdeacon of Coventry

It was gifted by the Archdeacon to King Henry VII ( 1457 - 1509), King of England

Then it somehow found its way to the library of the Jesuit College, Cracow, by 1630. And somehow found its way back to England again

The day is the universal Christian Feast that honours and remembers all Christian saints, known and unknown.

Although a day commemorated by all Christians, it is celebrated in different ways according  to how they envisage what is meant by sainthood and its function

At the centre of the Roman Catholic liturgy is the idea of "the communion of saints"

On 30th October 2013, Pope Francis delivered a catechesis on the Communion of Saints. He said that through the communion of saints we experience a solidarity between heaven and earth in our intercessory prayer

The full report of the catechesis is here

Pope Benedict XVI on 1st November 2012 likewise delivered a similar catechesis which perhaps throws more light on the image above

"Today we have the joy of meeting on the Solemnity of All Saints. This feast day helps us to reflect on the double horizon of humanity, which we symbolically express with the words “earth” and “heaven”: the earth represents the journey of history, heaven eternity, the fullness of life in God.  

And so this feast day helps us to think about the Church in its dual dimension: the Church journeying in time and the Church that celebrates the never-ending feast, the heavenly Jerusalem. These two dimensions are united by the reality of the “Communion of Saints”: a reality that begins here on earth and that reaches its fulfillment in heaven. 

On earth, the Church is the beginning of this mystery of communion that unites humanity, a mystery totally centred on Jesus Christ: it is he who introduced this new dynamic to mankind, a movement that leads towards God and at the same time towards unity, towards peace in its deepest sense. 

Jesus Christ — says the Gospel of John (11:52) — died “to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad”, and his work continues in the Church which is inseparably “one”, “holy” and “catholic”.  

Being a Christian, being part of the Church means being open to this communion, like a seed that dies in the ground, germinates and sprouts upwards, toward heaven. 

The Saints — those proclaimed by the Church and whom we celebrate today and also those known only to God — have lived this dynamic intensely. In each of them, in a very personal way, Christ made himself present, thanks to his Spirit which acts through Scripture and the Sacraments.  

In fact, being united to Christ, in the Church, does not negate one's personality, but opens it, transforms it with the power of love, and confers on it, already here on earth, an eternal dimension. 

In essence, it means being conformed to the image of the Son of God (cf. Rom 8:29), fulfilling the plan of God who created man in his own image and likeness. But this insertion in Christ also opens us — as I said — to communion with all the other members of his Mystical Body which is the Church, a communion that is perfect in “Heaven”, where there is no isolation, no competition or separation.  

In today’s feast, we have a foretaste of the beauty of this life fully open to the gaze of love of God and neighbour, in which we are sure to reach God in each other and each other in God.  

With this faith-filled hope we honour all the Saints, and we prepare to commemorate the faithful departed tomorrow.  

In the Saints we see the victory of love over selfishness and death: we see that following Christ leads to life, eternal life, and gives meaning to the present, every moment that passes, because it is filled with love and hope.  

Only faith in eternal life makes us truly love history and the present, but without attachment, with the freedom of the pilgrim, who loves the earth because his heart is set on Heaven."

Eleonora Gonzaga della Rovere

Matteo de Milano (active:about 1492 - about 1523 Rome and Ferrara )

Historiated initial 'D'(ilexi) of a woman (Duchess Dionora?) with a skull for a face admiring herself in a hand mirror, and a partial scatter border with gems, flowers, and vases, at the beginning of the Office of the Dead.

From Book of Hours, Use of Rome ('The Hours of Dionora of Urbino') (Eleonora Gonzaga della Rovere)

c. 1510-1515 (between 1509 and 1538)

Illuminated manuscript 207 x 140 mm

Yates Thompson 7, f. 174

The British Library, London

Matteo da Milano was one of the most important Italian illuminators working in the late-fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries. Originally from Milan, Matteo worked largely in Rome and Ferrara.

His clientele included the richest and the most powerful of his time

This Missal page is from The Office of the Dead. There is a reminder: "Memento Homo" (Remember Man)

It is short for: Memento homo quod cinis es et in cinerem reverteris : Remember, man, that you are dust and to dust you will return

Death is gazing on her reflection in the looking glass.

It is a call to remember the finite nature of human life. And remember the need to pray for the souls of the departed. Their need will one day be our need. It recalls the need for  humility and repentance

 It is an invitation to reflect upon death as the gateway to eternal life.

The Missal was made for Eleonora Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino (31 December 1493 – 13 February 1570)

one of the most powerful and richest (and most beautiful) women in what is now called Italy

Here is her portrait by Titian which is now in the Uffizi

Titian (1490 - 1576)

Portrait of Eleonora Gonzaga

c. 1538

Oil on canvas, 114 x 102 cm

Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

It is one of a double portrait. Her husband`s is the other and hangs also in the Uffizi.

Her portrait is quite human. Beside her is a sleeping dog, a symbol of fidelity. There is also a clock: a symbol of wealth as well as a reminder of the finiteness of human existence. In the distance in the blue yonder is a church

The Duchess was buried in the Church of Santa Chiara in Urbino, Italy.

There seems at present to be a rather strange and unholy fashionable practice in certain Italian academic circles to examine the remains of the dead, purportedly for "scientific" purposes. Unfortunately the Duchess has not been immune from this rather bizarre and unhealthy practice. 

See Titian's secret: comparison of Eleonora Gonzaga della Rovere's skull with the Uffizi portrait. (J Forensic Sci. 2005 May;50(3):602-7)

Other victims of this practice are the Medicis buried in Florence

This practice should cease

In an important letter written while Bishop of La Crosse, Cardinal Raymond L. Burke  summarised clearly and succinctly Catholic practices in regard to the dead. Here is what he said about "after death":

"The word which early Christians gave to the place for the burial or entombment of the dead, cemetery, comes from the Greek word for dormitory.  It expresses the belief of the Christian that the bodies of the dead rest in their place of burial or entombment until the resurrection of the body on the Last Day.  Like the Christian grave or tomb, the Catholic cemetery is sacred and is to be maintained accordingly. "

Europe: How others see us

The eminent Catholic commentator George Weigel has recently published a book entitled Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Catholic Church, Basic Books, 2013, ISBN 978-0-465-02768-2

Written before Benedict XVI abdicated, its publication now is timely

Here he puts forward one of his central themes of his book:

"Throughout the Western world, the culture no longer carries the faith, because the culture has become increasingly hostile to the faith. Catholicism can no longer be absorbed by osmosis from the environment, for the environment has become toxic. So we can no longer sit back and assume that decent lives lived in conformity with the prevailing cultural norms will somehow convey the faith to our children and grandchildren and invite others to consider entering the Church."

But he is optimistic. He sees great hope for the future in North America, South America and Africa in particular.

However it has to be said he is deeply critical of the Church in  Europe, the United Kingdom and Ireland 

He delivered a speech to the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs in New York which is worth while listening to and reading. See here

He does not pull his punches.

Here are some extracts from his speech and answers to questions in New York (2013):

"Cardinal Dolan, whom you all know, here in New York, called me from the Senate of Bishops in Rome last fall, where, like everyone else, he was being bored to tears by endless gusts of ecclesiastical rhetoric, and said there had been a great speech by the Latin rite Catholic archbishop of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, who got up in this assembly of some 300 Catholic bishops from all over the world and said, "What are all these Europeans doing here? The church is dead in Europe. The church is alive in Africa. There are not enough of us and there are too many of you."

The official record of the speech of H. Exc. Rev. Mons. Berhaneyesus Demerew SOURAPHIEL, C.M., Metropolitan Archbishop of Addis Abeba, President of the Episcopal Conference of Etiopia and Eritrea, President of the Council of the Ethiopian Church (ETHIOPIA) is here

It was  powerful and insightful speech but you will not find mention of his comments about Europe in the official record.

Of Pope Francis and whither the reform Weigel states:

"When we [Weigel and then Cardinal Bergoglio]  met in Buenos Aires last May, we had a wide-ranging conversation about many, many things. It became clear to me that this was a man who understood that a kept church —kept either in the sense of legal establishment, which had long been the case in Latin America, as you know, or now kept in the sense of cultural habit, a church that imagined that it had a future simply because it had a past and a present—was not going to work. The church had to rediscover its evangelical or missionary dynamic if it was going to prosper in the 21st century. That was one impression. 

The second impression, which is connected to the first, is that in 25 years of meeting senior Latin American churchmen, then-Cardinal Bergoglio was the first of that group whom I had ever met who did not at some point in the conversation begin complaining about North American evangelical Protestant and Pentecostalist sheep-rustling or sheep-stealing.  

On the contrary, I brought the point up, and the cardinal said, "If we are losing faithful, that is our fault. That is because we have not catechized these people, sacramentally empowered them to be the disciples they are called to be." That's a very important sign for the future ... 

I said to my friends at 30 Rockefeller Center at the beginning of this whole process in February, "Let us not waste time talking about changing things that are settled."

The Catholic church's teaching on the appropriate way to regulate fertility is settled. The Catholic church's teaching on who can be called to ministry is settled. Those are not things that are going to change. 

I said to them it's like saying there's a big argument about whether we should have a unicameral national legislature in the United States. Interesting, theoretically. Get rid of either the House or the Senate, be like Nebraska and have a unicameral legislature. It's interesting theoretically. It's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. And that isn't going to happen here."

Of the situation in Europe he is extremely critical:

" European Catholicism is a disaster area right now. Ireland is beyond-description bad because of abuse issues, failures of leadership. I wrote a column two or three years ago saying every bishop in Ireland should be fired. Wipe the slate clean, start all over again. None of these guys has any credibility, which happens to be true, unfortunately. 

Italy, which was making some progress under John Paul II—there was a measurable increase in Catholic practice—has reverted back to its old patterns of Catholic veneer, but not a lot going on underneath, and very little evangelical energy. There's a sense in a lot of the church in Italy that it's a very well-funded and well-supported museum system. But there's not a lot of snap, crackle, and pop there. 

I am even worried about the church in Poland. I have spent now probably close to three years of my life, when you aggregate it, in Poland over the last 22 or 23 years. While I don't think Poland is going to go the road of Ireland, Quebec, Spain, Portugal—right through the floorboards—it could be Italy. Fifty years out, 100 years out, Poland could be Italy 2.0. That would be a terrible shame, because there was an enormous dynamism and a culture-forming dynamism in Polish Catholicism in the last quarter of the 20th century that suggested the possibility that this could be an engine of Catholic renewal throughout all of Europe. That is not happening. There are a variety of complicated reasons for that. ... 

But if you look at Germany, for example, where the church is immensely wealthy, has an extraordinarily highly educated elite, and nobody goes to church, much less talks about evangelizing culture, shifting public life, et cetera, the only juice there is in various of these renewal movements, running from Opus Dei on the conservative end to the Sant'Egidio community or the Focolare people on the other side of the sensibility spectrum ... 

There were very striking demographics, if you will, in the College of Cardinals this time. India had five cardinal electives, France had four, and the United Kingdom had nil, as they would say in the Barclays Premier League. So five to four to zip, India to France to Great Britain. Canada had three. So Canada was in the game more than Great Britain. That, in some sense, reflects the realities of the situation."

Sironi and Modern Religious Art

Mario Sironi

1885 - 1961

Christ and the Samaritan Woman

1947 - 48

Oil on Panel

56 x 70 cm

Collezione d`Arte Religiosa Moderna, Vatican Museums, Vatican City

John 4: 1 - 30 tells the story of the meeting of Christ with the Samaritan woman near Jacob`s Well

The symbolism of Living Water as Truth and Grace is a constant theme in Christian religious art since the very beginning and is seen in the catacombs

It is an intimate scene bathed in light

Although a Modernist Italian artist, and although he mixed with Gino Severini and Umberto Boccioni, Sironi  was not one of the Italian Futurist artists

After the Second World War, his reputation tokk a "nose dive" because of his connections with the Italian Fascist regime. However his reputation has again began to revive

There was an explosion of Futurist Italian religious art in the 1930s

But Marinetti`s Manifesto of Futurist Sacred Art of 1931 did not hold any attractions for Sironi

The Manifesto was a bastard attempt at political and cynical opportunism filled with self regard and filled with pompous and contradictory jargpn

Sironi would have nothing to do with it. He had too much respect for religion and God

The Family

Henry Moore OM, CH (1898‑1986)

Family Group

1949

Bronze

1540 x 1180 x 700 mm, 475 kg

Tate Britain, London

The XXI plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Family is in Rome and the family will be the topic of the next Extraordinary Synod of Bishops.

It is this sculpture by the late Henry Moore which Pontificium Consilium pro Familia at the Vatican chose to depict "The Family and Art"

The narrative attached to the image on the Vatican website is as follows:

"A man and a woman are sitting next to each other on a bench. Their arms entwine to hold their little child together, a living tie between them, a permanent bond. Their raised knees and hollow busts form a kind of hospitable nest: the family is the sanctuary of life. The two monumental figures, with their majestically erect bust and very broad shoulders, do not have an individual character but are essential, universal and archetypical. 

The distended forms appear to be shaped by an intense internal energy, as if the inexhaustible fruitfulness of nature was concentrated in them. They lean forward and, at the same time, toward each another. The almost frontal position accentuates their solemnity and sacred quality. 

The conjugal bond and the new life that germinates points to the primary source of love and life: God himself. "

Originally in the 1940s, Moore was commissioned to make a sculpture for  Impington Village College in Cambridgeshire. 

It was a progressive school for its time 

Impington was designed by Walter Gropius, founder of The Bauhaus School of Architecture, and his partner Maxwell Fry. It is the only example of Gropius’s work in Britain and the building is now Grade I listed building.

However the work was not accepted for the school

Instead the work was accepted for another school: Barclay Secondary School in Stevenage

Four sculptures were produced: one for the school where it has pride of place in the entrance; another for the Tate; and two others are in the USA

Of the work, the school writes:

"This work is symbolic of our Barclay community, a school where families are welcomed and values of care, courtesy and confidence are embedded, where relationships, trust and mutual respect shape our daily life."

Moore regretted that the setting of the cast at Stevenage in a limited space in front of a curved baffle-wall, restricted  the view of the back of the work, which was designed in accordance with his insistence on the fully three-dimensional quality of sculpture. The Tate Gallery's cast is now exhibited in the large Sculpture Hall which allows for a full view of the sculpture

Family Group 1949 is an idealised vision of the nuclear family. Mother and father sit upright, their arms curving round to support the child between them. Their knees lean towards one another and they gaze calmly, but slightly impassively towards the spectator

It is a reassuring image of stability and security.

This theme was also used for another of Moore`s sculptures:  the life-size ‘Family Group’ in Hadene stone at Harlow New Town, 1954–5. 

Henry Moore OM, CH (1898‑1986)

Family Group

1954

Hadene Stone.

Carving

Height 170 cm

Civic Centre, Harlow, Essex

Originally, it was sited in a landscape setting but was later moved to Civic Square and later inside  the extended and revamped Town Hall

According to Richard Cork in E. Rosenberg and Richard Cork, Architects’ Choice: Art and Architecture in Great Britain Since 1945, (Thames and Hudson, London, 1992), p. 52:

"The most lauded marriage between art and a new town occurred at Harlow, which grew rapidly from a small, scattered rural population to a thriving centre for over 70,000 people. It eventually acquired a sculpture collection larger than any other British town of similar size…"

Moore chose to depict a family group, which seemed particularly appropriate at the time as Harlow had a large population of young families. It was called "Pram Town". Its birthrate was three times the national average.

The Times described the unveiling:

" . . within an hour of its unveiling, the Family had already entered into the life of Harlow. Small boys were getting up on the pedestal, clambering over the woman and taking occupation of the empty place in the man's lap. At one moment, indeed, the family of three had expanded to one of seven."

Earlier this year the Henry Moore Institute loaned Family Group 1948 (LH 269) - see immediately below -  to the Victoria and Albert exhibition Modern British Childhood 1948-2012

The work was the centrepiece for the immediate post-war period and the 'golden age' of childhood part of the exhibition "1948 -1969"

The commentary from the V and A exhibition is more in touch with Moore`s work than the blurb from the Vatican website. Here is what the V and A said:

"1948-1969  

World War Two tore British families and the economy apart and was followed by a period of austerity. 

The War created expectations for a more equal society. 

The foundation of the Welfare State sought to overcome the 'Giant Evils' of 'Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness'. It also aimed to ensure that people received adequate income, health, education, housing and employment. 

Gradually, the economy, health and education improved. By the 1950s unemployment was low. 

However, increased wealth and social mobility were offset by social inequality. For many families, poverty and poor housing continued through this period. ... 

The family, once the cornerstone of society, came under threat. Other changes included the emergence of the teenager, increasing numbers of working mothers, the rapid growth of cities and the ‘freedoms’ of the 1960s. "

Moore`s work at this time is an optimistic reflection of a hope for a new humanism characteristic of the Britain at the time

Moore returned to the themes of The Family and Mother and Child through his long distinguished career. His views altered and developed

A Sacred Place

Jacopo Ligozzi  (1547–1627)

The Beech Tree of the Madonna at La Verna

1605-1607 

Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash and with traces of gray wash, over black chalk

15-13/16 x 10-1/8 in. (40.2 x 25.7 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum, New York

Jacopo Ligozzi  (1547–1627)

La Verna: The Chapel of the Blessed Giovanni della Verna

1605-1607 

Pen and brown ink and brown wash 

15 3/8 x 9 7/8 in

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Jacopo Ligozzi  (1547–1627)

View of the Monastery of La Verna: the road leading to the Monastery

1605 -1607

Pen and brown ink, brown wash, on paper

325 mm x 252mm

The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

Jacopo Ligozzi  (1547–1627)

View of the Monastery of La Verna: the courtyard and well, the Chiesa Grande behind

1605- 1607

Pen and brown ink, brown wash, on paper

394 mm x 254 mm

The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

Jacopo Ligozzi  (1547–1627)

Chapel in the Monastery of La Verna

1605-1607

Pen and brown ink, brown wash, on paper

269 x 243 mm

Musée du Louvre, Paris

During the 1500s and 1600s, interest in travel and tourism burgeoned

Padre Fra Lino Moroni of Florence, provincial of the Observant Franciscans in Tuscany, brought the Medicaean court painter  Jacopo Ligozzi and Raphael Sciaminossi (1529?-1622‏)   to Mt. Alvernia in 1608 

Both Ligozzi  and Sciaminossi had painted frescoes depicting episodes from the life of St. Francis of Assisi for the cloister of the Franciscan Church of the Ognissanti in Florence

The aim was to produce illustrations of La Verna  in the Tuscan Apennines, and the buildings of the Franciscan  community established there. 

The studies by Ligozzi are above

La Verna was and is a sacred place for the Franciscans: it was where St Francis of Assisi received the stigmata, the first occasion on which anyone had received such wounds

It was also the place where Friar Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, the General of the Order, and later saint and Doctor, composed his Itinerarium mentis in Deum showing  the way to move forward towards the heights where one encounters God. 

The illustrations were to be for a book, a guide book to La Verna: Descrizione del Sacro Monte della Vernia which was published in Florence in  1612

The work was dedicated to the Archbishop of Monreale,  Arcangelo da Messina who had just stepped down as General of the Order

The book was only 24 pages of printed text and had 22 illustrations. Some of the prined plates are below

Four plates feature six engraved overlay slips, all but one of which are to show differences in the landscape between the early 13th century and 1608

Etched by Raffaello Schiaminossi, Italian, about 1570–about 1620

Engraved by Domenico Falcini, Italian, 17th century

After Jacopo Ligozzi, Italian, 1547–1627

Author Fra Lino Moroni, Italian, 17th century

The Famous Rock named for Brother Lupo

From Descrizione del Sacro Monte della Vernia

1612

llustrated book with 23 etchings and engravings

47.3 x 33.4 x 1.9 cm (18 5/8 x 13 1/8 x 3/4 in.)

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

From the website of Franciscan Institute Library.   St. Bonaventure University here are more images from the printed book:

Much of the text and all the illustrations can be seen on the website Il Bel Casentino  with photographs by  Alessandro Ferrini 

A second edition of the work was produced by Father Timoteo Canevese di Milano in Milan in December 1672

The concept of a "sacred place" has often been one fraught with difficulty especially for the Christian pilgrim

For the Christian, the concept of a sacred place has to bear in mind the words of Scripture as well as the early Church Fathers

In Matthew 23,  Christ himself denounces the practices of the scribes and pharisees with their veneration of the altar and the temple in Jerusalem, the tombs of the prophets and Jerusalem, the holy city itself

In John 4,  in the discourse between Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well, Christ says that God is to be worshiped neither in Jerusalem, the holy place of the Jews, nor in Gerizim, the holy place of the Samaritans, but rather in spirit and in truth

In Acts 7, Stephen criticized the idea of the Temple as a holy place

"47 But Solomon built a house for him.

48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says

49‘The heavens are my throne,the earth is my footstool.

What kind of house can you build for me?

says the Lord, or what is to be my resting place?"

Thus for Clement of Alexandria, “the true temple is the assembly of Christian people, [Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, 8.5 (GCS 17, p. 22)]

And for Origen: “the holy place is the pure soul.” [Origen, Homil. in Levit., 13.5]

Gregory of Nyssa  noted that “a change of place does not bring one closer to God, but there where you are God will come toward you, if the condition of your soul is such that the Lord can there reside and move around (2 Cor. 6:16). But if you have the interior man (Rom. 7:22) full of evil thoughts, even if you are on Golgotha, even if you are on the Mount of Olives, even if you are in the tomb of the Anastasis, you are as far from receiving Christ within you as those who have not even begun to confess him.” [Gregory of Nyssa, Epist. 2.16–17]

Eusebios of Caesarea stated: “Since the coming of Christ, it is no longer necessary to adore God in specific places, in some corner of the world be it in the mountains or in the temples made by the hand of man, but each can adore him in his proper place” [Eusebios of Caesarea, Dem. Evang., 1.6.65]

At first the holy places associated with Our Lord came to be venerated. Then the places associated with others mentioned in Scripture, such as Moses on Mount Sinai. Then the martyrs. And then the saints

Therefore for the pilgrim, the holy place was a place of prayer where he or she could see, hear, touch things which led to contemplation and perhaps a theophany

The prime aim was or should be  to worship and pray in a holy place

Only later did this practice degenerate into adoring or venerating the place itself as a means of participating in its holiness

In May of last year Pope Benedict XVI was to visit and be a pilgrim at La Verna. However the trip was cancelled due to bad weather

The address which he was due to deliver was published and is on the Vatican website

Nowadays there is an explosion of visits to sacred places. It s part of the tourist, culture and heritage industry. 

However in his address Benedict XVI indicates the proper attitude of mind for the modern pilgrim

He wrote:

"We climbed as pilgrims up to the Sasso Spicco of La Verna where “two years before his death” (Celano, Vita Prima, III, 94: ff, 484) St Francis, received the wounds of the glorious Passion of Christ in his body. 

His journey as a disciple led him to a union so profound with the Lord that he shared with him even the exterior signs of his supreme act of love on the Cross. A journey which began at San Damiano before the Crucifix, contemplated with mind and heart. 

The continuous meditation on the Cross, in this holy place, has been a means of sanctification for many Christians, who, throughout eight centuries, have knelt and prayed here in silence and in recollection. 

The glorious Cross of Christ takes on the suffering of the world, but it is above all a tangible sign of love, the measure of God’s goodness to mankind. 

In this place we, too, are called to recover the supernatural dimension of our lives, to raise our eyes from what is contingent, to entrust ourselves totally to the Lord, with a free heart and in perfect joy, contemplating the Crucifix so that it may wounds us with his love. ... 

One does not climb La Verna without being led by the prayer of St Francis of the Absorbeat, which recites: “May the power of your love, O Lord, ardent and sweet power, so absorb our hearts as to withdraw them from all that is under heaven. Grant that we may be ready to die for love of your love, as you died for love of my love” (Prayer of the “Absorbeat”, 1: ff, 277). 

Contemplation of the Crucifix is a labour of the mind, but it cannot rise freely without the support, without the power of love. 

In this very place, Friar Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, the distinguished son of St Francis, composed his Itinerarium mentis in Deum showing us the way to move forward towards the heights where one encounters God. 

This great Doctor of the Church communicated to us his own experience, inviting us to prayer. 

First, the mind must be given to the Passion of the Lord, for it is the sacrifice of the Cross that wipes away our sins, a fault that can only be filled by the love of God: “I urge the reader”, he writes, “above all to beseech in prayer for Christ crucified, by Whose blood we are purged of our sins” (Itinerarium mentis in Deum, Prol. 4). 

But, in order to be effective, our prayer needs tears, that is an interior movement of our love which responds to the love of God. 

And it is then necessary to have that admiratio, which St Bonaventure sees in the humble ones of the Gospel, those capable of wonder before the salvific work of Christ. 

And humility is precisely the door to every virtue. It is actually not possible to reach God with the intellectual pride of a closed search within oneself, but only with humility, according to the famous expression of St Bonaventure: 

Man “must not believe that it suffices to read without unction, speculate without devotion, investigate without wonder, examine without exultation, work without piety, know without love, understand without humility, be zealous without divine grace, see him without wisdom divinely inspired” (ibid.)."