Featured Work: Oratory of Sorrows by Raul Berzosa

This month, we feature a trio of works by the Spanish painter Raúl Berzosa, completed in 2008 for the Oratory of Sorrows in Málaga, Spain. Installed surrounding a sculpture of Christ on the Cross, the works form an exquisite harmony both visually and iconographically.

Soaring above the Crucifix in the vault above is a mural of The Glorification of the Name of God. In the center appears a glowing triangle (a symbol of the Blessed Trinity) containing the name of God in Hebrew. Layers of the clouds of heaven have parted to reveal this name, which emanates rays of brilliant light. A host of tiny cherubim gather before our eyes in worship, some looking aloft to the Godhead above, one gazing down in wonder and emotion to the sculpture of Christ below.

The two paintings hanging on the side walls and flanking the sculpture of Christ Crucified highlight the body of Christ: His Mystical Body the Church, and His true Body in the Eucharist. To our left is the Triumph of the Church over Sin. The Church, personified as a woman, meets the blind gaze of a sinner at her feet, bound and incapacitated by Sin, represented by a serpent. She wears the stole of priestly authority and the fisherman's ring, a symbol of Saint Peter and the papacy, and receives the papal tiara from an angel above her. As she gazes at the sinner at her feet, she points towards the Crucifix as the source of his freedom from the hold of sin.

At our right is an image showing the Triumph of the Eucharist over Idolatry. The Blessed Sacrament bursts with light and occupies the focal point of the painting. A man who has been enslaved to worldly pursuits turns in response to an angel who directs his attention to the Eucharist as the One worthy of worship. In this moment of conversion, the man lets several gold coins slip from his hand to join the scepter and coins -- symbols of earthly power and love of riches -- already at his feet.

To view more photos of the works in situ, visit the artist's website at http://www.raulberzosa.com/.

Rachel Ross

Curator of Art

Featured Work: Saints Peter and Paul Chapel by Thomas Gordon Smith

On March 3, 2010, the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter dedicated its new chapel at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Denton, Nebraska. The chapel was consecrated by Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, local ordinary of the Diocese of Lincoln. Five other bishops and abbots, and Fr. John Berg, Superior General of the Fraternity, were present at the dedication and at the Solemn Pontifical Mass following at which William Cardinal Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, preached.

The chapel was designed in a simplified yet dignified Romanesque style by architect Thomas Gordon Smith, current professor (and former director of) the Notre Dame Architecture School. At 10,000 square feet, the chapel has stalls for 92 priests and seminarians in the nave, with separated seating for laity and visitors. The Fraternity is dedicated to the renewal of the Traditional Latin Mass, also known as the Tridentine Rite, and the chapel is designed for the exclusive celebration of this Rite. Featuring a 31 foot tall marble baldachino over the altar and classical columns and detailing, the chapel represents a growing rebirth of classical architecture in the Church.

Erik Bootsma
Curator of Architecture

Featured Work: Crucifixion by David Clayton

David Clayton, Crucifixion, six feet tall, egg tempera on panel, 2010.

Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, NH has recently commissioned David Clayton, the College’s Artist-in-Residence, to complete a six foot painted crucifix for its chapel.

Mr. Clayton describes the piece: "It is low so that when the priest holds the host aloft, the figure of Christ is clearly visible within the angle of vision. We have Mass both ad orientem and versus populum, so the intention here is to make sure that however the Mass is said, the focus is not on the personality of the priest but on the person of Christ.

"The cross itself is based upon the early gothic Franciscan crosses. The style is similar to that iconographic, except that the face, in the Franciscan manner, reveals his suffering. The geometric designs in the background include an octagonal motif that represents the 'eighth day' of creation, that is, the age of the life, death and resurrection of Our Lord. There is a six-winged seraph at Our Lord's feet.

"The height of cross creates a vertical dimension in a small chapel by drawing the eye up to space above the sanctuary that was hardly noticed before because it was unused. Aside from seeking to steadily introduce more art, the next step is to raise money for a new altar and a gothic-style reredos that will go against the back wall and allow for the central placement of the tabernacle."

David Clayton

Original interview, New Liturgical Movement

Featured Work: Chapel of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity at Thomas Aquinas College

This past spring Cardinal Roger Mahony, Archbishop of Los Angeles, dedicated the centerpiece of the campus of Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California. Designed by Duncan Stroik, a professor at the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, the chapel draws its inspiration from the churches of Italian Renaissance architect Brunelleschi – designer of Florence's famous dome – from the Venetian churches of Palladio, and from the tradition of Spanish Mission churches of California. While drawing inspiration from a variety of sources, the chapel is a copy of no church, but a synthesis of all of them in a truly new work of art. The Chapel cost $23 million to construct and seats 375, but is large enough to hold the entire student body of 500 during important festivals in temporary seating. Twenty solid marble columns grace the nave and a bronze baldachino modeled on the centerpiece of St. Peter's Basilica surmounts the altar. To view more work by the architect, please click here.

Erik Bootsma
Curator of Architecture

Featured Work: Ave Maria by Fr. Dawid Kusz, OP

Photo by S. Smith Photography

Kusz's "Ave Maria", is an exercise in devotion moving from contemplative fragility to powerful affirmation. Fr. Kusz -- a recently ordained Dominican who lives in Krakow -- simultaneously studied sacred music and choral conducting while training for the Priesthood. His work has already become a staple in many Churches around Poland, and is a leading musical force in the "new aesthetic" in liturgical art currently taking place there. The "Ave Maria", like his other sacred works, grows strongly out of Catholic contemplative tradition while also giving a strong nod to the Gregorian Chant idiom. While the "Ave Maria" is built upon a renaissance aesthetic, the clever harmonic choices and vocal density make it a thoroughly modern work. As a composer, Kusz certainly stands on the shoulders of giants before him, looking ahead to a new musical renaissance within the Church. To listen to "Ave Maria", please click here.

Mark Nowakowksi
Curator of Architecture

Featured Work: Pieta by Joseph K. Beyer

Daily Mass Chapel Altar Window, Saint Peters Church, West Brandywine Township, PA. 60" in diameter. Hand blown German glasses, vitreous glass paints, lead.

This contemporary interpretation of the Pieta began with digital photography. Models, dressed in traditional garments were arranged, dramatically lighted and recorded. Here the best computer imaging technology is partnered with techniques of vitreous glass painting rediscovered in the restoration of early 20th Century Bavarian windows. The goal was to create a new style of art glass window for 21st Century Churches that acknowledges the trend back toward traditional design. A style that is both familiar and challenging for a contemporary audience but without the once-upon-a-time sentimentality popular a century ago.

Joseph K. Beyer
For more information on Joe Beyer Studio please click here.