A Pre-Raphaelite gem in New York City

Magazine Antiques, April, 2005 by Sheldon Barr, Paul Tabor

Almost hidden in the tenebrous shadows of the Church of Saint Ignatius Loyola in New York City, there gleams a remarkable jewel of fin-de-siecle artistry. Born of the confluence of a group of the finest late nineteenth-century American, British, and Italian artists and artisans, the Baptistery-Chapel of Saint John the Baptist is a tour-de-force of religious symbolism masterfully brought forth in noble and costly materials.

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Designed by the architectural firm of Schickel and Ditmars (1) and inspired by late-Renaissance prototypes, the circular baptistery-chapel (Fig. 2) was completed in time for the dedication of the church in 1898. The Gorham Manufacturing Company of Providence, Rhode Island, and New York City, which represented the British firm of Heaton, Butler and Bayne, and Salviati e Compagnia of Venice, supervised the project. The baptistery-chapel consists of a semicircular apse divided into three arched sections built into the south wall of the church. Monumental Salviati mosaics depicting events in the life of Saint John the Baptist fill each of the three sections. The twenty-eight-foot-tall apse is constructed entirely of white and purple streaked Italian pavonazzo marble accentuated with red Numidian marble from Tunisia. (2) Completing the circle, an equivalent semicircular area surrounded by a wrought-iron screen and gate projects into the church. The apse is crowned with a stained-glass half-dome made by the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company, the New York City firm also responsible for the marble and mosaic altar. The baptismal font and the semicircular screen were designed by William Schickel (1850-1907). The carved oak lectern is by the Gorham Manufacturing Company, and the marble mosaic pavement was designed by Heaton, Butler and Bayne (3) and installed by Gorham craftsmen. (4) Appropriate to the ritual of baptism, representations of water and watery symbols are found throughout the baptistery-chapel.

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At first glance, the multicolored marble pavement of the baptistery-chapel captivates the casual observer with the beauty of its design. Swimming singly or in pairs, green fish frolic among silvery seashells and white water lilies (see Fig. 3). However, for those who choose to delve into the symbolism so richly woven into the pavement, a deeper knowledge of Christ, the early Christian church, and the rite of baptism, awaits. The pavement, and indeed, the entire baptistery-chapel is a "sermon in stone," filled with symbolic meaning. (5)

The first detail to draw one's attention is a quotation in Greek and Latin from the early church father Tertullian (c.160-c.230), which is inlaid in the pavement just inside the gate: "SED NOS PISCICULI SECUNDUM [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] NOSTRUM IN AQUA NASCIMUR" (But we the little fishes are born again in the water of our fish). In early Christian times Christ's followers were forced to conceal their new religion from hostile pagans. In both the art of the catacombs and in the literature of the second century, Christians adopted the image of the fish and the Greek word for fish "[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]" (ichthys) as their secret symbols for Christ. (6) If we substitute Christians for "little fishes" and Christ for "our fish" Tertullian's message becomes clear.

Inlaid into the floor above the inscription is an anchor, a third-century Christian image of hope, on which a large fish is superimposed (Pl. III). The combination of anchor and fish forms the "anchor-cross," which is another early Christian symbol found in the Roman catacombs. Contemporaneous with the familiar fifth-century corpus-on-cross motif, the anchor-cross is known as a crux dissimulata, since it differs from the earlier "naked" cross, without the body. The top portion of the anchor symbolizes the cross and the fish represents Christ, the anchor of one's faith and salvation. However, in time, this image came to symbolize much more. The bowed bottom of the anchor recalls the horns of the crescent moon, an attribute of the Egyptian goddess Isis, the queen of heaven and the virgin mother of Horus. The crescent moon was appropriated into Christian iconography as a symbol of Mary's position as the queen of heaven and her own virgin motherhood by way of the imagery of the Woman of the Apocalypse in the Book of Revelation: "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars" (Rev. 12:1). Ultimately the crux dissimulata came to be a symbol filled with connotations of both Jesus and Mary. (7)

At the base of the altar there is an elegant marble mosaic of scallop shells (a symbol of baptism) and red ribbons, surrounding another anchor-cross in which the fish appears to have swallowed the anchor--a poignant symbol of Christ's voluntary sacrifice on the cross that is explicitly brought to mind in the rite of the Eucharist celebrated at the altar above (Pl. IV). In the center of the floor stands the neoclassical baptismal font of white Carrara marble. Four marble mosaic rivers flow outward from under the font--a design suggesting Eden's river as the source of the four great rivers of the world: the Pishon, the Gihon, the Tigris, and the Euphrates. Intensifying the aquatic character of the baptistery-chapel, the border of the floor evokes rippling waves. Six medallions with Greek crosses, fishes, and doves (symbolizing the Holy Spirit) appear to float above the waves.