Time to Hope: Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York Museo de San Francisco, Santiago de Chile

Anglican Theological Review, Winter 2004 by Winter, Jacqueline B

Part five, "The Sculpture of Man," brings us to the Renaissance and Christ as measure of man. One side chapel holds two magnificent works by El Greco, a large portrait of Saint Sebastian (191 cm × 152 cm) and a small portrait of Christ, The Saviour in fact cut out from a larger painting and much restored. It belongs to the Convent of the Descalzas Reales in Valladolid and was now being publicly exhibited for the first time. A polychrome wood sacrarium from the late sixteenth century (100 cm × 90 cm), ornately carved and painted, was placed to one side of the chapel. Srta. Melendez led a group of us through the exhibition and enchanted all visitors to the side chapel by opening the sacrarium to reveal a painting of the Last Slipper.

"Ecstasy and Emotion" contains a group of Baroque art works, a treasure trove of objects including writings of John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila. Perhaps the most arresting of all the works in the Cathedral was the Reclining Christ (Crisio Yacente) by Gregorio Femandez (1576-1636). This life-size wooden sculpture belongs to the Convent of Barefoot Carmelite Nuns in Medina de Pomar (Burgos). It is a testimony both to the convent and the Foundation that this precious work, ordinarily visible to the public only one day a week, at which time the nuns retreat to their cloistered quarters, was sent willingly and lovingly as a gift to this distant city. The work (Figure 3) shows the crucified Christ, bloody, bruised, and pierced brutally in the side. Carved from the base up in a single piece of wood, the figure rests on a white shroud, the head on a pillow. The shroud, pillow, and cloth on Christ's loins are trimmed with lace made by the nuns. The eyes are glass, the teeth marble, and the finger- and toeuails formed from the back of parchment. The Baroque or, in this case, Counter-Reformation aesthetic in Spain takes hold in the dramatization of pain and the identification with suffering. Dr. Melondez reminded me, "La vida nos cuesta mucho" (life costs us much). Remember, he told me, the Spaniards of Castile and Leon are a "pueblo castigado" (a punished people). For American Episcopalians to let go of our predilection for a Christ Triumphant or a Christ as Prince of Peace, and feel the beauty and companionship of this suffering Redeemer, is also to accept and embrace the gift of the nuns who shared their treasure.

The ambulatory housed the exhibition epilogue, "Finally Hope," wliich included a series of magnificent choir books with miniatures on parchment, a gilded and enameled gospel book, as well as paintings culminating with Christ Lord of the World, attributed to Juan Rodriguez de Solis. Christ as Lord and King is the end-and beginning-as the viewer moves from the ambulatory to the nave of the Cathedral.

How did these treasures of the Roman Catholic Church come to be presented in the Episcopal Cathedral of New York rather than in a Roman Catholic setting or even an appropriately central, secular location such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art? Several Roman Catholic cathedrals and churches were approached when the exhibition was first planned. Fortunately for the Episcopal Church, most spaces were simply not adequate to hold the works. In any space large enough-St. Patricks, for example-the schedule of services did not permit an exhibition of this magnitude. Thus it was that the Foundation turned to St. John the Divine, known for many years as a leader and innovator in the exhibition of art and for its commitment to the ministry of artists. That the arrangements were made so quickly and the space designed so fully is truly a testament to the hard work of both "sides" and the generosity and devotion of all who worked on this truly remarkable project. At no point in history had the Roman Catholic Church in Spain allied itself with the Episcopal Church, and this act of ecumenism was a very important step in acknowledging that we share a single discourse. The exhibit itself radiated the grace and hospitality with which the Foundation and the Episcopal Church worked together to bring these treasures to New York.