Category: Divine Stone

Lee Lawrie and the central portal of the west front began from this 1927 letter. After successfully completing a model for one of the statues for the portal, the Trustees of the Cathedral awarded the preparation of all models for the sculpture for the central portal of the west front of the Cathedral.

The following quote from the minutes of the Fabric Committee is provided by the Cathedral Archives.

Extract from The Fabric Committee minutes, May 24 1927: It was recommended that the Trustees adopt the following.

“RESOLVED, that Mr. Lee Lawrie be chosen to execute the sculpture of the Central Portal of the West Front at a total cost of $118,000 — models $67,000. Cutting 50,300.

“RESOLVED, that Mr. John Angel be chosen as the sculptor for the North and South Portals of the West Front at a cost of $98,000. –models $54,000 – cutting $44,600; and that a contract with him be made to furnish the models for the South Portal at a cost of $27,000.”

The Trustees proceeded to cause contracts to be issued to both men. Lawrie was advised of the award and responded to Cram and Ferguson:

Your letter of June 10th, telling me that Mr. Cram and the trustees have decided to entrust the sculpture of the Central Portal of the Cathedral to me, makes me feel very good. The work will be a joyous labor for me.

– Lee Lawrie

Below Lee Lawrie describes the subjects for the central portal as well as the Majestas above them and ancillary sculpture.

The Models

Here Tom Fedorek adds some commentary on the symbolism of the basestones. “Isaac – it appears to be the ram caught in a thicket. A reminder of how Isaac was almost sacrificed by his father Abraham. An angel directing Abraham’s attention to the ram saved Issac. At Chartres, on the porch of the north transept — the exemplar for this portal — Abraham is depicted with a juvenile Isaac and there’s a ram on the basestone beneath them. Joseph is easy — it’s a papyrus plant signifying Egypt.

“As for Moses — It looks like a city gate or a fortress or a temple. None of which make any sense for the Moses narrative. He and the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness, where there weren’t any cities or temples. Moses built a tabernacle, a kind of tent, to house the ark of the covenant. There wouldn’t be a permanent temple for many generations after Moses.”

The date of the above image is unknown. Presumably it is from the early or mid 1930’s. The three figures modeled represent half of the statues for the north jamb. It is also unknown if Lawrie created others. There were no additional images.

Other West Front Models

There are, however, additional images in the archives representing Lawrie’s sculptural models of a very different style. A style closer to the Art-Deco work at Rockefeller Center than to the traditional figure work shown of Isaac, Joseph and Moses. They appear below:

These models may have been for the upper rank of figures above the prophets or they may have been modeled for the archivolts. Again, Tom Fedorek identifies the symbolism of these figures.

“The trio of angels are from the Book of Revelation, aka the Apocalypse. The giveaway is the first angel’s Greek inscription APOKALYPTON. The angel with the stone appears in Rev 18:21-24: ‘Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, So shall Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence…’ The angel with the sickle appears in Rev 14:17-20 ‘And another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle…So the angel swung his sickle on the earth and gathered up the vintage of the earth, and threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God…”

Fast Forward 10 years

It is 1937 and a few years before the reopening of the full Cathedral with the completed Nave. Other than the Majestas, none of the models have been carved. Cram and Ferguson write to the Cathedral that Mr. Lawrie is requesting some additional payment for his work. A portion of the June 24, 1937 letter from C.N. Godfrey of Cram and Ferguson to Dean Gates appears below.

Cram and Ferguson go on to advise the Cathedral that there appears to be no legal obligation but perhaps one of good will and a wish to do justice to everyone connected with the building. The Cathedral made the payment and obtained a complete release from Mr. Lawrie. Because of the slow and incomplete work of Lee Lawrie on his contract and the multiple changes in general contractors the central portal was never carved. Once the complete length of the Cathedral was opened and the decision to refrain from further building was made after WWII, it would be almost 50 years before Dean Morton would hire Simon Verity to complete work on the central portal, now known as the Portal of Paradise. Mr. Verity did not make models, he employed direct carving methods on all the statues.

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• Many thanks to Wayne Kempton the Diocesan Archivist for taking time to send us the correspondence and the images for this story.
• Thanks also to Tom Fedorek, Senior Guide, for his exquisite knowledge of liturgical symbolism.

Lee Lawrie’s Christ in Majesty or sometimes the “Majestus”, is the Western Christian image of Christ seated on a throne as ruler of the world. The image develops from Early Christian Art as described in the Apocalypse of John.

The Full Size Model

The Ardolino extended stone carving family likely carved this sculpture. The general contractor employed them on the west front at this time

Lee Oskar Lawrie (1877 – 1963)

The work of sculptor Lee Lawrie is associated with some of America’s most noted buildings of the first half of the Twentieth Century. Lawrie’s style evolved through modern Gothic to Beaux-Arts and finally in to Moderne or Art Deco. He created the mighty Atlas at Rockefeller Center and sculpted the highly dramatic facade of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. His largest commission, the Nebraska State Capitol sculptures, remains one of his most creative. Lawrie taught sculpture at Yale and Harvard.

At the age of 14, Lee became a studio assistant to Chicago sculptor Henry H. Park. Shortly thereafter, he got a job at the 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition. From there he worked for a number of world-class sculptors including Augustus Saint-Gaudens. In 1895 he approached Bertram Goodhue of Cram and Goodhue and with his demonstrated skills was hired.

Lawrie’s collaborations with Ralph Adams Cram and Bertram Goodhue brought him to the forefront of architectural sculptors in the United States. After the breakup of the Cram, Goodhue firm he remained a favorite of Cram; however, Lawrie continued to work mostly with Goodhue.

Lawrie created a great deal of sacred art in all of Goodhue’s churches in NYC and beyond. Goodhue and Lawrie worked on more than a hundred buildings including St. Thomas church on 5th Avenue where Lawrie sculpted the famous reredos.

The Cathedral Commission

The Cathedral commission was much larger in scope than the creation of the Majestus sculpture. It involved modeling statuary for the main portal, the work that was eventually done by direct carver Simon Verity. Why the statues were never executed is still a bit of a mystery, but we talk about most of the facts of the matter next time.

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• We are Grateful to Wayne Kempton, Diocesan Archivist, for the information and the images of Lee Lawrie’s models.

John Angel’s statue of St. Paul was done in his traditional process. First, an armature is created from a small model, then a full size clay model is sculpted. From this clay model a plaster cast was made and brought to the site for the stone carver to copy. The carver of this particular work is unknown to us at this time. This statue is one of the last sculptural additions to the South Portal in this period.

In 1928, Angel had executed the large Nativity group in the tympanum. The installation of this trumeau statue occurred on November 24, 1953. It may have been the last of the Angel sculptures on the West Front of the Cathedral. Angel may have completed the modeling of St. Paul much earlier, in the 1930’s. All these works span 25 years and marked a commitment to the Cathedral from the Baptistry statues to the many sculptures on the West Front. The Statues at the Martyrs’ Portal, the trumeau of St. John at the main portal and this work on the South Portal are among the many works from John Angel. The Ardolino brothers and cousins carved many of these works.

The Preachers Portal

The “Preachers’ Portal” is the name for this portal in the 1928 guide to the Cathedral. In addition to Saint Paul, there is a plan for eight more statues: “On the left side, west to east: Saints Francis of Assisi, Bernard, Boniface and Chrysostom. On the right side, west to east: Saints Dominick, Gregory, Patrick and Athanasius.” We look forward to the eventual sculptural additions to the South Portal involving these eight statues.

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(There are many urban legends involving the Cathedral. The article above is an example. Curious about the arch and hoping to locate it, I turned to the Cathedral’s Senior Guide and Historian – Tom Fedorek. Here is the story, or should we say, the corrected story, about the unfinished arch – Roger)

Here is the arch in question as it appears today. It is one of the four broad arches that line each side of the Great Choir and bear the load of the chambers housing the organ pipes above (they are not “decorative”). This arch, the last one on the north side, is the only one with floral carving on its voussoirs, beginning on the right side but petering out as reaches the peak. Its left side is unadorned, as are all of the other Great Choir arches. The capitals are likewise unfinished.

What Might Have Happened

It is December 7, 1941. We imagine the stonecarver standing on a scaffold in the Great Choir. We see the concentration on his face as he carefully shapes the stone. A radio is playing softly in the background. Suddenly an announcer breaks in with the news of the attack. It is a moment he’ll never forget. Shaken, he quickly packs up and heads home to his family. The next day he’s not there. Perhaps he’s joined the thousands of men lining up to enlist. The carving on the arch is never finished. It remains to this day as a testament to a heart-stopping moment in American history.

The “Pearl Harbor Arch” is a compelling story. I have heard it recounted by innumerable sightseeing guides and a few of our own cathedral guides. When I took a television crew through the place some years ago, the first thing they wanted to shoot was the Pearl Harbor Arch. 

None of it is true. 

Some Important Facts

Let’s think about this. December 7, 1941 was a Sunday. Does it seem likely that the cathedral would have had a stonecarver working on a Sunday, hammering on stone and scattering dust and debris around the main worship space? Especially on this particular Sunday – the grand finale of the eight-day celebration of the consecration of the building’s full length that began on November 30?

More to the point — archival photographs dating back many years prior to 1941 show the arch looking exactly as it does today. This one is from 1929, but I have seen the unfinished carving in photos from 1913 in the cathedral archives. The only way the arch could be the “Pearl Harbor Arch” would be if the Second World War had preceded the First. 

Many mysteries remain. Whose idea was it to gussy up Heins & La Farge’s powerful, Richardsonian arches? Who executed the work? And why was it never finished?

When facts are lacking, fiction may fill the vaccuum. The Pearl Harbor Arch is just one of the urban legends that have attached themselves to the cathedral like barnacles to the bottom of a ship. 

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• Many thanks to Tom Fedorek, Cathedral Historian and Senior Guide for this blog

Above the bronze doors at the central Portal of Paradise and above and behind the trumeau of St. John is the Pilgrims’ Frieze. The design is by Canon Edward Nason West in 1964. The Laymen’s Club was financially instrumental in the commissioning of the frieze.

It is speculated that the firm of Rochette & Parzini executed the plaster cast and the carving. They had completed the Gable Cross, the Diocesan Coat of Arms and the Christ in Majesty. All of these just preceded the Pilgrims’ Frieze and all were embellishments to the center of the west front. Likewise, Rochette & Parzini’s main carver, Mario Tommasi, is thought to have done the carving.

The liturgical inspiration for Canon West’s design is found in the Book of Revelation, Chapter 7.

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands…

– Book of Revelation

All the 33 figures in the frieze are carrying a large branch of palm. All ages and ethnicities are present in a procession of pilgrimage. They represent the varied ethnic composition of the people who attend services at the Cathedral.

Canon West

Truly a Renaissance man, he studied architecture at Boston University before turning to theology. Ordained a deacon in 1934 and a priest in 1935, West came to the Cathedral in 1941 and became Canon Sacrist in 1943 and named Sub Dean of the Cathedral in 1966. He retired in 1981 as Canon Sacrist and Sub Dean but continued as Master of Ceremonies; he served as Master of Ceremonies for more than 40 years.

Not only was he a theologian, he was also an author, an internationally known iconographer, an expert in the design of church furnishings and an authority on liturgical art. A leading authority on liturgical celebrations, as Canon Sacrist, he was in charge of preparations for all services at St. John the Divine.

Among his many contributions, he designed the Compass Rose of the Anglican Communion, the Diocesan seal as well as the Pilgrims’ Frieze.

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• Our thanks to the Cathedral Archives and Wayne Kempton for the contributions to this story
• The New York Times, Edward West, Retired Canon and Author, 80, Jan 5, 1990, section B, page 4
• Strangers and Pilgrims, A centennial History of the Laymen’s Club of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Francis B. Sypher 2012, pages 73-74