Category: Profiles in Stone

The passing of Simon Verity at Carmarthenshire, Wales, the man responsible for the 31 figures at the Portal of Paradise at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in the city of New York, causes us to reflect on the creativity and the passion for stone of this British sculptor.

The best stonecutters come from uncomplicated rural stock. A stone is as much part of the life of the earth as farming. Geometry, the measure of the earth, is the core of their work. Squaring a block, making it true, each step measured and with no shortcuts gives a logic to the turn of the mind. It is no surprise to me that Socrates was a stonecutter, because they’re a breed apart, independent and truculent.

– Simon Verity

The son of architect and artist parents, after schooling he apprenticed for six years to his great uncle Oliver Hill, an architect, landscape architect and garden designer. Simon also studied with conservationists at Wells Cathedral. Eric Gill the English sculptor, letter cutter and typeface designer heavily influenced his work. Simon became an expert stone carver and a superb self taught letter cutter. His love of Medieval grottoes came from restoration work he conducted in the mid 80’s and he constructed multiple new grottoes for clients. His sculptural carvings on English cathedrals and churches were extensive.

The Cathedral Competition

In the late 1980’s, Dean James Morton created a limited international competition to find a sculptor to organize a team of carvers to create and install the figures for the “Preachers’ Portal” on the porch of the southwest tower. The task involved carving the eight figures in a workshop, then setting up the sculptures in the empty spaces on the porch. The tower is known as St. Paul’s Tower. It was under construction and the focus of the Stoneyard Institute. Sir Hugh Casson of the Royal Academy produced a short list of sculptors including Simon Verity. In April of 1988 Simon visited the site.

To everyone’s surprise, Simon told the Dean that he would instead carve the figures at the central portal. This made the project immensely more visible. Stones had been set at the portal in the late 1930’s according to Ralph Adams Cram’s 1925 design for the west front. There were a total of 12 stones, including pedestals for the major rank of figures and 12 stones for the upper rank. These stones would have to be carved in situ. The designated figures from the Old and New Testament were specified in the original 1925 plan. According to Dean Morton “it was all male and unimaginative” so he assembled a group of religious theologians, including a rabbi, to come up with the appropriate list. For the 24 stones that existed, the list contained 31 names. Verity would need to carve two figures out of seven of the stones.

The Cathedral’s Own Carvers Added

Verity was joined on the project by six carvers from the Cathedral’s Stoneyard Institute. They were: Jessica Aujero Lowrie, Amy Brier, Gabriele Hitl-Cohen, D’Ellis “Jeep” Kincannon, Joseph Kincannon and Dennis Reed. These carvers worked primarily on the ornate pedestals.

These bases complement the figure’s story or explain their teaching. Simon considered Dennis Reed’s “visitation” pedestal the best of them. He wrote “Alan Bird who I had known in Wells introduced me to the carvers. I was impressed and awed by their stories. We started on the bases, or socles, to the large statures. The young carvers were to do drawings to relate to the prophets above, to be interesting and to respect the architecture. Some of those little carvings truly reflect the passion of the carvers and through them to passers by.”

With Love and Respect

Several people on that project and others with the Cathedral have reflected on the time when Simon was carving and its lasting impact:

“Simon was a free-thinking and innovative man. Working on the West Front, Simon encouraged us to create our own imagery by exploring the stories of biblical figures to be carved. He fostered a space that allowed for our interpretations and comparisons, biblical times and current states of affairs to be expressed by directly carving into the large blocks of stone.”

Gabriele Hitl-Cohen – Stone Carver on the Portal of Paradise

“When Simon started the eight-foot major figure of Elijah – the first one he carved – I spent time with him on the rickety scaffold he set up. I was totally in awe of his carving, relentlessly chipping away and shaping the block. I felt that he was a modern-day Michelangelo. He barely stopped hammering away at the stone – he could see what was in  the block and how he wanted that figure to emerge.”

Robert F. Rodriguez – Photojournalist who documented the stone work on the Cathedral for more than decade.

“I first came to visit my father in New York back in 1989 when I was 13; I would return each year and watch it progress as well as the team he’d built to work on it. The thing I loved the most were the elements of his life that he immortalised in stone. He had local people and friends pose for the carvings, such as one of the three foot figures Esther, 3rd from the right at the top standing with a dog modelled by Jessica his great friend’s niece. Her dog was called Cooper so it sits with a camera around its neck as a nod to another friend of his, Martha Cooper, who has lead an amazing life photographing graffiti in the city since the 70’s. 

One piece that particularly amused the young me was the addition of a person I’ll spare the name of that made his life difficult at the time who will spend eternity kissing his butt. It’s only small so I’ll leave discovering this up to the more dedicated. This is an example of his sense of humour.

This was a project that took thirteen years start to finish; his opinions of it changed from the start of the job to the end but he managed to keep a consistency to the composition of the entire piece.“

Johno Verity, Simon Verity’s son

“I’m still not sure if a firm decision was ever made as to who would lead the Portal project but somehow scaffolding was beginning to be erected. As we watched and waited and continued on our regular carving work, Simon kept busy. He was constantly drawing. He would sit anywhere, even on the ground, doing preliminary sketches. I hope a book comes out of his sketches.
On the northern steps, by the portal, we sat with smaller pieces of limestone, maybe a foot, eighteen inches. He guided us to draw a draped figure. He taught us how to think of drapery and how it falls naturally. Since the portal figures are larger than life, drapery would be very important.

Simon also had us use slate or limestone and taught us one of his specialties, lettering. He explained to me how to hold my flat chisel to create the perfect serif. Aha! That’s actually where serifs came from – carvings of the ancient world – Greeks, Romans.
He showed us photos and spoke wistfully of his gilded lettering at the Victoria and Albert Museum. He was so in love at the time that the letters literally burst into flames, so the letters grew flourishes of flames. Do you know how risky that was as an artist, carving directly on the wall of a major institution. But it came out stunning and so unique.“

Jessica Aujero Lowrie – Stone Carver on the Portal of Paradise

“The weather was cool, and we stood before the central portal staring at the looming statue blocks. This was a big moment as Simon was about to embark on the biggest carving project of his career. I’m not sure of the sanctioned starting date, but that was of little concern to him. He was more determined to learn about the quality of the twelve limestone blocks that rested on their pedestals, undisturbed, for all of sixty years. His head was already in the stone.
As we stood there it was obvious that he was ready to swing into action which prompted me to ask if it might be a good idea to set up scaffolding before starting any work. The suggestion fell on deaf ears. Undeterred, he led me to the maintenance department where we shouldered two ladders back to the front portal. Without hesitation, he plunked one against a statue block. With hammer and punch in hand, he scrambled up and without ceremony, started whaling on the stone. The chips rained down, and so I joined in. Incidentally, there was about half an inch of hard crust on the surface, but underneath, the stone was as pure and clean as the day it was quarried.
It may have seemed a little hasty to start carving on such a prestigious landmark in such a way, but Simon was well aware that many layers of stone would fall before anything resembling statues could emerge. The work was heavy-handed, but we were literally scratching the surface.

Our first step was to punch large rectangular blocks into cylinders.
To many, “roughing out” the stone might be considered mindless grunt work, but Simon embraced this stage of the carving. The canvas of bumps, pits and shattered peaks served up a range of images that might later become part of the finished sculpture. The stone fed the imagination. Simon said this was when he did his best thinking.
I think it fair to say that Simon was a bit of a purist. I can’t recall him ever using a pneumatic, nor any power tools for that matter. In fact, even his chisels were pretty pitiful. You could have put a railroad spike in his hand, and he would have made it work. In those early days, we were both pretty scruffy and must have looked like vandals to a growing number of concerned onlookers. Eventually, many worthy carvers would join forces with Simon on this project. I can’t help but smile when thinking that this is how the Portal of Paradise project all began.“

Another Simon Memory…

“When I started the miniature city statue base under the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah on the west front, I was more than a little apprehensive. Aside from a few practice pieces, this would be my first direct carving on a real job, meaning to let images from the rough stone evolve the overall composition and without the aid of drawings or models.

Simon, in his usual composed manner, suggested that I use the crystal forms reminiscent of a grotto project we had recently worked on in Texas. He was adamant that the carving be faithful to the subject matter. The carving had to represent the destruction and rebuilding of Jerusalem in support of the statue narrative above. That was the extent of his direction.

I wanted more instruction, but he was eager that it be my own interpretation. He insisted that the carving would have more meaning, and be more impactful, if I shunned the practice of taking measurements off of a drawing. He cautioned me to avoid becoming more of a technician than a carver. This was a pretty abstract notion for a carver who had only apprenticed in a structured environment.

When not carving, Simon spent a great amount of time drawing, and making small maquettes, or studies. To my recollection, they never made their way onto the scaffold. He seemed to prefer facing the stone head on without any clutter. In this way, he shined a light on a whole new pathway to carving stone that I still make use of to this day.“

Joseph Kincannon – Stone Carver on the Portal of Paradise

Jean-Claude Marchionni, a talented French carver, joined Simon in 1993. Jean-Claude’s rigorous training had been as a member of the Compagnons Du Devoir and he and Simon became a great team. Different than previous sculptural carvers in the Cathedral’s history, Verity and Marchionni employed direct carving. There were no plaster models, no pointing or enlarging machines.

“Simon Verity and his collaborators created one of the most powerful works of religious art in recent times – the Portal of Paradise on the west front of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. I had the privilege of observing its thirty-one figures gradually emerge from blocks of raw limestone over a span of twelve years (1985-1997). Now, as a cathedral docent, I introduce visitors to its iconography and symbolism.

The Portal is the most prominent and probably most frequently photographed work of art at the cathedral. It is also the most misunderstood. Many visitors lack the once-widespread familiarity with the Bible that would enable them to recognize such important Biblical characters as John the Baptist, Moses, David, and Abraham and Sarah. They also lack familiarity with the custom – common since the Renaissance – of transporting to modern times Biblical events such as social unrest in ancient Israel and the destruction of Jerusalem.  

A common misunderstanding, frequently repeated in social media, is that the Portal depicts scenes from the Book of Revelation in the New Testament, when in fact nearly all the imagery derives from the Old Testament. Misunderstanding and mystification have led some commentators to fantasize that something sinister lies behind images like the partially veiled face of Moses (from Exodus 34:33) or the skulls beneath the figure of Ezekiel (the Vision of Dry Bones, Ezekiel 37:1-14).

I have the privilege of helping visitors to see the Portal in the light in which its creators intended it to be seen and to appreciate the extraordinary richness of its Biblical imagery. After thirty years of observation, hardly a year goes by when I do not spot a detail that I never noticed before. 

Simon Verity’s legacy at the Cathedral will endure for as many centuries as the Cathedral stands. Stone is eternal, and Simon, who knew a bit of Latin, could easily appropriate for himself this line from Horace:

Exegi monumentum aere perennius (‘I have completed a monument more lasting than bronze’).”

-Thomas Fedorek – The Cathedral’s Senior Guide

Not Separate Statues

Simon did not see this project as in any sense isolated from the other elements of the Cathedral. He consulted with master geometer Michael Schneider to resolve connections between the images to be carved and the architecture. Line and shadow, how they would read from across the street and integrate into the West Front’s architecture were all worked out. Schneider tells us “he (Simon) organized the individual sculptures harmoniously with each other and with the building and space before it. Hardly anyone knows that Simon made the eyes of the line of sculpted personages each follow the visitor up the stairs in their sequence. Each looking at a key point in the geometry then passing us to the next set of eyes, watching us enter each step from the street up to the central front door.”

Now I trudge through the derelict streets of Harlem to the Cathedral, my tools over my shoulder. It’s a medieval horizon on the hill, massive, somber, squat with its unfinished towers. Here is my doorway facing west, my work laid out before me with the imperfections, the experiments, the hope, the possibilities. There is now no man alive who has the same experience I have, has worked this particular way. I am tracing painfully, intuitively, the same wellspring that gave life to a medieval maker of images.

– Simon Verity

■

• Special thanks to Robert F. Rodriguez for organizing all of the photos from his own collection, that of Martha Cooper and Mary Bloom and for reaching out to the carvers.
• The New York Times Magazine, The Gospel According to Verity, July 9, 1989, Bruce Weber
• With Companions for the Journey, James Parks Morton, An Annotated Memoir
• The Portal of Paradise, Steve Zeitlin, citylore.org
• Correspondence between Mark Saxe and Simon Verity
• Divine Inspiration, Perspectives (magazine, UK), November 1994,
• Simon Verity writings courtesy of Martha Cooper
• Link to The Portal Project at Saint John the Divine. Martha Cooper’s Photo-Documentary of the last three years of the carving project.
• Constructing The Universe, Michael Schneider
• Link to: Tom Fedorek’s Guide to the Portal of Paradise

Tim de Christopher’s route to the stone yard and the following years has been filled with stone. You might say “stone for life” is a fitting title for this story. He became aware of Cathedral Stoneworks as a graduate student at nearby Columbia University. His early influencer was his father, a graphic artist and designer of educational toys. He studied sculpture and began carving in 1978 when attending The Cooper Union in New York City.

After being hired at the Cathedral stone yard, Tim was able to use his experience in sculpture, architecture, model making, mold making, drawing, drafting and graphic design. They hired Tim as an architectural draftsman and “journeyman” carver. At the time, Cathedral Stoneworks was taking in outside work with the goal to generate profit for continued work on the south tower of the Cathedral. Tim carved stone for the Coca-Cola Building and took molds of existing ornamentation on the Jewish Museum. His carved grotesques adorn the new wing.

Entering the north transept of the Cathedral from the stone yard, he would pass the enlarged photograph of one of the Ardolino brothers carving a capital on the monumental columns. Other than two men, working at the Cathedral over 80 years apart, he thought the only relationship was one of stone. Turns out, they were cousins, something Tim would find out some years later.

The Ardolino – Christofaro Connection

In 1907, Eduardo Ardolino married Nicolina de Cristofaro. Nicolina was the sister of Leopoldo de Christofaro. Leopoldo is the grandfather of Tim de Christopher. All were from Torre le Nocelle, Italy. Like the Ardolinos, grandfather de Christofaro was a stone carver. He emigrated to Philadelphia and carved for the Bryn Athyn Cathedral. In Philadelphia he founded De Christopher Bros. Monuments with Tim’s great uncle Carmine. The business exists to this day. Similarly, Ralph Ardolino formed Long Branch Monuments in New Jersey. The coincidences and similarities are quite striking and there isTim de Christopher engaged in the same work at a cathedral and he also has done memorial work.

Unfortunately, in 1994, funding issues caused the stoneyard to close down. Tim left NY in 1992 and moved to Massachusetts setting up a small carving shed at the Ashfield Stone Quarry. A short time later a call came from Alan Bird, then Clerk of the Works for Cathedral Stoneworks. Bird let Tim know they were cleaning out the yard and if he wanted stone to come and get it. A 20 ton rig was hired and it made 6 trips. Jeep Kincannon helped Tim with logistics in the city. Tim was now owner of 120 tons of stone; stone for life. He and the stone have moved several times between then and his current home in Turners Falls, Massachusetts. There are fewer pallets of stone today.

For me, it was precious cargo, my artwork and my bread and butter.

The Professional Stone Sculptor

De Christopher is now a well known New England sculptor, with his work being featured in many solo exhibitions, commissions and public art installations.

Throughout his sculptures there is an incisive sense of humor, and charm, coupled with human empathy which makes his work deeply ‘humanist.’ His pieces reach out to the viewer; they want to be admired, delighted in, and chuckled over.

– Ray Wiggs Gallery, Provincetown, MA

Tim has about 30 tons of stone remaining and plans for all of it. His latest work “Industrial Ark” is part of that.

Tim will always hold the Cathedral and his time there near to his heart and his stone for life is one of the connections.

■

• Cathedral Stoneworks Profiles
• Rock, Paper, Scissors: Local sculptor creates public art that captures essence of Turners Falls
• Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/timthestoneguy/

The Stone Carvers Guild is a group of independent working professional American stone carvers. Some work in one-person shops, others in small dedicated carving companies. Although they compete with one another for jobs, they share the same goals including promoting and preserving the timeless trade of architectural stone carving. Recently the Guild began a monthly podcast featuring interviews with members. The first three members interviewed all are veterans of the stone yard at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City. All have continued their carving journeys around the country.

Episode 1 – Joseph Kincannon, September 2023

Joseph went from the Gift Shop to an Apprentice in the stone yard to Lead Carver. He was one of the longest serving stone workers at the Cathedral during the existence of the Stone Yard Institute. In addition to work at Kincannon Studios, he is currently the Chair of Carving at the American College of Building Arts. Listen to the podcast by linking here

Episode 2 – Nicholas Fairplay, October, 2023

At 16 Nick apprenticed with a stone company working on Chichester Cathedral. He went on to work at Westminster Abbey and then received a degree from City and Guilds of London Art School in life drawing and clay modeling. He came to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine as Head Carver and was tasked to teach carving to the most promising cutters in the apprentice program. Listen to the podcast by linking here.

Episode 3. – Amy Brier, November, 2023

After she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Boston University, Amy went to Pietrasanta in Italy to carve and study at a commercial marble studio. Coming to the Cathedral stoneyard as well as during its exchange program work on the Cathedral in Lyon, France, she learned much and appreciated the place the traditional carver had in the work. After the Cathedral work Amy acquired a MFA in sculpture from Indiana University. Along the way she co-founded and became the Executive Director of the Indiana Limestone Symposium. She continues to teach as Chair of the Fine Arts program at Ivy Tech Community College in Bloomington, IN. Listen to the podcast by linking here.

■

• Stone Carvers Guild
• Kincannon Studios
• American College of the Building Arts
• Fairplay Stone Carver
• Amy Brier
• Indiana Limestone Symposium

Many of the cathedral’s stone carvings were produced by the Ardolinos who immigrated from Torre La Nocelle, Campania, Italy late in the 19th Century . The Ardolino brothers, Eduardo and Clamanzio Celestino joined at times by their cousins Raffaele and Dominico, also brothers, worked for years at the cathedral, often carrying out the designs of sculptor John Angel.

Ermalindo Eduardo Ardolino

Known as Edward Ardolino, he was an Italian born American stone carver and architectural sculptor of the early twentieth century. He is the most well known member of the Ardolino family of stone carvers. He worked with leading architects and sculptors, including architect Bertram Goodhue and sculptors Lee Lawrie and John Angel. The Ardolinos participated in carvings at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine as the building progressed as evidenced in photos and clerk-of-works reports from 1909 into the 1930’s. The Ardolino’s work is in the nave, baptistery, multiple west front carvings and includes carvers Ralph (Raffaelle) and his son Arthur. They worked under architects Heins & LaFarge and Ralph Adams Cram.

Edward Ardolino was born into a long line of stone carvers in Torre Le Nocelle, Province of Avellino, Italy. On his 1898 immigration, when he was 14, he identified himself as a sculptor. He was joining his older brother Charles (Clamanzio Celestino) Ardolino who was a stone carver in Boston. Together they formed Ardolino Brothers. They contracted others, including cousin Ralph (Angelo Raffaelle) Ardolino to assist in fulfilling their commissions. Later, Charles retained Ardolino Brothers and Eduardo created Edward Ardolino, Inc. In 1907, Edward Ardolino married Nicolina de Cristofaro. The Cristofaro’s were another stone carving family originating from Torre Le Nocelle.

Collectively, the Ardolinos worked on sculptural carvings on hundreds of buildings in the U.S. and Canada. They employed as many as 32 carvers at one time. Outstanding among them are the Los Angeles Public Library, the Nebraska State Capitol and four buildings in the Federal Triangle of Washington, D.C. Most of the Goodhue/Lawrie collaborations fulfilled in conjunction with Ardolino were invited into historic registers or achieved landmark status.

A Famous Photograph

A much circulated photo “working on an angel” is of an Ardolino carver taken in 1909. This photo is of the carving of a capital atop the monumental columns in the chancel area of the cathedral. The capital is the design of the architect George B. Post.

It seems that of all the Ardolinos involved in the work at the cathedral, based on their ages and photos that this is Charles (Clamanzio Celestino) Ardolino above.

Those capitals, modeled by Mr. Post, were carved in-situ from clay models, working 60 feet above the altar floor.

Raffaelle Ardolino

Ralph (Raffaelle) Ardolino emigrated to the United States in 1888. He had apprenticed under his stone carver father in Torre Le Nocelle, Campania, Italy. He later studied at a fine arts academy in Florence. By the time he was 18 years old he had mastered the art of sculpting and was adept at every phase of working in stone. He also learned the blacksmith’s trade, as many carvers did, to be able to forge, repair and sharpen their own tools.

Ralph came to live in the Boston area where his cousins owned the carving firm, Ardolino Brothers. When the cousins moved to New York, Ralph did not follow them; instead, he eventually moved to Tampa. In Tampa he operated a monument business and executed several sculpting commissions. By 1918 he had moved his family to Brooklyn.

Although Ralph worked extensively for Edward Ardolino Inc. he also had commissions of his own as a freelance sculptor. As well, he worked on the Lincoln Memorial, employed by the Piccirilli Brothers, and in addition to carving did much of the lettering at the monument. Ralph and his son Arthur worked on many projects at the Cathedral. He traveled to worksites throughout the country but always returned to the brownstone he owned at 240 Bergen Street in Brooklyn, New York.

Trips to the Jersey Shore

The New York community of Italian carvers and sculptors would regularly take weekend trips on the excursion boat, Mary Patton, to the Jersey Shore.

The boat would leave Friday night and come back Sunday night. Anyway, one weekend when he was down here he decided that maybe the place to be was Long Branch. He would stay here reading magazines containing carving and sculpting bids, and send off estimates to companies around the country. Then the business began to drop off, and by 1928 there were only 86 carvers in the New York union. There was less stone being used in building and less carving.

Ralph Ardolino, Jr.

So Ralph Sr. went looking and found an old monument shop in West Long Branch, put all his savings into it and brought all the Ardolinos to New Jersey. By the time the business was established in 1929, all of his sons had completed their apprenticeship in the trade. Dan handled drafting and sales, Ralph Jr. took care of the business end and Arthur and Carl took care of the stone carving work in the shop.

In 1980, the Ardolino sons were all in their seventies and they closed their doors. One further generation of Ardolinos remained in Long Branch. Richard Ardolino cuts letters for cemetery monuments as of an account in 2009.

■

• A Socioeconomic Study Exploring the Immigration of Artisan Stone Carvers from Italy to the United States of America circa 1830-1920, Russ Joseph Morris, The College of Staten Island.
• The Amazing Monument Men of Monmouth County, Monmouthtimeline.org
• ABOUT NEW JERSEY Tombstone Artisans: A Family Affair, New York Times, January 8, 1978
• Correspondence between Gail Iamello Deninger and Wayne Kempton, Cathedral archivist
• The Genealogy of Torre le Nocelle, Italy,

The tomb of William Thomas Manning (1866-1949) seldom fails to catch the eye of visitors to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. It is the work of sculptor Constantin Antonovici, completed in 1954. Manning was the 10th Bishop of New York, 1921-1946.

The Tomb

The only black-and-white object of any size in the cathedral, the tomb contrasts sharply with the radiant color in the windows above it and the monochrome limestone around it. The tomb’s simplicity is even more striking when compared to the extravagant sarcophagus of cathedral founder Horatio Potter behind the high altar, or that of his successor, Henry Codman Potter, in St. James’s Chapel. 

The recumbent figure of the bishop, of milky Carrara marble, rests atop a rectangular prism of black marble, lightly streaked. His head rests on one cushion while another braces his feet. He wears the classic episcopal vestments of miter, stole, alb and cope while his folded hands display the ring of his office. The crozier by his side, tucked in by his arm, symbolizes the authority he wielded forcefully, often imperiously, and sometimes controversially during the 25 years he oversaw the diocese. 

As much a general as he was a shepherd, Manning was Napoleonic in both temperament and stature (five feet, four-and-a-half inches). The figure is effectively life-size, with a total length of seventy inches including ten inches for the miter. Because the sculptor had never seen the bishop in life, he required a model. A young, slightly built Japanese-American priest was assigned to report to the artist’s studio in the crypt and lie on a table while Antonovici roughed out the figure. (This I learned this from the priest’s widow when, decades later, she popped into the cathedral asking to see the sculpture for which her late husband had posed.)

The figure’s face, which the sculptor would have modeled from photographs, comports with an eyewitness description of the bishop written in 1936 and quoted in the New York Times obituary:
“His square-jawed, thin face, his dome-like forehead, his piercing eyes, his peaked nose and his small thin-lipped mouth accentuate an austere spiritual nature which no amount of cordiality can conceal.”

The Site

Significantly, the tomb of William Thomas Manning sits in the nave. When Manning became the bishop in 1921, there was no nave. Construction of the cathedral had been stalled for ten years. Twenty years later, on November 30, 1941, he presided at the nave’s consecration. He had overseen its design and construction and raised the millions of dollars to pay for it.

Within the nave, the tomb sits in the Historical & Patriotic Societies Bay (now often referred to as the American History Bay). An immigrant from England’s Northampshire, Manning became a passionate partisan of his adopted country. He cultivated relationships with societies honoring the heritage of the United States such as the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Sons of the same, the St. Nicholas Society, the Huguenot Society and many others. At the ceremony for the tomb’s unveiling, representatives of patriotic societies walked in the procession behind an honor guard of the Veterans Corps of Artillery of the State of New York.

Equally significant is the tomb’s placement directly across from the Armed Forces Bay. Manning was an ardent supporter of the military. In 1916, while serving as rector of Trinity Church, he called for the United States to end its neutrality and enter the conflict then raging in Europe. He preached: “Our Lord Jesus Christ does not stand for peace at any price. He stands for righteousness at any cost… Every true American would rather see this land face war than see her flag lowered in disgrace.” After the United States entered the war, he served as a chaplain at Camp Upton on Long Island. Here draftees trained prior to transport to France. 

War in Europe broke out in 1939. Manning bucked a nationwide tide of isolationism to advocate for U.S. support for Britain and her allies. In 1942, two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he was co-speaker on a panel with British Ambassador Lord Halifax. His biographer recounts: “The statesman gave the sermon; the bishop gave the call to arms.” 

Manning’s brand of sanctified nationalism would not be appreciated in the Episcopal Church of the 21^st century. It should be considered in the context of the fascism and militarism rampant in Europe during Manning’s own time. Even as the nave of St. John the Divine was nearing completion, bombs were striking the churches and cathedrals of Manning’s native England. Though his legacy may be problematic, it is fitting that his final resting place should be inside his most enduring achievement – the cathedral’s majestic, soaring nave.

The Sculptor

Constantin Antonovici was born in Romania in 1911. His early training was at his homeland’s Academy of Fine Arts in Iasi. This was followed by study with Ivan Mestrovici in Zagreb and Fritz Behn in Vienna. He came into his own as a sculptor during the four years he spent in Paris working in the atelier of Constantin Brancusi (1947-1951). Antonovici adopted the style of the great Romanian modernist, reducing objects to their essence in sleek, sinuous forms rendered in marble, bronze, and wood. From Paris he emigrated to Montreal in 1951 and finally to New York in 1953.

Shortly after arriving in New York, he learned that the cathedral had announced a competition for designing the tomb of William Thomas Manning, the late Bishop. According to his own account, the jury selected his design by a unanimous vote. The cathedral authorities offered him a fee of $50,000. A small advance paid for the start with the balance to be paid in installments as the work progressed. His account continues:

“I worked on this statue for one entire year. The work on the sculpture took place in an unused spot in the cathedral that was removed from public view. I asked for the balance of payment after the sculpture was completed. They kept postponing honoring the payment. Years passed by and the same lame excuses kept coming in. I came to the realization that I had been robbed by English thieves.”

There is surely another side to the story, but the details are unavailable. Nevertheless, the cathedral allowed Antonovici to continue to work rent-free in the crypt for many years. Perhaps they considered the unique space to be adequate compensation for his work on the tomb. 

Twenty years after the disagreement over his fee for the Manning tomb, in his preface to the 1975 book Constantin Antonovici: Sculptor of Owls, Antonovici expressed sentiments markedly different from his earlier harsh remarks:

Gratefully I thank the staff of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine for providing me with the studio in which I have created more than 80 percent of my works, and I express my respect for the Cathedral management, who have demonstrated the interest of that institution in the promotion and appreciation of art. The setting for my work inspires me in much the same way that Michelangelo, Chagall, and other great artists who worked in the immense quietness and divine atmosphere of great temples and cathedrals were inspired.

– Constantin Antonovici

In the crypt Antonovici created the works for which he is best known – his extraordinary owls of bronze, marble, and wood. Owls fascinated him as a child. Whether it was the gloom of the crypt that reawakened his interest in these nocturnal creatures, or Brancusi’s abstractions of birds in flight, owls inspired some of his best work.

Antonovici died in 2002. Poor health, financial difficulties and deteriorating mental faculties plagued his final years. The artist who sculpted a refined tomb for a bishop now lies in Flushing Cemetery in the borough of Queens. His carved gravestone reflects one of his signature owls.

You can see more of Antonovici’s owls and other works at the following sites: https://www.westwoodgallery.com/exhibitions/constantin-antonovici-mythical-modernism 

https://antonovici.webnode.page/

■

Sources:

• Constantin Antonovici: Sculptor of Owls (Cleveland: Educational Research Council of America, 1975)
• Doina Uricariu & Vladimir Bulat, Antonovici 1911-2002 Sculptor on Two Continents (Bucharest:Universalia Publishers, 2011).
• Stephan J. Benedict, Constantin Antonovici (1911-2002): A Great Brancusi Disciple. http://www.bit2006.org/SJB_Antonovici_4411.pdf
• W.D.F. Hughes, Prudently with Power: William Thomas Manning, Tenth Bishop of New York (New York: Holy Cross Publications, 1969).
• James E. Lindsay, This planted vine A Narrative History of the Episcopal Diocese of New York (New York: Harper & Row, 1984).
• Philip Jenkins, The Great and Holy War: How World War I Became a Religious Crusade (New York: HarperOne, 2014).
• “Bishop Manning, 83, dies in retirement,” New York Times, November 19, 1949.
• “Manning to rest in cathedral tomb,” New York Times, January 30, 1950.
• “Manning chantry open,” New York Times, November 22, 1954
• “The Source of Courage,” The Living Church, December 5, 1954.