The bonds of friendship and teamwork grow between Simon Verity and Jean-Claude Marchionni
Simon Verity and Jean-Claude Marchionni were hitting their collective strides while carving the upper-rank figures of the Portal of Paradise at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
However, Jean-Claude Marchionni confides, that was not the case when they first started working together in 1993. “I know it was not easy in the beginning…because of our personalities.”
Jean-Claude, called Simon’s “irreverent French sidekick” in a NY Observer article, explains the early differences as the “English side and the French side.”
Speaking from his stone carving studio in Midland Park, NJ, Jean-Claude remembers that as they worked together, the bonds of friendship grew. “We complemented each other. I learned things that I didn’t know from him and he learned things from me…you share things.” Later, Jean-Claude says, “we kind of appreciated each other.” Jean-Claude’s cramped studio is lined with fireplace mantles, small statues awaiting the final touches and other stone projects he is working on.
Mutual trust and respect also developed as they worked together. “Simon trusted me,” Jean-Claude says, “we would switch carving the other’s work.”
In an essay titled Cathedrals, Simon remarked, “I climb up and shake hands with Jean-Claude. How does he get up so early after such drinking sessions? (Perhaps another indication of their early differences.) Half my age, he has taught me so much. The French concentration is ferocious, and nothing is too difficult for him. From a family of stonecutters, he can visualize how the finished work will look at a glance and has an instinctive grasp of the tools to get him there.”
Jean-Claude’s father and two brothers were stone carvers and his rigorous training came from the Compagnons du Devoir (Companions of Duty), a French organization of craftsmen and artisans dating from the Middle Ages. Their traditional, technical education includes taking a tour, the Tour de France, around France and doing apprenticeships with masters. (Not to be confused with the well-known Tour de France bike race.)
In his essay, Simon added, “the French training as compagnons is more medieval than the English. They may start at fourteen and will lead a semi-monastic life for years. They travel extensively to get a grasp of different aspects of the trade so that by their twenties, they are superb craftsmen, even if arrogance keeps them from learning what they could from foreigners.” (Perhaps another dig on French culture by Simon.)
But, Jean-Claude needed to get away from that restrictive environment and he found himself in New York City, where he saw scaffolding around the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. As it happened, Michael Davidson, Director of Restoration for Cathedral Stoneworks, was leading a major rehabilitation of the church’s exterior and Jean-Claude’s expertise fit right in. He soon joined the team with Jean-Claude working on various restoration jobs with Stoneworks before collaborating with Simon to work on the portal.
The entire portal project was a departure from previous sculptural carvings in the Cathedral’s history.
Simon and Jean-Claude employed direct carving on the portal project. There were no plaster models, no pointing tools or enlarging machines. They worked primarily from sketches and their own creative instincts. This contrasts with the style of John Angel, a British-born architectural and ecclesiastical sculptor, who created various works at the Cathedral from the mid-1920s through the 1950s. Angel used the Renaissance technique of creating clay models for other carvers to execute the work. He started by sculpting a small model in clay, then enlarging it to full size in clay. A plaster cast was created and handed off to a stone carver with Angel putting final changes on the piece as needed.
One of John Angel’s major works at the Cathedral is the trumeau, or center post, of the Portal of Paradise depicting St. John, the namesake of the Cathedral. The 8-½ foot tall carving, situated between the Bronze Doors, was dedicated in 1935.
In addition, John Angel carved the eight major-rank figures on the north portal dedicated to St. Peter.
Simon and Jean-Claude carved mostly idealized faces and details on the Biblical figures of the major-rank figures. However, for the upper tier, they involved numerous locals from the Cathedral staff, friends and people from the neighborhood to serve as models for the upper-rank figures. Many of the faces are clearly recognizable.
The upper-rank figures, on the third level of the portal, measure 3-½ feet versus the behemoth 8-foot blocks of the major-rank carvings.
According to the 1927 Cathedral Commission on Stained Glass and Iconography, “a frieze of small figures, six on each side,” were originally planned as the 12 Sybils. The commission’s recommendation also reports, “according to ecclesiastical tradition, each (sibyl) prophesied some event in the life of our Lord.”
This was completely overhauled with Dean James Parks Morton’s committee that brought more biblical characters – men and women – to the portal opus.
The first figure on the north side is Noah, carved after James Parks Morton, Dean of the Cathedral at that time, who led the third building phase. Wearing long flowing robes, he seems to step back, as if to have a better look at the Cathedral in front of him. In his hands, he holds the unfinished ark. Since ancient times, the ark has been the symbol of salvation within the Church.
At Dean Morton’s feet, we see his pet Corgi, Pepe, frolicking with a long-snouted dragon-like carving on the periphery. This little corner of the portal is another link between John Angel and Simon, as Simon carved the friendly Corgi gazing at John Angel’s curious-looking creature.
The long-snouted creature on the left was carved by sculptor John Angel in the 1930s while the little Corgi (Dean Morton’s pet) was carved by Simon Verity in the 1990s. Photo by Robert F. Rodriguez
The carving next to Noah is the most unusual of the upper-rank figures. It depicts Hagar and Ishmael. The maidservant Hagar was given to Abram by his wife Sarah, who was old and childless, to provide him with an heir. Through a covenant with God, Sarah later conceived, bore Isaac, and then insisted that Abram (now Abraham) cast Hagar and Ishmael into the desert. Simon’s interpretation of the story shows a crouching Hagar enveloped in spiraling swirls, a cyclone of grief, and the baby Ishmael protected under a bush. Ultimately, God hears Hagar’s prayer and sends an angel to lead them to safety. Using a Tibetan woman from the community as his model, Simon created an analogy between Hagar’s banishment and the flight of the Tibetan people from their homeland.
Also on the north side is the figure of Deborah, carved as Pamela Morton, wife of Dean Morton. Just as Pamela Morton was always a steady and dignified presence on the Cathedral’s close, the Biblical character of Deborah was known for her patience and good judgment. Before the people of Israel had kings, they had rulers known as judges, with Deborah the only female judge.
Pamela recalls that Simon would occasionally stop by the Cathedral gift shop, where she was a buyer and manager, to make sketches. “He didn’t tell me what it was for,” she says. Perhaps Simon was trying to keep this carving a surprise until it was finished…but, apparently, Simon never told Pamela about the Deborah carving.
For the first time, she recently viewed detailed photos of her carving and that of Dean Morton as Noah and was pleased with the likeness and the poses.
Most of the upper-rank carvings on the portal’s south side can be traced back to specific individuals–and one canine– from Simon’s orbit of acquaintances.
Solomon, the Biblical king with great wisdom, is carved after Robert Pirie, a friend of Simon and a patron. Solomon built the first temple in Jerusalem, which is visible atop the scepter he is holding. He became legendary not only for his great wisdom and vast wealth, but also for his 700 wives and 300 concubines.
Simon used an English friend, coincidentally named Naomi, for the character of Naomi, who shares the second block with Ruth. Naomi is Ruth’s mother-in-law and a strong bond grew between them, even though they were from different tribes that were often in conflict. Following the deaths of their husbands, Naomi started to return alone to her home village of Bethlehem and urged Ruth to move on and remarry. However, Ruth loved Naomi dearly and could not bear the separation, exclaiming, “Whither thou goest, I will go.” Here, in Simon’s composition, Ruth and Naomi clasp hands and their bodies virtually merge with one another, expressing the deep connection between them.
When Simon and Jean-Claude needed their morning coffee, they usually went to the nearby Hungarian Pastry Shop, long a fixture in the neighborhood. One of the workers there was George, who Simon immortalized by using his likeness for the carving of Simeon. In the New Testament Gospel of Luke, the Holy Spirit revealed to the elderly and devout Simeon that he would not see death before he had seen the Savior. Simeon was at the temple when Joseph and Mary presented the infant Jesus and upon seeing the Messiah, Simeon exclaimed, “Lord, now let your servant depart in peace.”
Many visitors gazing at the Portal of Paradise ask, “Who’s the dog with the camera around its neck?” The simple answer is “Cooper,” but the backstory is more layered. While Simon was photographing Cooper’s owner, Jessica, for the figure of Esther, the black and white dog wandered into some of the shots. Simon opted to incorporate the dog’s likeness onto the stone. Coincidentally, at the same time photojournalist Martha Cooper was documenting Simon and Jean-Claude’s work on the portal. So, Simon decided to add a camera around Cooper’s neck as a nod to both Cooper the canine and Martha Cooper the photographer.
Simon did not have to go far to find a suitable model for the face of Daniel. He found Daniel Alcide working in the Cathedral gift shop. As told in the Book of Daniel, Chapter 6, the faithful prophet Daniel was miraculously saved by God after being thrown into a lion’s den for defying a decree that forbade prayer to anyone but King Darius. Simon not only sketched Daniel Alcide but also had the young man sit atop the scaffolding so Simon could capture his likeness next to the stone he was carving.
The unusual shape of the Jonah carving provides several unusual stories and interpretations.
Briefly, Jonah is the prophet who was swallowed by a giant whale and spit out three days later. Simon’s model for this carving came from the Cathedral’s Development office
The pointed oval shape comes from Simon’s repeated references to the overall “Sacred Geometry” of the Portal of Paradise. Here, the shape is created by taking two circles of equal diameters and overlaying them so their circumferences touch each other’s epicenters, thus creating the strong oval.
Early and medieval Christians read the story of Jonah’s three days inside the whale as a precursor of the resurrection of Jesus Christ after three days in the tomb. In Simon’s carving, Jonah is seen within an oval tomb-like enclosure and wrapped in linen cloth to symbolize his “death” while in the belly of the whale. This was later a popular symbol of resurrection during the Middle Ages.
We see Jonah emerging from the whale’s mouth, rendered here as the pointed oval. This shape, created by the Sacred Geometry of two intersecting arcs, was also known to ancient Christians as the ichthys symbol, or Jesus Fish. Ichthys is the Greek word for fish.
At one point during the portal project, money was tight, which could have put the project in jeopardy – until a chance conversation with Paula Jennings in the Cathedral’s Development office.
She approached several foundations for funding to keep the project going, caught the attention of the Gladys Brooks Foundation, and quickly wrote a grant proposal.
Shortly afterwards a check from the Brooks Foundation came in and Paula went to the work site to inform Simon and Jean-Claude. While Paula could not exactly hear what Simon and Jean-Claude were saying from high up on the scaffold, she remembers them pointing to the uncarved block of Jonah. “They had decided to put me in that statue,” she says. “I love it.”
Paula calls Jonah a “resurrection figure…very meaningful.” And, in a sense, Paula resurrected the program.
Asked if the carving captured her true likeness, Paula demurs by saying that her “straight hair curled around her ears and little bangs” were accurate, adding that Simon’s gesture was “one of the nicest things that (ever) happened to me.”
With the new funds, Simon and Jean-Claude could continue working on their carvings with their audience of tourists and local people watching from below.
In his Cathedrals essay, Simon once remarked, “Our viewpoint of the street from the scaffolding is the best in the world, the pluralist collection of races because of Columbia University: the rich, the poor. There is a connection with every other cathedral in the world that is a pilgrimage site and a connection with medieval stories.”
Of his and Jean-Claude’s labor, Simon added, “So we hammer and scrape smooth, keep an eye out for beautiful girls, live and breathe this extraordinary life that stone gives us.”
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Sources:
- New York Times – FYI 3/9/1997
- New York Times – The City: Morningside Heights 6/29/1997
- Simon Verity “Cathedral” essay, undated
- Archives of the Episcopal Diocese of New York and Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine
- NY Observer June 4, 1997
- Country Life – Patriarchs that Live in Stone, March 11, 1999
- Simon Verity – Master Sculptor (1945-2024) – Divine Stone
- From John Angel to Simon Verity – Divine Stone
- John Angel, Sculptor – Divine Stone
- Marta Cooper photographs
- A Guide to the Sculptures – Nicole Di Paol
- Tom Fedorek’s Guide to the Portal of Paradise