Where John Angel left off in 1940, Simon Verity finishes in 1996. On the left in the above image we see the anteater-like carving on the periphery of the Portal of Paradise by the sculptor John Angel. On the right, looking at the curious grotesque, we see the dog carved by Simon Verity. This intersection of carvings, some 50 years apart, calls out the difference in style between these two. Angel used the Renaissance technique of creating clay models for the carvers, then carving final details where needed. Verity, trained in the Gothic tradition, used no models. He carved directly into the stone working from sketches and drawings. This little corner of the Portal of Paradise leads us from John Angel to Simon Verity.
There is more to the story. Let’s look at a little larger view of this area.
The statue of Noah by Simon Verity is part of the Portal of Paradise statues. The face of Noah is that of James Parks Morton, Cathedral Dean. Verity used many Cathedral and neighborhood people as models. The dog is Dean Morton’s beloved Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Pepe.
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- Tom Fedorek’s Video Series the Portal of paradise – Episode 4
- American Gargoyles – Spirits In Stone, Darlene Tree Crist, Photography by Robert Llewellyn
One reply on “From John Angel to Simon Verity”
I like the concept of spirits in stone. I’ll look for Crist’s book. On a larger scale, I believe that stones used to build spiritual structures––from Stonehenge and earlier to St. Johns and later––embody the spirit of those who worked with them.