Stephen Boyle, far right, along with other stoneyard crew and students from the summer architectural program, hoist a stone for placement on the cornice level in August, 1988. The stone was carved by Angel Escobar.
A TEAM EFFORT TO SET THE STRING COURSE
A cornice stone weighing several hundred pounds is carefully lowered into place by several members of the construction crew onto a bed of mortar on the south side of St. Paul’s tower.
But, before that block for the string course was set, many steps and many people were involved in this finished piece.
Alan Bird, center, marks up a cornice stone as Yves Pierre, Jose Tapia (partially obscured) and Joseph Chifriller look on April 20, 1987. The stone will later move to the carving shed to provide a grotesque or foliage onto the blank space towards the front of the stone.
A September 1988 edition of Cathedral describes the process. Editor Jane Churchman writes:
“Today (José Tapia, James Jamerson), Pedro Colon, Angel Escobar, Eddie Pizarro, Carol Hazel, Theresa Robb, Yves Pierre, Alan Knight and Tony Quinto cut stones. Precisely. As Theresa warned, ‘You can’t be more than 1/16′ off.”
Jessica Aujero (Lowrie) carves a medieval forest spirit into a cornice. D’Ellis “Jeep” Kincannon fleshes out a classical leaf on a finial; Amy Brier details a caryatid; Dennis Reed sculpts an American buffalo on one of four pinnacle faces.
Eddie Pizarro smooths out a section of a cornice stone on March 1, 1983. From the cutting shed it will move to the carving shed for its decorative finish on the raised section on the right of the block.
Talmadge Fowler and Gerry Perez wait as Harold Dorman drives stones to Wesley Rose, elevator operator, for the ascent to Stephen Boyle, construction supervisor, and setters Joe Chifriller, Edgar Reyes and Raymond Duggan.
Most important to Alan Bird, instructional mason, is the value of each stone. Its permanence. Each stone is different and each stone tells the story of the people who cut and carved it.”
Stepping back even further, each of the thousands of limestone blocks required for the tower has a unique number, which designates its position.
Master Builder James Bambridge examines large sheets of detailed plans in the setting out shop for the construction of the south tower on July 8, 1981.
Following the original design by Ralph Adams Cram, Master Builder James Bambridge studies the blueprints to cut zinc templates and create job tickets so the apprentice stone carvers can accurately cut their stone.
This blueprint section provided by Stephen Boyle shows the placement of the cornice stones including the smaller central block that allows all the stones to be equally spaced.
Soon, a raw block with its corresponding job ticket lands on the banker of an apprentice stone cutter. When completed, the block is stored in the yard until a stone carver adds a uniquely designed carving to the block.
Cut but uncarved cornice stones and other limestone blocks are stacked by the north wall of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in August, 1982.
The block moves again, into the carving shed, and then back outside when carved.
Eventually it is moved to the south side of the Cathedral close for staging on the ground and, finally, it is hoisted into the lift to the tower summit for setting.
Stephen Boyle, center, Edgar Reyes, far right, and a student from the summer architectural program spread mortar for the cornice course in August, 1988. To the far right is a carving with curly hair and beard, almost like a King on a deck of cards, by Joseph Kincannon.
A team effort to set each stone.
The best place to view the string course carvings on the south façade is from the Peace Fountain on the Cathedral grounds.
This is a closeup view of the cornice course on the tower’s south face, seen with a 600 mm telephoto lens on January 22, 2024.
One can sit on the stone benches surrounding the fountain while, perhaps, enjoying a coffee and croissant from the nearby Hungarian Pastry Shop. Years ago, many of the Stoneyard Institute crew would get their morning coffee from this neighborhood landmark.
The two-sided corner cornice stones on both sides of the south façade reveal some imaginative carvings.
This is a closeup view of the corner cornice stone carved by Nicholas Fairplay on the south side of the tower’s west face, seen on January 22, 2024.
Nicholas Fairplay’s carving on the SW shows a foliage creature with upturned and swirling leaves surrounding a face with an open mouth.
On the SE side Joseph Kincannon created a regal, well-coifed individual with gorgeous curly hair and a mustache that resembles a King on a deck of playing cards.
This is a cornice stone carving resembling a King on a deck of playing cards sitting on Joseph Kincannon’s banker on Sept. 10, 1986.
The centerpiece on this string course, also by Joseph, reveals a snarling square-faced demon with wide eyes, sharp teeth, yet dainty paws and ears.
Cornice carving by Joseph Kincannon. Undated photo by Mary Bloom
Angel Escobar’s two carvings both show fantastic beasts, something Newt Scamander from the Harry Potter films might be searching for.
Angel Escobar carves a grotesque with flowing mustache, large ears and horns into a cornice stone on Feb. 29, 1988. On the wall behind him are his working drawings.
One of Angel’s works shows a beast with glaring eyes and a broad mustache practically drooping onto the stone below. The other carving resembles a feline animal with curls sweeping away from its face and high arched eyebrows.
One of the more interesting carvings on the south side came from a visiting French artist, Jerome Lantheume. It relates the story of Jonah and the Whale.
Geraldo Perez points the bottom of a cornice stone on the south face in August, 1988. The carving shows Jonah and the whale by Jerome Lantheume.
According to the Scriptures, Jonah was thrown overboard and was swallowed by a giant fish – not to eat him, but to save him from drowning. Jonah lived inside the great fish for three days until God took mercy on him, with the fish expelling Jonah onto the shores of Ninevah.
A cornice stone showing a sea monster devouring a man, possibly based on the Biblical story of Jonah the whale is seen in situ in October, 1988. The carving was done by Jerome Lantheume.
Jerome was one of the first carvers to come to the Cathedral in an exchange program with Les Compagnons du Devoir, the “Companions of Duty.” It is a French organization of craftsmen and artisans dating from the Middle Ages.
Carvings across the south façade string course, left to right:
SW corner, open-mouthed grotesque by Nicholas Fairplay
Lamb of God (Agnus Dei), carver unknown
Foliage
Wide-faced grotesque by Nicholas Fairplay
Funny medieval peasant character by Ruben Gibson
Foliage
Wide-eyed demon by Joseph Kincannon
Fierce creature with droopy mustache by Angel Escobar
Foliage
Feline figure by Angel Escobar
Foliage
Jonah and whale by Jerome Lantheume
SE corner, curly haired King by Joseph Kincannon
■
Unless otherwise noted, all images are those of Robert F. Rodriguez, photojournalist and artist-in-residence at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine.
This is a partial closeup view of the string course on the north face seen with a 600 mm telephoto lens on Jan. 22, 2024.
(This is the first in a four part series on the String Course. These stones were prepared by the Sawyer, the Planer and the Cutter before being handed off to the Carver. The co-author of Divine Stone, Robert F. Rodriguez will take us around St. Paul’s Tower viewing these unique carvings. – RM)
From street level, it is extremely difficult to see the decorative band of carvings that comprise the string course on St. Paul’s tower at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. This is especially true on the north side where a bundle of internet wires hangs off that side of the tower and the cathedral’s roof partially obstructs the array of humorous grotesque carvings, forest creatures and other intricately carved blocks of limestone. The north facade also lacks the architectural and decorative details such as columns, capitols and quatrefoils that the other sides have.
Work on the string course, the first level of the “C” zone of St. Paul’s tower, began in the summer of 1988. Master Mason Stephen Boyle, the tower’s construction foreman, had a large group of assistants to set the blocks. Besides the regular Stoneyard crew, he was joined by students from the Cathedral’s Summer Architectural program.
From left, Stephen Boyle and Joseph Chifriller guide a cornice stone into place on the north face as summer intern Richard Hansen lowers the chain on a floral cornice stone on July 27, 1988.
When the course of stones was all set, this horizontal line of carvings represented the most comprehensive look at the carvers’ skills and creativity. About two years prior, they designed and carved some 50 figures for the string course, sometimes referred to as the cornice course.
Master Carver Nicholas Fairplay explains the process: “I had the carvings on the string course alternate — every third boss carving is foliage and in between a face boss carving and then a figure or animal boss carving. I did this to train the students (apprentice stone cutters) to be more versatile as carvers. The students had only masonry skills, none of them had done any carving so I needed to find a way to train them quickly.”
Nicholas adds, “When a carving was completed, it had to be taken off the bench and stacked outside and a new stone brought in and placed on their bench. Some of the stones were quite large and there had to be no chips or damage in moving them.”
Carved grotesques and foliage destined for the tower’s string course are stacked outside the carving shed on April 9, 1987. On the upper row, right, is Nicholas Fairplay’s carving of the head of John the Baptist on a platter.
The finished stones’ temporary location on the ground provided a fleeting closeup look at the variety of carvings where one could count every gnarly tooth on a smiling demon, see the graceful flowing beards of mythological beasts and admire the deeply textured flowers and petals on many foliage carvings.
On each tower face, there are 11 carved blocks in a row, nestled between the tower buttresses on each corner. From there, a double-sided cornice stone wraps around the corner so that a total of 13 carvings face each side of the tower.
This is a view of carvings and grotesques on the string course on the north side, seen on Sept. 13, 2022. From left, the carvings were done by Ruben Gibson, D’Ellis “Jeep” Kincannon and Amy Brier.
While it is almost impossible to identify each carver for all of the foliage blocks, most of the uniquely designed carvings can be matched to an individual carver. On the north face Nicholas Fairplay is responsible for four of the carvings, with two each done by D’Ellis “Jeep” Kincannon and Ruben Gibson and one each by Amy Brier and Gabriele Hitl-Cohen.
In Gothic cathedral architecture, forest creatures were a common theme, with nymphs and other arboreal characters often seen lurking among foliage. Nicholas Fairplay created a forest creature with a broad nose surrounded by a border of leaves, its face blending into the leaves. Another of Nicholas’ grotesques depicts a wide-eyed demon with the face of a lion and an elegant beard.
Nicholas’ most unusual carving for the north face was the head of John the Baptist on a platter, which sits in the middle of the carved gallery. According to Bible passages, Salome danced before King Herod on his birthday. Her dancing so pleased Herod that in his drunkenness he promised to give her anything she desired, up to half of his kingdom. Salome asked for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Although Herod was appalled by the request, he reluctantly agreed and had John executed by beheading.
While most of the limestone blocks for the cornice stones were about three-feet wide and weighed over 800 lbs., the stone for the John the Baptist block is extremely narrow, giving the carver a tight space to work on. This stone is a centerpiece, whose positioning allows all the carvings to be evenly spaced on the tower, according to Stephen Boyle.
With limestone chips in his hair, D’Ellis “Jeep” Kincannon carves out a lion figure on a cornice stone on Sept. 10, 1986. In the background is the clay model used as his template.
For his two carvings, D’Ellis “Jeep” Kincannon produced a snarly-toothed lion with a gorgeous flowing mane, mustache and puffy cheeks, and a shy dragon, possibly napping, with its head tucked next to its wing. “Jeep” worked with either a clay model or a number of refined sketches as his templates while he carved these pieces.
D’Ellis “Jeep” Kincannon cuts into the cornice stone where he is carving a shy and gentle dragon, seen in May, 1988. On the wall is his working sketch.
In many of his works, Ruben Gibson liked to carve demons and other eerie grotesques. On a corner cornice block, Ruben created a wavy-haired grotesque with a downturned mouth, and on another block he created a flabby cheeked demon with a narrow mouth and a high crest above its eyebrows.
String course carvings are seen on the north side on Sept. 13, 2022. The carving of the female figure at left was carved by Gabriele Hitl-Cohen; the winged dragon by D’Ellis “Jeep” Kincannon and the lion figure by Nicholas Fairplay.
Faces of female figures appear in two of the carvings on the north side by Amy Brier and Gabriele Hitl-Cohen.
Gabriele remembers that with this block she learned how to carve the flowing and wavy lines of the figure’s hair emerging from underneath a delicately carved veil to give the work a Gothic look.
A carved figure by Nicholas Fairplay is seen among the stacked stones in the snow in January, 1988.
Amy Brier notes “I was interested in adding a female to the string course, making a mark for gender equality perhaps, but I probably didn’t think it all the way through at that young age.” Recalling her carving over 30 years later, she remarks, “I look back and am unhappy with what I see as a terrible job! I am a lot better now!”
Setter Edgar Reyes and summer intern Virginie Desjardins move Amy Brier’s cornice stone of a woman with wavy hair into place on July 27. 1988.
Amy has come a long way since she left the Cathedral program and has continued working in stone. Besides teaching at Ivy Tech Community College in Bloomington, IN, Amy has numerous public carvings in Bloomington, IN, Layfayette IN, and Hamilton OH. She is especially proud of her work on the new Fall Creek Pavilion and the Indiana State Fair.
Standing on the roof, Artist-in-Residence Robert F. Rodriguez studies carvings on the string course on the north face of St. Paul’s tower on June 18, 2024. – Image courtesy of Stephen Boyle
Carvings across the north façade string course, left to right:
NE corner, wavy-haired grotesque with downturned mouth by Ruben Gibson
High-browed grotesque by Ruben Gibson
Snarly Lion by D’Ellis “Jeep” Kincannon
Woman’s faces by Amy Brier
Forest creature by Nicholas Fairplay
Foliage
Head of St. John the Baptist on a platter by Nicholas Fairplay
Foliage
Foliage
Woman wearing a veil by Gabriele Hitl-Cohen
Shy dragon by D’Ellis “Jeep” Kincannon
Green Man grotesque by Nicholas Fairplay
NW Corner, foliage by Nicholas Fairplay
This is a view of the north side of St. Paul’s tower, seen on Sept. 13, 2022 from the Cathedral roof.
■
All images in this post are by Photojournalist Robert F. Rodriguez
Word has reached us regarding the passing of stone carver and sculptor Kazutaka Uchida. We wish to offer condolences to his family, students and his many friends in the stone carving community. He was very proud of his many summers spent in the United States in the Pacific Northwest; Marble, Colorado, and Northern New Mexico teaching and working on his own carvings.
He was born and lived in Japan where he first studied sculpture. He received an advanced degree in sculpture from the Ecole Des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1975. He returned to Japan and was commissioned to researched artisan traditions for the Japanese government. His experiences in Nepal greatly affected his art and his life.
Uchida found resonance in clear lines, subtle beauty, harmonious relationships, and the quiet power of elemental forms to evoke the transcendence and a feeling of Zen-like monastic tranquility and peace. The museum director Stephen C. McCough describes Uchida’s sculpture…”It is an art of large and simple gestures which lead the eye through and around the piece and then into the surrounding space. His forms are elegant and refined. They consist primarily of the sphere, the plane, the disk, the straight line and the rectangle.”
Sculptors carve and polish stones, not to make beautiful stones; rather, the forms they make are the result of their search for the limits of their artistic capabilities.
– Kazutaka Uchida
Uchida working on a sculpture at the Sax Stone Carving Workshop in Rinconada, New Mexico
Simon Verity poses by the Portal of Paradise in an undated photo. Photo by Martha Cooper
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
Simon Verity looks out towards Amsterdam Avenue while leaning on the major figure of Moses on the south side of the Portal of Paradise, 9/29/1995.The head of Moses was carved by Dennis Reed, one of the Stoneyard Institute’s stone carvers. Photo by Martha Cooper
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.
Master Sculptor Simon Verity prepares a chalk sketch on a pedestal. Carvers Angel Escobar, Jessica Aujero, Joseph Kincannon, standing, and Dennis Reed start work on the pedestals. April 19, 1989. Photo by Robert F. Rodriguez
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:
Assuming similar positions, Master Sculptor Simon Verity and Amy Brier work on pedestal bases on the north side of the Portal of Paradise in July, 1989. Simon is carving the birth of Abraham from a seed pod with a spiral representing Abraham climbing the hill to sacrifice Isaac. The chain links carved by Amy represent bondage and the Israelites escape from Egypt. Photo by Robert F. Rodriguez
“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
Simon Verity arranges folds on fabric worn by Gabriele Hitl-Cohen on Oct. 20, 1988 prior to preparing sketches for carving the Portal of Paradise. Photo by Robert F. Rodriguez
“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.
Simon Verity uses a thin chisel to work on the mouth of the figure of Melchizedek, a jamb figure on the north side of the Portal of Paradise, in October, 1988. Photo by Robert F. Rodriguez
“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.
Johno Verity pays a visit to his father, Simon Verity, and Jean-Claude Marchionni while they are working on upper rank figure of Daniel on Aug. 23, 1995. Photo by Martha Cooper
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.
From left, Jessica Aujero, Simon Verity and Joseph Kincannon are immersed in sketches for their upcoming figure carvings on Oct. 3, 1988.The stone carving team prepared sketches in preparation for carving the Portal of Paradise. Photo by Robert F. Rodriguez
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.“
Lettering by Simon Verity at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Image – tristan forward
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.“
The figure of St. John the Divine seems to supervise scoring of the stone jambs with Joseph Kincannon and Amy Brier, top, and Dennis Reid and Gabriele Hitl-Cohen on the lower platform on Sept. 14, 1988. Work began on carving the great Central Portal of the Cathedral’s West Front – the Portal of Paradise by rounding out the 12 oblong blocks flanking the bronze doors. Photo by. Robert F. Rodriguez
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.
Joseph Kincannon carves what turns out to be a prophetic vision – the destruction of the World Trade Towers – on the Portal of Paradise seen on Sept. 3 1989. Following the Renaissance tradition of placing biblical scenes in contemporary settings this carving on the Portal of Paradise has become iconic since the Sept. 11 attacks. Also emerging below are Gothic arches, representing the rebuilding of the “cathedral,” a symbol of hope after chaos. Photo by Robert F. Rodriguez
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.
Jean-Claude Marchionni and Simon Verity working on upper rank figures on the south side of the Portal of Paradise on Oct. 3, 1995. Photo by Martha Cooper
“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 principal figures on the north side are complete as seen in this Sept. 29, 1995 photo. The blocks for the upper rank figures have started roughing out. Photo by Martha Cooper
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).
Simon Verity’s shoes dangle precariously as he carves the drapery on the figure of Abraham on the Portal of Paradise on Aug. 31, 1990. The jamb figures from left are Melchizedek, Sarah, Abraham and Jacob. Photo by Robert F. Rodriguez
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 marks his upper rank carving of Deborah on Sept. 18, 1996. The figure is based on Pamela Morton, wife of James Park Morton, Dean of the Cathedral. Photo by Martha Cooper
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.”
View of the south side of the Portal of Paradise on July 15, 2023. Photo Robert F Rodriguez
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
Simon Verity is seen shaping the figure of Elijah in an undated photo by Mary Bloom.
■
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,
The Granite King. Image – Prominent and Progessive Americans, 1902
One of the largest and most important stone contractors in the country, John Peirce became known as the “Granite King”. The firm supplied the material and constructed the foundation piers and superstructure of this phase of the Cathedral.
John Peirce Company construction office on Cathedral grounds. June, 1908 NYPL, Digital Collections – Image ID 716214F, C/R 0687-D1
Born in Frankfort, Maine, Peirce had studied law at Harvard but chose to return to Maine in 1873 to take over his father’s granite business at Mount Waldo. His father had several important granite quarries as well as a general contracting and building business. He took to the industry quickly and began to grow the enterprise. Through investment, directorships and ownership he acquired additional granite properties to the extent that he largely controlled the output of the stone in the state. He gained interests in the Hallowell Granite Works and the Boswell Granite Company. Among these was the Boswell Granite Fox Island Company. Included were Vinalhaven’s vast granite resources. By the 1900’s there were over 46 small quarries on Vinalhaven. The Vinalhaven Warff Quarry was the source of the monumental columns at the Cathedral.
From Maine to New York
Peirce moved to New York City in the late 1880’s to oversee the operation of his New York and Maine Granite Paving Block Company. One of the company’s contracts paved Fifth Avenue from 8th Street to 90th Street with granite blocks.
Granite being shaped at the quarry with feathers and wedges.
He also realized that New York was the building center of the country and granite had become the symbol of strength and solidity. By the 1890’s he began to furnish building materials and erect many buildings in the city. Grand Central Terminal, the 42nd street New York Public Library and New York City’s first subway system among them. Peirce’s firm soon grew to be one of the largest granite contractors in the country.
Granite Ashlars and Voussoirs from Quarry at Cathedral Site. July 1900 – Image NYPL Digital Collection
By 1915 concrete, steel and asphalt replaced much of the demand for stone building products. Sleek modernity, rising costs of construction, modern paving methods and the decline of the stone carvers art were killing the granite industry. The advent of railroads especially the vastly superior networks in the midwest and the development of the limestone industry added to the decline. The “Granite King’s ” John Peirce Company ceased to exist.
■
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
Prominent and Progressive Americans; an encyclopedia of contemporaneous biography, Harrison, Michael Charles, 1902, Vol. 2
