I was thrilled recently to receive pictures, sent to me by the artist Martin Earle, of these beautiful frescoes at St Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Birmingham, in the West Midlands, England. They have been done as part of a continued re-orientation and renovation of the interior in order to correct the iconoclasm of the 1970s, of which most of us are, sadly, so familiar.
The exterior is unassuming though pleasing late 19th-century gothic.
The interior is spectacular.
Martin Earle, who along with significant contributions from his assistant Lisa Abbot, painted them contacted me with the photographs. He told me:
"As I mentioned to you a while ago, I spent the first lockdown painting murals in a church in Warwickshire. We completed the works in August. The parish priest, Fr John Sharp, also commissioned me to design new stenciling and marbling in the nave and baptistery. There wasn't a surface in the church that didn't get a fresh coat of paint. We also uncovered the original, and beautiful, quarry tile floors which were also restored. Quite a transformation.
"The frescoes are rather intricate - containing around 40 different persons from the Old and New Testaments. Our aim was to create a visual liturgical hymn to make present invisible realities. Fr Sharp has prepared a text about the paintings (I will post this next week). The color scheme is as intense as the early medieval frescoes were in their heyday!"
The style is inspired by a mix of Byzantine and Romanesque elements which has become characteristic of English iconography in the modern era (under the influence of Aidan Hart).
It is interesting to me that the schema consists of the recently completed frescoes, which are in the iconographic style incorporate paintings, but also a crucifix and paintings that belonged to the church prior to this. All have been handled in a harmonious fashion despite the differences in style. I am not aware of any church containing recent commissions that has an arrangement that has been thought through as carefully and completely as this.
Here are some details. First on the East wall behind the tabernacle:
Christ in Majesty, SS Peter and Paul and local saints
On the north wall, to the left, if you are facing the tabernacle, St Francis of Assisi:
Noah and the Ark on the South Wall
Next week, I will post the description of the priest, Fr John Sharp, who commissioned the work, of the schema. I want to focus on this separately because it is worthy of special study given that he has truly thought this out as liturgical art that accompanies the Mass and so might engage the faithful in the mysteries being celebrated.
