A little over a year ago we wrote about this particular restoration project by Canning Liturgical Arts at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Hanover, Pennsylvania but I thought it was worth returning to this restoration work to show feature some of the impressive painted works that formed a part of the project. To my mind, they present some of the finest and most striking figurative painting in North America.
Canning sets the background as follows:
Over the course of three key commissions in 1844, 1850, and 1887, the interior of Sacred Heart was organized visually and theologically into a grand, unified decorative program. Since the late 19th century, however, water and other surface damage as well as changes in artistic taste and fashion prompted interventions and overpainting that largely disrupted or effectively concealed the original painted scheme. In revealing and restoring the 19th-century program, Canning Liturgical Arts has recovered the experience intended by the original artists and priestly patrons. That experience begins as soon as one passes through the reserved Federalist exterior and is drawn into the Baroque-revival jewel box of color and light, gilding and grandeur.
As I say, it is specifically the figurative paintings that I am intent on focusing on here today -- by which I mean the paintings which present narrative scenes of the Trinity, of Christ and the Virgin Mary and so on. These particular paintings have an old-world quality about them, borrowing from the baroque and Mannerist traditions.
Located within the central nave, for example, we see a painting of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a wonderfully triumphalistic image originally done by Gebhart of Philadelphia in 1844. Surrounding the Virgin are four smaller paintings depicting the four gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. One will note how the Virgin is assumed into heaven in glory, with light and movement featuring very strongly as it does within the baroque tradition of painting. An image such as this could as easily be seen in Rome.
As we move closer toward the sanctuary into the transept crossing, we find a painting of the Holy Trinity. Here we see Christ depicted with the his Sacred Heart and holding the cross, while behind we see God the Father, the Holy Spiirt, all of which have been cleverly framed by clouds which take on the Trinitarian symbol of a triangle. This was originally painted in 1887 by Franz Stecher.
As we look toward one of the transepts, we are greeted by another painting by Stecher, this time a beautiful crucifixion scene. What particularly jumps out at me in this particular depiction of the crucifixion is the beautiful colouring which invites and draws one's gaze toward it.
Finally, I would lastly draw your attention to the great painting found within the apse, also done by Stecher in 1850. This particular painting is a depiction of the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, one that, at the same time, gives a nod toward the Sacred Heart of Jesus insofar as the Eucharistic vessel shown in radiant glory comes in the form of a heart. Around this we find various angels adoring, including two which hold a banner with the opening texts of the famous Eucharistic hymn, "Tantum ergo Sacramentum."
From the colours used, the sense of movement, to the way in which trompe l'oeil is employed to give a sense of depth, Stecher's paintings have been brought back to life by Canning Liturgical Arts and for that we can surely be thankful. These works avoid the saccharine "Saint-Sulpice" character of so much work of this particular period of history and, rather than opting for the gothic revival motifs that had became all the rage at this particular time, rather more appropriately (for a Jesuit-associated church such as this) instead opted to adopt for itself the style that sprang from the Catholic counter-reformation. In this regard, the art we find here sets itself apart from other church art of this time in more ways than one.
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