ART & ARCHITECTURE
OF CORPUS CHRISTI CHURCH
v
Madonna and Child with Four Saints after Lorenzo Monaco
the altarpiece of the Lady Chapel (Blessed Sacrament Chapel)
in Corpus Christi Church
The painting is very hard to photograph because of glare.
Here are some details:
The Child's scroll quotes John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."
In the Virgin's halo are inscribed the opening words of the Hail Mary.
Above is God the Father, holding a book with Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the end, alluding to Revelation (Apocalypse) 1:8, 21:6, and 22:13.
The left panel shows SS. Catherine of Alexandria and John the Baptist.
The angel of the Annunciation is above.
The right panel shows SS. Jude Thaddeus the apostle and Proculus the soldier.
The Virgin of the Annunciation is above.
The painting was purchased in 1935 for $500(!) by Fr. Ford and Corpus Christi's architect, Wilfred Edward Anthony. It was given by his wife as a memorial to Prof. Charles Sears Baldwin, a Corpus Christi parishioner who taught English and rhetoric at Columbia and was especially interested in the Medieval church and its mysticism. His Requiem High Mass on October 25, 1935, was held at Notre Dame Church, demolition having begun at Corpus Christi the previous month. Columbia’s obituary commented, “He was of the communion of St. Thomas, Dante, Erasmus and Sir Thomas More, not of Luther and Calvin, Spenser and Milton.”
These photographs courtesy of Prof. Hervé Varenne.
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