See also Restored Reredos of Lindsey Chapel and Statues of Lindsey Chapel.
Sir John Ninian Comper’s design for the altar screen (or reredos) embodies his belief that a church exists merely “as a roof over an altar.” It is a magnificent example of Caen limestone covered with a profusion of gilt and color, and incorporating a frieze and 39 statues of carved and polychromed Nottinghamshire alabaster (a translucent marble).
The frieze immediately above the altar, measuring 13 feet 2 inches by 3 feet 2½ inches, consists of five alabaster slabs carved in low relief and decorated in gold and color. Each of its five images is encircled by a trailing rose, the stem of which forms the cross of the central image.
On the left are Jesus’ first miracle at the marriage feast at Cana at his mother’s behest (John 2:1-11), and the legendary Via Dolorosa in which she meets Jesus bearing his cross. To the right are the legendary Pieta , in which she mourns his dead body outstretched on her knees, attended by the apostle John and Mary Magdalene, and the Risen Jesus appearing to his mother. In the center panel is Jesus on the cross, attended by his mother and the apostle John. The cross becomes a trailing rose or vine which twines out to encircle the other carvings – suggestive of the Tree of Life (Proverbs 3:18; Revelation 2:7) and the Parable of the Vine (John 15:1-8).
Above the frieze are three major statues, each sculptured from a single block of alabaster marble, which stand in the main niches of the altar screen, surmounted by tall, gilded canopies. In the center and dominating the whole altar screen is the figure of the Risen Jesus, triumphant and bearing a banner. Such depictions of Jesus as young and unbearded, in the style of the earliest-known Christian catacomb paintings, are highly unusual. The statue of the Risen Jesus is a reduced (4 feet 3 inch) version of Sir John Ninian Comper’s original in the 1922 War Memorial altar screen of Ripon Cathedral in North Yorkshire. At its dedication, the Archbishop of York spoke of it as “very daringly portrayed, not in suffering or weakness, but radiant, young with perpetual youth, beautiful, strong in the power of the resurrection, a leader with the banner in his hand going forth conquering and to conquer.”
The large figure to the left is of the Virgin Mary as a child being taught the scriptures by her mother Anne. The large figure to the right is of Mary’s kinswoman Elizabeth with her son John the Baptist, who points to the Risen Christ.
Among and flanking the three large statues, are 36 smaller statues of female saints, each 18-inches high, carved from alabaster, and set into its own niche, decorated in gilt and color. Arranged in three rows, they represent a selection of women saints from various times and nations, and carry their traditional symbols.
At this remove, it is hard for us to appreciate that the consecrated virginity of Petronilla, Cecilia, Agnes, Barbara, and other early Christian women was a fundamental attack on the class structure of Roman society. In their insistence that their bodies belonged to themselves and not to the civitas, they rejected the universal Roman view of ethnic reproduction as a primary civic obligation and the primary value of women. Their independence as women added to the common view that Christians were a threat to the racial distinctions, patriarchal authority, ruthless militarism, and slavery on which the Roman Empire was built.
The primary medieval source of information about ancient saints was the immensely popular Aurea Legenda (Golden Legend) compiled in 1275 by Jacobus de Voragine, archbishop of Genoa. It was the most-often-printed book in Europe for 60 years after its first publication in 1470. In William Caxton’s 1483 English translation, Cecilia informed Valerian on their wedding night, “I have an angel that loveth me which ever keepeth my body.” The surprised bridegroom then had a vision of an angel placing two crowns of roses and lilies on their heads and saying, “Keep ye these crowns with an undefouled and a clean body, for I have brought them to you from paradise . . . nor they may not be seen but of them to whom chastity pleaseth.” The legend continues that Cecilia, after addressing him as “a bladder full of wind”, was martyred by an apocryphal Roman prefect by being beheaded in a boiling bath, but
the tormentor smote at her three strokes and could not smite off her heed. And the fourth stroke he might not by the law smite and so left her there lying half alive and half dead. And she lived three dayes after in that mannere, and gave all that she had to poor people and continually preached the faith all that while.
See also: Reredos Restoration