Translate

Wednesday, September 1, 2021

I JUST DON’T KNOW!

 While an improvement, I feel it falls short. The double altars! Why? The baldachin looks out of place in its squared off appearance and constricts the space. 

While I don’t like the art above the altar, but it is art and I am sure it was very expensive. I hope it was not trashed. 

But ugh! St. Simon and Jude Phoenix AZ .....before and after.

Before: 


After:


5 comments:

TJM said...

It’s a toss up

Frederick (Fritz) Bauerschmidt said...

It looks like the sculpture of the resurrected Christ is now on the outside of the cathedral. It's really not a bad example of modern religious art (though I think less appropriate than the crucifix for the sanctuary).

It also looks like there are not really two altars. The second is more a base for the tabernacle and couldn't really be used for the celebration of Mass.

ByzRus said...

It looks like an improvement however, I'm struggling to find better photos. Perhaps that's a shortcoming if I can't readily tell from the provided photo. There appears to be an altar of repose behind the main altar which is now under a baldachin. Better than it was, and as suggested above, perhaps the pre-renovation decorations were reintegrated elsewhere.

Fr. Michael J. Kavanaugh said...

Again, an unsuccessful attempt to blend architectural and decorative styles.

The "frame" above the altar is rather unsubstantial and looks like a temporary structure for a chuppah.

The tabernacle base does not appear to be more than that.

The crucifix is a three dimensional rendering of the very famous image painted by Cimabue in ca 1265. The orig is in the Franciscan church Santa Croce in Florence, Italy.

Jerome Merwick said...

I knew the minute I looked at the photos that this was a parish in a desert community. Something about those places just seem to embrace a sort of "space age" weirdness that takes Mid-Century Modernism to new extremes.