The Trinity in Portsmouth Abbey Church

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by Father Damian Kearney O.S.B. (b.1928 - d.2016)

If the Abbey church is entered by the front door, the first thing one notices is the Lippold wire sculpture over the main altar. And when it is seen for the first time, it comes as an unexpected surprise. The effect is literally breathtaking and its purpose is immediately apparent. It is intended to focus the spectator’s gaze on the figure of Jesus hanging on the cross, and then follow the downward thrust of the cross to the altar which is the most sacred object in a Catholic church, since it is where the central act of worship takes place.
       When the new church at Portsmouth was being built in 1959 – 1960, a generous friend of the monastery was approached to help defray the cost of furnishing the church, since he had already indicated that he was not interested in giving money for bricks and mortar. At that time a young, innovative artist, Richard Lippold, was making a name for himself through his wire sculptures, one called The Sun at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, another, The Moon, at the Museum of Modern Art and a third was being planned for the Pan American Building, all in New York City. He agreed to come to Portsmouth to construct an original work which would focus attention on the main altar and incorporate the bronze and steel crucifix already in place, a modern representation of Christ on the cross made in Zurich by a Swiss artist, Meinrad Burch, who specialized in ecclesiastical art. Burch was also responsible for the bronze stations of the cross, which were to be sculptured in a form and with materials that would harmonize with the Lippold structure. These can be seen on the inside walls and side chapels of the church.

Lippold spent weeks planning his work and submitted a sketch to the monks in charge of the construction of the church. It required an act of faith to proceed, since even with the sketch it was hard to imagine what it would look like. The delicacy and subtlety did not come across. It looked too busy, like a vast spider web. But he was given the “go ahead” and he proceeded with his creation: a mass of wires, to be given shape and form, demanding infinite patience, with the help of metal tools, ladders and scaffolding. From this was to emerge the glittering, breath-taking sculpture that we now see. While he was working, his assistant spent much of his time reading aloud from
The Ascent of Mount Carmel, a mystical treatise by St. John of the Cross, to provide inspiration for this monumental task. Lippold was Jewish, not Christian, and so he felt the need of acquainting himself with some of the doctrine of the Catholic mystical tradition. Like the church’s architect, Pietro Belluschi, whose enthusiastic approval had been secured, he had a deep respect for tradition and was able to incorporate elements of the baroque into his sculpture. The radiating wires emanating from the corpus and the cross are reminiscent of Bernini’s use of rays to accentuate his sculpture in The Ecstasy of St.Theresa, and to direct our attention to the main object. Here the focus is concentrated on the figure of Christ and then on the altar, where the sacrifice of the mass takes place.
    Lippold ‘s work is the first example of abstract art at Portsmouth, and nothing could be more appropriate to express the Godhead than this form of art. We are used to thinking of God the Father as an old, patriarchal figure and the Holy Spirit as a dove, because this is the way artists so frequently have portrayed them. But the ideal way to represent a spiritual reality is through non-representational forms , that is, through abstract art. At Portsmouth a second abstract sculpture, called by the Greek epithet that Homer gives to Odysseus, Polytropos (the crafty one), was designed and executed by Gilbert Franklin, the noted painter and sculptor, for outside viewing and is placed near the Art Center. 
 

The wire sculpture in the Church is called The Trinity.  The symbolism can be understood in the choice of metals used and the directions which the wires of the sculpture take. The silver wires made of stainless steel can represent the Father’s approval of the sacrifice of His Son, pouring down from heaven (the skylight), while the gold wires, made of bronze extending from the arms of the cross, represent the
Holy Spirit reaching out to the sides of the sanctuary and into the ceiling of the nave, as if to the four corners of the world. The figure of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is not abstract but concrete, since he took on human form. The effect produced on entering the church from the front door is instantaneous. We are dazzled by an explosion of silver and gold, our eyes immediately are drawn to Christ on the Cross and the altar beneath. The symbolism becomes readily apparent when we are given the key; and the key is in the title, The Trinity.
      Three texts help to convey the meaning of this sculpture, each representing one of the Three Persons in the Divine Trinity: 1) the silver wires: The Father: Hic est filius meus dilectus, in quo mihi bene complacui: ipsum audite. ( “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; listen to Him;”); 2) the gold wires: The Holy Spirit: ( Bonum est diffusivum sibi.) the mystical principle that ”goodness is diffusive of itself,” and cannot be contained, since by its nature it is all pervasive; 3) the bronze figure of Jesus on the Cross: Christus factus est pro nobis, obediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis. (“Christ became obedient for us unto death, even to death of the cross.”).
       In closing, it must be admitted that this is a personal view of the symbolism of the wire sculpture, and it may not entirely be what Richard Lippold had in mind when he called it The Trinity. But that is part of the appeal of the abstract. It lends itself, like poetry, to multiple interpretations.