Raiders of the Lost Art, Part 1

As I have posted once before, St. Christopher is home to a plethora of paintings that were made by its second pastor, Msgr. Fulkerson. He must have been a man with a great capacity to reflect and I would not be surprised to find out that the sacred images he painted made real impressions on him and his prayer life. If art is man’s way of expressing what is deep in his soul, then these works of art give us a look into the inner life of Fr. Fulkerson.

Christ in Gethsemane

This is a copy of Carl Heinrich Bloch’s painting from 1875. Our Lord is being ministered to by an angel. The red robe depicts Christ’s humanity, the blood that he will shed. The blue is his divinity. Fr. Fulkerson did well contrasting dark and light bringing Christ and the angel to center stage in contrast to the trees of the garden behind them.

Mater faciei obliquae

It seems that this may be an original from 1976. The title is roughly translated as “Mother in profile.” Again we see stark contrast between the dark background and the lightness of Mary’s face. The painting is reminiscent of the iconography of the eastern churches although I find it interesting that he chose to color the background dark black. Usually, gold is the color of the background for icons representing heaven. Perhaps this Mary is sorrowful.

Fulkerson’s ability to use the chiaroscuro method of contrast is quite effective in almost all of his works. (I will be posting more soon.) The only thing that alludes him, and this is difficult for all artists I’m sure, is creating realistic expression for the faces. Nevertheless, these are some of St. Christopher’s most prized treasures in my opinion.