Surprise Visit
3 February, 2008 by PF
I was standing at the lectern, checking that the Lectionary was marked correctly for Mass, when a man whose faced looked familiar came up near the sanctuary and stood smiling at me. It was Andrian Melka, the sculptor who carved the stone Crucifix and statue of Our Lady for the facade of our church. The last time he was here was when the sculptures were being installed so, until today, he hadn’t seen them without scaffolding and from a distance.
Andrian had come to Britain from Albania in 1997 and worked at the Dick Reid Studio in York. Most of his commissions involved what he calls classical mythic symbolism, such as his Battle of the Centaurs for Lord Rothschild and his Laocoön for the Prince of Wales. He had always wanted to do a Crucifix (and a Statue of Our Lady), but these commissions were not available until our architect recommended Andrian to us.
As you can see, he is a big fan of Michelangelo. He told me today that he is working on a four foot high Pieta, which I look forward to seeing someday. (He did say some very nice things about the Italian marble Pieta in our church here.) After Dick Reid’s retirement, Andrian set up his own studio and website.
beautiful and inspiring!
Wow! I did not know sculptors so skillful still existed! (The statues of 20th century saints around St Peter’s in Rome are, erm, not quite as gorgeous and alive as those surviving from earlier centuries.)
Maybe much artistic talent in the modern age had moved into film…but praise God for Andrian Melka, that sculptors can still stun us.
“The young hero stripped himself–he, God Almighty–
strong and stout-minded. He mounted high gallows,
bold before many, when he would loose mankind.
I shook when that Man clasped me. I dared, still, not bow to earth,
fall to earth’s fields, but had to stand fast.
Rood was I reared. I lifted a mighty King,
Lord of the heavens, dared not to bend.”
Gorgeous….I am off to Rome soon, but I’d like to get to Scotland soon too…beautiful sculpture.