OF HOPE & PEACE

THE Very Rev. Eryl Stephen Thomas, dean of Llandaff Cathedral in Wales, was categorical. Restoration of the cathedral, which had been virtually destroyed in 1941 by German bombers, was being planned, and the question of a statue of Christ for the nave had been raised. "Only one man can do it," said the dean. "Jacob Epstein."

Sir Jacob had some decided ideas on the subject. "Usually," he said, "Christ in majesty is shown with a crown and scepter. I rejected that. I rejected the conventional symbols, the stigmata, the crown of thorns. I told them I would not use them. I wanted to make him divine, but human." The cathedral authorities agreed.

It took Sculptor Epstein a full year to mold the statue in clay, another year for it to be cast in aluminum. Then, for 18 months, while restoration of the nave proceeded, the figure remained in a crate as Sir Jacob, now 76, fretted that he might never live to see it unveiled. Last week he put aside his plaster-spattered corduroy work clothes, put on a well-worn morning suit and black Homburg and left with his wife for the pre-Easter hallowing of the restored nave and the dedication of his Christ in Majesty.

Shining in the sunlight that flooded the nave towered the figure that dominated the occasion (opposite). Gentle and merciful, yet awesome in its serene majesty, the figure stands 16 ft. tall, high above the floor of the nave, resting against a concrete cylinder that houses the echo organ and at the apex of a concrete parabolic arch that springs from the ground and spans the nave. In the great tradition of Byzantine religious art, the figure is elongated and primitively covered with a boxlike drape. But the head, feet and hands are done with expressive realism, the head forceful, the chin raised with authority and grandeur, the hands held out in eloquent plea and promise, the feet slightly dragging as if in pain, a reminder of the tragedy implicit in the dramatic origins of Christianity.

Sculptor Epstein hoped to create "a figure that is peaceful with a message of hope and peace." Well satisfied with the result last week, he proclaimed it his "greatest act of faith and his greatest work."

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