Artists of the Abbey

Detail of the doors of the Church of St. Gregory the Great

While teaching undergraduate production design courses during my pre-monastic university life, whether for theatre and opera, or film and television, a persistent thread which wove its way through my lectures dealt with the source of inspiration. “Is there anything new under the sun?” I would ask my students, hopefully prompting one or two to respond with Ecclesiastes 1:9: “...there is nothing new under the sun.” (Never happened). As one example, I referred to the film Batman Returns which premiered in 1992. A close colleague of mine had made his way to Hollywood by then and was responsible for constructing some of the intricate miniature sets representing Gotham City, specifically the Max Shreck Department Store. The film’s production designer, Bo Welsh (1951- ), is on record stating that his inspiration for the store’s towering architecture was the Guggenheim Museum on Fifth Avenue in New York City, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959). My pre-internet research at the time uncovered the tidbit that Wright, in turn, in conceiving the Guggenheim, had been inspired by Mesopotamian ziggurats (21st century B.C.). If you were to line up images of those three structures – temple, art museum, film set – the progression of inspiration across the centuries would be clearly evident (cf.: Eccl. 1:9).

Doms Hilary Martin and Peter Sidler collaborating

This image is annotated “1946_fortune”: the year taken, and perhaps the location
being the studio created for E. Charlton Fortune to work on campus.

The inspired Portsmouth monk responsible for creating what is arguably the most prominent and visible work of art on campus holds our attention this month as the Artist of the Abbey. Fr. Peter Sidler, O.S.B. (1917-1997), christened August, was the son of a New York banker of German-Swiss ancestry while his mother’s family was Hungarian. His piece de resistance to which we refer is the pair of massive copper-clad doors of the Abbey Church dating to 1962, facing the Holy Lawn, and on view to everyone at all times. However, nothing as yet has come to light revealing the inspiration for his text-based design. The 20th century saw many fine artists, like Magritte and Braque, incorporating text into their paintings, and perhaps a work of art he may have seen in an exhibition or publication sparked his imagination. In his case, the text is not an add-on, an adjunct to an underlying image, but becomes the predominant feature. Fr. Peter chose the Latin translation of St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians 2:19-22 and emblazoned it across the entrance to the 1962 Abbey Church. Here is an English translation:

He chose a letter style derived from the earliest Latin-language carvings of ancient Rome. Assisting in the final layout of the 15 lines of the Scripture passage was noted Newport calligrapher, stone carver and typeface designer, John Everett Benson (1939- ). The technique is repoussé whereby Fr. Peter himself hammered the 5” high letters from the reverse side of the copper sheeting before it was nailed over the wooden core of the doors. A monk who was resident in the monastery at that time remembers hearing the morning-until-evening banging of the hammer echoing up from the basement where the work was taking place, the sound resonating throughout the house.

“Portsmouth Cross”

Above the church doors and mounted on the locally-quarried stone façade is an iron cross evoking the “Cross moline” associated with the Benedictine tradition. This cross was also designed by Fr. Peter and is known as the “Portsmouth Cross.” It is seen on the votive lamp stand in our Lourdes Grotto, as a graphic logo in the Divine Office books, on stationery and other print materials, as well as embroidered on a chalice pall and on the new veils worn by altar servers attending the abbot or a bishop during a Pontifical Mass. Here too, Fr. Peter has left a distinctive and enduring mark on our artistic heritage.

Dom Peter Sidler

Fr. Peter’s educational career began at the Jesuit Brooklyn Prep after which he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Notre Dame University in 1938, followed by a tour of Europe. His obituary reveals that he “was clothed as a novice for Portsmouth Priory in October 1940, at St. Anselm’s Priory in Washington DC, where, because of the war, a common novitiate had been established for the two Priories dependent on Fort Augustus Abbey in Scotland. Some years later both houses became Conventual Priories and then Abbeys.” He was ordained in 1946 and it was during his time that the physical plant of the Rhode Island campus underwent a great expansion. He wisely cultivated friendships with two men known for their genius in architecture, the Italian-American, Pietro Belluschi, and the Japanese-American, George Nakashima, both associated at that time with M.I.T. in nearby Cambridge. Belluschi, of course, designed the Abbey Church at Portsmouth (1962) as well as other campus structures, while Nakashima designed the Monastery of Christ in the Desert in New Mexico (1964), as well as an extraordinary collection of furnishings still extant at Portsmouth. It has been acknowledged that Fr. Peter’s “friendship with Pietro Belluschi and associated architects bore fruit in the quality of the work done.” As for the furniture, it is Fr. Peter’s name that appears on hand-written order cards from the 1960’s and 1970’ preserved in the archives of the George Nakashima Woodworkers in New Hope, Pennsylvania.

Doors designed by Fr. Peter Sidler, OSB (Image: Joseph Koczera, S.J.)

Fr. Peter was known for his collection of wood saved and then milled from downed trees on the property. One year when the Faculty Lounge in the classroom building was bring redecorated, it was decided that a sofa table was just the thing needed to complete the room. Fr. Peter was so taken by the live-edge style of the Nakashima tables that he suggested that a similar table be built by Luis Raposo of the school staff using some of the wood stored in the old Red Barn. The table is still in use today. Although we can safely say that Fr. Peter was inspired by George Nakashima for that project, we may never know what his inspiration was for those unique entrance doors to the church. Fr. Peter Sidler died of cancer, very peacefully they say, two days before Christmas, 1997.