ST GREGORY’S STATIONS OF THE CROSS
(Kathryn Timmons has carried out research into the origins of the beautiful Stations of the Cross in our church. What follows is the account of her endeavours.)
While the church was being painted from March to June 2015, Terry and Sheila Breed were working quietly at home to clean and repair the Stations of the Cross. Below are some photos of their painstaking and sometimes tedious work. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude for their contribution to the care of these unusual and interesting artefacts which help us to meditate on the journey which Jesus took to the Cross.
While the church was being painted from March to June 2015, Terry and Sheila Breed were working quietly at home to clean and repair the Stations of the Cross. Below are some photos of their painstaking and sometimes tedious work. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude for their contribution to the care of these unusual and interesting artefacts which help us to meditate on the journey which Jesus took to the Cross.
My contribution was to try and find out where the stations were made and how long they have been in the church. This task is far from complete but several interesting stories have emerged. I took photographs of them to show to a friend who as well as being a committed Christian taught Fine Art at Loughborough College of Art. He told me that they are almost certainly Italian, probably the same age as the church and made of Gesso[1]. Terry had already established that they are not carved as there are no marks of carving and the wood, when he looked at the backs, is of a very poor quality.
I contacted the Curator of Fine Arts at the Leicester museums who was not able to help. However her colleague at the Charnwood museum, not a Fine Art specialist, put the photos onto a website for curators to see if that elicited any response. The only answers came from someone who thought she had seen similar Stations in a church in Gravesend, (I have contacted the church at Gravesend but as yet have had no reply) and the following which I have copied in full:
I contacted the Curator of Fine Arts at the Leicester museums who was not able to help. However her colleague at the Charnwood museum, not a Fine Art specialist, put the photos onto a website for curators to see if that elicited any response. The only answers came from someone who thought she had seen similar Stations in a church in Gravesend, (I have contacted the church at Gravesend but as yet have had no reply) and the following which I have copied in full:
Station of the Cross in the church of Rennes-le-Château
I was very interested to read about Kathryn Timmons' enquiry; although I no longer work in museums (I'm now a Teaching Assistant in a special school/college - rather different!), I have remained a member of SHCG and am always interested to see what's going on in the 'social history world'. When on holiday, my wife and I are usually to be found in France and I spend a lot of time in Roman Catholic churches as a result of my (sometimes all-too consuming!) interest in the mystery of the village of Rennes-le-Chateau, the (now famous) hilltop village in the Pyrenees upon which Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code is based. I have been a colleague of Henry Lincoln, principal author of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, (upon which Dan draws extensively) for over thirty years and my current focus of research is the iconography of the Stations of the Cross in Rennes-le-Château church, which are bizarre to say the least! In the course of the last three decades I must have seen dozens of Station sets and while the overwhelming majority have been in France, I have occasionally had to refer to others elsewhere in Europe. Whilst, sadly, the mystery of the village of Rennes-le-Chateau does attract a 'lunatic fringe', I am not amongst them. The foundation upon which the mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau is built does not depend upon whether Jesus was married or not, nor indeed whether the Priory of Sion exists or not. Equally, to dismiss the whole mystery as a 'hoax' would be a mistake; there is something about that particular location on the face of the earth that is much more profound. It is 'demonstrable and provable', as Henry would say, but at the moment it is not fully understood. The Stations of the Cross in Sileby are certainly very beautiful and I have all of its fourteen Stations logged in my archive. I think these are indeed late nineteenth century, but as you'll have gathered, the manufacturers are often very difficult to identify. I also think these might well be Italian, as Kathryn suggests; I have checked Nikolaus Pevsner's Guide to Buildings in Leicestershire and Rutland, but sadly St Gregory's church does not get a mention therein. However, I do know of an Italian icon manufacturer, established in 1872 and still in business, to whom I propose to send some of the Sileby Station images to see whether this company might be able to confirm them as their own (if they have kept catalogues) or indeed suggest alternative manufacturers. Interestingly enough, this company is based not too far away from where the Rosmini headquarters were established in Italy during the nineteenth century, so this might augur well... I'll let you know how I get on!
I have heard no more.
I have heard no more.
Caroline Sforza
My next lead was to follow up a mention of The Duchess of Sforza who was described as a beneficiary of the church in a History of Sileby published in the sixties by the now defunct Townswomen’s’ Guild. Unfortunately the book is not referenced so I could not discover where the information came from. However I did discover quite a lot about Caroline Duchess of Sforza. She was the illegitimate daughter of one of the Shirley family of Staunton Harold and Ratcliffe Hall. The story goes that her mother arrived at Ratcliffe Hall to ask for help and the grandfather of the child (his son, the father of the child, was already dead) was very taken with her and took full responsibility for her and she was brought up as one of the family. The mother was told to have no further contact with her daughter and she apparently married a publican in Syston. Some years later she called at Ratcliffe Hall and asked to see her daughter; she was admitted but told that she must not speak to the girl. However, she was so overwhelmed when she saw her that she ran up to her and embraced her. As a part of the arrangements for her education Caroline spent some time each year in Italy. While she was there she met and eventually married the Duke of Sforza, so was wealthy through inheritance and through marriage. She and her husband returned to Leicestershire each year to sketch and were very generous to the local population. I have contacted the Sforza family archive to ask if they have any evidence of her giving money, or Stations of the Cross, to St Gregory’s but again no reply.
I tried the firm in Liverpool, where my mother-in-law used to buy statues, an old established family firm with an Italian name. They also thought that our stations are 19th century and probably Italian but could offer no more help.
Terry’s son-in-law found a single Station of the Cross for sale on eBay which bore a strong resemblance to ours. It was being sold by an auction house in the United States; they suggested that it came from a church in Liverpool. I contacted them to ask if they knew any more, but heard nothing from them.
So there have been lots of leads but no answers. We contacted the Diocesan Archive when we wrote the story of the church several years ago; they had very little and we have copies of what there was. There is nothing in the County Record office at Wigston or in the Local Studies collection at Loughborough Library. It looks therefore as though we might never know the answer.
[1.] "Gesso", also known "glue gesso" or "Italian gesso" is a traditional mix of an animal glue binder (usually rabbit-skin glue), chalk, and white pigment, used to coat rigid surfaces such as wooden painting panels as an absorbent primer coat substrate for painting. The colour of gesso was usually white or off-white. Its absorbency makes it work with all painting media, including water-based media, different types of tempera, and oil paint. It is also used as a base on three-dimensional surfaces for the application of paint or gold leaf. Mixing and applying it is an art form in itself since it is usually applied in 10 or more extremely thin layers.(Wikipedia).
Terry’s son-in-law found a single Station of the Cross for sale on eBay which bore a strong resemblance to ours. It was being sold by an auction house in the United States; they suggested that it came from a church in Liverpool. I contacted them to ask if they knew any more, but heard nothing from them.
So there have been lots of leads but no answers. We contacted the Diocesan Archive when we wrote the story of the church several years ago; they had very little and we have copies of what there was. There is nothing in the County Record office at Wigston or in the Local Studies collection at Loughborough Library. It looks therefore as though we might never know the answer.
[1.] "Gesso", also known "glue gesso" or "Italian gesso" is a traditional mix of an animal glue binder (usually rabbit-skin glue), chalk, and white pigment, used to coat rigid surfaces such as wooden painting panels as an absorbent primer coat substrate for painting. The colour of gesso was usually white or off-white. Its absorbency makes it work with all painting media, including water-based media, different types of tempera, and oil paint. It is also used as a base on three-dimensional surfaces for the application of paint or gold leaf. Mixing and applying it is an art form in itself since it is usually applied in 10 or more extremely thin layers.(Wikipedia).
