Votive figure of the Sacred Heart - Tom Bass
1962
Location: Sancta Sophia College, University of Sydney
The nuns at Sancta Sophia, the Catholic women's college at the University of Sydney, asked me to do a votive figure of the Sacred Heart. They belong to the Sacré Coeur order, which is very civilised, devoted to education. They deplore most representations of the Sacred Heart, which are of course very sentimental.
For me it was a really important thing to do and I've always felt that it was important for the nuns too. Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus came into being at a time when sacred art, for the most part, had lost the vigour dynamic qualities which had once characterised it. Most representations therefore tended to be sentimental and lacked the dynamics of earlier votive icons.
The women of the order of Sacré Coeur were dissatisfied, even embarrassed by most images of the Sacred Heart. This finally led to their suggestion that I should attempt a sculpture which would more truly express the devotion at the centre of their religious life.
Reading a book-an account of a series of apparitions by Christ to a lowly Spanish lay-nun of the Sacré Coeur order I was affected by two main observations. The first was the great power of the presence of Christ. The second, the extent of His love for the world and His grief at its suffering and its misunderstanding of His teachings.
Those things combined to give me the concept for the sculpture. I wanted to express the sheer elemental power of that love for the world, the humanity of Christ. The body of Christ is made like a concrete beam, an analogy of his power to structural form in the modern world. The head expresses His pain and sorrow for the needless suffering of the people of the world. The arms are raised as a gesture of compassion, love and prayer.
Tom Bass
Votive figure of the Sacred Heart - Tom Bass
1962
Location: Sancta Sophia College, University of Sydney
The nuns at Sancta Sophia, the Catholic women's college at the University of Sydney, asked me to do a votive figure of the Sacred Heart. They belong to the Sacré Coeur order, which is very civilised, devoted to education. They deplore most representations of the Sacred Heart, which are of course very sentimental.
For me it was a really important thing to do and I've always felt that it was important for the nuns too. Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus came into being at a time when sacred art, for the most part, had lost the vigour dynamic qualities which had once characterised it. Most representations therefore tended to be sentimental and lacked the dynamics of earlier votive icons.
The women of the order of Sacré Coeur were dissatisfied, even embarrassed by most images of the Sacred Heart. This finally led to their suggestion that I should attempt a sculpture which would more truly express the devotion at the centre of their religious life.
Reading a book-an account of a series of apparitions by Christ to a lowly Spanish lay-nun of the Sacré Coeur order I was affected by two main observations. The first was the great power of the presence of Christ. The second, the extent of His love for the world and His grief at its suffering and its misunderstanding of His teachings.
Those things combined to give me the concept for the sculpture. I wanted to express the sheer elemental power of that love for the world, the humanity of Christ. The body of Christ is made like a concrete beam, an analogy of his power to structural form in the modern world. The head expresses His pain and sorrow for the needless suffering of the people of the world. The arms are raised as a gesture of compassion, love and prayer.
Tom Bass