Serving God, Sculpture by Sculpture
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WEEK 28, 2021 COURTESY OF CODY SWANSON American sculptor Cody Swanson stands next to his sculpture of Saint John. The sculpture is one of the Four Evangelists he’s creating in clay, in preparation for it to be cast in plaster for the Chapel of the Holy Cross, Jesuit High School, Tampa, Fla. SACRED ART LORRAINE FERRIER After he graduated, Swanson taught at The Florence Academy of Art and also at the Sa- ome 18 years ago, Minnesota-born cred Art School in Florence, which focuses Cody Swanson arrived in Italy on exclusively on serving the Catholic Church. a two-way ticket as a fresh-faced Now, Swanson concentrates solely on cre- Serving God, 18-year-old keen to discover more ating sublime sacred art in clay, bronze, about traditional art. That he did. marble, and plaster in his private studio. SBut his trip wasn’t quite what he had envi- With each and every one of his sculptures, sioned. He’s lived in Italy ever since, having he has one aim: to serve God. To that end, never used his return flight. he sincerely hopes that each sculpture Sculpture by Swanson settled in Florence, where he brings people closer to God. learned sculpture at The Florence Acad- His sculptures in Europe can be found in emy of Art. While there, he fell in love with Florence, Madrid, Rome, and London, to the city—and a fellow student, whom he name a few cities. Among his major works later married. in Italy are a silver processional cross for Sculpture His Roman Catholic faith and family are the Florence Cathedral and a 13-foot sculp- most important to Swanson (the couple ture of St. Emygdius for Foligno Cathedral The sacred art of Florence-based have five children), and his wife is one of in the Umbria region of central Italy. a number of artists who help him in his American sculptor Cody Swanson studio, he said in a telephone interview. Continued on Page 4 2B2 | ARTS & CULTURE TUESDAY,Week JULY 28, 13, 2021 TUESDAY,Week 28, 2021JULY 13, 2021 ARTS & CULTURE |B3 3 PuBliC DoMAiN MArTiN TrABAliK/ShuTTerSToCK TradiTional CulTure vank, for example, we find ourselves visiting a church “believed to have been founded at the end of the first century.” Here in the main church are frescoes from the 13th century, intricately carved khachkars in the bell tower that left me wondering how Still Under anyone ever crafted such marvels, and beautiful illuminated pages from the Bible. During your visit here, be sure to watch the video of the teenagers pro- ducing 3D images of the monastery. Siege Or take in the village of Tsar, “once home to a fortress, a vaulted cathe- dral, churches, cemeteries, and a Armenians and the Churches medieval bridge.” Over time, vandals CriSPiN SeMMeNS/CC BY-SA 2.0 damaged many of these monuments. past, the Khmer Rouge’s wholesale at- (Above) The During the Soviet period, stones from tempt at demolishing ancient Cambo- ruins of Dadivank of Nagorno-Karabakh some churches and headstones from dian arts: Modern totalitarianism is as Monastery in the graveyards were stripped for use in capable of inflicting cultural ruination Kalbajar District of Jeff Minick Armenians managed to practice their new buildings, including a school in as any ancient warlord. Even in the Azerbaijan. faith, surviving all of these assaults on which many of the tombstones em- United States, the last few years have (Above right) In 1965, I was an eighth grader at their traditions. bedded in the walls can still be read. seen statues of those we once regard- Ghazanchetsots Virginia’s Staunton Military Academy, Then the 20th century arrived. Our tour of the cathedral of Gha- ed as heroes toppled or removed from Cathedral, a a school now long defunct. zanchetsots introduces us to a newer the public square. cathedral in the One day a classmate, Thomas A., told The Slate Wiped Clean building, once a gem in the city until The rage behind some of this dese- city of Shushi in me the story of his Armenian grand- From 1915 to 1922, the Armenian the bombing two years ago. The accom- cration is understandable. During the Nagorno-Karabakh. mother, how some Turkish troops had genocide and the destruction of panying video gives us an introduction American Revolution, for example, (Right) A beautiful entered her village, how she had hid- many buildings and artifacts wiped to the beauty of the land, but, even New Yorkers tore down a statue of “khachkar” or “cross den away either in a cellar or under a out much of Armenian culture and more, grants us a glimpse of the culture George III. And during the collapse stone” in Gyumri, bed (that detail has vanished from my religious practices. Later, in those when we meet a young couple married of the Soviet Union, mobs tore down Armenia. memory) while neighbors and family areas under the thumb of the Soviet in the cathedral just days after missiles statues of Stalin. members were either shot or bayonet- Union, authorities clamped down on hit the church. In the words and faces of But when some indulge in cultural ed, and how she and a few others had Armenian Christianity, imprisoned the bride and groom, we find the tenac- genocide, seeking to wipe out an escaped and eventually made their some priests, and closed many of the ity that has so long sustained the Arme- entire culture, they are destroying way to the United States. remaining churches, allowing them to nians through their many ordeals. not just that culture but also a part of I was too young and ignorant at the fall into disrepair. humanity’s historical record, its great time to understand that Thomas was The collapse of the Soviet Union A Cultural Impoverishment art, its books, and even its music. relating to me a detail of the Arme- in 1991 brought new conflicts to Human beings have a long history Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and nian genocide, when in World War I the region. The Armenians living in of iconoclasm, the destruction for Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic and afterward the Ottoman Empire Nagorno-Karabakh held a referendum political or religious reasons of monu- Church, recently issued this plea to the PRELIMINARY SEMI-FINAL FINAL murdered around 1.5 million Ar- and declared that tiny country an in- ments, libraries, houses of worship, world: “I pray that the world will awaken The Sept. 2–3 Sept. 4 Sept. 5 menians. The reasons behind this dependent state, breaking away from statues, and shrines. The loss of the to this call, standing up to protect this destruction genocide were both religious—the Azerbaijan. A bloody war ensued, ancient library of Alexandria with small piece of land and its significant con- Turks were Muslims, the Armenians leaving the Armenians in control of its tens of thousands of scrolls, the tribution to universal human culture.” of many Christians—and political. In the latter the region and holding parts of Azer- sack of Constantinople in 1204 by the Agreed. Gold Award $10,000 case, the Turks feared that the Arme- baijan. In 2020, war again erupted Crusaders and later by the Muslims buildings nians might attempt to rebel against between the two countries, which re- in 1453, the attacks on artwork and Jeff Minick has four children and a and artifacts the empire as had some of its other sulted in the Azeris controlling about statues during the time of the Prot- growing platoon of grandchildren. For SEMI-FINAL & FINAL Tickets on Sale $30 subject peoples. By means of mass ex- half of the Karabakh territory. estant Reformation: These and many 20 years, he taught history, literature, wiped out ecutions, death marches, and forced As the team of scholars who contrib- other assaults in the past have left our and Latin to seminars of homeschool- Hotline 1-888-477-9228 emigration, the Turks obliterated their uted to “Ancient Faith: The Churches culture poorer. ing students in Asheville, N.C. He is the much of Armenian subjects. of Nagorno-Karabakh” point out, Modernity has also wreaked havoc author of two novels, “Amanda Bell” Arminian They also erased Armenian culture. this conflict has brought additional on art and culture. The Nazi book and “Dust On Their Wings,” and two Tribeca Performing Arts Center Several thousand churches, schools, destruction of churches, monasteries, burnings, the Soviet Union’s destruc- works of non-fiction, “Learning As I Go” culture and 199 Chambers Street New York, NY 10007 and libraries were destroyed—either and religious shrines, with the Az- tion of churches, Mao’s Cultural Revo- and “Movies Make The Man.” Today, religious leveled to the ground or converted to eris apparently intent on eradicating lution in which the communists tried he lives and writes in Front Royal, Va. some extraneous use. The remains of all signs of Armenian culture. Holy to sweep away all evidence of China’s See JeffMinick.com to follow his blog. practices. the ancient monastery of Varagavank, Savior Ghazanchetsots Cathedral, for for example, are now used as a shed instance, though meaningless as a for fodder for domestic animals. military target, was heavily damaged And this destruction continues by missiles fired by the Azeris, as was today. Tigranakert, a city dating back to the Hellenistic period, where the ancient A Brief History ruins were also targeted. In late June, the Museum of the Bible, Meanwhile, in Azerbaijan itself, from an outfit with 430,000 square feet of 1997 to 2006, exhibition researchers exhibits and various collections in have “documented the destruction Washington, D.C., began featuring a of 89 medieval churches, 5,840 cross virtual exhibition titled Ancient Faith: stones, and 22,000 tombstones.