Visitors to the South Solon Meeting House cannot overlook Edwin Brooks’s fresco. Unlike the other artists, Brooks was advised to paint the ceiling in fresco secco due to the physical constraints of handling wet plaster in such a location. Despite the technical challenges, Brooks’s design truly completes the Meeting House’s fresco program. Filling the entirety of the ceiling, Brooks’s work begins directly above the gallery and extends all the way to the pulpit end.
Near the north-east corner, an image of Christ depicted as an infant is cocooned in an egg-like envelope (this identification is confirmed by the circular disc around his head which serves as a halo, a common iconographic convention in the depiction of Jesus and other holy figures). There are four trumpeting figures who surround the baby Jesus, which we suggest are angels (their lack of wings might hint at the example of Michelangelo). Directly opposite, on the corner south-east corner, is Christ yet again, but this time, he is represented as an adult, next to a cross. His body twists into a soft curve with his hands flailing about his head. Through skillfully balancing light and dark pigments to achieve the illusion of movement, Brooks represents Christ as if he were falling off the cross. Two angels surround Christ and appear to be cushioning his fall. The fresco lacks a detailed background to add context to the scene; instead, we find swirling expanses of blue and orange.
In addition to those near the infant Christ, several other trumpeting angels are positioned throughout the ceiling. They are depicted in a manner that implies they are flying; their free movement draws a viewer’s eyes towards the enormous head centered over the pulpit end. This head, painted in hues of gold and orange, looks down upon the visitors to the Meeting House. Situated upside down when looking towards the pulpit, the colossal God-head appears right side up when standing by the pulpit and looking towards the entrance.
Although completing the series of wall-to-ceiling frescoes, Edwin Brooks’s mural is arguably the least busy of the Meeting House’s paintings. While the other artists painted a plethora of scenes from the Old and New Testaments, Brooks didn’t depict a narrative scene and included just a few figures. This was a deliberate artistic choice: Brooks explained that he strove to create a symbolical depiction that would fit with the ideals of the original founders of the Meeting House, who “believed in plain living and high thinking” (qtd. in Cummings 49). While it is not certain if the original community would have “accepted the idea of decoration at all,” Brooks designed the enormous central head, which he called a “transcendental God-head,” with their values in mind (qtd. in Cummings 49).
With Brooks’ artistic intentions in mind, one may wonder why the subjects featured in the fresco were chosen. Specifically, the portion of the mural near the gallery predominantly features the depiction of Christ at two points in his human life, along with multiple angels scattered throughout the blue background. In fact, the juxtaposition of the two depictions of Christ emphasizes an important point of Christian dogma: Christ was born in order for him to die on the cross ad redeem humanity. The egg-like structure surrounding Christ suggests this representation portrays Christ while he is in the Virgin Mary’s womb, or perhaps while he is still an egg. This motif stresses that Christ’s fate of dying for humanity’s sins was determined before he was born.
The angels dispersed throughout the fresco successfully link the God-head with the two depictions of Christ—they allude to two very different moments in his life: his birth (“trumpeting angels and messengers of the Nativity”; Cummings 49) and his Second Coming at the End of Times, when angels play trumpets to raise the dead to face judgment (Cirlot 166).
Brooks’s “transcendental God-head” is strikingly reminiscent of medieval images of the Beatific Vision, when the souls of those who are granted access to heaven will contemplate the divinity face to face. In an illumination in the mid-14th-century encyclopedia known as Omne bonum (Every Good Thing) a gigantic head of Jesus is flanked by angels and by blessed souls, males on Christ’s right, females on his left.
Although it is unlikely that Brooks would have known about the theological concept of the Beatific Vision, his “transcendental God-head,” is also a disembodied head that dwarves the other figures in the composition. In the illumination, the shorthand of the scalloped clouds indicate that the scene is set in heaven (Sandler 229) and on the ceiling, the swirling sky-blue background also suggests heaven. So perhaps the ceiling fresco represents the experience of entering heaven after God’s judgment—and thus its promise.
In a graceful and cohesive manner Brooks combines two critical themes in Christianity, Christ’s sacrifice and Judgment Day. The artist also managed to establish cohesiveness with the rest of the Meeting House’s frescoes. His color scheme effectively and seamlessly links his work to the wall frescoes, allowing the viewer to experience a sense of harmony.
—Julia Lagomarsino
- Cirlot, J.E. A Dictionary of Symbols. London: Routledge, 1971.
- Cummings, Mildred H. South Solon: The Story of A Meeting House. South Solon Historical Society, 1959.
- Omne bonum, British Library MS Royal 6 E V1. f. 16v, detail, the beatific vision.
- Sandler, Lucy F. Face to Face with God: A Pictorial Image of the Beatific Vision. Boydell, 1986.