The two faces of Luke

The gods of mosaic must be partial to Luke these days.

While I've been chronicling my work on reproducing a Byzantine mosaic of Luke, Julie Richey and Lynn Chinn have also been working on a major commission for the St. Philip's church in Virginia. They have created four mosaics representing the canonical Gospels of Matthew (the man), Mark (the lion), Luke (the ox), and John (the eagle). Here's their Luke along with mine.

You can see more of Julie and Lynn's magnificent Baptistery project here.

I chose to do Luke because I wanted to recreate a Byzantine mosaic as a portrait exercise in marble. I saw this mosaic of Luke in a book on the mosaics at San Marco. He was an interesting face in a book.

But my friend Margaret asserted that we choose the art that we do for a reason and that there must be some significance as to why Luke came into my life at this time. Maybe so. The fact that Julie and Lynn's Luke came into being at the same time only reinforces Margaret's statement. After all, how many years have passed where we haven't even thought about St. Luke and now there are two Lukes in our lives?

I've been thinking about that for the last few weeks and haven't come up with an answer. It's easy to attribute this to simple chance. I found a cool dude in a mosaic book and wanted to replicate it. Julie & Lynn got a commission. It's as simple as that.

But if there is a more mystical reason, it's not hard to fish for an answer. Luke is the patron saint of artists, glass makers, stained glass workers, painters, sculptors, and gold workers (as well as bookbinders, brewers, butchers, doctors, lacemakers, notaries, and unmarried men). So I suppose if mosaic artists were to have a patron saint, Luke would be a good candidate.

Luke was also born in Antioch. All those incredible Roman-era mosaics must have had some influence on him. (Check here and here.)

I'm not religious nor a follower of any institutional religion - but Luke spoke of human love and care for the poor and suffering. Forgiveness and mercy were of first importance to him. And he, more than his cohorts, emphasized the role of women in the ministry. All of these are pretty good reasons to be attracted to him.

Luke was also an evangelist. In the last few years, my life has totally changed from a drone who worked for corporate-America to an evangelist for mosaic art. We have that in common.

Or perhaps his expression reflects my mood these days. (Spring is a dreary part of the year in New England - too cloudy and too cold for a season which should be otherwise.) Sophie and Ginger commented on how the Luke mosaic finally turned out with the choice of Silverwater as the background. Both comments talk about Luke's expression:

(Ginger) The face is somber but not sad, introspective, deeply spiritual. It is the face of this great man who was not only a physician at a time when it meant something to be a physician, but a writer and a historian and, oral tradition tells us, the first iconographer. All this shows in your Luke.

(Sophie) Luke has a quietly pondering sort of sadness that the silverwater echoes. He seems to be brooding a bit, and the siverwater makes that a private moment more than the gold would have. The feeling is heightened, I think. Strange...I was much in favour of the gold, with siverwater a distant third, as I recall. I like the feeling of this piece very much, and I am very glad you went with your gut!