Resurrection

Architect Philip Frohman asked Hildreth Meière to design a Resurrection mosaic in the crypt chapel of Washington National Cathedral. Having just completed a stained glass window for St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York, Meière used a similar contract for this project, with staged payments: 30% upon signing, 30% upon manufacturing, 30% upon delivery, and 10% after installation.Frohman critiqued Meière’s initial design, preferring a static figure of Christ over a motion-filled one. He made suggestions about color and proportions. Meière adjusted her design accordingly. Ravenna Mosaics fabricated the mosaic. When it was fifty percent complete, Meière visited St. Louis and reported: I returned from a very satisfactory visit to St. Louis last night. The mosaics, I think, are really fine, and are completed well past the halfway mark—the figure of Christ, the sleeping soldiers, with cliffs beyond, half the angel and a good deal of sky are completed..^[1]In preparation for the installation, Heuduck wrote to Frohman asking for “browncoat for the Resurrection Chapel mosaics ¾” thick, one part cement, one part lime, three parts sharp sand.” This undercoat needed to be scored before it set.Meière expected the Ravenna Mosaic Company’s installation to take from one week to ten days: I will be down the following week, when they are ready to take the paper off. Until that time there would be nothing for me to do. The eventual “doing” will be supervising the staining of the light joints.^[2] Following the installation, Meière studied how to light the apse to show the details of the mosaic off to best advantage. Meière’s received her final payment for the apse mosaic together with a note: “You would certainly be gratified to hear the many very favorable comments which your work in the apse is constantly evoking.”^[3]