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# ✨ Treasure Hoard: The Majestas and the Wishbone Arch, Llandaff Cathedral
- URL: https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/treasure-hoard-t/
- Published: 2026-09-02T14:21:49.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-02T14:21:49.000Z
- Description: The old stone gives the concrete gravity; the concrete makes the stone feel newly visible.
- Author: Andy  Marshall
- Tags: Treasure, llandaff, llandaff cathedral, wales, george pace, jacob epstein, modernism, #treasure-76

### The Majestas

In January 1941 a parachute bomb badly damaged the nave at Llandaff. George Pace was commissioned to re-build and re-invigorate the interior. His design focused around creating a new pulpitum. His words:

> *Mystery should be veiled and vista should open upon vista; from the moment of entering the Cathedral the journey to the High Altar should be by subtly designed stages.*

For me, the wishbone design is magnificent. It speaks of the mid-C20th with its focus on space travel, transport and concrete. It is honest in its representation. It isn't just a cheap piece of concrete casting - it has been carefully designed and is a functioning part of the organ. The Christ figure is 16ft high and was designed by [Jacob Epstein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob%5FEpstein?ref=digest.andymarshall.co).

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2023/01/Landaff-40-1.jpg)

The contrast succeeds because Pace’s intervention neither imitates nor apologises to the medieval cathedral. The old stone gives the concrete gravity; the concrete makes the stone feel newly visible. Together they create a charged threshold between inheritance and renewal, proving that continuity can be achieved through confident difference rather than imitation.

---

**Comperandum** \- compare the Epstein Christ with the Sutherland Christ at Coventry.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2023/01/Landaff-44.jpg)

Epstein Christ

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2023/01/Coventry-Cathedral6.jpg)

Christ in Majesty at Coventry Cathedral by David Sutherland.

---

More photos of the Majestas

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2023/01/Landaff-48.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2023/01/Landaff-87.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2e/b6/2eb6d776-18dd-41f1-a2d1-b76fa2d605be/content/images/2023/01/Landaff-45.jpg)

---

Andy Marshall’s Treasure Hoard Gazetteer

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