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.
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.
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