The Art Of Faith

These meditations are inspired by the component scenes of Duccio’s (1311) Maestà, and first appeared weekly, presumably to coincide with the Sunday Gospels of Lent and Eastertide. The only one in Lent that does not ‘fit’ is that for the second Sunday which should have shown the Transfiguration, but is replaced here by the Agony in the Garden. Eastertide is less closely matched. How remarkable that an art work can be used in this way, especially so since the sequence of Gospels in the modern liturgy did not come into existence until the 1960’s! It would therefore have been so helpful to have had a plan of the complete work if possible (it was dismembered in 1711) to relate the parts to the whole.