Sculpted Stations of the Cross Act as Magnets for Easter Reverence

Bundled against a mild breeze, the old woman trudged down the sidewalk on an errand that took her past the church. A sculpture on the Glendale church’s front lawn caught her attention.

She stood motionless for a moment, taking in the life-sized bronze image of Jesus collapsing to his hands and knees beneath the weight of a cross.

Bending down, she kissed his head. Then she straightened up, made the sign of the cross, lifted her arms in supplication, and continued on her errand.

As Western Christians the world over prepare to celebrate tomorrow the Resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday (Eastern Orthodox Easter is April 27), the scene that played out this week at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Glendale was being repeated many times over.

Passersby -- including those who live and work in the neighborhood -- are being drawn to the sculpture at 1020 N. Brand Ave. Some reach out to reverently touch it. Others place roses, carnations and bougainvillea on Jesus’ head, as if to redeem his crown of thorns. Others leave hard-boiled eggs near his hands, an Eastern Orthodox sign of resurrection.

“It was nothing we anticipated,” said the church’s rector, the Rev. Mark A. Weitzel, who quietly watched the old woman from a distance. “It speaks to the need we all have for that connection,” he said. “You can walk up in the yard and touch it. You can put yourself in the story. It reminds me that ours is a historical faith.”

The sculpture by Los Angeles sculptor Christopher Penn Slatoff, “Jesus Falls the First Time,” includes a Roman soldier whipping Jesus and a snarling Roman commander ordering Jesus to pick up his cross and continue on the sorrowful way -- the Via Dolorosa -- toward his execution. It was installed about 40 days ago.

It is one of seven Stations of the Cross commissioned so far by the Via Dolorosa Society of La Jolla. The project is the dream of the society’s late founder, Peter John Maturo III of La Jolla, who died last month.

For centuries stained glass, frescoes, paintings and miniature statuary have been used to help people visualize what happened to Jesus Christ during Holy Week -- the week just observed in many western Christian churches marking his arrest, trial and crucifixion. Maturo, who was a San Diego physician, wanted a three-dimensional, life-sized presentation of the traditional 14 Stations of the Cross.

“The stations will be designed so that the devoted can experience a sense of presence by touching and mingling among the personages portrayed in each scene,” Maturo wrote before his death. “Touching the statues will be highly encouraged. ‘Please Touch’ signs will be conspicuously present throughout.”

To date, six stations have been completed, including the third at St. Mark’s. The other five are on display at Mission Basilica San Diego, St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in San Diego, Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside, Mission San Juan Capistrano, and Mary Star of the Sea Church in La Jolla. Four of the remaining six were done by San Diego sculptor A. Wasil. A seventh, a representation of Jesus being nailed to the cross, has recently been completed by Slatoff and is at a Berkeley foundry being cast in bronze.

Eventually there will be 14 stations consisting of about 60 bronze sculptures. Each station will cost between $270,000 and $1 million, according to Maturo’s daughter, Linda Maturo Lynch. It was unclear how much of those sums will meet the actual costs of the artistic commission and how much will be used for site development and other society costs. The funding comes from donations to the organization, which selects where the artwork is placed temporarily.

“As the money comes in, we’re able to tell the artist to start on the next one,” Lynch said. “We don’t start unless we have the money to finish the whole station.”

She said the four sculptures done by Wasil will either stay where they are or be sold. Eventually, Slatoff will create a complete set of 14 stations to be located on one site, most likely at Mission San Luis Rey. The traditional 14 Stations of the Cross represent points along Jesus’ journey toward crucifixion, where tradition says he either spoke or fell.For Slatoff, a classically trained sculptor whose father was an art professor at Cal State Hayward, the commissions represent the opportunity of a lifetime. “I fought like a wounded eagle to get this job,” he said. “People tell me that I’m very talented, but if you don’t have a vehicle to show that talent, it doesn’t do any good.”

But he said growing up as a Presbyterian, he had to reconsider the kind of austere art often associated with Protestantism. He joked that there is “almost a commandment” in Protestantism against sculptures in churches.

“I think that’s culturally uncomfortable, but God speaks to you in every art form,” he said. But out of the crucible of Protestant austerity and the Catholic Church’s historical emphasis on tactile experience, Slatoff said he hopes he has something to offer.

“One thing I love about doing art for the Catholic Church is I can’t give them the same old thing because I didn’t know the same old thing,” he said. “I wasn’t raised with little plastic things” -- figures of Jesus with an exposed sacred heart, or Mary with a halo. Slatoff now attends Holy Family Church, a Roman Catholic parish in South Pasadena.

Like artist John Nava, who used Southern Californians as models for the saints woven into the tapestries at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Slatoff turned to friends and acquaintances to serve as models for the figures in his Stations of the Cross.

“These are real people. These are my friends. My problem is I have a tendency to make everyone middle-aged,” said Slatoff, who be 50 next week.

An artist’s age does influence art, he said. “Dr. Maturo was in his 80s. I’m in my 40s. We had a real push and pull about how much pain to show” in the face of Jesus, Slatoff said.

“When you’re 80, you want your Jesus to be more God than man. When you’re 40, you’re probably thinking of him as a little more man than God,” Slatoff said.

He said Maturo wanted Christ’s face at the third station to show an inner faith in the face of death -- “and never let him sweat.”

Slatoff said the first face he did was rejected. “He looked too old. He looked too pained, and it’s only station three,” Slatoff said. “The awful part was that they were right,” Slatoff said. “Dr. Maturo was right. People are identifying a great deal with the inner strength” shown in station three at St. Mark’s.”

By contrast, the Roman soldiers in the Glendale sculpture convey far different temperaments.

The one whipping Jesus is a “robot” of sorts, said Slatoff. The soldier with a whip is just doing what he was told. He is almost disinterested. But the commander is seen snarling orders, demanding that Jesus pick up his cross and proceed to his execution.

Slatoff studied photographs of those in the Bataan Death March during World War II, those in civil rights marches during the 1960s, and those in charge of Nazi death camps during the Holocaust.

“He’s very personally involved,” Slatoff said of the Roman commander. “He’s been in Palestine too long. He’s asking, what am I at this point in my life. Why am I reduced to marching a Jew to his death?”

In the end, the officer becomes the centurion who, according to Mathew 27:54, said of Jesus: “Truly this man was God’s Son!”

Traditionally, there are 14 Stations of the Cross. But there may be a 15th. As Christians celebrate the holiest day on the church calendar, Slatoff said the Via Dolorosa Society is considering a new station depicting the Resurrection.

More information on the Via Dolorosa Society: www.viadolorosasociety.org/.