In yet another installment that, rather than "before and after" we might also very well call "why ornament, pattern and colour matters" we turn your attention today to the parish church of St. Matthew in Shullsburg, Wisconsin. This is yet another example of a church that already had a reasonably decent starting point all things considered, but if you really stop to look closely at the 'before' you start to realize there were indeed a great deal of room for significant improvement. The fact we might skip past that is likely more a testament to just how much lacklustre architecture we've regrettably become used to than anything else in modern times.
The reason we may think of this as having a decent starting point is solely for three reasons: the reredoses. To that we can also add the Stations of the Cross. But if you look around otherwise, we pretty well see a box in beige. What's more, dated ceiling fans pepper the ceiling as well as rather off-putting white cross designs (which accomplished little more than drawing your attention to the ceiling fans -- not exactly what your attention should be drawn to). Down the aisles is a carpet -- and a dated, copper coloured carpet at that. The pews fall into a plain, mid-century modern style; above the two side altars are two paintings which are simply orphaned there (and if we're honest, without anything to ground them to the rest of the structure, they'd have been better off white-washed over. Fortunately they were not, so they weren't in need of recovery.
It was at this point, around the year 2022, that Conrad Schmitt Studios was brought in to help in restoring this church to a more classical ordering and decorative scheme. Their proposal involved the introduction of a more period, Victorian style of decorative colour and ornament. This was applied along the entirety of the ceiling as well as the area in and around the various altars. The following is a digital rendering of their proposal (not the actual 'after' result):
At some point it was obviously determined, presumably by the parish itself, to utilize a darker shade of blue than Conrad Schmitt originally proposed above. Here is the result, representing the true "after" as it now stands:
What has been done here, first and foremost, is that the altar has once again been reconnected to its reredos, thereby ceremonially opening up the space in the sanctuary and putting the high altar in a better hierarchical relationship with the two side altars found to either side. As well, the altar rail has been reinstalled. As well though, the intrusive organ pipes (and its corresponding shelf) have been removed and a beautiful painted scheme has been added which ties into the gothic nature of the altarpieces and other sanctuary furnishings. These come in the form of faux gothic architectural niches that encircle the base of sanctuary space. This particular design aspect is especially striking and, I think, particularly effective as it lends an otherwise non-gothic architectural space with more a gothic flavour, which thereby has a harmonious role for the rest of the sanctuary furnishings.
To understand what I am referring to by room for improvement, let's being by taking a look at the 'before':
BEFORE:
The reason we may think of this as having a decent starting point is solely for three reasons: the reredoses. To that we can also add the Stations of the Cross. But if you look around otherwise, we pretty well see a box in beige. What's more, dated ceiling fans pepper the ceiling as well as rather off-putting white cross designs (which accomplished little more than drawing your attention to the ceiling fans -- not exactly what your attention should be drawn to). Down the aisles is a carpet -- and a dated, copper coloured carpet at that. The pews fall into a plain, mid-century modern style; above the two side altars are two paintings which are simply orphaned there (and if we're honest, without anything to ground them to the rest of the structure, they'd have been better off white-washed over. Fortunately they were not, so they weren't in need of recovery.
As well though, if you look at the reredos of the high altar, it is being encroached upon by a shelf of organ pipes -- and organ pipes placed in a sanctuary like this almost never works. The sense of usually gets when one sees organ pipe placed in the apsidal space is that someone has removed a reredos or other ornamentation and now realizes that the space looks rather barren and therefore 'odd' and they need to put something there in its place, so they simply put organ pipes there. It typically works about as well as one would expect. Of course in this case, it at least had the reredos.
At some point it was obviously determined, presumably by the parish itself, to utilize a darker shade of blue than Conrad Schmitt originally proposed above. Here is the result, representing the true "after" as it now stands:
AFTER:
What has been done here, first and foremost, is that the altar has once again been reconnected to its reredos, thereby ceremonially opening up the space in the sanctuary and putting the high altar in a better hierarchical relationship with the two side altars found to either side. As well, the altar rail has been reinstalled. As well though, the intrusive organ pipes (and its corresponding shelf) have been removed and a beautiful painted scheme has been added which ties into the gothic nature of the altarpieces and other sanctuary furnishings. These come in the form of faux gothic architectural niches that encircle the base of sanctuary space. This particular design aspect is especially striking and, I think, particularly effective as it lends an otherwise non-gothic architectural space with more a gothic flavour, which thereby has a harmonious role for the rest of the sanctuary furnishings.
Obviously too there are the impressive paintings found above the high altar depicting the Holy Trinity, St. Thomas Aquinas and Our Lady of Sorrows. Stencilled designs that have been placed in an around the two paintings found above the high altar, helping to correct the aforementioned "orphaning" problem as regards the two upper paintings.
The pews too have been updated and the aisle carpeting removed and a decorative scheme placed along the length of the ceiling. As a minor aside, if I had been the parish, I might have opted to stick with Conrad Schmitt's original palette for the ceiling design, but I am not going to quibble over what is clearly an impressive transformation that has turned an "okay" liturgical space into a really rather striking one.
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