(click on picture to see a larger image)

"The Great Banquet" by Cicely Mary Parker, 1935*
Cicely Mary Parker (1895-1973) is best known for her Flower Fairies books but she did paint other subjects, among them an unusual triptych for the Lady Chapel of her parish (Anglican) church of St. George near Croydon, England. “Unusual” because it is not, as far as I know, a subject often chosen by artists or patrons. It is a large painting illustrating a parable that Jesus told at a rather grand supper-party attended by people conscious of social status. The message of the parable is that just as it is easier to love those who love you, it is agreeable to throw a party for your friends who will repay your hospitality. He suggested the next party should be for people who could not repay the host: “the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind… You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” (Luke 14:13-14).
Parker used the townsfolk as her models for the painting. She placed her own mother in the picture and more than likely had the little children she taught in the Sunday school pose for her. Each of the characters illustrated may have had personal stories making them particularly appropriate for inclusion. All the figures look expectantly to Jesus. The gleaming white table cloth spread on a long table is, of course, suggestive of the last supper. In the right panel is shown St. George, after whom the church is named and, in the left panel, St. John the Baptist.
I have some questions for you to ponder: Is this a liturgical work of art? Could it -should it– hang over the main altar of a church? Why or why not?
Previous posts here and here related, somewhat, to these questions.
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Book suggestion:
A Journey into Christian Art, Helen de Borchgrave, (Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 2000).
*Picture source: Borchgrave, p. 192