Saint Joseph and the Infant (The Light of the World)
"St. Joseph and the Infant"
The following is the Chicago version of "St. Joseph and the Light of the World." It is taken from the published booklet celebrating the 75th Anniversary of St. Ignatius.
The two side altar paintings and the stations of the cross are the work of Charles Bosseron Chambers. His "Madonna of the Sacred Coat" which hangs above the north altar depicts the young Virgin Mother holding the famous seamless tunic of Treves. The altar piece "St. Joseph and the Light of the World" hangs above the south altar and the detail of the head of the Christ child in this painting has been called one of the most popular pieces of religious art in the world. Young Gilbert, son of Victor de Milliano, the engineer for St. Ignatius Church, posed for a sketch of the Christ child's head at the suggestion of Mother Francis Xavier, teacher of the first grade boys. Mr. Chambers returned to England to complete the painting, modeled from the head of Gilbert and the body of a German boy.
ST JOSEPH
Introduction
In response to the many inquiries concerning C. Bosseron Chambers and his work, The Religious Art Publishing Company is presenting
this monograph containing some facts concerning this eminent American painter, who is internationally known as a religious artist, and whose pictures, unrestricted to any one class of people, or to any locality, are to be found in the homes of the rich and the poor alike, in the far-flung islands of Malaysia, and the smallest hamlet of the United States. It is the universality of Mr. Chambers' work, as well as its human appeal, which has caused him to become known as "An Old Master in a New World."
Biographical Sketch
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, and educated under the Jesuits of St. Louis University, C. Bosseron Chambers' art studies were early put under the direction of Louis Schultz of the Berlin Royal Academy, and Alois Hrdliczka, of the Royal Academy of Vienna. As he grew older it was Johannes Schlumacher of Dresden who directed his more mature efforts. The artist's many long stays in Italy, in the vicinity of Assisi, have made him preeminently Saint Francis' artist, just as a youthful devotion to Saint Anthony is responsible for the understanding in his picture of the saint.
Of Catholic ancestry on his mother's side, Ella Leontine Bosseron, whose forebears were largely instrumental in planting the faith in the French city of Mississippi, and trained under the religious zeal of his convert father, James Mark Chambers, who as a young Irish officer served his Queen as Captain in the British Army, Chambers by birth and education came rightly by his peculiar gift of putting into religious pictures the things we have wished to find there. Mr. Chambers is married to Anne Feehan, daughter of Dr. Edward L. Feehan of St. Louis and niece of late Archbishop Feehan of Chicago.
A Few Personalities
The numberless inquiries concerning the model for the famous "Light of the World," the answer is to be found in the musical name of Benito Celenti, and appealing Italian baby, whose father, Ernesto Celenti, is proud to say that he posed with his boy for the altar piece, "St. Joseph and the Infant," now decorating a Chicago church. The original of the little "Saint John," he of the valiant heart and the vision of the future in his eyes, is in heaven with the real John of the Wilderness, and the beloved disciple. This little fellow, the son of an old pupil, died shortly after the picture was finished. "The Madonna of the Sacred Coat" (also at St. Ignatius) is done entirely from imagination, as are the greater number of the Chambers' Madonnas and the pictures of Christ. The artist, fearing to run the risk of losing the spiritual quality, and finding it difficult to get models of suitable type, prefers to depend on inspiration and the grace of God (Excerpted from: Religious Art Publishing Company, Suite 1207 Carnegie Hall, Fifty-sixth Street and Seventh Avenue, New York, New York, 1932).
