A great day today, we met up with dear friends from a long time ago & took a stroll into the Cathedral. It’s been tooooooo long. So busy talking & catching up that I forgot to get a photo so here’s one from one of our stop,offs earlier today. 

Madonna, Malcolm Brocklesby, Ripon Cathedral.

The original inspiration for this sculpture came from Holman Hunt’s The Shadow of Death, Manchester Art Gallery. Of this work, Brocklesby says;

“This Madonna is not the meek and subservient figure portrayed in many Renaissance works, but a determined and intelligent young woman who understands the wonder and the importance of her calling as she dedicates her Child to the purpose of her Creator. She is also aware of the suffering that this will entail ...... Her expression, however, is more of serenity than anguish. She is looking beyond Calvary to the Resurrection and the way in which she holds the Christ Child high suggests the subsequent Ascension rather than the immediate prospect of a sacrificial death.”