Baptistry Mural, St. Stephen Catholic Church, San Francisco, CA
Winter 2019, Gold leaf and acrylic, 35’ x 8’H
Design and painting: Stefan Salinas
Gold leaf from Golden Leaf Products
Commissioned by Rev. Tony LaTorre. Paints from Precita Eyes Muralists
The request from Rev. Tony Latorre, the pastor, was to bring to our mind the baptism of Jesus.
The elements to work with included the natural world that makes up the Bay Area, the modern design of the baptismal font, and finally the 1960’s chunk rock stained glass window of St. Francis. A baptism being performed recalls the baptisms of the family and friends present, as well as the Baptism of the Lord. Thus this mural is set in more than one time period. In a sense, it is a timeless room. Christ and St. John the Baptist are depicted in a style lifted from Medieval and Renaissance paintings (with composition inspired by a work by the Baroque painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo). In contrast, the environment is like one out of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries impressionist and Fauvist paintings, bringing it closer to the present. The disciples of St. John the Baptist, to the right, and the villagers on the left, are even more expressively depicted - a nod to the style of the stained glass window. It is as if the people walked out of this very church’s windows = the parishioners, past and present, of this very parish. Yes they are standing beside the Jordan River, but then there is local flora and fauna, and even the Pacific Ocean in the distance! And so we are standing in the Holy Land, and at the same time where we are right here in San Francisco. The styles, bright colors and gold sky are not a realistic environment, but a heightened spiritual landscape. Historically, paintings in churches, especially early icons, were meant to make us feel as if we are not on Earth, but almost in a heavenly plane.
Some details:
The tradition during the time of Christ, the baptizer would also be standing in the water. I took cues from several historic paintings of the scene, in which St. John is standing on the bank, as it adds more visual drama. Two of Christ’s disciples were fishermen, and so two fishermen are featured, dragging a net ashore, and two more are in a fishing boat, in the ocean. The Holy Spirit is coming from the sky, but down at an angle from, and on the same wall, as St. Francis (who spoke to the birds). The pastor asked that his terrier be included, hence the little white dog. The Rabbi standing next to him is loosely a stand-in for the pastor. I figured he would have been a rabbi (the Pharisees), rather than the more political high priests (Sadducees). His attire, not that far off from today’s Orthodox rabbis, is a quick visual reminder of Christ’s earthly Jewish Lineage. The river emerges from a vanishing point on the horizon, and the hills on either side help dramatically emphasize the final place where the golden sky (heaven) dips down to meet the water, which flows forward, down, and spreads out in both directions. Standing in the room, it is as if we are also standing in the water. This is a reminder of our baptism.
This commission has been both an honor and a true blessing to work on.