The church of the rose and thorn

In the Finnish town of Tampere stands a cathedral with extraordinary garden-themed frescoes and paintings that shocked people when they were created over 100 years ago. They can still unsettle visitors to the cathedral today.

Tampere Cathedral is no soaring medieval gothic masterpiece. Built between 1902 and 1907, it is a squat granite building with pointed towers and a red slate roof.

Step inside and your eye is drawn to the concrete-grey, barrel-vaulted ceiling. The ribs are lined with hundreds of stylised red roses and thorns (or ‘prickles’ if you want to be botanically accurate).

A balcony runs around three sides of the main body of the building. Along the front of this balustrade snakes the painting of a thick garland of roses – over 50 metres in length. At various points young boys hold the garland. Each of the 12 boys takes a different pose.

Hugo Simberg

Much of the decoration of the Lutheran church is the work of one of Finland’s finest artists. Hugo Simberg was a leader of the Finnish symbolist school and his paintings are laden with meaning.

When his work at Tampere cathedral was first painted the controversy centred less on the stark pre-pubescent nudity of the boys than on the decoration at the highest point of the church ceiling.

A serpent with an apple in its mouth is on a red background, within a series of stylised angel wings. This scandalised many in turn-of-the-century Tampere. In Christian symbolism the snake represents evil. It was the snake that tempted Eve and Adam into sin in the Garden of Eden. Surely it had no place in a church?

Simberg argued that all of us sin, but the angel wings surrounding the snake demonstrate that ultimately good prevails. This theme of the human struggle with sin recurs in his work. He often painted devils. But his most famous painting shows a fallen angel with a bandaged head wound being carried on a stretcher by two boys – one staring out from the painting with a look that might be interpreted as intense resentment. Tampere cathedral has a copy.

Rose garland

Simberg also explained the meaning of the rose garland at the church. Each boy carries it in his own way. Simberg said this represents how each of us bears the troubles of our own lives in different ways. For some the load is heavy; for others not.

The boys in the painting were all local boys who posed for Simberg on a wooden platform that followed the forms of the lower edge of the gallery. They carried a model of the garland made of cloth and straw. It explains why they are so lifelike (and perhaps why the rose is not – unlike that in Burne-Jones’s Briar Rose painting at Buscot Park).

Simberg’s biographer, Helen Ruuska[1] believes the artist, who died in 1917, aged just 44, had struggled with syphilis for many years. He had not married till comparatively late and his wife burned his correspondence on his death. His work was a manifestation of his own inner turmoils, which she believes helps explain its popularity today. In an interview she has said: “People are interested if someone admits their own imperfection and admits that they suffer.”

Suffering

At Tampere cathedral, the priests felt the naked boys’ bodies would hurt the sacred feelings of churchgoers and were not a fit subject for a church. It was suggested the boys might be turned into angels instead. Or dressed. A Finnish newspaper columnist suggested they be given swimming trunks to protect the morale of the priests. Others suggested winter coats or a fig leaf – you can tell that Finland can get very cold in winter and surprisingly warm in summer! Simberg’s frescoes were put to a jury and approved by just one vote.

The cathedral houses another controversial Simberg work. It is a painting of three skeletons in black friar-type cloaks ­– grim reapers – tenderly potting and watering plants in a surreal garden.

Simberg painted it in 1896. A note he wrote on the back of his initial sketch reads: “The place where dead people end up before entering heaven.” He believed we would be cared for beyond the grave. Though they look frightening, the skeletons are there to look after us on the journey. It is a strange way to portray such a hopeful message, but juxtaposed in the Tampere cathedral with the serpent and the apple painting it completes the human story. The garden of Eden is where it began. The garden, or cemetery, is where it ends – for our bodies at least.

It is not an easy set of paintings to look at – disturbing in so many ways.

[1] Helen Ruuska: Hugo Simberg. Devils and angels.

Banner image: The ceiling of Tampere Cathedral bearing Hugo Simberg’s frescos prominently. (Image: Martin Stott)