Completed in 1924, this Romanesque style church with its rusticated stone
facade and heavy rounded arches, was the work of architects A. D. Gascon
and Louis Parent. Guido Nincheri did both the decoration and the stained
glass for Sainte-Madeleine, but because of the ravages of fire and changing
attitudes towards church decoration, his painting of the patroness Ste.
Madeleine is one of the only surviving elements of the original interior
decoration. Today, the church's minimal decorations and uniformly white
walls actually heighten the dramatic effect of Nincheri's remarkable stained
glass windows.
The windows of the choir
represent the Four Evangelists, who are identified by their emblems. St. John
is represented by the eagle; St. Luke by the bull; St. Mark, the lion and St.
Matthew. the figure of a human. In the nave, Nincheri chose to illustrate scenes
of Christ's life, dividing them between the private life described in the Gospels
and the public life of the Epistles. The transept features unusual rose windows
representing mythical Seraphins, with their three sets of wings, while the smaller
windows show liturgical symbols.
The four windows in the
former baptistery represent the graces bestowed by baptism. The number four
is symbolic, refering to the four Biblical rivers. In each window Nincheri placed
an angel. At the foot of each is one of these inscriptions: Ego te baptizo;
Ego te linio: Accipe lampadem ardentem; Accipe vestem candidam.
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