Steve graciously indulged me to take me back to Vence, France (not a long drive from our place in SanRemo) so that I could visit The Chapelle du Rosaire, which was designed by an elderly and ailing Henri Matisse as thanks to the Dominican sister who had taken care of him. I had visited it 19 years ago and it left a deep impression on my heart and mind.
It is a very small simple collection of white walls laced with yellow, green and blue stained glass windows and black-on-white-sketches painted on the walls.
Seeing the light dance across the room, seeing the 14 stations of the cross simply displayed on the walls, seeing the personally chosen marble for the altar (chosen by Matisse because it is the color of bread and has holes in it as bread does---symbolizing Jesus as the Bread of Life), seeing the simplicity of his paintings, his candlelabras...all brings one to a place of pure and simple worship of God and His Son Jesus Christ.
It also brings one to appreciate very personally and graphically the genius in Matisse's work.
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