E29: English Roman Catholic Church in the Gothic Style, 1275–1300

Narcissa Niblack Thorne, creator of the Thorne Rooms, combined a deep knowledge of design history with a vivid imaginative sensibility. In the 1930s, she assembled a team of skilled artisans in Chicago to construct a series of intricately detailed interiors at the scale of one inch to one foot (1:12).

Conceived as a visual history of interior design, the rooms are at once scholarly and inventive. Meticulously researched and carefully composed, they balance historical accuracy with artistic interpretation. Each atmospheric interior feels like a stage set awaiting its occupants—two parts fantasy, one part history, and entirely absorbing.

Entry from Fannia Weingartner, Miniature Rooms: The Thorne Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago, 2nd ed. (The Art Institute of Chicago, 2004):

29: English Roman Catholic Church in the Gothic Style, Late 13th Century
This model, designated by Mrs. Thorne as Our Lady Queen of Angels Church, is unusual in a number of respects. To begin with, it is designed on a slightly smaller scale than the preceding interiors—three-quarters of an inch rather than one inch to the foot. In describing this interior, Mrs. Thorne stressed the functions of the various elements rather than presenting its historical context. And, quite uncharacteristically, she concluded her account by naming the architect, artists, and craftsmen who created the model. Mrs. Thorne asked the architect Elliott L. Chisling of New York to design an English church in the style of the period before Gothic ornament became, in her opinion, “flamboyant and decadent.” The result illustrates a phase of English Gothic between the High Gothic style of the thirteenth century and the Perpendicular style of the fourteenth century.
However, Mrs. Thorne’s church exhibits some un-Gothic features—the vaulted ceiling above the sanctuary (the part of the church that contains the altar) is paneled in wood coffers. And a decorated wall replaces the customary east window above the reredos, the wooden screen that enfolds the painted altarpiece.
The elaborately carved reredos, inspired by models in English cathedrals, was executed by Alfons Weber, a Chicago craftsman who also carved the crucifix. The altar is freestanding, raised three steps above the sanctuary floor. On the right side of the altar is a credence intended to house the instruments of the sacraments and a sedile (official chair). A piscina (basin) is built into the masonry of the wall. Above the doorway leading to the priest’s chamber, or sacristy, rise the pipes of the organ. The organ console stands in a niche of the wall to the left of the altar under the window. The adjacent door leads into the vestry, so called because the vestments (and sometimes the sacred vessels) were stored there.
A wrought-iron grille in a fifteenth-century style screens the entrance to the chapel dedicated to the Sacred Heart in the left bay. The grille, altar fittings, and lighting fixtures were the work of a New York artist, Marie Zimmerman. Hildreth Meiere, also of New York, executed the murals and polychroming; and another New Yorker, G. Owen Bonawit, a well-known artist who worked in glass, designed and painted the windows. Chicagoan Lawrence Frank Brom, of the Francis Kramer Studios, constructed the model; and A.W. Pederson, also of Chicago, painted the walls, ceiling, and elaborate floor design.
Mrs. Thorne noted the absence of pews, “which are modern comforts” first introduced in the sixteenth century. The only furnishings in the nave (the main body of the church between the aisles) are prayer stands.
This room measures 48 x 32 1/2 x 41 1/2 inches