Renowned Arts and Crafts artist Phoebe Anna Traquair painted the inner walls of St Mary’s Cathedral Song School between 1888-1892. Her murals depict Benedicite Omnia Opera; a canticle celebrating Creation. The text encourages humans, angels, and all living things to praise the lord – ‘O Ye Works of the Lord, Praise Ye the Lord.’ Commissioned by Dr Cazenove, Sub Dean of the Cathedral and a member of the Edinburgh Social Union, the work was part of a wider philanthropic effort to bring deeper morality and meaning to art in the late nineteenth century.[1]Traquair was inspired by the enlightened humanism of the period, literally and symbolically bringing together humankind, nature, and divinity by incorporating them all into her painted procession (fig. 1).[2]She highlights the importance of biodiversity as a display of God’s creation, including a mass of flora and fauna on each of the walls. This use of botanical imagery stems from a range of sources, including her Arts and Crafts contemporaries, the Pre-Raphaelites, and early Italian renaissance painters.[3]All of these artists shared Traquair’s belief in the spiritual beauty and importance of nature.[4]Today, St Mary’s Cathedral aims to uphold the importance of biodiversity in their response to the ongoing climate crisis. They are using Traquair’s visual celebration of nature to influence their ecological vision for the future of the Cathedral.

[1] Elizabeth Cummings, Phoebe Anna Traquair 1852-1936, (National Galleries of Scotland, 2005), 19-20

[2] Cummings, Phoebe Anna Traquair, 10

[3] Murdo Macdonald, “An Outstanding Vision of Life,” The Scotsman, August 16, 1993

[4] Jennifer Meagher, “The Pre-Raphaelites,” The Met, October 1, 2004