Art: Homage to God

A new Dominican chapel in the Provengal village of Vence was consecrated last week. Its designer: famed Artist Henri Matisse. Now 81 and too ill to attend the consecration, Matisse sent a characteristic, proudly humble message to the presiding bishop: “This chapel is my masterpiece. I began this work four years ago, and as a result I know now that I believe in God.”

His homage to God is startlingly white, embellished with black-line murals on ceramic tiles, and crossed with straight rainbows from a tall bank of abstract stained-glass windows. It may well be a high-water mark of modern art.