The Good Shepherd Gate

Figure 2: Albert Paley poses with The Good Shepherd Gate, constructed of forged steel, brass, and 24k gold plate.

In 2007, Paley was commissioned by the Washington National Cathedral to create a gate for the Good Shepherd Chapel. After a century of projects, Paley’s piece was the cathedral’s last commission, finally reaching completion at its centennial. However, the gate seen on the crypt level of the cathedral is not Paley’s original piece. Paley’s original gate is currently on loan to Museum of the Bible.

When Paley was originally commissioned, it took him nearly a year to complete the gate’s design and another three to four months to forge it. When he submitted a photograph of the piece to the cathedral’s building committee, they objected, as they felt that Paley had strayed from the original design. Paley conceded that he had changed certain elements, but only to improve the piece and create a better experience for visitors. Paley eventually agreed to re-create the work for the cathedral according to their specifications, but he kept the original piece, which—according to Paley—is the better of the two.

Figure 3: In Paley’s words, walking through a gateway “is a ceremonial act of passage” leading you “from one reality to another.”

According to Paley, the very act of walking through a gate is transformational—passing out of one reality and entering into another. Engaging with a Paley piece is meant to be transformational, too—to fully engage with a gate like this one requires both intellectual and emotional exploration in addition to attention to its physical form.

The gate’s creation was also transformational. By its nature, forged steel begins as a hard and rigid material that is heated up until it’s bright yellow, then, with hammers and pressure, it becomes malleable. After the gate’s construction was completed, it was sandblasted, sprayed with a chemical patina, and sealed with a satin clear coat.

Figure 4: Close-up of the crosier, or shepherd’s crook, a symbol of Jesus Christ as the Good Shepherd.

The central element of Paley’s gate is the crosier, or shepherd’s crook. Paley included the crosier as a symbol of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd—referencing both Psalm 23 and John 10. In a Q&A with Museum of the Bible staff, Paley stated that he wanted visitors to be face to face with the crosier before they opened the gate and passed through it—a reference to John 10:9, when Jesus says, “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture” (NIV).

To the right of the crosier is the one element Paley said the bishop of Washington National Cathedral charged him with including in the gate’s design: a cruciform. In order to open the gate, one must engage directly with the cross, another intentional interaction thoughtfully crafted by Paley (see image below).

Figure 8: The 24k gold-plated brass nimbus, or halo, was designed in three consecutive circles that invoke the trinity.

Paley explained that the Washington National Cathedral is an example of neo-gothic architecture, which was inspired by light and openness, a diversion from the thick, heavy architectural elements of the Romanesque architectural period that preceded it. Although Paley employs a contemporary art style, he created a dialogue between his work and the cathedral’s architecture by including a symbol of light—a 24k gold-plated brass nimbus, or halo, above and to the right of the crosier. Its three-ring structure invokes the trinity. Paley was inspired to include the nimbus as a symbol of God’s light, and he placed it high on the gate where a visitor must look up at it to engage with it. This experience speaks to one of the gate’s key themes, calling to mind Jesus’s words in John 8:12 (NIV), “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”