Art: Place of Honor

During his long career Sculptor Jacob Epstein, 71, has occasionally tried his hand at religious subjects. To the orthodox, the results have usually seemed artistically outrageous, if not downright blasphemous. Epstein's phallephoric Adam was denounced as pornography; his Jacob and the Angel, billed as "the world's greatest shocker," went on tour in an artistic peepshow; G. K. Chesterton took one look at his square, squat Ecce Homo, then thundered at it as "one of the greatest insults to religion I've ever seen."

Last week, without fanfare or controversy, Epstein was about to place one of his religious works in a church. The work: an ungainly but powerful white stone figure of Lazarus. The church: the 14th century Gothic chapel at New College, Oxford. The deal was closed when New College Warden Alic Halford Smith, in Epstein's studio to sit for a portrait bust, admired the Lazarus, decided to buy it on the spot. No financial details were disclosed, except that a "substantial" check was sent to the artist. Back at Oxford, New College officials were so pleased that they planned to give the statue a place of honor among the trophies of 14th century College Founder William of Wykeham.