Appendices
THE HOLY TRINITY (Episcopal) New York, New York (now ST. ANN AND THE HOLY TRINITY)
1843-1847
Architect: Minard Lafevre (New York)
Stained Glass: William Jay and John Bolton
Minard Lafever's Episcopal church of the Holy Trinity, Brooklyn built between 1843 and 1847, is known equally for its architecture and its stained glass. In a clearly high-profile installation, both the windows and the architecture were developed as complementary components of the building. This pattern of intersection of decorative and structural elements as mutually enhancing reflects medieval attitudes towards building. The windows form, by any standards, a major post-medieval glazing program as well as being the first in America. William Jay and John Bolton, who both designed and fabricated the program of over fifty windows, were influenced by the early 16th-century program in King's College, Cambridge. The installation typifies the fluidity and interpenetration of period revival styles in the 19th century; a Northern Renaissance style decorates a late Gothic building.
The program at King's displays a typological theme, setting the Old Testament prototype against the New Testament event. In the church of the Holy Trinity, it is simplified to become several circles of narrative, the upper from the Old Testament, the middle level the New Testament, and the lowest, the aisle window with angels and the ancestors of Christ. The Gallery program begins on the right with the expulsion of Adam and Eve and ends with the story of the patriarch Jacob; crossing the nave, it begins with the Finding of Moses to end with book of Deuteronomy. The Life of Christ follows the same order around the church beginning with the Birth of Christ and ending with his appearance to his disciples at Emmaus. The aisle windows of the ancestors of Christ, however, begin at the entrance on the left and progress to end with Joseph, Mary, and Christ on the right
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CATHEDRAL OF THE HOLY CROSS (Roman Catholic) Boston Massachusetts
1867-1875
Architect: Patrick C. Keely (Brooklyn, New York)
Stained Glass: Thomas and John Morgan, New York with unidentified German Studio, John Terrence O'Duggin Studios, Boston
The most artistically and historically significant edifice in Catholic New England, the Cathedral of the Holy Cross contains the largest and earliest collection of stained glass in the region. The Cathedral was built by Patrick C. Keely, who is credited with over 600 churches during his career. Construction went on between 1868 and 1876; documentary evidence suggests that the chancel windows were in place by 1876 and the nave windows presumably were fabricated shortly afterwards. The building emulates English and French High Gothic forms, such as those of Notre-Dame of Paris or Salisbury, England, in its exterior. Its interior is much lighter, displaying Keely's knowledge of steel-supported construction methods faced with Gothic Revival details.
The windows were fabricated by the Thomas and John Morgan Studio of New York but contain glass probably made, at least in part, in Munich. Popular with the architect, the Morgan Studio advertised its founding as 1846, and is documented as the studio responsible for the 1851 renovation of in St. Paul's, Burlington, the Episcopal Cathedral of the Diocese of Vermont (lost in a fire in 1971). (New York Ecclesiologist 4 (1852), 194)
The windows of are constructed of both highly colored glass such as deep reds and greens and also of painted clear glass for faces and parts of robes. The figures also show the use of enamel paints applied with tiny strokes of the brush using used subtle hues of blue, purple, red and green, parallel to the work of a painter in oils. The enamel work is of very highly quality and although often used in Europe, highly unusual in the United States. In 1899 the Rev. William Byrne in his History of the Catholic Church in the New England States described the view of the interior as "among the rarest impressions which the city affords the visitor (with) rows of picture windows, half child-like, half divine, [that] delight the eye with ecstasies of translucent colors." (Byrne 1899, p. 112)
In the 1940s the architectural firm of Maginnis and Walsh of Boston began a renovation of the cathedral. The prevailing taste supported a rejection of the original Victorian polychromy of the architectural support, stenciled walls and the multi-hued images in the windows. The firm, as well as the clergy, had been deeply influenced by Second Gothic Revival writings about the purported uniformity of the style of the thirteenth century. The church was painted a uniform green, submerging architectural details in a single tone. The five chancel windows showing the life of Christ from Nativity to Resurrection were removed and non-figural lancets of dominantly blue were installed by the O'Duggin Studio. In order to blend extant decorative elements, the clerestory windows of the east wall of the transept, four major prophets with the four evangelists to the north and eight apostles to the south were coated with a blue paint that dampened their translucency. About the same time, two windows and a Second Gothic Revival style showing St. Fortunatus, and the Virgin were installed and the original glazing discarded.
The original program can be read as an exemplar for its type. The chancel windows displayed the great moments in Christ's life, the Annunciation, Nativity, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension. Above, in the clerestory on the north, appear the four Latin Doctors of the Church, and on the south the Apostles Peter and Paul and Andrew and James. The transepts display huge windows honoring the dedication of the cathedral to the Holy Cross. On the north is the Discovery of the Cross in the early 4th century by St. Helena, mother of Constantine, the first Christian Emperor. On the south is the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. It was believed that the relic had been stolen by the Persians when Jerusalem was conquered in the seventh century; the Christian Emperor Heraclius later reclaimed the relic. The scene in the window depicts Heraclius' return of the Holy Cross to the church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.
The aisle windows show a series of patron saints admired by the 19th-century Boston Catholic believers. Sts. Brigid and Patrick were dear to Irish immigrants. St. Vincent de Paul and St. Francis de Sales were renowned Renaissance clerics who founded movements to protect and educate the orphaned and impoverished. St. Agnes and St. Rose of Lima were held up as models of virtuous young womanhood. Most typical is the depiction of Christ as an infant in the midst of an extended family, loving, protective, and able to be emulated. In the Holy Family window appear the holy child's cousin, aunt (Elizabeth and John the Baptist) and mother and father in their home in Bethlehem.
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FIRST UNIVERSALIST CHURCH (Unitarian-Universalist), Providence Rhode Island
1870-1871
Architect: H. Hudson Holly
Stained Glass: Henry E. Sharp & Son.
The First Universalist Church is an excellent example of a coordinated program of glazing for a wealthy Protestant congregation around 1870 and the intersection of European imports with local manufacture. Figural windows are confined to the chancel, entrance, and transepts; non-figural glass is used in the aisles and clerestory. Due to a fortuitous settlement on a purchase price for their own church site, the congregation was in a position to build and embellish the entire church without resorting to specific donors or extraordinary fund-raising. The architect, H. Hudson Holly, although maneuvered out of direct involvement in the building, had obviously suggested a favored New York studio for the glazing program. Henry E. Sharp placed all of the windows very probably within a year, clearly living up to Holly's expectation of stained glass to bring a "spiritual" feeling to a building. The total cost of the building was $133,492.
The program shows generic similarities with other programs. Events in Christ's life are selected to emphasize his role as a model for human behavior. In the lancets over the altar, Christ is adored as an infant by shepherds, addressing the issue of his own humility and his mission to the lowly. The images of the Good Shepherd and Christ and the Children, (see same themes in Arlington Street Church, St. James the Less, and Stanford University Chapel) evoke a concept of Christ as protective and nurturing. The Crucifixion speaks of a depth of love that would extend to dying to save another. The Ascension above validates these exemplars by showing the glorified Christ, beyond history, approving these actions in time. Anchoring the central axis, are the four Evangelists over the choir, each with his symbol below. The rose in the north transept contains the Lamb of God in the center with symbols of Christ in the outer circle. In the transept opposite is St. Paul with symbols of the apostles, all standard visual signing for a 19th-century viewer.
NORTH ROSE
Center: Lamb of God with inscription AGNES DEI (sic); Stars of David in surround.
Peripheral medallions symbolic of Christ (clockwise):
Crown with Alpha and Omega (Christ the King from the beginning to the end of time)
Large star and seven smaller stars (Christ surrounded by the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit
Three dice and pieces of silver Instruments of Passion: [John 19: 24] "and for my vesture they cast lots")
Ladder, sponge, lance, tongs, hammer (Instruments of Christ's Passion)
Lion of Juda
Pillar with crossed scourges (Instruments of Christ's Passion)
Crown of Thorns and 3 nails (Instruments of Christ's Passion)
White banner with gold floriate cross
SOUTH ROSE
Center of rose: Conversion of St. Paul: thrown from his horse and transfixed by the light at Damascus.
Peripheral medallions representing the Apostles (clockwise):
Key Crossing a sword (Sts. Peter and Paul)
Purse and shell (St. James Major)
Saw crossing a club (Sts. Simon and Jude)
Spear crossing a tax box (Sts. Thomas and Matthew)
X shaped cross (St. Andrew)
Double Cross (St Philip)
Knife crossing a club (Sts. Bartholomew and James the Less)
Chalice with snake (St. John)
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CHURCH OF THE COLLEGE OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION (Roman Catholic/ Society of Jesus) New Orleans
1851-57
Architect: John Cambiaso, S.J.
Stained Glass: Eugène Hucher (begun 1878)
The Church of the Immaculate Conception displays a highly-site specific program typical of institutions with a self-conscious mission and focused constituency. After being a part of the evangelization of the Louisiana territory in the early 18th-century, the Jesuits had been expelled. The mission was reactivated towards the mid 19th century. A school was founded and in 1851, a new church building was begun. Both were dedicated to the Immaculate Conception (solemn confirmation of the Dogma as Catholic belief by the Pope in 1854). This belief acknowledged the Virgin Mary's exemption from the effects of original sin even at the moment of her conception.
The construction and installation of the glazing program of the church is typical of many Catholic buildings. A first campaign would see the completion of the structure itself. After retirement of debt, the campaign of glazing and altar embellishment would come twenty to thirty years later and involve the next generation of supporters. The windows were often installed in series, and although they could commemorate specific donors, were invariably commissioned by the clergy in a uniform style and coherent iconographic program. For the Church of the Immaculate Conception, open in 1857, the glazing only began in 1878. The first windows were the three double lancet windows in the chancel honoring the Virgin Mary. Between 1879 and 1880 twenty windows depicting the history of the Jesuits were installed in the aisles. In keeping with the French origins of the priests, the firm of choice was one known from the mother country: the French firm of Eugène Hucher of Le Mans, also known as Carmel du Mans.
The program is remarkably tied to Jesuit self-perception, the importance of the church as a chapel for a Jesuit school, and modes of piety generic to 19th- and early 20th-century Catholics. The windows above the altar honor the Virgin Mary, her Immaculate Conception as singularly free from the effects of Adam and Eve's original sin, and her role in the redemption of the human race.
A second series commemorates in explicit detail the history of the founding of the Society of Jesus in the 16th century and its subsequent role in Catholic missionary work.
Additional windows reflect important generic Catholic thinking. Around the baptismal font is placed an a statue of St. Joseph and a window depicting the death of Joseph in the presence of Jesus and Mary. This event is not mentioned in the Bible, but became a popular Catholic "icon" since the mid-19th century for depicts Joseph as model of a happy death, surrounded not only by his loved ones, but by God himself. Pius VII, 1814, authorized an Act of Consecration to St. Joseph. The short prayer ends: "And do thou, O Blessed Joseph, pray for me, that I may experience the peace and joy of thy holy death." In 1870 Pius IX instituted the feast of St. Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church, lending official recognition to the great surge of interest. The litany of St. Joseph, approved by Pius X in 1909, calls him "Patron of the dying." For a comprehensive overview of the devotion, see Roland Gauthier in Dictionnaire de Spiritualité, vol. 8 (Paris, 1974), cols. 1308-21. The devotions had developed from the Renaissance onward with the support of orders such as the Carmelites. In the mid 18th century Alphonsus de Ligouri already urged prayers to St. Joseph to ask for the gifts of pardon of sins, love of Christ, and a happy death. Louis XIII's encyclical Quamquam of 1889 speaks of Joseph as a model for the fathers of families, spouses, virgins, and especially, for workers since the saint has spent his life laboring with his hands to care for his family.
A similar highly popular 19th-century devotion is shown in a side altar honoring the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Both statue and stained glass window show Christ manifesting his heart suffering for humanity. One of the figures installed in the clerestory is St. Margaret Mary Alacoque who first received the vision of Christ's Sacred Heart. The chapel image, typical of this oft-reproduced scene, shows the 17th-century French nun kneeling as she looks up to see a vision of the standing Christ pointing to his Sacred Heart. Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a means of emphasizing for the faithful Christ's compassion for humanity, continues a tradition from medieval times. Margaret Mary Alocaque's description of her vision provided the devotion with its codified form. The Feast and its special liturgy on the Friday following the octave of the feast of Corpus Christi was approved by Clement XIII in 1765 and in 1856 Pius IX made it a universal feast of the Catholic Church. For the popularity of the devotion in the late 19th century see Taves [1986] 1990, pp. 34-5, 110.
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TRINITY CHURCH (Episcopal) Boston Massachusetts
1872-77
Architect: Henry Hobson Richardson (Boston)
Stained Glass: Samuel West, Clayton & Bell, Eugène Oudinot, Cottier & Co., Henry Holiday and Powell & Sons, Burlison & Grylls, William Morris & Co., John La Farge, Heaton, Butler & Bayne, Margaret Redmond, Charles Elliott Mills and Ford & Brooks, Sarah Wyman Whitman, Francis Lathrop, John Hardman & Co, Frederick Crowninshield
Trinity Church, Boston, exemplifies many issues related to church construction in the 1870s in a sophisticated urban setting among a Protestant elite. The parish, under the leadership of Phillips Brooks, Trinity's rector, attracted major figures in the Boston area. Both Phillips Brooks and Martin Brimmer, founding director of the Museum of Fine Arts and prominent member of the parish, were both graduated from Harvard College as were many members of Trinity's congregation. When the first windows were commissioned and installed in 1877-1878, it was obvious to the patrons that no American studio could compete in quality with studios from France and England in the manufacture of both technically and artistically accomplished work. The history of these commissions attests to the independence as well as the aesthetic self-consciousness of the donors. Despite the general admonition of the Window Committee to achieve a unified interior, the glass is highly individualized, with commissions from a variety of firms, but always one of high repute. The commissions often appear to have resulted from the visit of the donor to the studio itself. [See discussion in Chapter 4.]
c. 1877 Samuel West Stained Glass Works, Boston
Miscellaneous ornamental glazing. These windows were probably produced in collaboration with Donald MacDonald of Boston.
1877 Tower Lantern: Twelve translucent quarry windows
John La Farge, New York
Fabricated by Samuel West Stained Glassworks, Boston
Chancel: Clayton & Bell London, England (1877-78)
The Nativity (Rev. William Walter Memorial)
Jesus in the Temple with the Doctors (Rev. Alexander Viets Griswold Memorial)
The Baptism (Rev. Samuel Parker Memorial)
The Exhortation at the Feast of the Tabernacles - The Preacher (Rev. Manton Eastburn Memorial)
The Last Supper (Rev. John Sylvester Gardiner Memorial)
The Resurrection (Rev. Theodore Dehon Memorial)
The Commission to the Apostles (Rev. Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright Memorial)
South Transept, Upper level: Eugène Oudinot Paris, France (1877-78)
The Resurrection (Borlands and Lloyd family Memorial)
The Ascension (Sophia Harrison Ritchie Memorial)
The Day of Pentecost (William Appleton Burnham Memorial)
South Transept, Lower level: Cottier and Co., London, England (1877-78)
The Sower and the Reaper (Alexander Cochrane Memorial)
The Five Wise Virgins (Abbey Matilda Loring Memorial)
The Angel Troubling the Pool (Charlotte Troup Winthrop Memorial)
The Storm on the Lake (John Fenno Memorial)
North Transept, Lower level, Burlison & Grylls London, England.
Job and St. Stephen - Patience and Fortitude (Deblois family Memorial)
Abraham and Eunice - Faith (Charles Hook Appleton & Isabella Bowdoin Appleton Memorial)
Two Angels - Hope (Thomas Lindall Winthrop & Elizabeth Bowdoin Temple Memorial)
The Good Samaritan and Dorcas - Charity (Thomas Coffin Amory and Hannah Rowe Linzee Amory Memorial)
North Nave, Upper level, Henry Holiday London, England
Fabricated by James Powell & Son, London, England
Three Scenes from the Life of St. Paul (Rev. Frederick Brooks Memorial)
Jesus Blessing Little Children (Robert Treat Paine Memorial)
South Nave, Upper level, (1877-78) Henry Holiday London, England
Clayton & Bell. London, England
David's Removal of the Ark to Jerusalem (James Madison Beebe Memorial)
The Transfiguration (Jane Gould Peters Memorial)
South Transept, Lower level: (1880) William Morris & Co.
London England, Edward Burne-Jones, designer
The Wonder of the Shepherds (Martin Brimmer Memorial)
The Visit of the Magi (Chickering family Memorial)
The Journey into Egypt (Stephen Van Rensselaer Thayer Memorial)
1882 William Morris & Co. London, England
Edward Burne-Jones, designer
David Instructing Solomon for the Building of the Temple, (George Minot Dexter Memorial.)
1883 Burlison & Grylls London, England
Ephephtha - Be Opened! (Gift of Phillips Brooks to the parish.)
In 1883 the first window of opalescent design was installed. John La Farge, always in close communication with the rector (they visited Italy and Giotto's fresco cycle in the Area Chapel in Padua together) was commissioned and influenced by Phillips Brooks in the design of Christ Preaching of the west wall, installed in 1883. La Farge followed this installation in 1884 with the Vision of St John the Evangelist of the New Jerusalem, in 1885 with the Parable of the Wise Virgin - Purity for the Parish House, in 1888 with the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, and in 1902 with the Resurrection. The pattern of commission demonstrates the attraction of the American opalescent style, and the favor shown to La Farge by patrons at Trinity.
1884 John La Farge New York
IEPOSOLYMA - The Vision of St. John the Evangelist of the New Jerusalem (George Nixon Black & Marianne Black Memorial)
1888 John La Farge New York
Presentation of Mary at the Temple (After Titian Appleton-McKim Memorial)
1902 John La Farge New York
The Resurrection (Mary Love Boott Welch Memorial)
1920 Heaton, Butler & Bayne London, England
St. Luke as the Evangelist (James Sullivan Amory Memorial)
In the 20th century, however, taste had changed again. A Second Gothic Revival is attested to by the windows by Margaret Redmond of Boston installed in 1927 in the nave aisles and the narthex stairwell. The stairwell window depicts events from the life of Solomon and David, including the episode of the Queen of Sheba. Two years later Redmond installed The River of Life in the Parish House.
c. 1927 Margaret Redmond Boston
Apostles: St. James son of Zebedee; St. Thaddeus; Simon the Canaanite; Simon Barnabas (Charles T. Lovering Memorial)
Apostles: St. James; St. Matthias; St. Thomas; St. Bartholomew (Charles T. Lovering Memorial)
The Angels Speaking to the Gospel-writers: St. John and St. Mark (Charles T. Lovering Memorial)
The Angels Speaking to the Gospel-writers: St. James and St. Thomas (Charles T. Lovering Memorial)
The Queen of Sheba before King Solomon; God
King Solomon and Saul Annointeth David; David Plays Before Saul (Helen Eugenia Cary Memorial
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MEMORIAL HALL, HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Cambridge Massachusetts
Architects: Ware and Van Brunt (Boston)
1870-1874
Stained Glass: Donald MacDonald and W. J. McPherson & Co., Henry Holiday with Powell & Sons, Cottier & Co., John La Farge, Charles Elliott Mills with Ford & Brooks, Sarah Wyman Whitman, Frederick Crowninshield, Edward Peck Sperry with the Church Glass and Decorating Co., Francis D. Millet with the Tiffany Studios, Charles Eastman with W. J. McPherson & Co., Ernest E. Simmons with the Tiffany Studios.
Harvard's program demonstrates the process of secular and corporate patronage. When the building was finished, large generic windows were installed by the Boston firm of MacDonald and McPherson. These includes the present north transept or "Virtues" window, its lost companion (the original north transept window), and the multi-lancet west window of the Hall with the shields of the United States, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and Harvard.
The architects had furnished a model sketch for the figural windows to be donated by classes in the Hall. In 1874 John La Farge, well known by the architects and by many Harvard graduates, began work on The Chevalier Bayard and Columbus and Epaminindas and Sir Philip Sidney. The complexity of the work envisioned by La Farge for The Chevalier Bayard would have raised its price to over twice the amount raised by subscriptions. [See Harvard University Archives, HUD 244 505]. Ware and Van Brunt's model sketch was subsequently shown to the English artist, Henry Holiday then designing for Powell & Sons, London. Holiday produced Dante and Chaucer, installed in 1879. The class of 1857 turned to a studio well known for its interior work at Trinity Church, Cottier and Sons, who furnished a window on the Epaminondas/ Sidney theme in 1879. Holiday with Powell & Sons produced the window of Columbus and Admiral Blake in 1880 and Cottier John Hampden and Leonidas in 1882.
But taste changed. The development of the opalescent window is linked to the commissioning of Harvard's glass [See discussion in Chapter 4]. In 1882, La Farge's first monumental opalescent window, the Battle Window, was produced under La Farge's control and was installed at the Hall. La Farge had received the commission in 1878 and produced a number of preliminary sketches. A single lancet a much simpler technique and glass selection appears to have been installed just before commencement in 1880. In 1881 La Farge removed the window and augmented the design in the opalescent technique with extensive plating and glass varieties that he had described in his patent of 1880. The reworked window was on view at La Farge's New York studio during April and June 1882 and reinstalled in the Hall shortly afterwards. In 1882 he incorporated as the La Farge Decorative Art Co., and in 1883 produced Homer and Virgil. These commissions, coupled with the west window of Christ Preaching in Trinity Church secured La Farge's confidence in the new style and was well received in contemporary reviews. [Newport Daily News, June 5, 1882, p. 2]
The Boston Evening Transcript of July 5, 1883 commented on the Hall's windows those in the Mason Memorial Church. The critic had measured praise for the artist and addressed specifically his ability to evoke different moods according to the subject matter of heroic, classic, or tender. The article also suggests that La Farge derived pleasure from working for a public installations, and issue that remains relatively unexplored in the light of recent scholarly emphasis on establishing La Farge's modernist roots. The interviewer recorded the artist saying "I like better to work for the masses than for individuals," to which he replied, "It must be more inspiring to feel that one's creations are to be seen and judged by thousands of those who understand or misunderstand them, than to know they are to adorn the most luxurious dwellings of the individual." In 1891 La Farge installed the window of Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi for the class of 1859, and about 1899-1900 Athena Decorating a Funerary Column in Sanders Theater commemorating Cornelius Conway Felton (1807-1862) Professor of Greek and President of Harvard College 1860-1862. These two windows were fabricated by The Decorative Stained Glass Co, established by two of La Farge's assistants, John Calvin and Thomas Wright after the dissolution of the La Farge Decorative Art Co. in 1885. The funds for the window were given by Mary S. Felton, in memory of her father.
Yet many windows subsequent to the installation of the Battle Window were designed and fabricated by other firms, and testify to the ability of the donor to determine theme and form. Invariably the artist or studio, as in the example of La Farge, had a personal link to Harvard. This pattern paralleled that of Trinity Church, Boston, where by 1879 viewers could see six different studios' work in widely different styles. Memorial Hall also demonstrates the separate issues of design and fabrication of a window, operative in all productions from the most generic to the most individualized or artistically significant works of the era. Even when an artist such as La Farge, Whitman, or
Crowninshield worked with a single and/or proprietary studio, other hands actually set the design "in glass."
Edward Emerson Simmons (1852-1931) worked with Tiffany Studios. Simmons, a painter of some repute in his time, was a member of Harvard's class of 1874, the donors of the window. The window committee for the class wrote to him in Paris in 1890 to ask his services for the design of Themistocles and Aristeides, by all criteria a highly successful work in stained glass. The window's cost are recorded as to Simmons $1,000, to Tiffany Studios (then known as the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Co.) $1,500, and to Ware and Van Brunt, architects, $250. The payment to the architects, who had to approve the designs, was a standard item cost for all of the windows. The window, which displays some of the most sensitive uses of drapery glass and of face painting in the Hall, was installed by Commencement Day 1892.
Charles E. Mills (1856-1956) worked with Ford & Brooks. Mills lived in Dedham, Massachusetts but probably had a studio in Boston. In 1893 the class of 1875 decided upon the Boston studio of Ford & Brooks for a window depicting La Salle and Marquette. This selection was undoubtedly influenced by the association of Francis S. Sturgis, a member of the class, with Ford & Brooks. Mills, an artist who had studied abroad with the American Frank Duvenek and others, and was known for his portraits, landscapes, and murals. The commission took two years and cost $3,251.52. The window was in place shortly before Commencement of 1895.
Sarah Wyman Whitman (1842-1904) was a prominent Boston personality. She was an honored member of Trinity Church, one of the founding members of Radcliffe College and member of its building committee, and close friend of Martin Brimmer. Brimmer asked her to design and produce the great transept window of the Chevalier Bayard and Sir Philip Sidney in 1894. At Brimmer's death two year's later, the window became Brimmer's memorial as well. In 1896, while the Brimmer window was in progress, Whitman was engaged by the class of 1865 for a window in the Hall on the theme of Honor and Peace. The window was installed in 1900 and apparently cost the class $3,070, the amount recorded as raised by subscription..
Edward Peck Sperry (+ around 1914?) worked with the Church Glass and Decorating Co. Sperry was originally from New Haven, Connecticut and joined the design department of Tiffany Studios around 1890. He designed windows independent of Tiffany, however, and it is not exactly clear to what extend his independent work overlapped the period of his employment by Tiffany. The class of 1855 engaged Sperry to design the window of Bernard and Godfrey, is clearly dated 1901, designed by Sperry and fabricated by the Church Glass and Decorating Co. The cost was $2,735. Sperry was listed as chief designer for Gorham & Co. in 1904. The issue of a class window was precipitated by the deaths of classmates Phillips Brooks in 1893 and Major General Francis Barlow in 1896. The class secretary Edwin H. Abbott appears to have instigated the project in 1896, suggesting that the window should commemorate the greatest preacher and greatest soldier graduated from the University. They are presented under the historic guise of Bernard of Clairvaux, preacher of the Second Crusade and Godfroid de Bouillon military leader of the First Crusade.
Frederic Crowninshield (1845-1918) designed two windows fabricated by MacDonald and McPherson and later one from his own studio. Crowninshield was graduated from Harvard in 1845, studied abroad, and then opened a Boston studio. He executed three windows in the Hall, Pericles and Leonardo in 1883 for $2,350, Sophocles and Shakespeare in 1883 for $2,000, and Hector and Andromache in 1888 for $3,500, the later fabricated by his newly opened studio in New York. The prices appear to reflect the intricacy of the window, indicating that artists could scale their work up or down to meet the restrictions of their clients. The window of Pericles and Leonardo is a typical opalescent production with several layers of plating, and intricate elaboration of the iconography in inscriptions and image. The window of Sophocles and Shakespeare is handled more simply, especially the drawing of the painted areas of the figures. Hector and Andromache with its enamel painting in the definition of the figures and complex cuts in the palmette designs at top and bottom of the window is the artist's tour-de-force in glass.
Charles Eastman worked with MacDonald and McPherson. Biographical information is missing Eastman, but the window of Charlemagne and Thomas More installed in 1888 appears to have heavily determined by Marshall Cutler a member of the class of 1877 which gave the window. Cutler offered to advance the sum needed for the window, with the expectation of reimbursement, but wished to be allowed the privilege of choosing the design and supervising the work. Given the very pragmatic and illustrative nature of the window it is highly probably that Eastman served as a designer by essentially taking Cutler's ideas of the image of Charlemagne and More and developing them into a full size cartoon for MacDonald and McPherson. Significantly this window is one of the most damaged over time. Both heads showed such extreme paint loss that new heads were painted during the restoration of 1986-91. The image of More is based on the well-known painting by Hans Holbein (now in the Frick Collection, New York)
Francis Davis Millet (1846-1912) worked with Tiffany Studios. Millet received a Masters degree in Romance Languages and Literature from Harvard in 1869. Well known by John La Farge, he worked with the artist on the mural decoration of Trinity Church. He enjoyed a distinguished career in mural and glass decoration, and became executive officer of the American Academy in Rome in 1912 only to die in the sinking of the Titanic the same year. In 1889 he designed two windows, Student and Soldier and Warren and Eliot both fabricated by the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company. The 1892 Report of the Class of 1861 states that the window fund had raised $3,897.00, very possibly the explanation for permitting the cost of the Student and Soldier to rise to $3,246.39, while the window of Warren and Eliot for the Class of 1878 was priced at $2,695.35.
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ARLINGTON STREET CHURCH (Unitarian) Boston Massachusetts | View Floor Plan
1859-1861
Architect: Arthur D. Gilman (Boston)
Stained Glass: Tiffany Glass and Decorating Co., Reynolds Francis & Rohnstock
Arlington Street church is recognized both for its distinguished architectural design and its complement of stained glass by the Tiffany studios. The windows were planned forty years after the construction of the building and follow a plan, adopted by the congregation in 1898 and supervised over thirty years by Edwin S. George and Louis C. Tiffany. Frederick Wilson was the chief designer of the cartoons. The program is quite coherent, on the balcony level windows portraying the Beatitudes and at aisle level a series of scenes from the Life of Christ or biblical allegories. The themes stressed are those of family, reconciliation, and moral rectitude. As each stained glass window was installed, the last window in 1930, it replaced an original clear plate glass window.
The Madonna of the Flowers, designed by Frederick Wilson and copyrighted in 1899 was the first to be installed. It represents a full-length female figure holding a small child close to her face and standing amidst the branches of a flowering tree. She is flanked by handmaidens who gracefully draw back the flowering branches and peer out from behind. The overall effect is suggestive of the Virgin and the Infant Jesus. Without the trappings of dogma, however, Wilson's design appeals to the sensibilities of a Unitarian congregation as a simple allegory of maternal love, human virtue and the beauties of nature, consonant with the inscription: "In Memoriam Sarah C. Guild, October 27, 1831 - September 15, 1898. None knew her but to love her, none named her but to praise her. "
There are strong programmatic as well as visual links between the aisle and the balcony windows. In the center of the lower series is the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-12), the source of the Beatitudes. Frederick Wilson had furnished designs for all ten windows at the upper level, but four windows were never completed. His images transcend confessional boundaries. In Blessed Are the Peacemakers, the central figure lifts her hand upward to receive a dove and the two young angels join their hands around her. The angel in Blessed are the Merciful breaks a sword while the two young figures huddle against her for comfort. The extraordinary grace of the robed women might recall goddesses, muses, angels, or simply female beauty depending on the receptivity of the viewer. Although connected to a Christian "text" the images do not remain fixed into a single reading. Christ and the Little Children (Matt. 19:13-15) might be any meeting between a man and several lovely children ushered in by their mother. The Parable of the Good Shepherd is similarly multivalent. In the biblical text (John 10: 1-18), Christ compares Himself to a shepherd: "I lay down my life for my sheep." The viewer may or may not make this association. The scene is comprehensible and quite moving on simply the level of a man at rest, guarding a flock, and contemplating the natural beauty of a tranquil landscape.
Arlington Street Church, like Trinity Church, shows the shift from the taste for opalescent windows to those in a Second Gothic Revival styles in the second decade of the 20th century. In 1923 and 1927 two windows were installed in the Sunday School Room (now the Hunnewell Chapel) designed and fabricated by the Boston studio of Reynolds, Francis & Rohnstock. Significantly, they continue programmatic themes of the church. The image of Christ Blessing the Children is repeated. St. Francis represents reconciliation among all of God's creatures, even to his preaching to the animals.
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ST. STANISLAUS KOSTKA CHURCH (Roman Catholic: Polish Speaking) Chicago | View Floor Plan
1875-1881
Architect: Patrick C. Keely (Brooklyn, New York)
Stained Glass: The Tyrolese Art Glass Company (Tiroler Glasmalerei Anstalt or TGA), and F. X. Zettler (signed Royal Bavarian Stained Glass Art Institute Bavaria Art Glass Studios, Mpls., Minn.) There are no records that his company actually operated from Minneapolis; it was rather a legal name through which both F.X. Zettler and TGA marketed work in the United States)
A lapse of almost a generation separates the building of St. Stanislaus Kostka and the installation of a figural glazing program; the church was begun in 1875, but its windows were installed between 1903 and 1905. The program is highly unified as each window contains a similar frame surrounding an image of one of the fifteen mysteries of the rosary. The rosary is a recitation of prayers aided by the use of a string of beads placed as designated intervals. As the faithful recited a series of prayers such as the ten Hail Marys while fingering ten beads in a row, they were instructed to meditate on one of the subjects called either the Joyful, Sorrowful, or Glorious Mysteries taken from the Life of Christ and the Virgin Mary. The Joyful Mysteries are The Annunciation of the Angel Gabriel to Mary, The Visitation of Mary and Elizabeth (mother of John the Baptist), Nativity, Presentation of the Infant Jesus in the Temple, and the Finding of the Boy Jesus in the Temple. The Sorrowful Mysteries are the Agony in the Garden, Christ Scourged, Christ Crowned with Thorns, Christ Carrying the Cross, and the Crucifixion and death of Christ. The Glorious Mysteries are the Resurrection, Christ's Ascension into Heaven, the Descent of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost), Assumption of Mary into Heaven, and the Coronation of the Virgin as Queen of Heaven.
The use of beads to aid in prayer has a long and complex development but popular 19th-century tradition associated the rosary to a 13th-century revelation granted to St. Dominic by the Virgin, and the saint is often depicted with a rosary beads as his attribute. The modern practice of the 15 decades is, however, current only from the late 15th century. See Anne Winsten-Allen, Stories of the Rose: The Making of the Rosary in the Middle Ages (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997. For some indication of the popularity of the rosary in the America in the 19th century see Taves [1986] 1990, pp. 96-97. The window dedications are in Polish, as are the short description under each scene identifying the subject of the Mystery. The lavish Renaissance-style floral frame reflects the Renaissance style of the church. The three-dimensional realism of the scenes find their parallel in the interior paintings showing episodes of the life of St Stanislaus Kostka and the assembled blessed in heaven, and the painted stations of the cross in wooden frames patterned after Renaissance architectural forms.
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ST. PAUL'S CHURCH (Roman Catholic: German Speaking) Chicago
1897-1900
Architect: Henry A Schlacks (Chicago)
Stained Glass: F. X. Zettler
St. Paul was founded in 1876 to serve an enclave of forty German families. The embellishment of the interior was executed over some time but the window appear to be conceived as integral to the impact of the building. The apse windows were completed in 1897, and the rest of the windows executed in 1902. In the center of the apse, the windows of the risen Christ is flanked on the left by one of St. Peter, and on the right, an image of St. Paul, a traditional grouping depicting the authority of the church common since Early Christian times. To the left appear St. George and St. Agnes, and to the right St. Boniface, the first apostle to the Germans, and St. Elizabeth, the royal saint of Hungary (later Thuringia), whose remains were transferred to Marburg where a church was erected in her honor, and where she came to be honored as a healing saint and patron of the Teutonic Knights. George was a great saint of warriors and Agnes a heroic Early Christian martyr of unshakable virtue.
The transepts contain scenes from the life of Christ popular in the 19th century. On the left appear the Adoration of the Shepherds, the Boy Jesus preaching in the Temple, and the Marriage at Cana and on the opposite wall starting from the altar, Christ Preaching to a Crowd, the Agony in the Garden, and the Resurrection. In the lower areas appear circular grisaille windows each with a central medallion depicting a title from the Litany of the Virgin in Latin, a prayer associated with devotion to the Virgin at her shrine in Loreto, Italy, approved by Pope Sixtus V in 1587. Beginning on the north is House of Gold, Tower of David, and Tower of Ivory, and on the south, Vessel of Honor (showing a host in a monstrance), Singular Vessel of Devotion (showing a chalice and host), and Mystical Rose. Six nave windows recount the story of the church's patron, including the Conversion of Paul, Paul preaching in Athens, Paul before a Roman magistrate, Peter and Paul meeting in Rome, Paul praying in prison and finally, his xecution by the sword.
The narthex and lower openings of the church are furnished with windows showing symbols set within colored and grisaille glass. For example, over the entrance door appear three rings intertwined and inscribed with the words Pater, Filius, Spiritus Sanctus (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), the Christian Trinity. At either side are the alpha and omega, the letters at the beginning and the end of the Greek alphabet, used as a sign of God's eternity since Early Christian times. The lower windows often refer to the upper panels. In the apse, under the window of St. Peter, the window contains tables of the Ten Commandments with number I-III inscribed, those that command honor and obedience to God. Opposite, under St. Paul, are represented the remaining seven, those directing justice among human beings. The medallions above the transept window show symbols and also inscribe the biblical source of the image: In the window above Christ Preaching are references to Luke 8:4, Mark 4:4, Matt. 13: 1-3, Christ lecturing the people in parables. Above the window of the Resurrection is the Phoenix, who rises up reborn from its own ashes, a symbol of Christ who rises from the dead. Above the Execution of Paul is an angel with the crown of eternal life and the palm martyrdom.
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ST. VINCENT DE PAUL CHURCH (Roman Catholic: English Speaking) Chicago | View Floor Plan
1895-1897
Architect: James J. Egan (Chicago)
Stained Glass: Major windows by Franz Mayer. Tyrolese Art Glass Company (Tiroler Glasmalerei Anstalt or TGA)
Typical of Catholic programs, and as seen at St. Paul's, the windows depict the life of Christ, that of the dedicatory saint of the foundation, and saints of specific interest to the congregation. The great rose of the south transept shows Christ enthroned and surrounded by angels playing musical instruments and singing praises. Below, the lancets contain the stories of early saints of the church, St. Peter, the first pope, St. Stephen, the first martyr, and St. Paul, the converted pagan who became Christianity's first great preaching voice. Facing this glorification of the early church is the glorification of the later works of Christ's ministry as accomplished through his priest, St. Vincent de Paul.
Vincent de Paul was the 17th-century founder of the Congregation of the Mission, commonly known as Vincentians, and the Daughters of Charity, renowned as hospital nurses. Both foundations were conceived to remedy the lack of religious direction for the laity and to provide for the corporal needs of the poor. In the center of the rose Vincent is lifted up by angels to enter into divine light. In the lancet below, his life and works are depicted; preaching to the poor, ministering to galley slaves at sea, preaching in the countryside, ministering to the sick, and curing believers visiting his tomb.
Equally specific are the lower windows, added later, 1900-1901. Near the altar, on the left, are Blessed John Gabriel Perboyre (a Vincentian martyred in China) and St. Brigid. On the right are St. Francis Regis Clet (also a Vincentian martyred in China) and St. Patrick. The lower area of the transept shows the same dialogue, on the left the archangel Raphael, St. Helena, and St. Anne, on the right, the archangel Michael, St. John the Evangelist, and Christ appearing over the basilica of St. Peter's in Rome.
By contrast, the apse windows are generic subjects typical of most Catholic chancel programs, a cycle of Christ's Life in a chronological order. The Annunciation and Nativity appear on the left, the Crucifixion in the center above the altar, and events subsequent to Christ's death, his Resurrection and Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, on the right.
The windows of the nave are complex, detailed, and appropriately very close to the viewer. The subject matter continues the themes of Vincentian dedication to a teaching and humanitarian mission. On the left, as seen from the entrance, is the Marriage at Cana, Transfiguration, and Last Supper, images of Christ's responsive love for his followers. The extensive biblical inscriptions support this interpretation: Miracle at Cana: "There was a marriage in Cana of Galilee. The Mother of Jesus saith to Him, they have no wine. And to the waiters whatsoever He shall say to you do ye. John 2: 1, 3, 5. Transfiguration: "He was transformed before them. There appeared to them Moses and Elias talking with Him. And lo, a voice out of the cloud saying this is my beloved Son, hear ye Him. Matt. 17: 2-3, 5. Last Supper: Whilst they were at supper Jesus took bread & blessed & broke & gave to his disciples & said take ye and eat, this is my body & taking the chalice He gave thanks & gave to them saying this is my blood. Do this in commemoration of me. Mark 14, Luke 22, 1 Cor. 11.
Imagery on the right stresses the value and the authority of teaching. First, the Boy Jesus Preaching in the Temple is inscribed "They found him in the temple. I must be about my father's work. He went with them and came to Nazareth and was subject to them." Luke 2: 46, 49, 57." Next, Christ Gives the Keys to Peter with the inscriptions "Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church. I will give thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Matt. 16: 18-9. Feed my lambs, Feed my sheep John 21: 16-7." A medieval French church set on an outcropping rises behind the figure of Christ in this window. Far from being an historical anachronism, the image explicates for the viewer the meaning of Christ's words. The rock is the authority of the church itself, prolonged through time, not simply the person of Peter. Finally, bringing authority into the future, is Christ's Mission to the Apostles, inscribed, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose since you shall forgive they are forgiven them. John 20: 22-3. Going therefore teach ye all nations & behold I am with you all days. Matt. 33: 19. He that heareth you heareth me, Luke 10: 16."
The teaching mission was an aspect of Vincentian self-reflection present even before the construction of the present church, a mission which eventually culminated in the establishment of a university. The smaller building that preceded the present church housed a school on the first floor and a church on the second. This structure served as the first home of St. Vincent College, founded in 1898. In 1907 the college was granted the status of an institution of higher learning and renamed De Paul University. At this juncture, the pastor of St. Vincent de Paul, Fr. Peter V. Byrne, served as university president and also as religious superior of the Vincentian Fathers in Chicago. This fusion of the posts of pastor and academic president lasted until 1930.
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MEMORIAL CHURCH, STANFORD UNIVERSITY Stanford, Palo Alto, California | View Floor Plans
1900-1903
Architects: Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge (Boston) then Clinton Day (San Francisco)
Stained Glass: The J & R Lamb Studios
Memorial Church at Stanford exhibits unusual technical quality, significant monetary investment, and at the same time extremely common image types; therein lies its signal importance. By all measures, the building was a commission for a deep-pocket client. Jane Stanford constructed the church as a memorial for her husband in the same way that the University itself had been a memorial for their adolescent son. She exerted a close control over the placement, design, and decoration of the building. The church was deliberately placed at the very center of campus and the function designated as uncompromisingly non-sectarian. The building was designed to be a place of inspiration for all students and the Christian and Old Testament imagery articulated a generic models for ethical human behavior. Both Leland and Jane Stanford were public about their belief that Christ's Sermon on the Mount constitutes the grounds for moral action and even personal success in life.
The iconographic program is clearly reflective of Jane Stanford's influence. Invariable, women are prominent characters in the dramas selected and themes of family and good works abound. In the upper levels male and female Old and New Testament figures are deliberately paired. On the nave, Mary is greeted by Gabriel, Joseph leads Mary and the child into Egypt, and the Holy Family are engaged in work in Bethlehem. In the west transept the theme is Christ's care for humanity, with special emphasis on food and nurturing. He multiplies loaves to feed the multitude, forgives Mary Magdalene her sins, and he appears as the Good Shepherd, holding a sheep. He visits the home of Mary and Martha, speaking of Mary's devotion while Martha worries about hospitality. Finally, in a most human moment he prays the suffering he foresees for his death be withdrawn. Of the many healing miracles, the one selected is the Raising of the daughter of Jairus. In the nave, a woman, Pilate's wife, receives the heavenly premonition. She, not her husband understands the consequence of Pilate's acquiescence to an injustice. The revelation of Christ's resurrection first comes to three women, then to the Apostles.
The stained glass is based on 19th-century publications of collections of religious images. The subjects windows include the Annunciation by Frederick James Shields, Flight into Egypt by Bernhard Plockhorst, Home in Nazareth, The Sermon on the Mount, Raising of the Daughter of Jairus, Christ and the Adulterous Woman, Christ with Mary and Martha, and Christ in Gethsemane by John Heinrich Hofmann, Boy Jesus in the Temple by William Holman Hunt; Baptism of Christ and Dream of Pilate's Wife by Gustave Doré; Christ Stilling the Tempest by Anton Dietrich, Nativity by Edward A. Fellows-Prynne, Crucifixion by Ernst Deger, Ascension by Carlotti, Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes by Bartolome Esteban Murillo, Good Shepherd by Sibyl C. Parker, Holy Women at the Tomb by Axel Hjalmar Ender, and They Shall See His Face (or Low, I am with you always) by Antonio Paoletti, designer of the church's mosaics.
Frederic Farrar's Story of a Beautiful Life Illustrated may have provided many of the sources of imagery to Lamb and Jane Stanford. Lamb received the commission in November 1899 and Farrar's book was published in 1900. Almost all of the artists whose works serve as a basis for the windows are included. Deger and Dietrich are represented by other works of art, but one finds Doré's Dream of Pilate's Wife, (although not his Baptism), all six of Hofmann's paintings, as well as the designated works by Corletti, Murillo, Plockhorst, and Parker. A similar book of 1900 Henry Turner Bailey (Boston: W. A. Wilde Company) was titled The Great Painters' Gospel, followed by the explanation: pictures representing scenes and incidents in the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ with scriptural quotations, references and suggestions for comparative study. Another scanned version is now available.
Very similar to Farrar's collection, and apparently also well used by many stained glass studios is The Light of the World or Our Savior in Art. A Book without Words-Every Picture a Sermon, images without text published by The Society of Sacred Arts (London, 1898) reissued by the British-American Company (London, New York, etc., 1899. Its includes Doré's Dream of Pilate's Wife, which under Lamb's restructuring became a highly successful concept in opalescent glass, as well as Plockhorst's Flight into Egypt and Raising of the Daughter of Jairus, Hofmann's Christ in Gethsemane, and Parker's Good Shepherd. Not to be overlooked in this context were suppliers of religious and popular imagery, such as Perry Pictures, Inc. of Boston. Founded in 1897, the firm distributed low-priced half-tone reproductions of works of art, targeting its distribution to the average citizen. It also published monthly the Perry Magazine, promoting the use of such images (Weis 1991, pp. 204-5).
Here the core issue is not the recourse to established imagery by glass painters, but the expectation that public art needed to to communicate through receive imagery that embodied a tradition of belief. A measure of how important the ideas were is revealed by comparison with others installations at the time. The program of Calvary Presbyterian church of San Francisco may stand as an exemplar for dozens of other installations in the northern California area, and hundreds, if not thousands across the United States. Calvary Presbyterian's installed, possibly about 1895, a series of windows in opalescent glass all after popular prints. The building was dismantled about 1900 and reconstructed at its present location at Fillmore and Jackson for a dedication date of 1904. The upper windows read: (stairwell) St. Michael Defeating Satan after Raphael; (left wall) Nativity (or Holy Night) after Carl Müller, Boy Jesus in the Temple after Heinrich Hofmann, Easter Morning (or Three Mary's at the Tomb) after Bernhard Plockhorst, Christ and the Soul (artist?), Good Shepherd after Bernhard Plockhorst, and Ascension, after Corletti (this last window appears to be a later copy of an original in the program); (back of church) Mary and Martha, Christ Praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, and Christ and the Samaritan Woman all after Heinrich Hofmann; (right wall) Christ and the Rich Young Man after Heinrich Hofmann, Christ Knocking at the Door after Heinrich Hofmann, the Road to Emmaus after Bernhard Plockhorst, Christ Blessing the Children after Bernhard Plockhorst, and Christ among the Lilies.
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VASSAR COLLEGE CHAPEL, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York | View Floor Plans
1900-1904
Architects: Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge (Boston)
Stained Glass: John La Farge, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Robert Leftwich Dodge
Similar to the experience of Harvard University, Vassar patronized architects and artists of national prominence. The firm was Shepley, Rutan, & Coolidge of Boston, the inheritors of H. H. Richardson. The same firm was engaged by Jane Stanford to design the chapel of Stanford University. The similarity of plans among Trinity Church Boston, and Stanford University's Memorial Chapel and Vassar College's Chapel, is understandable. The presence of high profile designers, including highly complex, plated opalescent windows is similar in all three sites.
On the right side of the nave are windows designed by John La Farge and fabricated by Thomas Wright in 1905. The three double-lancet windows show single figures in classical robes of warm colors against a blue background. In each group female figures (or androgynous angelic one) engage in dialogue. The first was given by Mrs. Edgar J. Bowen in memory of her daughter Miss Mary E. Bowen class of 1887. The inscription reads "Be thou faithful unto Death, and I will give thee the crown of life" (Rev. 2:10), below the figure of a woman confronting a hovering angel. The class of 1890 gave the second that includes an image of the constellation Orion in the oculus over the lancets. The third shows Ruth and Naomi, given by Miss. M. Burta Brittan (1882) in memory of Mrs. Mabel Food Knott (1883). The inscription reads "Whither thou goest, I will go." (Ruth 1:16)
On the opposite side of the nave are two windows by the Tiffany Studios installed in 1906. The Angel of the Resurrection was given by "Miss Roberts" in memory of her sister Mrs. Katherine Roberts Lewis, class of 1875 followed by a Landscape given by the class of 1904. Tiffany also produced the rose window over the entrance in an architectural motif with a cross in its center. The window was given by the Trustees to commemorate the 20th year of the administration of President Taylor; the perimeter inscription reads IN HONOREM JAMES MONROE TAYLOR + VIGINIT ANNOS PRAESIDIS (In honor of James Monroe Taylor, twenty years as president).
The window nearest the entrance was designed and fabricated by in 1908 by Robert Leftwich Dodge, financed by the class of 1902. The subject is an Allegorical Landscape after the biblical passage. "Until the day break, and the shadows flee away (Solomon 2:17). Two additional windows on either side of the chancel are by Dodge. In 1907 he produced a window for the class of 1877 in honor of its deceased members, and in 1909 a window showing St. Cecilia in memory of Miss Charlotte E. Finch '72. organist and teacher of music as Vassar College from 1872 through 1885.
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PRINCETON UNIVERSITY | View Floor Plans
PROCTOR HALL, 1909-1913
Architects: Cram and Ferguson
Stained Glass: Anne Lee & William Willet; Charles J. Connick
Proctor Hall contains some of the most impressive examples of stained glass found on any college campus, and seminal examples of Art and Crafts/Second Gothic Revival style. The selection of style and iconography are consonant with the era's restructuring of medieval religion into modern scholarship. Ralph Adams Cram had designed the Hall with the placement of stained glass clearly in mind, and he expended great care in supervising what he considered to be the appropriate expression of the art. After at least one rejected sketch, the Willet Studios produced the Seven Liberal Arts window, installed in 1913. The information produced by the studio documents a collaborative role between Anne Lee Willet and her husband William Willet. William Willet produced the design and cartoon and Anne supervised the color selection.
The iconography is representative of the University's concerns. The seven Liberal Arts of the medieval university tradition, and classical origin, are placed over a depiction of the Boy Jesus in the Temple; secular wisdom receives its authority from Divine wisdom. The window is organized around the Trivium, the three arts of reason and persuasion, and the Quadrivium, the four subjects of study. In the center is Dialectic [science of logical discernment] with the inscription DIALECTICA SUPREMA EST (Dialectic is above all). She is flanked by her two sisters Grammar [science of correct definition] and Rhetoric [science of correct usage of language] who appears about to deliver an address. The Quadrivium appears at the sides, Arithmetic and Geometry to the left and Astronomy and Music to the right. The central role of the Trivium is accented by the increased height of the canopies over the figures.
Although of traditional concept, the representation of the Liberal Arts has been reinterpreted. Grammar, for example, was depicted in medieval times as a disciplinarian, reading from a book and holding a switch. Frequently small figures of schoolboys, or young clerics were shown at her feet. In the Proctor Hall program the school boy has been transferred to Arithmetic where a nude figure of a young boy is seated holding an abacus. The boy is very similar in pose to the youth seated at the feet of Theology in a window by Henry Holiday for Fettes College, Edinburgh, in 1893, or the youth in the window of St Paul in Trinity Church, Boston of 1878. Astronomy looks up to the heavens while Music holds a small portable organ making her quite similar to countless images of St. Cecilia. Both the majestic comportment of these great female figures and the eloquent draftsmanship evident in Willet's cartoons, although less evident in the finished product, argues for the influence of Holiday on some of the most progressive artists of the time.
The lower level shows the story of the Boy Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2: 41-50). A youthful, bare-headed boy commands the central lancet. He holds a scroll across his waist and makes a sign of teaching authority with his right hand while looking forward to confront the viewer. Around his head is the inscription, antequem Abraham ego sum ("Before Abraham came to be, I am", John 8:58), Christ's proclamation of his divinity and his eternal existence. An original plan sketched by Willet would have placed Joseph and Mary returning to find their child in the lancet immediately to the left of Christ. This idea was evidently discarded for the present plan that shows a symmetrical arrangement of middle-aged scholars standing behind their seated elders. The other four lancets show grouping of elders, each differentiated by clothing or headgear, all carefully researched to include elements such as Torah scrolls, the breastplate of Aaron, and phylacteries on the foreheads.
Proctor Hall also contains a premier example of Charles J. Connick's work. The Holy Grail window was installed in 1919 and emulates the style of the leading proponent of the English Arts and Crafts movement, Christopher Whall. The window of the Holy Grail is based on Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur, which was to furnish the theme of one of the four "great books" windows that Connick would execute later for Princeton's Chapel. The story recounts the miraculous survival of the cup that Christ blessed at the Last Supper and that some believed had been transported to England. This precious relic, the Holy Grail, appeared to Christian knights of singular purity. The story extends over three tiers of windows, and as with medieval compositions, the more intricate details of the narrative appear on the lowest levels. In this base, the central lancets depict Sir Galahad's vision of the Grail. At the sides appear individual scenes of the Knights of the Round Table trying to prove their worthiness. The upper tiers contain more iconic images, exemplified by the tall impassive angels holding the instruments of Christ's passion.
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ST. JAMES THE LESS (Episcopal) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | View Floor Plans
1846-1850
Architects: Robert Ralston (Philadelphia), merchant, and Bishop Samuel Farmer Jarvis (Connecticut), after St. Michael's, Long Stanton, Cambridgeshire, England (c. 1230)
Stained Glass: James Powell and Sons, Whitefriars, London; Alfred Gérente, Paris; Franz Mayer & Co, Munich; Lavers, Barraud & Westlake, London; George Daniels designing for Clayton & Bell, London; Heaton, Butler & Bayne, London; John Hardman & Co., London; Nicola d'Ascenzo, Philadelphia. [Information on the windows is based on archival research and on-site analysis by Jean Farnsworth. Attributions of windows corroborated by Peter Cormack, Ulrika Brinkmann, and Chantal Bouchon during the International Seminar on 19th-and Early 20th-Century Stained Glass, 1994, sponsored by the Society of Architectural Historians and The Census of Stained Glass Windows in America. See conference abstracts, International Seminar on Stained Glass 1994]
The construction of St. James the Less from 1846 to 1850 marked a major stage in the Ecclesiological influence in America. The building is a faithful replication of a "country church" in the Early English style. The simple, ornamental quarry glazing was purchased from Whitefriars, London. In a pattern typical for the 19th century, the chancel was the area of the church that received the most prestigious windows at the time of the building. A window of the Tree of Jesse by the Parisian studio of Alfred Gérente was created for its place above the high altar (Fig. 38) in 1849. The lineage of Christ is depicted as well as a parallel between the four Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John [to the right] and the four Major Prophets of the Old Testament, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezechiel, Daniel [to the left]. The style of window displays the "archaeological revival" mode current in France at that time, stressing early 13th-century models such as Chartres or the Sainte-Chapelle and avoiding three dimensionality or other pictorial effects. Shortly afterwards Gérente also supplied a west window of the Life of Christ. Eight scenes from the Annunciation to the Ascension are presented in quatrefoils against a dense lattice ground, a style very possibly inspired by windows from the Church of Saint-Julien-du-Sault, France, which was under restoration in the 1840s [V. Raguin, Stained Glass in Thirteenth-century Burgundy (Princeton, 1982), 67-71, 121, figs. 102-107].
The other windows in the church are equally interesting for their subjects and style, and many also for their antiquity. Until the Second Gothic Revival style of Nicola d'Ascenzo in the 1920s, however, the post-Gérente windows embody a Victorian pictorial style very similar to that then popular with book illustration. Images of St. Agnes, the Infant Christ, the young John the Baptist (like St. Agnes, depicted with a lamb), and Joseph and Mary (now transferred to the south nave) are from a Munich studio (possibly Franz Mayer) and appear to have been installed in the mid 1870s. The nave window signed by Mayer is dated 1874, as documented in the vestry minutes, a very early example of an import from this firm. The images contrast the beginning and end of Christ's mission in four scenes. To the left, the Annunciation of his birth through the angel Gabriel is followed by the Nativity. On the right the resurrected Christ, giving promise of the resurrection for all believers, is followed by the Ascension. The adjacent window, signed by the London studio of Lavers, Barraud & Westlake (Westlake would later author of the four-volume A History of Design in Painted Glass of 1881-1894), is dated 1876. The window continues the typological refinement of the Jesse Tree above the altar. Scenes of confrontation and greeting occur. In the Presentation in the Temple (Luke 2:27-32), Christ is greeted by prophetess Anna and the prophet Simeon. In another section is the story of Rebecca and Isaac (Genesis 24) where Isaac's servant greets Rebecca and asks her to leave her home to become Isaac's wife. Mary Magdalene's meeting with the risen Christ in the garden (John 20: 16-17) is set against the Old Testament prototype of Abraham greeting the apparition of the Godhead through the vision of the three angels (Genesis 18:2).
The window directly opposite, on the south, was produced by Clayton & Bell, London, and probably also installed in 1876. It presents the popular images of Christ as the Good Shepherd, "as I know mine and mine know me" (John 10:14) and Christ blessing the children (Mark 10: 13-16). In the companion lancet, the mother of James the Less and John petitions Christ to favor her sons (Matt. 20:20-23) above an image of the Resurrection of Lazarus. The theme of the titular saint of the church was actually earlier in the south nave, a memorial of 1871 from Ellis Yarnall for his son Charles Thomas Adams. The standing figures St. John and St James the Less, the sons of Zebedee, are very probably from the London firm of Heaton, Butler & Bayne. The window's restraint is typical of "Aesthetic" style influences of the 1870s, different from the firm's richly colored work of the 1860s (with thanks to Peter Cormack).
The final figural window on the north is by an unidentified studio, possibly American. The image of the Virgin Mary with her distaff has a double meaning, the dignity of labor, as a common theme in Victorian windows, and also Mary as a counterpart to Eve, who is frequently shown with a distaff. Thus Mary's virtues reverse the harm caused by Adam and Eve's disobedience. In the companion lancet Christ as a child is shown in surplice and stole holding the chalice and host. The image presents a similarly complex story emphasizing Christ as High Priest offering himself, and an affirmation of the importance of priestly functions within the church.
Windows continued to be added in the 20th century. In 1907 another window on the theme of the Good Shepherd was set into the north wall. About 1915 the south nave received the window of the angels Michael and Gabriel, after a cartoon by George Daniels for the London firm of Clayton & Bell. Peter Cormack also recognized the cartoon of George Daniels for the chancel window of Christ Healing the Blind Man, documented to about 1920/28 and probably also from the firm of Clayton & Bell. The work in the chancel by Nicola d'Ascenzo from 1920 through 1928 continues the emphasis on didactic imagery seen in the 19th-century window of the nave. On the north, Old Testament figures represent generic virtues. Daniel, of Susanna's defense and the Lion's Den, exemplifies courage, and Abraham, ready to sacrifice his own son in obedience to God, exemplifies self control. On the south the Theological virtues are depicted, Faith holding a flame, Hope an anchor, and Charity children in her lap.
In 1926 the sacristy was given windows in an English Arts & Crafts style executed by Valentine d'Ogries, New Hope Pennsylvania. The iconography is emphatically English. A series of saints under Gothic canopies include Hilda, Dunstan, Gregory the Great and William Warham, the archbishop of Canterbury in the time of Henry VIII. Other windows present heraldic shields representing saints, for example, a shield with a gate for St. Elizabeth and one with tunic and stones for St. Stephen. Fortunately, each heraldic badge carries its own identifying text.
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