Stained glass has always been used as a means to induce an emotional response; even if you are not of that faith, a visit to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres in France to view the three great Mediaeval rose windows (the earliest from c.1215) is an incredible experience, as they are great works of art.
If I look up from my computer terminal at work, and glance across the room, this is what I see. A memorial window to a young girl who died in 1898; it stood for many years in a children’s ward in our hospital, which had been endowed by the wealthy Dennison family, who had made their fortune locally in paper manufacture (their old main plant still exists, but it has long been converted to condominiums). Elizabeth Dennison is depicted wearing a white dress, black buttoned boots, and carrying a lily, which is usually shown as a symbol of death - she was four, when she died. The commissioning of a memorial window was by no means unusual amongst the wealthy, during the Gilded Age in the United States, although it was much more prevalent in Europe. Many years later, when the children's ward was due to be completely rebuilt, this window was carefully removed from its original frame and placed in storage in the hospital. Eventually, after many years, it ended up with us, in the Medical Library. We were, ourselves, undergoing a remodelling phase, and by utilising pieces of oak panelling and some gilded millwork from the defunct 1923 Boardroom, we were able to create not just a Research Section filled with reference books, table and chairs, but also this rather attractive setting for 'Elizabeth'.
No longer illuminated by natural light, but backlit by flourescent tubes, it still exhibits that morbid flavour typical of memorials of the period. It is in the style of Louis Comfort Tiffany, the great New York artist and glassmaker (1848 - 1933) - but it is NOT a Tiffany, of course, and is probably the work of a local New England artist. Stylistically, it resembles, 'Girl With Cherry Blossoms', c.1890, by Tiffany.
Stained glass has been with us for over a thousand years, either in the form of tinted glass fragments assembled into a mosaic frame of lead channels, or small painted pieces of glass, as with Tiffany and his imitators (although Tiffany also manufactured his own tinted glass, where chemicals which other glassmakers thought of as impurities caused the luminescent colours).
Despite the rather sad nature of the subject, this is still an object of beauty.
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