The Story
Art & Restoration: Tiffany stained-glass
Louis Comfort Tiffany, the American artist and designer who worked during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was best known for his work in stained glass, although throughout his life he was also a painter, interior decorator, landscape designer, and architect. From 1902 to 1932, Tiffany operated his own glassmaking studios, known as Tiffany Studios, where hundreds of craftsmen were employed to create windows, mosaics, lamps, metalwork, ceramics, and enamels, all of which were designed and influenced by the artist himself.
Arthur Femenella, the Tiffany stained-glass conservator overseeing the restoration of these windows and curator of the collection, has much to share about the design and creation of this unique set of Tiffany windows. Art writes, “These Tiffany windows are selected from a rich and varied palette of opalescent, drapery, rolled, textured, antique and flashed glass. The faces and flesh of the angels are delicately hand painted with vitreous paint. The rest of the windows are exquisitely plated, a technique developed by Tiffany and John La Farge involving the mechanical layering of layers of glass used to achieve depth.”
When these seven extraordinary examples of Tiffany stained glass were rediscovered they were structurally intact but showed signs of metal fatigue, distortion, and a variety of other issues. Fortunately, the professional conservation team was able to restore the original windows using Tiffany's own techniques and materials.
The exhibit will outline briefly the context of these writings in their era and locate on a map the seven actual locations in present day Turkey. The letters to the churches, and to the associated angels to whom John is directed to write, are excerpted in the inscriptions at the bottom of each window. The weaknesses of each community, with warnings of the consequences of their actions, are addressed and promises for reform are highlighted. The gifts that will be received when these weaknesses are overcome are depicted in the hands of each angel. In the address of each letter to the ‘angel of the church’ the scripture passages convey the idea that angels correspond to communities, types of people, and spiritual states.
The seven angels offer their gifts as rewards at the various stages of spiritual salvation humanity can experience, both individually and as a whole.
There are seven angels and seven windows. There are also seven tones in the maior scale and seven modes based on those tones. You can listen to samples of the music on the following tab, (please refresh your browser if the music controls are not available), or press the "Tracks" tab, to sample each meditation.
