ALL SHADES OF RED HAIR

St Mary's Church, Fairford, Gloucestershire in the Cotswold. This parish church contains 28 nearly 500 years old stained glass windows, unique among English parish churches. This window is described as follows: Window 1 - The Fall, from left to right:
1. Eve stands in the act of disobedience to God, taking the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The blue serpent, with woman’s head and bust and cat’s paws offers the tempting fruit.
2. .The Burning Bush. Moses is on holy ground. The Presence of God is revealed in the Burning Bush which is not consumed as he gazes. The bush betokens the body of Mary who, although she bore the son of God, remained a virgin.
3. Gideon and the Fleece. Gideon is strengthened by the Angel of the Lord. All the ground is dry, but the fleece laid upon it is covered in dew. This also foreshadows the Incarnation and the virginity of Mary.
4. King Solomon. The gentile Queen of Sheba stands offering a precious silver casket to Solomon, the Son of David. One day the magi, three gentle kings from afar, would bring presents to him that was born to be King of the Jews.
-
[P1043587]

This is a detail from a stained glass window at the fabulous Smith Museum of Stained Glass, which is located (oddly) at the very touristy Navy Pier entertainment complex in Chicago. Unfortunately, I didn't take notes so I can't pin down which window this detail comes from.

I found out about the Smith Museum when I ran across photos here on flickr. It is definitely worth a trip when you're in Chicago. It has 150 windows and other pieces on display, including 13 by Louis Comfort Tiffany, which is the largest display of Tiffany windows in the world.

There are hundreds of photos from the Smith Museum on Flickr, but the collection is nevertheless not comprehensively covered since many of the pieces are difficult to photograph well due to glare or just bad light (too much or too dark). I can't find another shot of this detail on Flickr or through Google, so I can't identify it.

(I should clarify this - the light is excellent for viewing but not always good for photography. But this is a museum where there are no restrictions at all on photography, so you can try and try again.)

<< Arhiva >>