ETERNAL LIGHT

'The Sacred Stained-Glass Windows of Louis Comfort Tiffany' is the sub-title of this magnificent Chicago exhibition catalogue complete with splendid gatefold pages of close up exquisitely coloured details of these glass masterpieces. The great American designer and visionary Louis Comfort Tiffany created ecclesiastical windows at the Tiffany firm, masterpieces that tell stories of American entrepreneurship, of places of worship as community incubators, and of America's evolving relationship to religion. The book is not only about beautiful objects exceptionally crafted, but also about the ideas and stories behind the windows - progressive technologies, designers and patrons. This aspect of the Tiffany business proved most lucrative, outlasting Tiffany's other endeavours years after his death in 1933, yet this is the first book and collection to focus on this aspect. In the early 1980s, Richard H. Driehaus started collecting Tiffany windows because of the innovative quality of the glass and their narrative content - angels with feathery wings, rippled surfaces in shimmering colours, gathering of tranquil figures enrobed in long drapery, folded and creased. A sublimely tranquil mother introduces Christ to his cousin John the Baptist; in another image a group of finely draped men exude appropriate gravitas in the presence of their master, Jesus Christ. Hemmed in by lusciously mottled shrubs, 12 figures fill a shallow stage while blue mountains and an ominous sky expand the distance. A simply robed soul is guided by an auburn-haired angel with gossamer wings. The technical magnificence of these wings combined with the long, single cuts of the garment, make this window a tour de force of design and glass-cutting wizardry. There is an extended essay on Tiffany's modern religious window and his process, and the Chicago World Fair of 1893, the windows themselves such as the early ecclesiastical triptych designed by Frederick Wilson, Tiffany's principal figural window designer is Christ and the Apostles, circa 1890 which employed multiple layers of glass for colour depth and visual interest. King Solomon in extraordinarily vivid purple robe and golden headdress, the opalescent and caramel colours and enamel for faces, hands and hair for a softer palette and iridescent mosaic tiles incorporated into the angel's wings makes a shimmering effect in the Guiding Angel on page 67. There are landscapes, lilies and palms, poppies and passionflowers for our close-up delectation. 84 pages, 22.9 x 30.5cm.
Click YouTube icon to see this book come to life on video.