BasiliCAST 11: Stained Glass Windows at The Basilica

Johan van Parys, Ph.D, shares an overview of the stained glass windows at The Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis, designed in the 1920s by Thomas Gaytee.

Transcript

From Romanesque To Gothic Light

Abbot Suger’s Vision Of Sacred Light

How Stained Glass Is Made

Designing Saint Mary’s Windows

Gaytee Studios And Monsignor Reardon

Reading The Windows Horizontally

Private And Public Life Of Mary

Tradition Beyond Scripture

Vertical Readings And Ambulatory Links

Angels, Symbols, And The Loreto Litany

The Magnificat In Glass

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hello and welcome to Basilicast. Today we're starting a series about the beautiful stained glass windows at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis. Now the use of colored glass actually goes back to the Egyptians and the Roman Empire. However, a stained glass window was an invention of the Middle Ages. And the oldest windows we still have date back to the 7th century, and they can be found in a monastery in England. Interestingly enough, they were created by French artists. But Romanesque architecture is known for its very small apertures, so that the windows that were created in the Romanesque time were actually small windows. As you know, the segue from Romanesque architecture to Gothic architecture allowed for much larger windows. The famed buttresses made it so that the walls didn't have to be so thick and so massive, and so great expanses for glass were now available. Abbot Sujet, he was the abbot of the Abbey of Saint-Denis in France at the middle of the 12th century, is considered to be the godfather of stained glass windows. And he liked the use of stained glass windows and promoted it actually, because according to him, the light that came through the stained glass windows created a beautiful spiritual setting for the fruitful celebration of the liturgy. Of course, in addition to this, these massive windows were a perfect canvas for the depiction of the Christian narratives. So during the Gothic period, the windows in the Gothic cathedrals, particularly in France, became these beautiful stained glass windows. The way stained glass is created is the artists cut small pieces of colored glass and then painted with vitreous paint. This is the kind of paint that when the glass is fired in the oven, then it fuses with the glass and becomes permanent. Then all the pieces of glass are put together and leaded to one another to create the entire window. When Immanuel Mascore was commissioned by Archbishop Ireland to build both the cathedral in St. Paul and the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis, the first thing the Archbishop asked of the architect was to go back to France, because he was from France originally, but he sent them back to France to study the great medieval cathedrals with their beautiful windows. And so it's not surprising that when he came back and envisioned the Basilica of Saint Mary, that he envisioned large windows for the Basilica of Saint Mary. When you go into the Basilica of Saint Mary, you'll mark the large clearest story windows that flank the nave. Now the word clearestory is actually an old English word meaning clear story. It's a story where light comes through the window, so there's nothing built next to that story. And the clearest story windows at the Basilica of St. Mary are rather large. In addition to that, there are ambulatory windows. Now the ambulatory windows are the lower windows, the smaller windows, and the word ambulatory comes from the Latin ambulare to walk. And so the places where people walk are called ambulatories. They are the outer aisles of the basilica. The windows of the Basilica of St. Mary were designed in the mid-20s. Now they were designed, created, and installed by Gayetie Art Studios. These studios were founded by Thomas Gayety. And Thomas Gay T actually worked and trained with Tiffany in New York. He ended up being a salesperson for Tiffany in the area in the Midwest, but decided that he wanted to establish his own stained glass studios. He speaks about the windows of the Basilica of St. Mary as being the crown jewel in his entire œuvre. The windows are the result of a very intense collaboration between Thomas Gaiti and his artists, as well as with Monsignor Rearden, who was the pastor at the time at the Basilica. They have a very rich theological content. But even when it comes to the artistic details, Monsignor Rearden was very involved. So the process started with Gayetie providing Monsignor Rearden with a set of preliminary designs, sketches really, for each one of the windows. And say the window of the crucifixion, that we have in the archives, three preliminary preliminary sketches. And on these sketches, in the handwriting of Monsignor Rearden, there are commentaries which pertain to such things as the beard of Jesus is too forked or I cannot see his hand. So based on all these commentaries, then the artist at GayT Studios created a larger design which was colored in for the approval by Monsignor Reardon. Then based on that, the cartoons were created. And the cartoons are the life size, so to scale drawings colored in drawings for the windows. And then the artist would cut pieces of glass to match what was in the design of the cartoons. Then they were leaded and installed. When looking at the stained glass windows at the Basilica of St. Mary, they can be read horizontally and vertically. Horizontally, if you look at the clearest story windows, and you start in the northwest corner, there is a rose window. And that rose window starts the whole narrative. And the narrative of the clearest story windows is really about the life of Mary. The windows on the west side narrate moments, passages of the private life of Mary, beginning with the Immaculate Conception, where she was immaculately conceived, continuing with the betrothal, the annunciation, the visitation, the birth, going on to the window, which is the last window on the west side, which shows the death of Saint Joseph. So some of the windows that you find in the Basilica's window collection are not directly based in scripture, but they are part of our tradition. And it's really interesting. The last window on the west side with the death of Saint Joseph, next to it is the window where Joseph and Mary find Jesus in the temple. And that is actually the last time that Joseph is mentioned in the Gospels. So from the Immaculate Conception all the way to the death of Saint Joseph is the private life of Mary. Then going to the east side, and now starting on the southeast side of the basilica, we start the public life of Mary. And the public life of Mary actually coincides with the beginning of the public life of Jesus. And so the first window is the marriage at Cana, which is the first public miracle that Jesus did. And it goes mostly through the Passion of Jesus, where Mary accompanies her son through his suffering and ends with the dormition of Mary in the east north corner. So diagonally across from the death of Saint Joseph is the death of Mary. There are two windows on the east side that also are not directly scripture-based. The one window is where Mary, John the Beloved, and Mary of Magdala come back after Jesus has been laid in the tomb. And next to that is the apparition of Jesus after the resurrection to Mary, his mother. Now in Scripture, his first appearance is to Mary of Magdala, and there is nothing said about him appearing to his mother, but it might have made great sense for Jesus to first appear to his mother, though that did not make it into Scripture. So that's for the horizontal reading of the windows, which ends with the coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven, the third of our rose windows. When you read the windows vertically, each one of the clearestory windows has an ambulatory window underneath it, which relates to the story in the clearestory window. They are figures mostly from the Hebrew scriptures. There are some from the Christian scriptures in there. So a very um obvious one is the clearest story window that has the annunciation in it, beneath it is the prophet Isaiah. And the quotation that is in that window reads, The Virgin will be with child, and which Christians have then interpreted as prophesying the birth of Jesus. On the east side, the window with the wedding of Cana, beneath it is an image of the evangelist Saint John. And the quotation is do whatever he tells you to do, which is of course Mary telling the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them to do. There is a clear relationship between the clearest story windows and the ambulatory windows, which point to the rich theology that can be found in those windows. But it doesn't stop here. Above the narrative in the clearest story windows are a number of angels. There's a set of two angels, and they hold symbols, and those symbols relate again to what happens in the windows below. For instance, the window of the resurrection, there are lilies that are held by the angels. And of course, the lilies are a reference to eternal life, to the resurrection. That's why we have lilies in our churches during Easter tide. Above those two angels, there is another angel, and that angel holds a scroll with a text on it taken from the litany of Loreto. No, the litany of Loreto is call and response litany. Somebody calls and then the congregation responds. And it goes back to the shrine of Loreto, where it was used. It dates back to the 16th century, but it predates that obviously. It was codified by Pope Highus V in 1585, but since then it has been added on to even the late Pope Francis and it added two titles for Mary in the Litany of Loreto. And the titles that were chosen by Monsignor Reardon, because there are dozens of titles in this litany, again correspond to what's happening in the scene in the clearest story window. Then there are small round windows above the clearest story windows, and those have verses from the Magnificat in them. And of course, the Magnificat is the song that Mary sang, the poem that she spoke, after Elizabeth greeted her as carrying the Messiah. Each one of those windows has a verse from the Magnificat in them, except for the first one. The one above the window with the betrothal actually has the quotation after the angel announces to Mary that she will be with the child when she says, Behold the handmaid of the Lord. And that's what is in that window. So the windows at the Basilica of Saint Mary not only enhance our liturgical celebrations by creating this beautiful, colorful spiritual setting, but also are theologically rich and tell us about the life of Mary, which is not surprising in this beautiful church dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus. I hope that during your next visit you will pay some greater attention to these windows and let them speak to you not only spiritually through their colors, but also through the message that is in them.