Shirley Ann Brown The "Late Gothic" Stained Glass Windows in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in St. John's, Newfoundland n England, the nineteenth-century Neogothic revival in archi­ I tecture, along with the Anglo-Catholic revival and the renew­ al of the importance of ritual in the Anglican Church, led to a corresponding upsurge in the demand for suitable stained glass to complete the devotional package.' Stained glass windows were considered an essential part of the Anglican Church's ar­ chitecture. They enclosed the interior and eliminated potentially distracting views of the outside world. The coloured light they produced contributed to the feeling of a mystical, ritualized space. They afforded an opportunity to permanently display im­ ages depicting the beliefs and lessons of the Church for the edi­ Fig. 1. Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge. Detail of Pugin/Hardman fication and contemplation of the members of the congregation. window. 1848-50. Among the firms producing ecclesiastical stained glass in (Photo: S.A. Brown) the second half of the nineteenth century, the majority followed an aesthetic based on medieval models. In the eyes of A.W.N. Pugin and his followers, the stained glass that best answered the needs of the ecclesiologists and thus true devotion, was to be found in the figural windows of England and France of the thir­ teenth and fourteenth centuries. Finding a kindred spirit in the person of John Hardman of Birmingham who executed his de­ signs for stained glass, Pugin was able to establish an archaeo­ logically convincing style for mid-nineteenth-century windows. An excellent example is the set of three lancets created by this team ca. 1850 for the east end of the chapel in Jesus College, Cambridge (fig. 1). Colourful, two-dimensional, decorative, Shirley Ann Brown is a Professor of Art History at York University, edu cated with fragile figures, these medallion windows reflect Pugin's at the University of Manitoba , Ohio State University, Cornell U11iversity, a11d medievalist dictates. Universih; College Dublin. A medievalist, she is founding director of the Reg­ The traditional techniques for the art were revived. This istry of Stained Glass Windows in Canada (RSGC). She has published work on Germa11 architectural stained glass in Canada, as well as the windows in meant that all colour was produced by light passing through the National Mem orial Chamber and St.Bartholomew's church in Ottawa; glass coloured throughout in the furnace by the addition of St. fam es' Cathedral, St. Tim othy 's church, a11d the Hospital for Sick Children metallic oxides. Applied paint was restricted to the black and in Toronto. brownish tones used for shading and linear definition and was kiln-fired onto the coloured glass. Yellow stain, a fired silver oxide solution, was employed for tones ranging from light lemon through orange to brown. The individual pieces were assembled like a jigsaw puzzle held together by channelled lead strips JS SAC I JSE AC 28, n~ 3, 4 (2003) ; 21-30. 2 1 JSSAC I JSEAC 28. n~ 3. 4 C2003l Fig. 2 . Resurrection window by Lavers , Barraud & Westlake of London, installed ca. 1886-87. (Photo: SA Brown) George Gilbert Scott (1812-1887}' and asked him to pre­ pare plans for the cathedral. Ground was broken on Whitsunday (May 25) 1847, the same day that the sub-ar­ chitect, William Hay of Edinburgh, arrived in St. John's harbour after a tempestuous thirty-eight-day voyage from Torquay. William Hay was later to move on to Cana­ da, building, among many others, Holy Trinity Church and St. James' Cathedral in Toronto. By September 1850, Scott's Neogothic nave was completed, funding ran out, and constmction ceased. For thirty years the church was used this way until constmction on the transepts and choir could be re­ sumed. In 1880 the building committee contacted George Gilbert Scott Jr. (1839-97),' son of the original architect, who recommended considerable improvements to the original plan and furnished details for the new work. On September 1, 1885 the expanded Cathedral was once again consecrated, without its planned tower and spire. For the next seven years attention was given over to the adornment of the interior, including the placement of stained glass windows in the new section. This was a task that Bishop Llewellyn Jones took very much to heart. In a remote colony, a visible link was created with the reli­ called "cames." The entire assemblage was attached by copper gious and cultural past, with history, and with the English wires to an iron armature inserted into the stone window frame. "homeland." Stained glass has always been very ex pensive and churches in­ In a sermon on November 15, 1885, Bishop Jones outlined variably cost more to build or restore than anticipated, often his plans for the windows. He indicated that the windows in the leaving little money for the windows. In the nineteenth century, nave had already been filled with representations of the Twelve the memorial window, which commemorated an individual or a Apostles and events connected with St. John the Baptist. The group and was often paid for by the family, appeared. The ma­ great west window over the main entrance portrayed the Ge­ jority of windows were financed in such a way. nealogy of Christ, in the form of the Tree of Jesse. He further The Anglican Church has a long history in Newfoundland.' specified that the subjects to be placed in the north side of the The first Church of England prayer service there is supposed to new chancel were to be chosen from the life of Christ: Annunci­ have taken place on the beach near what is now St. John's on Au­ ation, Nativity, Wedding at Cana, Sermon on the Mount, and the gust 5, 1583, when Sir Humphrey Gilbert took formal possession Transfiguration. The Ascension and Adoration of the Lamb were of the island in the name of Queen Elizabeth I. With the constant to occupy the great east window above the high altar, with the struggles of the French and English for control of the land, tl1e Crucifixion and the Resurrection in the smaller side windows of Anglican settlement grew slowly and it wasn't until 1843 that the the east wall. Three miraculous "resurrections" commanded by Church was in a position to lay the foundation stone for a ma­ Christ were to appear in the south chancel windows: the revivi­ sonry cathedral. An added impetus came on June 12, 1846, when fications of Lazarus, the widow's son, and the daughter of Jaims. fire broke out and three quarters of the town was left a smoul­ The south transept window was to show the Sea of Galilee and dering ruin. The pro-cathedral, built forty-five years earlier and that in the opposite north transept was to exhibit the Last Judge­ still serving the congregation as their place of worship, was a vic­ ment. It is not known how many of the proposed windows were tim. actually installed, but it is documented that the Cmcifixion and Immediately after the fire, Bi shop Feild sailed to England to Resurrection windows in the east wall were completed and put raise money for a new and grander structure. He contacted Sir into place. 22 Fig. 4. Adoration of the Magi. C.E. Kempe , installed 1898. {Photo: SA Brown) Fig . 3. Annunciation window, C.E. Kempe , installed 1898. (Photo: SA Brown) Kempe glass is distinc­ tive and immediately rec­ ognizable, and the glass produced before the First World War is an excellent indicator of popular taste and successful craftsman­ ship. Contrary to the prac­ tice of many other European firms, the win­ dows created by the Kempe Studios for export to North America were of the same high standard as those in­ tended for the domestic market. As a result, the St. John's windows reflect not only the taste of the colonial patron but also the output On July 8, 1892, St. John's was once more devastated by a of the studio. The Cathe­ great fire. When the tumult died down, only the outer walls of dral's wall openings had to the Cathedral remained standing, for the nave arcade had fallen be filled in gradually, as along with the clerestory when the roof collapsed. Rebuilding donors and funding be­ Fig . 5. Crucifixion. C.E. Kempe, installed 1904. was undertaken almost immediately after the fire, beginning came available. As a result, (Photo: S.A. Brown ) with the choir and transepts. The work was done primarily thirteen memorial win- under John Oldrid Scott (1841-1913), brother of G.G. Scott Jr., dows were supplied by the who had taken over their father's practice.' As much of the re­ Kempe firm between 1898 and 1913, with two more being added maining wall as possible was reused, with the new structure en­ between 1924 and 1933. casing the old, so that in June 1895, the east end was once again Charles Earner Kempe, the founder I director I owner of the usable for services. Seven years later, the restoration of the nave company, was a friend of George Gilbert Scott for whose church­ and aisles was undertaken and was completed by September es in England he had received several stained glass commissions. 1905. When Bishop Jones turned to the younger Scotts for rebuilding Of the early stained glass, only one window survived the after the 1892 fire, they may very well have recommended fire: the Gothicising Resurrection window (A13) by Lavers, Bar­ Kempe for the stained glass. By 1898, when their first window raud & Westlake of London,' installed ca.