Stained Glass: Essays

Greystoke St Andrew, Cumbria; Stained Glass

Page 6

North Nave: Kempe Studios: Resurrection Themes

There is a single Kempe window of 1901 on the north side of the nave, a position which unfortunately renders it rather dark and retiring. Its darkness is mitigated to some degree by extending the pictorial theme to the top of the lights, using white or pale blue glass to represent the sky, and filling the larger tracery with angels rendered in white glass and yellow stain.

While the lower halves of the lights and figurative work are constructed in the more usual mosaic style, the upper sections are made from regular, rectangular quarries, which carry the background landscape elements in brown enamel and yellow stain. There is a great attempt at perspective in this window, with the figures so often lacking in other studios' work (Clayton and Bell and Wailes perhaps the best exponents of flat imagery at the time). The whole effect gives the window the appearance of a contiguous painting rather than the more usual, separated themes, with the various elements flowing seamlessly together to conveying the gospel stories with the narrative flowing from left to right, and front to back. There is one curious detail which demands notice; on the top of the fountain is a miniature statue of Moses holding the tablets containing the ten commandments.

This is the "Fountain of Life" (Psalm 36:9 - "For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light") and is a common element to be found in Kempe Studios glass. The same element as is used at Mucklestone, Staffordshire (south chancel east).

What sets this window apart from many of Kempe Studio's competitors is the attention to detail and quality of the painting. Each line in the foliage, each leaf, each petal, each fold in the bark of the trees is clearly picked out, presenting a three dimensional relief. The variety of pastel colours is not great, but each colour varies in hue and translucency.

 

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