The design is based upon two interconnected passages:
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Isaiah 32, v 2 - 3 |
Revelations 22, v 1 - 2 |
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And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest; as rovers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim and the ears of them that hear shall hearken. |
And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of the Lamb. In the midst of he street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. |
St Peter's is an aisleless church whose other windows are already full of 19th century stained glass. It is important that new glass in the west window both acknowledges these earlier windows and remains largely light in tone. The predominant colour relationship in the design is of small areas of pink/orange and blue set in pale near whites; this is intended to reflect the 19th century windows, in many of which red and blue pieces are scattered over a setting of silvery light glass. The new west window, too, will retain much of the existing lightness of the current west window.
The process of protracted working on the glass itself, by way of acid etching, painting and staining, results in a richness and delicacy of surface that will relate happily to ancient and beautiful surfaces within the church. "Light" does not need to mean bland and pallid (see postcard of Tarrant Hinton window).
The use of flashed glass, as here, acided back to white or to paler tones of the original colour, allows one to make more supple colour changes within shapes. Leadlines can thus acquire an unassertive rhythmic quality that supports rhythms already expressed in colour and light - leadlines are largely not describing forms or colour changes.
To return to the theme:
The upper part of the window explores aspects of the Isaiah passage; the lower section is to do with the revelations passage. But this division is not absolute, and figures from Isaiah appear in the lower lights. Additionally the abstract or "musical" aspects of the glass draw the various parts of the window together.
At the head of the design is a many cusped shape where a large rock-like form (but also a "covert from the tempest") provides shelter to some tiny figures. A shadow comes down into the upper left hand light, "the shadow of a great rock". A figure walks across a gravely Suffolk field, walking in the shadow of God rather as Constable walking in the Stour valley found every view "verify that sublime expression in the scripture 'I am the resurrection and the life' ".
Lower down another figure kneels to find "some treasure hid in a field", indicating, perhaps, meaning to be discovered within the landscape.
The right hand upper light is about "rivers of water in a dry place". This is expressed through an estuarine landscape with wide space beyond winding rivulets and some of the strange posts that remain in the mudflats. Waders are flying across; such places are intensely full of life.
In the lower part of the window the Revelation passage with its ungraspable imagery is explored. The tree of life is flame like and central, giving an architectural, cross like structure to the window. Water appears and re-appears: as a river seen from its banks; as a reedy stream seen from above; as springs breaking out of a low cliff. Leaves from the tree dance about, bird like at times. The figures of one who hearkens and of one who sees are there, pointing us towards the finding of the scared quality of nature as expressed in these texts.
It could be said that the Revelations passage re-iterates in a fuller way possibilities that begin to emerge in the Isaiah text. It is hoped that the window can encourage viewers to discover imagery and meanings.
I believe that this new window can become a happy addition to an existing harmony
Thomas Denny