Miracles

Photo – Peter Swanson

1957 – Church of The Epiphany, Washington, DC

This is one of the two windows Rowan and Irene created for this downtown DC church. Because it is very dark in color, a sunny day makes it much easier to view clearly. The dark red background sets off the people portrayed in the two lancets, who are all dressed in similar shades of blue. On the left, the background seems to consist mainly of circular shapes, whereas the background on the right is a combination of triangles and rectangles. What is most striking in this window are the facial expressions. With just a few simple strokes, Rowan and Irene portray a variety of human reactions, from astonishment and joy to gratitude and contemplation. This is a very busy window, and the text nearly gets lost amongst the many individual pieces of glass.

Iconography

This window illustrates the Gospel story about Jesus that is told in Matthew 11: 2-6 and Luke 7:18-23. As shown in the Details below, Rowan and Irene cite “Luke VII:19” near the bottom right in the right lancet. Matthew and Luke recount that while John the Baptist was in prison, he heard about the wondrous things Jesus had been doing, and he sent two disciples to find Jesus and ask him, “Art Thou He that should come?” This is the scene in the left lancet, in which Jesus stands with his left hand commandingly raised, with John to his right, looking on at a distance. Below them is one of the disciples, holding a walking stick that points up to Jesus. Jesus’ bearing and expressive hands seem to convey not only his authority in casting out the demons of disease but also his deep compassion.

In the right lancet, we see the answer to John’s question. Jesus tells the disciples to report back to John what they see, graphically illustrated here by Rowan and Irene: “The blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and the dead are raised.”