The Trial of Saint Alban

Photo – Peter Swanson

1962 – The Little Sanctuary, Saint Albans School, Washington, DC

This is the third in the series of five windows depicting events in the life of Saint Alban. Again we see two crossing lead lines dividing the window into four sections. The two most striking things about this window are the chaotic thin lines used to portray Alban’s accusers and the bright green glass that adds an air of lightness to the composition. The school’s brochure quotes Rowan in his thinking on this, “’As a piece of design and color,’ LeCompte comments, ‘this has always been my favorite among the little windows because it has a very unconventional light green background color and because of the expressive figures. The gross, mud figure and the athletic brute with chain and cat-o’-nine-tails suggest terrible cruelty, whereas Alban suggests serenity. I made an effort to have him above all the hurly-burly.

“‘I chose green for two reasons. It is a color I often see in the evening sky and this, in a metaphorical way, was Alban’s evening. It is also a very clear, serene color, like light blue, but green is so much less used in glass. I’ve so often read descriptions of the great east window at Wells Cathedral in England in which the author speaks of “spring greens.” I thought I would do something that really does suggest the clear sky of a spring evening, that kind of tranquil light transparency.’”

Iconography

From the school’s brochure about the window by Allie Benson and Lynne Mitchell, the story of Saint Alban continues, “…when the soldiers came to the house to arrest the Christian priest, Alban slipped him out the back door. Alban donned the priest’s cloak and was arrested in his place and taken to trial. When Alban refused to give up his Christianity, the judge ordered him beheaded.”

“At the time we were planning the window,’ the Reverend Eder recalls, ‘I was fascinated with the idea that hatred and meanness chain us and take away our freedom. The judge is surrounded by spider webs of hatred and meanness. The guard’s chain and whip represent instruments which tie people down and bind them to cruelty. The only one who is really free is Alban himself, up there in the midst of clarity. St. Alban’s head, hands and feet are of a gold color. I’d asked Rowan to try and get a lot of light here because at that time, there was an organ in the corner and it was quite dark.’”