Man’s Search For God II

1966 – Washington National Cathedral – South Outer Aisle

This is the companion window on the same theme and it uses similar open composition with large pieces of red glass screaming for attention in the compositions. The swirls in these pieces of glass are not pained on, but embedded in the sheets of glass. One of the big challenges Rowan and Irene faced in this set of windows is using biblical stories to metaphorically tell the modern story of the found of Washington Cathedral. You can see they weave in scenes of modern buildings from the nations capital to help tell the story.

Iconography

In the left Lancet Jacob is hunched over in the labor of building the alter of Jerusalem. The stones his is using are actually buildings from nineteenth century America. Among these are a colonial church, a meeting-house and a wigwam and these are meant to be “symbols of man’s life and labor in the New World.”

In the lower portion of the right lance a group of people are meeting in the home of Carroll Charles Glover in Washington to discuss the purchasing of the land for the cathedral. This meeting took place in December 1891 and this was a way of bringing Christ into the nation’s capital. Among this group of small buildings is the old Saint Alban’s church surrounded by trees. In the upper portion of the Lancet, Zaccheus climbs a tree to get a better view of Jesus who is the large figure preaching in the lancet. Jewels of Light says that “Both Zaccheus and the Washington D.C. buildings are portrayed as small figures in relationship to Christ, symbolic of the smallness of humanity compared the fullness of the Deity.”