Psalms

1982 – Washington National Cathedral – Nave Clerestory

This is the first window that Rowan did with Dieter Goldkuhle since they finished the West Rose in 1976. This was a very productive releationship but not without its tensions. There certainly was some push-pull between them and Mary says that, “Their relationship was long, but it was interesting to see the tension in it. Dieter and Rowan often were at odds when it came to color selection, both being sure of their aesthetic, and it sometimes required delicate negotiations so that both were satisfied with the end result.“ Looking across the window there is a magnificent range of colors that seem to work extraordinarily well together. In spite of the variety, there is a colorful harmony that keeps the window in balance.

In the video clip below, Rowan revels that his wife Peggy is the woman in red and that her children are also featured in the window.

Photo – Peter Swanson

Iconography

This window celebrates four major themes from the book of Psalms. On the far left a man is holding a sack full of nature’s bounty and Thanksgiving and Joyful Gratitude is the theme. Praise is the theme in the center-left lancet and a woman is dancing and singing “unto the Lord a new song.” The center-right features a man with his hands clasped in fervent prayer with the theme of Supplication. We have some details of this figure abov and one has to wonder, is this a self portrait of Rowan? In the Lamentation lancet on the far right a man is weighed down by the shackles of his and our collective sins and one thinks of Jacob Marley from the Dickens Christmas Carol. In contrast, a joyful parade marches across the bottom of the entire window. Jewels of Light tells us that “The rose at the top depicts the overall theme, a triple gateway against a golden background through which passes a radiant God, picturesquely described in a verse from the twenty-fourth Psalm, which is quoted in the lower portion of the left lancet: ‘Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.’”

There is also a dedication to Dean Frances B. Sayer Jr., who Rowan says had a great hand in many cathedral windows.