Woman Clothed With The Sun

1964 – Washington National Cathedral – North Trancept, Northeast Turret Staiway

North Transept, Northeast Turret Stairway

This is a beautiful window that almost no one sees. From the room in which the clergy don their vestments, there is a door to a stairwell that is partially used as a closet. If you climb to the first landing and look around the corner, you can see this window. It is not a big window, but it has an active, flowing design and vibrant, stunning colors. Its flowing motion is actually very different from that of many of Rowan and Irene’s windows, which are typically much more angular in design. It is a wonderful composition for this small space, featuring a rainbow of colors thrusting upward and the woman reaching for the sky. We are thrilled to give this window some public exposure and hope that more people get to see it in person.

Iconography

This window depicts a scene from the Book of Revelation, Chapter 12, a portent of the Apocalypse in which a woman appears “clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” The woman is about to give birth, and the account goes on to describe a second portent, a great red dragon who stands ready to devour the male child that the woman is going to deliver. It is likely that the colors sweeping up from the bottom represent the dragon, symbolic of the Devil. Variations of this story are familiar narratives in many Near East cultures. Many scholars identify the woman as representing God’s people Israel, from whom the Messiah will come (or, in Christian terms, has already come), with the stars representing the twelve tribes. In early Church and Medieval interpretations of this picture, the woman is the Virgin Mary, who is holding the baby Jesus in her arms. Either way, there is clearly a threat lurking beneath her feet as she reaches to the heavens for safety.

Photo – Peter Swanson

Window Details

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