December 2009
Breaking Light
by Cindy Bellinger
A room bathed with diffused light is comforting, restful. Then if that same light streams through panels of stained glass, something more takes place. Almost mystically, the space acquires a soft otherworldly ambiance. Is it any wonder that so many cathedrals, churches, synagogues, and mosques worldwide have stained glass windows? Something about these windows invites quiet reflection.
With stained glass so closely connected with religious structures, New Mexico has hundreds of windows in churches of all faiths. But because colored light is attractive and eye-appealing, commercial buildings and residential homes also display stained glass. Solid walls are relieved by windows, and windows designed with multi-hued glass add color to any room as well as accent certain areas. The eye is instinctively drawn to colored glass, and has been for a long, long time.
History of Stained Glass
Any history of antiquated subjects often refers back to Pliny the Elder, a Roman historian (23 AD-79 AD); the origin of glass is no exception. He tells of Phoenician sailors discovering glass when shipwrecked on the shores of the Mediterranean. Part of their trading cargo included natron, a soda ash the Egyptians used for mummification. The story goes that the sailors set cooking pots on blocks of natron. The fire’s heat began burning the boxes of natron, which in turn fused with the sand, and voilá—the sailors had glass. For centuries this story held. But researchers eventually discovered glass Egyptian beads dating to 2750 BC.
However its humble beginnings, glass goes back thousands of years. By the first century AD, wealthy Romans had glass windows. Though these weren’t all that transparent, the idea caught on and slowly glass evolved not only as an architectural element, but as a decorative art form. There is no quaint story as to when and how color was added to glass, but in 686 AD the St. Paul’s Monastery in England had a window that included colored glass.
In the 10th century, windows of plain, clear glass along with stained glass began to flourish, which prompted many glass factories to open across Europe. The majority were close to beaches because of the ready supply of silica or sand, the most essential ingredient for glass manufacturing then and now. Early glass makers took molten glass and blew it into a hollow vessel. This in turn was set on a revolving table that turned quickly like a potter’s wheel. The centrifugal force flattened the liquid glass. Another method took molten glass and rolled it flat upon a table using a metal cylinder. Then the glass was cut into small sheets. The quality of early glass was lumpy with unstable light refraction, but usable.
Cousin's Rose
Just as it did thousands of years ago, making colored glass involves adding metallic oxides when the glass, which is sand transformed by heat, is in liquid form. Copper oxide produces green; cobalt makes blue. During the 12th century a shade of azure blue became popular and plentiful and quite a trade developed as mineral ores from Saxony and Bohemia were discovered then mined for this blue. In these formative years, gold was added to hot glass which produced red. Today red is achieved with chemicals less expensive. The name “stained glass” comes from the early practice of painting on glass. Much of the “paint” for this purpose was finely ground colored glass that resembled more of a stain than solid paint.
The German Benedictine monk Theophilus Presbetyer, writing in the 12th century, compiled an exhaustive account of all the known medieval crafts. The manuscript, Schedula diversarum atrium, contains the earliest references to oil painting in Europe. The process of making stained glass is also mentioned.
In the 1300s, artists started using a stain made from silver nitrate. Its yellow hue ranged from pale lemon to deep orange and was used for borders; and it worked exceptionally well for haloes. It also turned blue glass into green. Usually painted on the outside of a piece of glass, the silver nitrate was then fused permanently to the glass. By 1450 a stain known as Cousin’s rose mimicked flesh tones, which furthered the depiction of saints and other religious figures on glass. The 1500s saw a wide range of ground glass stains. But a backlash was to occur contending that painting on glass falsified the art form.
This thought piloted artists to incorporate more of the lead channels used to hold the many pieces of glass, the idea of metal that Theophilus Presbetyer called for. The lead became part of the design not just a structural element. Today’s stained glass artists continue to use leading or copper foil wrapped around glass then soldered together as an integral part of the whole design.
Going Gothic
Stained glass is readily associated with gothic architecture, a building style that flourished between the 12th and 16th centuries. A thick presence with massive spires, heavy lines, flying buttresses, gothic features originated in France and caught on with architects fashioning civic and religious buildings throughout the centuries. The style entertained feats of engineering that permitted gigantic buildings. However, the term “gothic” was a derogatory term first used in 1530 by Giorgio Vasari, an Italian painter and architect. Also considered to be the first art historian, he compiled biographies of artists that continue to be reference sources. Vasari used gothic to describe anything out of the mainstream and considered rude and barbaric. Our vocabulary owes another word to Vasari; he also coined the term “Renaissance.”
Massive Walls
Because of its visual impact, gothic structure became nearly synonymous with Catholic churches and cathedrals. New Mexico’s first cathedral was started in 1869 by Archbishop Jean Baptiste Lamy in Santa Fe and was completed in 1886. Its massive walls of quarried sandstone rose on the site of an older adobe church, La Parroquia, built in 1717. The 1680 Pueblo Revolt destroyed an even earlier church on the same site. Through the eyes of history, it makes sense that the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisis was built in an active trade center and growing village.
St. Joseph Apache Mission
The gothic structure that seems so out of place but is now becoming an icon in New Mexico is the St. Joseph Apache Mission in Mescalero.
In 1919, a young impetuous and newly ordained priest, Father Albert Braun, was assigned to this Apache outpost. Mention Father Al anywhere in the area today and people’s faces light up. Father Al came to love the people on the reservation and fought church authorities tooth and nail to integrate the beliefs of Mescaleros with those of the Catholic faith. Like most missionaries, Father Al wanted to build a church for his people. After serving in World War I, he stayed in Europe to assist its comeback. While there he became inspired by the gothic cathedrals. He wanted to build one in Mescalero.
It was a long shot, but Father Al was one of those people who wouldn’t take no for an answer. He persevered, enlisting many locals to build every phase of the church and often invested his own meager funds when times were tough. If you drive east or west on Highway 70 between Tularsoa and Ruidoso, you can’t miss it. An immense stone structure, complete with a bell tower and huge stained glass windows, rises from the hills. It’s completely out of place but impressive, which no doubt was one of Father Al’s goals.
Mary Serna, spokesperson for the church’s restoration program, says, “It’s still not complete. It took 20 years to build and it’s in its tenth year of restoration.” One of the memories still alive in this remote area is when the walls weren’t even up, just the cornerstone set and the foundation walls in place, Father Al began holding services in his people’s church.
Located in Otero County, this striking gothic structure is known to all. Clint Gardner, manager of member services for Otero County Electric Cooperative headquartered in Cloudcroft says, “On Sundays the parking lot is quite full for services, and the church serves as a focal point for tourists in the Mescalero area. They’ve been working years to restore it structurally. They’re also preserving the stained glass windows and the architecture of the building. It’s very much part of the area here.”
Hard to miss, St. Joseph Apache Mission stands not only as a symbol of the Catholic faith, but testimony to what one man’s vision and determination accomplished.
Strong Winds Prevail
Part of the restoration in the church on the Mescalero Apache Reservation includes the large panels of stained glass. Serna says they were so large that eventually the wind broke them. “We have a strong wind vortex through here, and large panes of glass just don’t hold up,” she says. They first replaced the windows with Plexiglass; but they didn’t hold either. Now the replacements are of another stronger material that combines plastic and glass.
The six large windows, three on each side, depict a full height yellow cross. Then small windows in various nooks of the cathedral are more typical of religious glass. They’re colored and portray saints and other Christian icons such as a dove.
La Farge and Tiffany
While St. Joseph’s is rooted in the gothic era, the Reformation movement of that same era set out to undo all the elaborate gothic features. As Protestant sects broke away from the Catholic Church in the 1600s, the movement resulted in destroying many church windows. It took another 200 years for stained glass to make a comeback, but the techniques had to be reinvented because glass artists were no longer around. One of the re-inventors of stained glass has an interesting New Mexico connection.
Born in New York, John La Farge (1835-1910) was a painter, muralist and writer who turned to glass along with his contemporary, friend and eventual competitor, Louis Comfort Tiffany. Both experimented with rich colored glass, often creating window pictures with small intricately laid pieces. Instead of using heavy lead seams, both experimented with copper strips which allowed for more movement in the design. La Farge developed and copyrighted opalescent glass in 1879; Tiffany popularized it, and capitalizing on new electric lighting used the glass for lampshades. His name became synonymous with the American glass movement. However, La Farge’s extensive body of paintings, sketches and glass windows is displayed in 30 museums across the nation. One of his descendents, the writer and historian John Pen La Farge now lives in Santa Fe.
“My great grandfather worked in glass 40 years and his work remains in many buildings up and down the east coast. He did a lot of glass for schools, one of them was Harvard,” says La Farge, who explained that many of the artist’s windows were also in wealthy Fifth Avenue homes. The Vanderbilts and Astors hired La Farge to do their windows and they remained until the early homes were torn down to make way for new high-rises that line the street today. Many of the La Farge windows were destroyed in the process.
Road Trips and Glass
When it comes to windows in New Mexico, the name Arthur Tatkoski inevitably pops up. For 40 years he designed, crafted and placed windows in over one hundred churches around the state. He died this past June but his work lives on in the Immaculate Conception in Las Vegas, the Methodist church in Mountainair, the Presbyterian church in Corona, and catholic churches in Raton and Belen.
It’s worth a side trip when traveling throughout our state to detour into towns to find the windows in our many churches. They give our special light here another ray of pleasure.
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