The Righteous Shall Receive a Crown of Glory

Title: 
The Righteous Shall Receive a Crown of Glory

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Object Name: 
Window from United Methodist Church in Waterville, New York
Title: 
The Righteous Shall Receive a Crown of Glory
Accession Number: 
96.4.230
Dimensions: 
Overall H: 383.5 cm, W: 233.7 cm; Frame H: 406.4 cm, W: 252.7 cm, D: 7.6 cm; Light Box H: 391 cm, W: 246 cm
Location: 
On Display
Date: 
about 1901-1902
Credit Line: 
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Randall
Photo by Richard Goodbody
Web Description: 
This window was designed by Frederick Wilson, head of the ecclesiastical department at Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company (later Tiffany Studios) and Tiffany’s most prolific designer of religious windows. When Tiffany was establishing himself as a successful interior decorator, outfitting church interiors was a booming business. The ecclesiastical department, a successful part of Tiffany’s brand, oversaw the design, production, and marketing of all types of church decoration—including large-scale windows like The Righteous Shall Receive a Crown of Glory. The window demonstrates how Tiffany’s designers and artisans transformed the traditional art of stained-glass windows. Except for a few painted areas—the faces, hair, hands, and feet of the figures—the window’s details are achieved through lead lines and colored, opalescent, and textured glass. When viewed from the side, it is easy to see the facets of the large pressed glass “jewels” in the central cross, and the dramatic folds of “drapery” glass (created by manipulating hot glass into ridges) in the angels’ clothing. The ingenious combination of flat and textured glass delivered incredible depth and detail to the studios’ window production. This window had a memorial panel at the bottom, but it was removed in order to fit the window into this gallery. The memorial panel reads: “The Righteous Shall Receive a Crown of Glory” To The Glory of God In Memoriam 1811 Charles Green 1901 Memorial panels can provide clues to a window’s original placement and history. This window’s memorial panel led to the discovery that it was commissioned by Ira Dewayne Brainard (1846–1914) and his wife, Mary Genevie Green Brainard (1846–1931) for the United Methodist Church in Waterville, New York. It was likely installed during the church’s renovation in 1902 and was removed when the church building was sold in 1967.
Department: 
Provenance: 
Randall, Bruce, Source
1996
Randall, Adele, Source
1996
Color: 
Technique: 
Material: 
Primary Description: 
Window from United Methodist Church in Waterville, New York, "The Righteous Shall Receive a Crown of Glory". Colored and opalescent glass, glass "jewels", lead came, wood frame; cut, assembled. Arched rectangular stained glass window in 12 sections. Scene of central figure flanked by two angels, turned and looking up at other angels holding cross and crown; geometric border design on sides and over the arch. Central base panel with etched inscription. Lower left panel with signature"Tiffany Studios/New York" etched on clear pane of glass placed over the colored glass panel. Opalescent and colored glass panes, some textured, held by lead cames and foil. Panes of the angel's wings, figures' robes and some border panels highly textured; those with faces, hands and feet painted. Glass chunks as jewel-work in cross, on crown, and on headband of one angel. Brainard Memorial Window commissioned for the United Methodist Church, Waterville, New York.
Louis C. Tiffany and the Art of Devotion
Venue(s)
Museum of Biblical Art 2012-10-12 through 2013-01-20
Louis C. Tiffany and the Art of Devotion will consider the array of church decorations and memorials that Louis C. Tiffany (1848-1933) produced beginning in the early 1880s. For 50 years, working under a variety of company names, Tiffany oversaw production and marketing of a vast assortment of decorative elements for many of America’s leading congregations—Protestant, Catholic and Jewish. Tiffany employed designers, draftsmen, and craftspeople who produced decorative wall treatments, mosaic floors, lighting, furniture, altarpieces, pulpits, candlesticks, and liturgical vestments. A large component of the business of religious art also consisted of funerary memorials that ranged from simple bronze tablets and single headstones to leaded-glass windows and fully decorated mausolea. Works in many media—marble, glass, wood, metal, and fabric—could be had “off the rack” with minimal personalization or as one-of-a-kind commissions, designed exclusively for a particular patron. The success of Tiffany’s vision—measured in part by his prodigious output through his long career—was due not only to the quality and variety of the work, but to his ambitious advertising campaigns. Through a combination of showroom displays, sales catalogues, press releases, luxurious illustrated pamphlets, and installations made for national and international expositions, Tiffany ably marketed his designs to the public and clients alike. Through these various outlets, high-quality church and memorial designs became synonymous with his signature brand, Tiffany Studios. Louis C. Tiffany and the Art of Devotion will consider the breadth and depth of the firm’s oeuvre, and the place Tiffany Studios created for itself in American religious art. Featuring the leaded-glass windows most often associated with Tiffany, as well as mosaics, watercolor sketches of windows, interiors and ecclesiastic furniture, and archival photographs, the exhibition will show how Tiffany continued the grand tradition of religious art, transforming it to suit an American audience. The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog published by D. Giles LTD of London.
Glass Through History (2014) illustrated, p. 19; BIB# AI98196
Museum News (2013) illustrated, p. 3, top; BIB# AI93998
Escort Guide to the Galleries [V4/2013] (2013) illustrated, p. 38; BIB# 134856
Corning Museum of Glass Calendar (2013) illustrated, p. 4, left; BIB# AI93428
Louis C. Tiffany and the Art of Devotion (2012) illustrated, cover; pp. 128-129 Cat. 44; BIB# 131479
Recent Important Acquisitions, 39 (1997) illustrated, p. 179, #42; BIB# AI5243
The Corning Museum of Glass Annual Report 1996 (1997) illustrated, p. 6; BIB# AI95179