On Tuesday, while in Dulwich to review the Charlie Mackesy exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery, I visited St Thomas More Catholic Church in East Dulwich to see their Patrick Pye window. Pye was Ireland’s leading religious artist of the second half of the twentieth century, and in addition to many works on canvas and paper, he created stained glass windows over a period of four decades. I saw several of his works when I visited Dublin in 2024.
This window is his only overseas window. Pye titled it ‘An apparition of St Columba’ and inscribed it, ‘Presented to this church by the Knights of St Columba 26 XI 70’. (The Knights of St Columba, founded in 1919, is a fraternal organisation affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church in England, Scotland and Wales). ‘The theme of the window is taken from a story in St Adamnan’s ‘Life’. It tells how, every evening, the monks return from the work of the fields. One of the brothers is always struck by a sense of blessedness at the same point on the way home. All the fatigue of the day seems lifted from his shoulders. Then he finds that other monks experience the same sensation. Together they ask the oldest brother and he explains that this is the moment of the evening when St Columba retires to his chapel to pray for them.’ Pye treats all three lights and tracery as a single canvas; at the base the monks are depicted returning from the fields carrying their farming implements while the upper two-thirds is dominated by a patchwork of fields which merge into a dramatic sky. There is a sense of how small and insignificant humans are when compared with the awe-inspiring power of nature.
A few weeks ago I visited Newcastle to review Pre-Raphaelites: Art and Poetry at Laing Gallery. While in Newcastle I also visited the Cathedral which also has some interesting art. An interesting collection begins with a fine 15th century roundel set in the east window of St Margaret’s Chapel. Otherwise the cathedral mainly has late 19th century and 20th century glass. The former includes the east window, 1860, by the hugely successful local studio of William Wailes. The latter includes a fine example of the work of Caroline Townsend, on the theme of northern saints in the north choir aisle, 1907, and an abstract window by Stanley Scott Murray, north transept, 1971. A fine recent addition is the Danish window in the north wall of the chancel by Mike Davis, 2002. It commemorates the lives lost by Danish seamen based on Tyneside. It is a perfect complement to the adjacent window by Leonard Evetts, 1962, where the symbols of the Passion are set in clear glass with strong leadlines.
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Mavis Staples & Jeff Tweedy - You Are Not Alone.