Museum Monday – Stained Glass Windows

Happy Monday everyone! I was NOT ready for this weekend to end. I picked up an extra shift on Saturday to help make up hours for the mandatory {but appreciated} Independence Day holiday and then hubby had to work on Sunday for the whole afternoon and evening so it didn’t feel much like a weekend at all! But it is Monday and that means…

Museum Monday

If you’ll remember back to this post, I work at a beautiful museum/library on the campus of Baylor University. We have some of the most beautiful artwork, architecture, sculptures, and literature that most of the world will never get to see. I think that is a crying shame and I would like to share with you some of what I get to see every day. Today’s focus will be on stained glass windows.

 

Armstrong Browning Library and Museum boasts the world’s largest collection of secular {non religious} stained glass windows. There seem to be many sacred and Christian themes throughout the windows but the subjects of the windows are of Robert Browning’s poetry, often written on the themes of the Bible, and are therefore considered secular in nature.

On a personal note, I really wish I had a better camera with which to take pictures. My iPhone is NOT doing these justice!

   

These three are examples of the stained glass windows portraying various stories from Robert Browning’s poetry.

The technique used to make the shading here illustrated by the woman’s face is a technique called “acid etching.” It creates a permanent painted effect.

 

These two stained glassed windows, named Christmas Eve and Easter Day, are two of the most beautiful but least appreciated pieces of art in the museum. They are in small alcoves between the Martin Entrance Foyer and the Hamkamer Treasure Room and Jones Research Hall, respectively.

Here is a close-up of the words on the stained glass window entitled Easter Day. The words are Robert Browning’s own and speak to those who are patient enough to read them in a profound way.

Another beautiful stained glass window, this time in the Foyer of Meditation, whose beauty my iPhone cannot do justice. Dr. Armstrong believed that sunrise and sunset were the most contemplative times of the day and always wanted this room to have that same feeling. He designed these windows go from a dark  yellow at the bottom, through a variety of pale yellows, and end with frosty white glass at the top. These particular windows are incredibly difficult to photograph, even for the most experienced photographer.

   

These three stained glass windows were the first “Browning Windows” on Baylor’s campus and were originally displayed in the Browning Room in Carroll Library. From left to right, they depict “The Guardian-Angel,” “The Pied Piper of Hamelin,” and “How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix” and are from Haskins Studios, Rochester, New York, 1924. The windows were moved from Carroll Library to Armstrong-Browning Library in 1951.

These final three are part of a collection of six on our bottom floor. They are the newest in our collection, created by the Willet Stained Glass Studios, Philadelphia, celebrating Italy and Italian locations that were special to Robert, Elizabeth, and Pen Browning.